David Barr Kirtley is an American short story writer and the co-host of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast focusing on fantasy & science fiction and related topics. It launched on Tor.com in January 2010 and then moved to io9 in October 2010. It is hosted by editor John Joseph Adams and author David Barr Kirtley...

podcast. His short fiction appears in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy

Realms of Fantasy

Realms of Fantasy is a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Damnation Books, which specializes in fantasy, nonfiction, and art. The magazine publishes short stories by some of the genre's most popular and most prominent authors...

and Weird Tales

Weird Tales

Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....

, in online magazines such as Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show

Intergalactic Medicine Show

InterGalactic Medicine Show is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It was founded by multiple award-winning author Orson Scott Card. An anthology also called Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show was published by Tor in August, 2008, featuring selected stories from...

and Lightspeed, and on podcasts such as Escape Pod

Escape pod

An escape pod is a capsule or craft used to escape a vessel in an emergency, usually only big enough for one person. An escape ship is a larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose...

and Pseudopod

Pseudopod (podcast)

Pseudopod is a podcast launched on 11 August 2006 which presents horror genre short stories. It is part of Escape Artists, Inc. which also podcasts Escape Pod and PodCastle. Pseudopod is currently edited by Shawn M. Garrett and hosted by Alasdair Stuart...

. In 2003, he was selected for the anthology New Voices in Science Fiction. In 2008, his story "Save Me Plz

Save Me Plz

Save Me Plz is a fantasy short story by David Barr Kirtley. The story originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine, and was selected for the anthology Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition....

" was chosen for the anthology Fantasy: The Best of the Year. He was profiled in the 2008 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market as part of "Speculative Fiction: The Next Generation."
He grew up in Katonah, New York

Katonah, New York

Katonah, New York is one of three unincorporated hamlets within the town of Bedford, Westchester County, New York, United States.-History:Katonah is named for Chief Katonah, an American Indian from whom the land of Bedford was purchased by a group of English colonists...

. From 1996-2000, he attended Colby College

Colby College

Colby College is a private liberal arts college located on Mayflower Hill in Waterville, Maine. Founded in 1813, it is the 12th-oldest independent liberal arts college in the United States...

 in Waterville, Maine

Waterville, Maine

Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The population was 15,722 at the 2010 census. Home to Colby College and Thomas College, Waterville is the regional commercial, medical and cultural center....

, where he majored in Government, with a minor in Creative Writing

Creative writing

Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...

. In 2009 he received an MFA in fiction and screenwriting from the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

. In 1997, he won the Dell Magazines Award for undergraduate science fiction. In 1999 he attended the Clarion Workshop

Clarion Workshop

Clarion is a six-week workshop for new and aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. Originally an outgrowth of Knight and Wilhelm's Milford Writers' Conference, held at their home in Milford, Pennsylvania, USA, it was founded in 1968 by Robin Scott Wilson at Clarion State College in...

 at Michigan State University. He is the son of physicist John R. Kirtley

John R. Kirtley

John Robert Kirtley is an American condensed matter physicist and a Consulting Professor at the Center for Probing the Nanoscale in the Department of Applied Physics at Stanford University. He shared the 1998 Oliver E...

.

Podcasting

Kirtley co-hosts the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy

Geek's Guide to the Galaxy is a podcast focusing on fantasy & science fiction and related topics. It launched on Tor.com in January 2010 and then moved to io9 in October 2010. It is hosted by editor John Joseph Adams and author David Barr Kirtley...

 podcast along with fantasy & science fiction editor John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams is an American science fiction and fantasy editor and critic. He is the editor of the anthologies Federations , The Living Dead , The Living Dead 2 , Seeds of Change , Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse John Joseph Adams (born 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy...

. The show launched on Tor.com in January 2010, and then moved to io9

Io9

io9 is a blog launched in 2008 by Gawker Media. The blog focuses on the subjects of science fiction, futurism, and advancements in the fields of science and technology....

 in October. Each episode is about an hour long, and usually features an interview with a media personality followed by a chat between the two hosts. Guests have included George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...

, Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card is an American author, critic, public speaker, essayist, columnist, and political activist. He writes in several genres, but is primarily known for his science fiction. His novel Ender's Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won Hugo and Nebula Awards, making Card the...

, Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, a science communicator, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and a Research Associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History...

, and Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman

Robert Kirkman is an American comic book writer best known for his work on The Walking Dead and Invincible for Image Comics, and Ultimate X-Men and Marvel Zombies for Marvel Comics. He has also collaborated with Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane on the series Haunt...

.

Magazines

• "The Ontological Factor," Cicada, September/October 2011
• "Cats in Victory," Lightspeed, June 2010
• "Red Road", Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, Issue 9, July 2008
• "Transformations", Realms of Fantasy, December 2007
• "Save Me Plz", Realms of Fantasy, October 2007
• "Blood of Virgins", Realms of Fantasy, October 2006
• "The Trial of Thomas Jefferson," Cicada, July/August 2003
• "Seeds-for-Brains," Realms of Fantasy, June 2003
• "Seven Brothers, Cruel," Realms of Fantasy, December 2002
• "The Disciple," Weird Tales, Summer 2002
• "The Second Rat," On Spec, Spring 2002

Anthologies

• "Power Armor: A Love Story," Armored, Baen Books, March 2012
• "Three Deaths," Under the Moons of Mars, Simon & Schuster, February 2012
• "Family Tree," The Way of the Wizard, Prime Books, November 2010
• "The Skull-Faced City," The Living Dead 2, Night Shade Books, September 2010
• "The Skull-Faced Boy", The Living Dead, Night Shade Books, September 2008
• "Save Me Plz," Fantasy: The Best of the Year, 2008 Edition, Prime Books, July 2008
• "The Disciple," Dead But Dreaming, Miskatonic River Press, June 2008
• "The Black Bird," The Dragon Done It, Baen Books, March 2008
• "Veil of Ignorance," All the Rage This Year, Phobos Books, September 2004
• "The Black Bird," New Voices in Science Fiction, DAW Books, December 2003
• "The Prize," Empires of Dreams and Miracles, Phobos Books, September 2002
• "They Go Bump," Empire of Dreams and Miracles, Phobos Books, September 2002

External links

• David Barr Kirtley: Official Author Site
• The Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Podcast - An interview/talk show co-hosted by David Barr Kirtley