Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Encyclopedia
Jessica Amanda Salmonson, born January 6, 1950, is an author
, editor
and writer
of fantasy
and horror fiction
.
. Her other novels are Ou Lu Khen and the Beautiful Madwoman, an Asian fantasy, and a modern horror novel, Anthony Shriek.
Her short story collections include A Silver Thread of Madness; Mystic Women; John Collier and Fredric Brown Went Quarreling Through My Head; The Deep Museum: Ghost Stories of a Melancholic; and The Dark Tales. Poetry collections include Horn of Tara and The Ghost Garden.
and Amazons II
; Heroic Visions
and Heroic Visions II
; Tales by Moonlight and Tales by Moonlight II; and What Did Miss Darrington See: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Stories.
She has also edited a series of single-author collections of ghost stories and weird tales, many of them of historical significance to genre literature, including volumes by Marjorie Bowen, Alice Brown
, Thomas Burke
, Olivia Howard Dunbar, Hildegarde Hawthorne, Julian Hawthorne
, Augustus Jessopp
, Sarah Orne Jewett
, Anna Nicholas
, Fitz-James O'Brien, Vincent O'Sullivan
, Georgia Wood Pangborn, Harriet Prescott Spofford, and Mary Heaton Vorse
.
From 1973 to 1975, she was one of the editors of The Literary Magazine of Fantasy and Terror, a small-press magazine. She went on to edit Fantasy Macabre from 1985 until the final issue, #17, in 1996. The magazine was subtitled "Beauty plus strangeness equals terror."
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
.
Author
Salmonson is the author of the Tomoe Gozen trilogy, a fantasy version of the tale of the historical female samurai Tomoe GozenTomoe Gozen
, pronounced , was a late twelfth-century concubine of Minamoto no Yoshinaka.Tomoe was a rare female samurai warrior , known for her bravery and strength...
. Her other novels are Ou Lu Khen and the Beautiful Madwoman, an Asian fantasy, and a modern horror novel, Anthony Shriek.
Her short story collections include A Silver Thread of Madness; Mystic Women; John Collier and Fredric Brown Went Quarreling Through My Head; The Deep Museum: Ghost Stories of a Melancholic; and The Dark Tales. Poetry collections include Horn of Tara and The Ghost Garden.
Editor
Salmonson was the editor of the anthologies Amazons!Amazons!
Amazons! is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover and frontispiece by Michael Whelan. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1979, and was the first significant fantasy anthology of works featuring female protagonists by female...
and Amazons II
Amazons II
Amazons II is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover by Michael Whelan. Following up her earlier anthology Amazons!, it consists like its predecessor volume of works featuring female protagonists by female authors...
; Heroic Visions
Heroic Visions
Heroic Visions is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in March 1983....
and Heroic Visions II
Heroic Visions II
Heroic Visions is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in July 1986.....
; Tales by Moonlight and Tales by Moonlight II; and What Did Miss Darrington See: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Stories.
She has also edited a series of single-author collections of ghost stories and weird tales, many of them of historical significance to genre literature, including volumes by Marjorie Bowen, Alice Brown
Alice Brown
Alice Brown may refer to:*Alice Brown , American sprinter*Alice Brown , Canadian politician*Alice Brown , American novelist, poet and playwright...
, Thomas Burke
Thomas Burke
-Public officials:*Thomas Burke , Irish-born physician, lawyer and politician*Sir Thomas Burke, 3rd Baronet , Irish legislator...
, Olivia Howard Dunbar, Hildegarde Hawthorne, Julian Hawthorne
Julian Hawthorne
Julian Hawthorne was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mystery/detective fiction, essays, travel books, biographies and histories...
, Augustus Jessopp
Augustus Jessopp
Augustus Jessopp was an English cleric and writer. He spent periods of time as a school master and then later as a clergyman in Norfolk, England....
, Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett
Sarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
, Anna Nicholas
Anna Nicholas
Anna Nicholas is a British travel writer and author based in Majorca, Spain.Nicholas spent most of her childhood in London before studying Classics and English Literature at Leeds University in 1980...
, Fitz-James O'Brien, Vincent O'Sullivan
Vincent O'Sullivan
Vincent O'Sullivan was an American-born short story writer, poet and critic. Born in New York City to Eugene and Christine O'Sullivan, he began his education in the New York public school system and completed it in Britain. His works dealt with the morbid and decadent...
, Georgia Wood Pangborn, Harriet Prescott Spofford, and Mary Heaton Vorse
Mary Heaton Vorse
Mary Heaton Vorse or Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien was an American journalist, labor activist, and novelist. Vorse was outspoken and active in peace and social justice causes, such as women's suffrage, civil rights, pacifism , socialism, child labor, infant mortality, labor disputes, and affordable...
.
From 1973 to 1975, she was one of the editors of The Literary Magazine of Fantasy and Terror, a small-press magazine. She went on to edit Fantasy Macabre from 1985 until the final issue, #17, in 1996. The magazine was subtitled "Beauty plus strangeness equals terror."
Web presence
Salmonson's website, Violet Books, is a "domain for fans & collectors of literary ghost stories, Victorian science fiction", and like topics. She also maintains an extensive film blog, the Weird Wild Realm, in which she reviews films of all kinds, from art films to exploitation films, with coverage in particular of horror films, Japanese cinema, and Chinese cinema. Her third site, In the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl, is a temperate-gardening site.Awards
- 1980: World Fantasy AwardWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
for best collection, Amazons! (1979). - 1989: Lambda Literary AwardLambda Literary AwardLambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
for Lesbian Science Fiction/Fantasy, What Did Miss Darrington See?: An Anthology of Feminist Supernatural Fiction.
Tomoe Gozen trilogy
- Tomoe GozenTomoe Gozen (novel)Tomoe Gozen is a novel by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, published in 1981. Set in an alternate universe resembling feudal Japan, the book combines the tale of historical female samurai Tomoe Gozen with the legends and creatures of Japanese mythology to create an action-adventure fantasy...
(1981) (revised as The Disfavored Hero (1999)) - The Golden Naginata (1982)
- Thousand Shrine Warrior (1984)
Other novels
- The Swordswoman (1982)
- Ou Lu Khen and the Beautiful Madwoman (1985)
- Anthony Shriek, His Doleful Adventures; or, Lovers of Another Realm (1992)
Collections
- Hag's Tapestry (1986)
- A Silver Thread of Madness (1989)
- John Collier and Fredric Brown Went Quarreling Through My Head (1989)
- Harmless Ghosts (1990)
- Mystic Women (1991)
- The Mysterious Doom & Other Ghostly Tales of the Pacific Northwest (1992)
- Wisewomen & Boggy-Boos: A Dictionary of Lesbian Fairy Lore (1992) (with Jules Remedios Faye)
- The Eleventh Jaguarundi and Other Mysterious Persons (1995)
- Phantom Waters: Northwest Legends of Rivers, Lakes & Shores (1995)
- Mister Monkey and Other Sumerian Fables (1995)
- Twenty-one Novels (2002)
- The Dark Tales (1991)
- The Deep Museum: Ghost Stories of a Melancholic (2003)
Non-fiction
- The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Present Era (1991)
Anthologies edited
- Amazons!Amazons!Amazons! is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover and frontispiece by Michael Whelan. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in December 1979, and was the first significant fantasy anthology of works featuring female protagonists by female...
(1979) - Amazons IIAmazons IIAmazons II is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, with a cover by Michael Whelan. Following up her earlier anthology Amazons!, it consists like its predecessor volume of works featuring female protagonists by female authors...
(1982) - Heroic VisionsHeroic VisionsHeroic Visions is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in March 1983....
(1983) - Tales by Moonlight (1983)
- Heroic Visions IIHeroic Visions IIHeroic Visions is an anthology of fantasy stories, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in July 1986.....
(1986) - Tales by Moonlight II (1989)
- What Did Miss Darrington See? (1989)
Collections edited
- Faded Garden: the Collected Ghost Stories of Hildegarde Hawthorne (1985)
- The Supernatural Tales of Fitz-James O'Brien (1988)
- From Out of the Past: The Indiana Ghost Stories of Anna Nicholas (1992)
- Master of Fallen Years: Complete Supernatural Stories of Vincent O'SullivanVincent O'SullivanVincent O'Sullivan was an American-born short story writer, poet and critic. Born in New York City to Eugene and Christine O'Sullivan, he began his education in the New York public school system and completed it in Britain. His works dealt with the morbid and decadent...
(1995) - The Rose of Death and Other Mysterious Delusions by Julian HawthorneJulian HawthorneJulian Hawthorne was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mystery/detective fiction, essays, travel books, biographies and histories...
(1997) - The Shell of Sense: Collected Ghost Stories of Olivia Howard Dunbar (1997)
- Twilight and Other Supernatural Romances by Marjorie Bowen (1998)
- Lady Ferry and Other Uncanny People by Sarah Orne JewettSarah Orne JewettSarah Orne Jewett was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for her local color works set in or near South Berwick, Maine, on the border of New Hampshire, which in her day was a declining New England seaport.-Biography:Jewett's family had been residents of New England for many...
(1998) - The Phantom Coach and Other Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by Augustus JessoppAugustus JessoppAugustus Jessopp was an English cleric and writer. He spent periods of time as a school master and then later as a clergyman in Norfolk, England....
(1998) - The Wind at Midnight by Georgia Wood Pangborn (1999)
- The Moonstone Mass and Others by Harriet Prescott Spofford (2000)
- The Golden Gong and Other Night-Pieces by Thomas BurkeThomas Burke (author)Thomas Burke was a British author. He was born in Eltham, London.His first successful publication was Limehouse Nights , a collection of stories centered around life in the poverty-stricken Limehouse district of London...
(2001) - Sinister Romance: Collected Ghost Stories by Mary Heaton VorseMary Heaton VorseMary Heaton Vorse or Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien was an American journalist, labor activist, and novelist. Vorse was outspoken and active in peace and social justice causes, such as women's suffrage, civil rights, pacifism , socialism, child labor, infant mortality, labor disputes, and affordable...
(2002) - The Empire of Death and Other Strange Stories by Alice BrownAlice Brown (writer)Alice Brown was an American novelist, poet and playwright, best known as a writer of local color stories. She also contributed a chapter to the collaborative novel, The Whole Family ....
(2003)