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Michael Bishop (author)
Encyclopedia
Michael Lawson Bishop is an award-winning American
writer
. Over four decades and thirty books, he has created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern science fiction
and fantasy
literature.
Bishop has twice been awarded the Nebula
: in 1981 for "The Quickening" (Best Novelette
) and in 1982 for No Enemy But Time
(Best Novel
). He has also received four Locus Award
s and his work has been nominated for numerous Hugo Award
s. In July 2009, "The Pile" was the recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award
for Best Short Story of 2008.
In 1993, 20th Century Fox
optioned his novel Brittle Innings for a film and bought the rights outright in 1995. (To date, no film has been made.)
Bishop has published thirteen solo novels, three collaborative novels, and more than 140 pieces of short fiction, most of which have been gathered into seven collections. His eighth collection, The Door Gunner and Other Perilous Flights of Fancy, a career retrospective, will be published late in 2011 by Subterranean Press
. His stories have appeared in such publications as Playboy
, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review
, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni
, and Interzone
. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
He has edited seven anthologies, including the Locus Award
-winning Light Years and Dark and A Cross of Centuries: Twenty-five Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2007. His latest anthology, Passing for Human, was co-edited with Steven Utley
and published by PS Publishing
in 2009.
In addition to his fiction, Bishop has published poetry (gathered in two collections) and won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem "For the Lady of a Physicist." He has also had essays and reviews published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
, Omni Magazine, and the New York Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray
, was published in 2005 by PS Publishing
.
He and British author Ian Watson
collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop's earlier works. He has also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo
, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson
. Bishop's collaboration with Steven Utley
, the story "The City Quiet as Death", was published in June 2009 on Tor.com.
He has written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick
, Theodore Sturgeon
, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent
, Gardner Dozois
, Lucius Shepard
, Mary Shelley
, Andy Duncan
, Paul Di Filippo
, Bruce Holland Rogers
, and Rhys Hughes
.
Bishop has been Guest of Honor at more than a dozen science fiction conventions including the 1977 DeepSouthCon
, the 1978 Philcon
, the 1992 Readercon
, the 1992 World Fantasy Convention
, the 1999 World Horror Convention
, the 2005 Norwescon
, the 2009 Science Fiction Research Association
Conference, and Special Guest at the 2010 ArmadilloCon
. He was also one of the organizers of the three Slipstreaming in the Arts conferences (1997–2001). In 2001, he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from LaGrange College
.
). His parents met in the summer of 1942 when his father, a recent enlistee of the Air Force, was stationed in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bishop's childhood was the peripatetic life of a military brat
. He went to kindergarten in Tokyo, Japan, and he spent his senior year of high school in Seville, Spain. His parents divorced in 1951, and Bishop spent summers wherever his father happened to be based.
Bishop entered the University of Georgia
in 1963, receiving his bachelor's degree
in 1967, before going on to complete a master's degree
in English. In 1969, he married Jeri Ellis Whitaker of Columbus, Georgia. He taught English (including a course in science fiction
) at the United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School
in Colorado Springs from 1968 to 1972. After his service career, he taught composition and English literature at the University of Georgia
in Athens
. A son, Jamie
, was born in 1971, and a daughter, Stephanie was born in 1973. Bishop left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer. In those early years of freelance writing, he would occasionally work as a substitute teacher in the public schools and as a stringer for the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus
.
In 1996, Bishop became writer-in-residence at LaGrange College
located near his home (built in the 1890s) in Pine Mountain, Georgia. He has held this position ever since. Bishop teaches creative-writing courses and an occasional January interim-term course.
He and Jeri, a counselor at Rosemont Elementary School, have two grandchildren, Annabel and Joel, by their daughter Stephanie. On April 16, 2007, their son Jamie
; a Lecturer in German and I.T. Studies, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre
.
in 1970. It was shortly followed by "If a Flower Could Eclipse", the first story in his UrNu sequence (which is the only series of related stories in Bishop's career). While Galaxy Science Fiction
and If
magazines were publishing his sf stories, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction became Bishop's venue for his slightly off-kilter fantasy/horror stories. This early period is also noted for a number of high profile novellas: in 1973 "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" and "The White Otters of Childhood" appeared on the shortlist ballots for both the Hugo
and Nebula
awards. The 1974 gonzo novella "On the Street of the Serpents" (including a character named "Michael Bishop") first appeared in an anthology of original stories. It would eventually lead to a contract for his first novel from Ballantine Books
, the anthology's publisher.
writes that "…his early stories and novels display considerable intellectual complexity, and do not shirk the downbeat implications of their anthropological treatment of aliens and alienating milieux…" In his major essay on these early novels, author Ian Watson
writes "Michael Bishop is both an exoticist and a moralist. He is sometimes guilty, in the first respect, of a certain over-writing – underlying exotic venue by exotic diction – though the two become more organically integrated as his work progresses; and in the second respect of what one might call an over-scrupulousness on the part of his characters and his perceived attitude to them… These, however, are merely the consequence of aspiration and conscience; and as more of Bishop's work has appeared – and his reputation has grown – he has shown…a more coherent melding of exotic vision, ethics and style."
in 1975, critics Alexei and Cory Panshin
wrote that the novel "shows an interest in the anthropological comparable to Ursula K. Le Guin
and a sense of the alien comparable to James Tiptree, Jr. But it is an individual work, Bishop's own and no one else's. A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire is highly imperfect. It is a pied mirror, everywhere reflecting brilliantly bright, everywhere cloudy. It leads the eyes inward, and ultimately reveals nothing clearly. Even so, it is the most impressive first novel so far seen in the Seventies." They go on to declare that "Bishop is one of the new and still rare breed of science fiction writer attempting to produce art without rejecting the pulp vigor that is science fiction's continuing strengths." The novel was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1975.
poem "You, Andrew Marvell". Published by Harper & Row in 1976, it is set in the same far future as his Hugo
- and Nebula
-nominated novella "The White Otters of Childhood." There are two surviving races, both genetically engineered by a third, the Parfects, who also manipulate the ongoing struggle between them. Richard A. Lupoff
praised the novel lavishly, calling it "An eccentric, accomplished performance; and impressive and admirable one . . . a delightful book, a new treatment of a somewhat familiar theme, but crafted into a strange shape and told with such fineness of presence and such impressive language that it hardly matters what the book is about." Reviewer Keith L. Justice writes "If Bishop never published another word of fiction, he would still have to be considered a milestone writer in the development of contemporary sf… Writers such as Le Guin
, Tiptree, and Bishop are developing a whole new generation of artistry."
writes that the novel is "about deceit, maskedness and discovery of self-truth…a harsh, arctic tale by contrast with [And Strange At Ecbatan The Trees] where the terrain may be stark but there is a mannered elegance in the tone of voice; it is a tale executed in an argot-ritualistic style." Critic Richard Delap
writes "There is an abundance of exploitable elements in Bishop's story, so it is astonishing to see how the author keeps them under strict rein, always with a highly keyed visual sense but also with a literary flair that says more by implication than by direct description. The writing itself is crafted with a precision that becomes obvious only as the novel progresses."
- and Nebula
-nominated novella "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" forms the first part of Transfigurations, a novel published in 1979 by Berkley Putnam
. The story continues when the daughter of the anthropologist who studied the Asadi, a hominid-like race on the planet Bosk'veld, investigates his disappearance. In the journal Foundation
, John Clute writes that the novel is "a fever of explanation. Hypothesis builds on hypothesis [as more and more data is added to the original observations], and much of the resulting construction is beautifully crafted, almost hallucinatory it is so plausible. But of course these explanations are never enough – and the intellectual tact by which Bishop makes them almost but not quite fit the data they are meant to make transparent is perhaps the strongest part of this extremely dense and carefully thought-through novel." Legendary science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon
writes "Michael Bishop's Transfigurations is as complex, as carefully thought-out, and as compelling an sf novel as you'll find anywhere, ever." Transfigurations was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award in 1980.
as Eyes of Fire. In his introduction to the British hardcover edition of the revised work, Bishop writes "…I still feel affection for the original version of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, its callow narrator, and a few of the flavorful images and metaphors with which I salted the text. But I also recognize the fumble-fingeredness and immaturity of that initial version." Very few publications (mostly fanzines) took enough notice to review the new version. (Pocket Books
even used the artwork of the original publisher's edition.) In one of the rare reviews, Robert Frazier writes "In almost every detail, Eyes of Fire is crafted intelligently… It is not the type of sf that pushes to the heights of wonder. Instead it is a probing, disturbing, moving reflection on humanity… Bishop's skill is at plumbing to the depths, and his basic tool is a two-way glass. [Other novels this year] will have to go a long distance to surpass this effort."
read Bishop's A Little Knowledge (1977), he was so fascinated with the alien Cygnusians that he wrote to inquire whether Bishop had plans to write a story about the aliens' home planet. Thus began what Bishop calls "the first ever transatlantic science fiction collaboration", with all correspondence sent by post. Although often labeled as the third book in the series, it is not truly part of the main UrNu sequence. In this novel, published in the UK by Gollancz
(1981) and in the US by Ace Books
(1982), a Japanese linguist, crewmember of the research starship Heavensbridge, arrives on the home planet of the Kybers (so-called because they're seemingly made of flesh and metal.) She soon learns that the planet's sun will shortly go nova. Brian Stableford
writes that the novel when compared with other recent sf collaborations "is a very solid and rewarding piece of work. Its basic premise is original and intelligently worked-out, and the storyline sustains the fascination of the reader throughout. Nevertheless, it seems to me to fall slightly behind the standard set by recent solo works by either of the two authors." He concludes that the "book is worth reading, but it is not an outstanding work in either author's canon." This is Michael Bishop's last novel-length work of other worlds fiction.
Orbit and Terry Carr's
Universe. Four of the stories would subsequently be chosen for best-of-the-year anthologies. (N.B.: According to the author's website A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire and Under Heaven's Bridge are only tangentially connected to the series and thus not part of the sequence proper.)
. Chronologically, its events fall just before the last story in the series, "Death Rehearsals". The alien Cygnusians that first appeared in the novella "Allegiances" have been brought into the domed city of Atlanta, causing quite a stir when one of them converts to the state sponsored religion. Mary S. Weinkauf writes "…this is a cleverly done book with many elements of previously admired sf…although it is maneuvered by too carefully contrived coincidences and leaves some questions at the end… [It] is a book to think about long after you put it down." Richard Delap writes that "characters…scurry through this shifting maze as if they are buffeted by the social and political activities of this future world rather than by an author plotting to reach a predestined conclusion. A Little Knowledge is a lively, thought-provoking novel that will exercise your brain."
published in 1979 by Berkley Putnam
. Bishop also wrote new connecting material and provided a timeline. Spider Robinson's
comments on the book's structure: "Plainly [Bishop] intended the Domed City to be a metaphor for something or other…and it probably worked just fine in some of those individual novelettes, where an emotionally involving story made you overlook a shaky premise. But the "novel" has no emotional continuity… There are a few marvelous stories in this book, and one superb one ["The Samurai and the Willows"], but they are ruined by a setting which exposes their worst weaknesses." Robert Frazier strongly disagrees: "Catacomb Years is not a rough sculpture with visible seams and weak welds; it is a polished puzzle entity a la Miguel Berrocal
." Author Elizabeth Lynn
was equally impressed: "Bishop takes his wildly diverse plot elements…and weaves them into a shining and almost seamless tapestry… The material, to those who have read the pieces as they appeared…will be familiar and friendly. But set against each other they acquire new significance and a new luster. Bishop's skill at characterization is impressive, as is his ability to juggle his cast and his numerous subplots."
winning No Enemy But Time, was published in 1982 by Simon & Schuster under David Hartwell's editorship and the Timescape
imprint. John Clute
writes that the novel "intensified the movement of [Bishop's] imagination to a local habitat, and for the first time introduced a protagonist of sufficient racial (and mental) complexity to carry a storyline immured in the particular and haunted by the exotic." In this sophisticated twist on the traditional time-travel story, a modern day African-American man is recruited by the military for his special ability to "dream" himself into the Pleistocene
era where he becomes involved with a tribe of habilines. Thomas Disch writes "Bishop is determined to write about human goodness without resorting to the mock heroics of formula adventure stories. There are no villains in the book, even among the habilines. The central and absorbing drama of the book is the hero's growing love for the habiline, Helen. Looming behind this love story is a larger theme, the formation across the entire span of history of the Family of Man, a phrase that becomes, as the novel ripens to its conclusion, no mere liberal piety but a fully realized dramatic affirmation." In one of the few mixed reviews, Tom Easton writes that "Kampa [the protagonist] is the only character who does come alive. All others are at least stiff. Some are outright caricatures. The book is not faultless, but it is overall a pleasure to read… Its treatment of anthropology is so effective that the few flaws are easily overlooked." Editor and critic David Pringle
writes that the novel "is narrated in an oddly detached, quizzical and dryly humorous manner… The paleo-anthropological details are superbly imagined, the African landscapes beautifully described, yet the final effect is one of coolness, distance… Michael Bishop's prose style is learned, witty, Latinate, although salted with deliberately-placed colloquialisms and low jokes. This book is the work of a talented and serious writer." In addition to winning the Nebula Award, the novel was nominated for both the John W. Campbell Memorial and British Science Fiction Awards.
under the editorship of Jim Turner. This original edition, as well as the British edition, was photographically illustrated by J. K. Potter. When David Pringle
chose it for inclusion in his book Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels, he described the novel as "a playful metafiction about the real and the fictitious, about the writer and his or her creation…" and concluded that the novel is "…a gripping and intelligent tale of the supernatural by an author who is adept at avoiding most of the clichés of the horror genre." In his mixed review of the novel, Joe Sanders writes "Sometimes vivid, sometimes prosaic; sometimes involving but often affectless, this is not a novel to like casually. Even when it looks like standard mass-produced pop lit, it actually is nudging us toward something more disturbing and hilarious than we're comfortable imagining. It finally is impressive enough to be uneasily recommended." Sanders' editor, Robert A. Collins, chides the reviewer with the footnote "Ignore Sanders' uneasiness, which obviously stems from his difficulty in pegging the book's genre; Stevie Crye is a marvelous book which transcends genre, as all the best of Bishop does." Author Ian Watson
writes "Here is a humane, trickster kaleidoscope questioning a genre and a market, and fiction, and reality too – yet exquisitely spiced with human reality – and delivering the eerie chill of the occult and the illicit, curdling the blood but also warming the heart."
-winning novella "Her Habiline Husband" forms the first third of Ancient of Days, published in 1985 by Arbor House. It's the story of "Adam", one of the last surviving Homo habilis
who is discovered in contemporary Georgia. In this thematic companion to his novel No Enemy But Time (with an almost inverse conceit), Bishop tackles issues of racial and cultural prejudice, and explores the question of what it means to be human. Locus
reviewer Debbie Notkin writes "This is science fiction so precise and so well-thought-out that it reads like history, although little history is so well-written, or cares so much about its characters." Bernard Goodman of Fantasy Review believes that "Bishop's theme of evil inherent in humanity echoes William Golding
," and that the novel "in some ways…parallels Golding's Lord of the Flies
." Ancient of Days was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1988.
in 1987 (but subsequently reprinted with the author's preferred title), this work is an homage to writer Philip K. Dick
, a pastiche
of his style, and includes an alternate reality
version of Dick as a character. The novel is set in a world in which Richard Milrose Nixon, in his fourth term as president, holds fascistic control over America
, and the science fiction
works of Philip K. Dick
remain unpublished, distributed underground as samizdat
, while his realist
fiction titles are the ones that are celebrated as masterpieces
. Author and reviewer Orson Scott Card
writes that "the climax is not just an inward epiphany for a character… [T]he world changes in wonderful strange ways, and the audience can read the book passionately, with sweating fingers, eager to see what happens next, yet reluctant to leave the present moment. Imagine: A writer who is already one of the best, taking risks and finding ways to be better." Card does take Bishop to task for the author's characterization of Richard Nixon
, calling it a "caricature" and a "stock character of a madman." Locus
reviewer Tom Whitmore calls the book "a masterful pastiche" and "…the closest thing to a classic Dick sf novel anyone has ever done." Gerald Jonas in the New York Times writes "Mr. Bishop is a solid, serious writer whose reach (in his previous work) has always seemed to me to exceed his grasp. Here, he catches some of Dick's fire, especially in the early chapters… Then a lot happens very quickly (as in some of Dick's own novels), and the satire, which should hold things together, turns predictable. But…the ending (starring Philip K. Dick
) approaches sublimity." The novel was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989.
is taken in by his cousin, a rancher in the Colorado mountains. Award-winning author Nancy Kress
writes "Michael Bishop has pulled off a rare and amazing feat. Unicorn Mountain successfully weaves such traditional fantasy elements as unicorns and Indian lore together with the all-too-contemporary..." Orson Scott Card
writes "The triumph of this, Bishop's most artistically whole and successful novel to date, is that he set out to do something that is nearly impossible in fiction: He wrote a novel about constructing a tribe...To do it, he had to bring us to know and understand and care about more fully-created characters than most writers produce in a career." John Clute's
assessment emphasizes another theme of the work: "Michael Bishop, whose voice is like a shout from the bottom of the well of the enormous South, and whose heart is on his sleeve, [manages] in Unicorn Mountain to generate a moving tale out of ecological disaster here and in another world, AIDS
, the death of cultures, the death of species, and the slow sea-changing of America into themeparks." The novel would go on to win the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was shortlisted for the 1989 Locus Award.
reviewer Tom Easton writes "This is where Bishop falters. The satire he has painstakingly created now teeters on the brink of farce. He quite properly makes the decision to yank it back from that brink, but then he loses the satire. He becomes heavy-handed and obvious." Faren Miller disagrees: "The most ambitious comic books are no longer merely comic – may even incorporate tragedy in a critique of modern life as savage and acute, in its way, as the ferocious satire of Dante's
Inferno. Count Geiger's Blues also goes beyond humor – well beyond, in its remarkable closing chapters. But they build on all that has gone before. In unleashing a startling talent for comedy and a wide-ranging knowledge of pop culture in both its absurdity and its splendor, Michael Bishop has written his best book yet." John Kessel writes "Comedy is certainly a new tone from Bishop, and he demonstrates a talent for it…But it seems to me Bishop doesn't really want to write comedy. It's as if Bishop is running riffs on whatever wacky ideas come to hand, without much plan, holding his characters at arm's length; as if, trying to avoid sententiousness, he has to avoid caring – but in the end can't. The result being a loose, baggy sort of book."
Frankenstein
. This simple designation only begins to describe this emotionally and creatively complex story. The novel, published in 1994 by Bantam Books
, attempts to answer the questions: What if the doctor's much maligned creation managed to survive his Arctic pursuit? and How would he be perceived in modern times? Bishop places him in the American Deep South during World War II
playing minor league baseball. Author and critic Brian Stableford
writes that "no potential reader should allow himself or herself to be put off by the seeming freakishness of its premise… There is not a wasted image or phrase in the text, which is extraordinarily rich and eminently readable from beginning to end. It is a very fine book indeed…" Concerning its relationship to Shelley's novel, Stableford
writes that "Brittle Innings seems to me to be the best sequel imaginable." The New York Times book reviewer felt uncomfortable with the mix: "The [baseball story] is the real reason to read Brittle Innings; it has a better narrative and a more meaningful message than the subplot about the literate and sometimes likable monster. Mr. Bishop's fine prose makes each of these plot lines well worth reading, but they belong in separate novels." In his essay "Of (Human) Bondage in Michael Bishop's Brittle Innings" Joe Sanders compares Bishop's young protagonist with Philip Carey of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage
. "Philip Carey's struggle toward maturity is painfully messy…unconsciously he knows what he needs: connection to and then freedom from parental authority so that he can determine his own goals in life. [Michael Bishop's] Danny Boles, with similar needs, is certain that he already has found something to believe in: baseball." Sanders concludes "Insofar as the characters of Brittle Innings learn to see life's vivid extremes and as they struggle to see more, they demonstrate that love can sometimes lead not to bondage but freedom." The novel won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1995, and was nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Campbell Awards that same year.
writes
"The Quickening", Bishop's Nebula Award
winning novelette of 1981, is, according to Brian W. Aldiss
and David Wingrove "…perhaps, a perfect modern fable. A fable about America and her values. For what is being torn down stone by stone is a world spoiled by the trite commercial values of American culture." It's the story of an ordinary American man who awakes to find himself in Seville
, Spain
. He soon discovers that the population of the whole world has been scattered, creating a potent stew of race, ethnicity, culture and language.
A major theme throughout much of Bishop's work (and especially so in his short fiction) is the role of religion in the daily lives of human beings. When several readers wrote letters of protest to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
about its 1983 publication of Bishop's novella "The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis," Isaac Asimov
himself wrote an editorial defending the work and the editor's decision to publish it. He wrote "…we had a remarkable story that considered, quite fearlessly, an important idea, and we felt that most readers would recognize its legitimacy – if not at once, then upon mature reflection."
When Bishop's story "Dogs' Lives" was reprinted in Best American Short Stories 1985
, it became one of only a handful of genre stories to appear in the prestigious anthology series. The story might have languished in limbo, had the author not pulled its submission to Harlan Ellison
's never-published anthology The Last Dangerous Visions
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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....
. Over four decades and thirty books, he has created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and 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...
literature.
Bishop has twice been awarded the Nebula
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
: in 1981 for "The Quickening" (Best Novelette
Nebula Award for Best Novelette
Winners of the Nebula Award for best Novelette. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year. Winning titles are listed first, with other nominees listed below.-External links:* * *...
) and in 1982 for No Enemy But Time
No Enemy But Time
No Enemy But Time is a 1982 science fiction novel by Michael Bishop. It won the 1982 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was also nominated for the 1983 John W. Campbell Memorial Award...
(Best Novel
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
). He has also received four Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
s and his work has been nominated for numerous Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
s. In July 2009, "The Pile" was the recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award
Shirley Jackson Award
The Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic are presented at Readercon, an annual conference on imaginative...
for Best Short Story of 2008.
In 1993, 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
optioned his novel Brittle Innings for a film and bought the rights outright in 1995. (To date, no film has been made.)
Bishop has published thirteen solo novels, three collaborative novels, and more than 140 pieces of short fiction, most of which have been gathered into seven collections. His eighth collection, The Door Gunner and Other Perilous Flights of Fancy, a career retrospective, will be published late in 2011 by Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press
Subterranean Press is a small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction, primarily horror, suspense and dark mystery, fantasy, and science fiction...
. His stories have appeared in such publications as Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.-History:...
, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review
Indiana Review
Indiana Review ' is a small, student-run literary magazine at Indiana University. Founded in 1976, it has a circulation of about 2,000.A biannual review, IR publishes essays, fiction, graphic arts, interviews, poetry, and reviews...
, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni
Omni (magazine)
OMNI was a science and science fiction magazine published in the US and the UK. It contained articles on science fact and short works of science fiction...
, and Interzone
Interzone (magazine)
Interzone is an award-winning British fantasy and science fiction magazine. Published since 1982, Interzone is the eighth longest-running science fiction magazine in history and the longest-running British SF magazine...
. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
He has edited seven anthologies, including the Locus Award
Locus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
-winning Light Years and Dark and A Cross of Centuries: Twenty-five Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder's Mouth Press in 2007. His latest anthology, Passing for Human, was co-edited with Steven Utley
Steven Utley
Steven Utley is an American writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction stories.-Biography:...
and published by PS Publishing
PS Publishing
PS Publishing is a Hornsea based publisher founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther. They specialise in novella length fiction from the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. It has quickly become established as one of Britain's premier small presses...
in 2009.
In addition to his fiction, Bishop has published poetry (gathered in two collections) and won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem "For the Lady of a Physicist." He has also had essays and reviews published in numerous newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
The Ledger-Enquirer is a McClatchy newspaper headquartered in Downtown Columbus, Georgia, in the United States. It was founded in 1828 as the Columbus Enquirer by Mirabeau B. Lamar, who later played a pivotal role in the founding of the Republic of Texas and served as its third President...
, Omni Magazine, and the New York Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray
A Reverie for Mister Ray
A Reverie for Mister Ray: Reflections on Life, Death, and Speculative Fiction is a collection of nonfiction work by American writer Michael Bishop published in 2005 by PS Publishing. It includes essays and reviews from 1975 to 2004, originally published in a wide variety of newspapers, magazines,...
, was published in 2005 by PS Publishing
PS Publishing
PS Publishing is a Hornsea based publisher founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther. They specialise in novella length fiction from the fantasy, science fiction and horror genres. It has quickly become established as one of Britain's premier small presses...
.
He and British author Ian Watson
Ian Watson (author)
Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop's earlier works. He has also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson
Philip Lawson (author)
Philip Lawson is a pseudonym used for mystery novels written by Michael Bishop with Paul Di Filippo.The Will Keats mysteries involve a ventriloquist and include the following* Would It Kill You To Smile? 1998 Longstreet Press...
. Bishop's collaboration with Steven Utley
Steven Utley
Steven Utley is an American writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction stories.-Biography:...
, the story "The City Quiet as Death", was published in June 2009 on Tor.com.
He has written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent
Pamela Sargent
Pamela Sargent is an American, feminist, science fiction author, and editor. She has an MA in classical philosophy and has won a Nebula Award. She wrote a series concerning the terraforming of Venus that is sometimes compared to Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, but predates it...
, Gardner Dozois
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
, Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard
Lucius Shepard is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents...
, Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
, Andy Duncan
Andy Duncan (writer)
Andy Duncan is an award-winning American science fiction and fantasy writer whose work frequently deals with Southern U.S. themes. He was born in Batesburg, South Carolina in 1964. He graduated from high school from W. W...
, Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
, Bruce Holland Rogers
Bruce Holland Rogers
Bruce Holland Rogers is an American author of short fiction who also writes under the pseudonym Hanovi Braddock. His stories have won a Pushcart Prize, two Nebula Awards, the Bram Stoker Award, two World Fantasy Awards, the Micro Award, and have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award and...
, and Rhys Hughes
Rhys Hughes
Rhys Henry Hughes , is a Welsh writer and essayist.Born in Cardiff, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino, Milorad Pavić, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien, Felipe Alfau, Donald Barthelme and Jack Vance...
.
Bishop has been Guest of Honor at more than a dozen science fiction conventions including the 1977 DeepSouthCon
DeepSouthCon
The DeepSouthCon is an annual science fiction convention, which is hosted in different cities in the Southern United States. Site selection is by vote of the membership of a given DSC, for the convention to be held 2 years in the future. DSC is often, but not always, held in conjunction with an...
, the 1978 Philcon
Philcon
Philcon, also known as the "Philadelphia Science Fiction Conference", is an annual science fiction convention, which has been held in or near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, nearly every year since 1936. The convention is run by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society...
, the 1992 Readercon
Readercon
Readercon is an annual science fiction convention, held every July in the Boston, Massachusetts area, in Burlington, Massachusetts). It was founded by Bob Colby and statistician Eric Van in the 1980s with the goal of focusing exclusively on science fiction in the written form Readercon is an...
, the 1992 World Fantasy Convention
World Fantasy Convention
The World Fantasy Convention is an annual convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. It places emphasis on literature and art, while de-emphasizing dramatic presentation, gaming, masquerade, and the like. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the...
, the 1999 World Horror Convention
World Horror Convention
The World Horror Convention is an annual professional gathering of the World Horror Society and other interested parties.-Site selection:Historically, all World Horror Conventions have been held in the United States or Canada, usually alternating between east and west sides of the country...
, the 2005 Norwescon
Norwescon
Norwescon is one of the largest regional science fiction and fantasy conventions in the United States. Located in the Seattle area of Washington state, Norwescon has been running continuously since 1978...
, the 2009 Science Fiction Research Association
Science Fiction Research Association
The Science Fiction Research Association , founded in 1970, is the oldest, non-profit professional organization committed to encouraging, facilitating, and rewarding the study of science fiction and fantasy literature, film, and other media...
Conference, and Special Guest at the 2010 ArmadilloCon
ArmadilloCon
ArmadilloCon is a science fiction convention held annually in Austin, Texas, USA, since 1979. As the second longest running science fiction convention in Texas, it is sponsored by the Fandom Association of Central Texas and is known for its emphasis on literary science fiction...
. He was also one of the organizers of the three Slipstreaming in the Arts conferences (1997–2001). In 2001, he was given an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from LaGrange College
LaGrange College
LaGrange College is the oldest private college in the U.S. state of Georgia. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is located in LaGrange, Georgia, with an enrollment of about 1,000 students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1...
.
Biography
Michael Bishop is the son of Leotis ("Lee") Bishop (born 1920 in Fry's Mill, Arkansas) and Maxine ("Mac") Elaine Matison (born 1920 in Ashland, NebraskaAshland, Nebraska
Ashland is a city in Saunders County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,262 at the 2000 census.- History :Ashland is located at the site of a low-water limestone ledge along the bottom of Salt Creek, an otherwise mud-bottomed stream that was a formidable obstacle for wagon trains on the...
). His parents met in the summer of 1942 when his father, a recent enlistee of the Air Force, was stationed in Lincoln, Nebraska. Bishop's childhood was the peripatetic life of a military brat
Military brat
A military brat describes people who spend their childhood or adolescence while a parent serve full-time in the armed forces, and can also refer to the unique subculture and lifestyle of American military brats, the term refers to both current and former children of such families.Lifestyle: The...
. He went to kindergarten in Tokyo, Japan, and he spent his senior year of high school in Seville, Spain. His parents divorced in 1951, and Bishop spent summers wherever his father happened to be based.
Bishop entered the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in 1963, receiving his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1967, before going on to complete a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in English. In 1969, he married Jeri Ellis Whitaker of Columbus, Georgia. He taught English (including a course in science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
) at the United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School
United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School
The U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School—usually referred to as "the Prep School" or "The P School"—was established in May 1961. The school's founder and first commander was Colonel Lee Charles Black. It is located on the campus of the United States Air Force Academy near the Community Center...
in Colorado Springs from 1968 to 1972. After his service career, he taught composition and English literature at the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in Athens
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
. A son, Jamie
Jamie Bishop
Christopher James Bishop , known as Jamie Bishop, was an instructor of the German language at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as an artist and craftsman. He was among those shot in the Virginia Tech massacre...
, was born in 1971, and a daughter, Stephanie was born in 1973. Bishop left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer. In those early years of freelance writing, he would occasionally work as a substitute teacher in the public schools and as a stringer for the Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus
Columbus, Georgia
Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, United States, with which it is consolidated. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 189,885. It is the principal city of the Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area, which, in 2009, had an estimated population of 292,795...
.
In 1996, Bishop became writer-in-residence at LaGrange College
LaGrange College
LaGrange College is the oldest private college in the U.S. state of Georgia. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is located in LaGrange, Georgia, with an enrollment of about 1,000 students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1...
located near his home (built in the 1890s) in Pine Mountain, Georgia. He has held this position ever since. Bishop teaches creative-writing courses and an occasional January interim-term course.
He and Jeri, a counselor at Rosemont Elementary School, have two grandchildren, Annabel and Joel, by their daughter Stephanie. On April 16, 2007, their son Jamie
Jamie Bishop
Christopher James Bishop , known as Jamie Bishop, was an instructor of the German language at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, as well as an artist and craftsman. He was among those shot in the Virginia Tech massacre...
; a Lecturer in German and I.T. Studies, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
.
Early work
Michael Bishop's first published professional fiction sale was the short story "Piñon Fall" to Galaxy Science FictionGalaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
in 1970. It was shortly followed by "If a Flower Could Eclipse", the first story in his UrNu sequence (which is the only series of related stories in Bishop's career). While Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction
Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by an Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break in to the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L...
and If
If (magazine)
If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn. Quinn hired Paul W. Fairman to be the first editor, but early circulation figures were disappointing, and Quinn fired Fairman after only three issues. Quinn then took over the...
magazines were publishing his sf stories, the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction became Bishop's venue for his slightly off-kilter fantasy/horror stories. This early period is also noted for a number of high profile novellas: in 1973 "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" and "The White Otters of Childhood" appeared on the shortlist ballots for both the Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
awards. The 1974 gonzo novella "On the Street of the Serpents" (including a character named "Michael Bishop") first appeared in an anthology of original stories. It would eventually lead to a contract for his first novel from Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, the anthology's publisher.
Anthropological novels
Six of Bishop's first eight novels are set on other worlds (the other two are the part of his UrNu sequence of stories.) Critic and author John CluteJohn Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
writes that "…his early stories and novels display considerable intellectual complexity, and do not shirk the downbeat implications of their anthropological treatment of aliens and alienating milieux…" In his major essay on these early novels, author Ian Watson
Ian Watson (author)
Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
writes "Michael Bishop is both an exoticist and a moralist. He is sometimes guilty, in the first respect, of a certain over-writing – underlying exotic venue by exotic diction – though the two become more organically integrated as his work progresses; and in the second respect of what one might call an over-scrupulousness on the part of his characters and his perceived attitude to them… These, however, are merely the consequence of aspiration and conscience; and as more of Bishop's work has appeared – and his reputation has grown – he has shown…a more coherent melding of exotic vision, ethics and style."
A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire
When Bishop's first novel, A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, was published by Ballantine BooksBallantine Books
Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
in 1975, critics Alexei and Cory Panshin
Alexei Panshin
Alexis Adams Panshin is an American author and science fiction critic. He has written several critical works and several novels, including the 1968 Nebula Award-winning novel Rite of Passage and the 1990 Hugo Award winning study of science fiction The World Beyond the Hill .-Other works:Panshin...
wrote that the novel "shows an interest in the anthropological comparable to Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
and a sense of the alien comparable to James Tiptree, Jr. But it is an individual work, Bishop's own and no one else's. A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire is highly imperfect. It is a pied mirror, everywhere reflecting brilliantly bright, everywhere cloudy. It leads the eyes inward, and ultimately reveals nothing clearly. Even so, it is the most impressive first novel so far seen in the Seventies." They go on to declare that "Bishop is one of the new and still rare breed of science fiction writer attempting to produce art without rejecting the pulp vigor that is science fiction's continuing strengths." The novel was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1975.
And Strange At Ecbatan The Trees
Bishop's second novel (and first hardcover publication) takes its title from Archibald MacLeish'sArchibald MacLeish
Archibald MacLeish was an American poet, writer, and the Librarian of Congress. He is associated with the Modernist school of poetry. He received three Pulitzer Prizes for his work.-Early years:...
poem "You, Andrew Marvell". Published by Harper & Row in 1976, it is set in the same far future as his Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
- and Nebula
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
-nominated novella "The White Otters of Childhood." There are two surviving races, both genetically engineered by a third, the Parfects, who also manipulate the ongoing struggle between them. Richard A. Lupoff
Richard A. Lupoff
Richard Allen Lupoff is an American science fiction and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice...
praised the novel lavishly, calling it "An eccentric, accomplished performance; and impressive and admirable one . . . a delightful book, a new treatment of a somewhat familiar theme, but crafted into a strange shape and told with such fineness of presence and such impressive language that it hardly matters what the book is about." Reviewer Keith L. Justice writes "If Bishop never published another word of fiction, he would still have to be considered a milestone writer in the development of contemporary sf… Writers such as Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin is an American author. She has written novels, poetry, children's books, essays, and short stories, notably in fantasy and science fiction...
, Tiptree, and Bishop are developing a whole new generation of artistry."
Stolen Faces
In Stolen Faces (published by Harper & Row in 1977), a recently demoted commissioner has been reassigned to a colony planet to govern a compound which isolates the sufferers of a leprosy-like disease. Ian WatsonIan Watson (author)
Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
writes that the novel is "about deceit, maskedness and discovery of self-truth…a harsh, arctic tale by contrast with [And Strange At Ecbatan The Trees] where the terrain may be stark but there is a mannered elegance in the tone of voice; it is a tale executed in an argot-ritualistic style." Critic Richard Delap
Richard Delap
Richard Delap was a Canadian science fiction writer, editor, and reviewer. He began in science fiction fandom and was nominated for the 1970 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer...
writes "There is an abundance of exploitable elements in Bishop's story, so it is astonishing to see how the author keeps them under strict rein, always with a highly keyed visual sense but also with a literary flair that says more by implication than by direct description. The writing itself is crafted with a precision that becomes obvious only as the novel progresses."
Transfigurations
The HugoHugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
- and Nebula
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
-nominated novella "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" forms the first part of Transfigurations, a novel published in 1979 by Berkley Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
. The story continues when the daughter of the anthropologist who studied the Asadi, a hominid-like race on the planet Bosk'veld, investigates his disappearance. In the journal Foundation
Foundation - The International Review of Science Fiction
Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction is a critical peer-reviewed literary journal founded in 1972 that publishes articles and reviews about science fiction. It is published triannually by the Science Fiction Foundation and the editor in chief is Graham Sleight.-See...
, John Clute writes that the novel is "a fever of explanation. Hypothesis builds on hypothesis [as more and more data is added to the original observations], and much of the resulting construction is beautifully crafted, almost hallucinatory it is so plausible. But of course these explanations are never enough – and the intellectual tact by which Bishop makes them almost but not quite fit the data they are meant to make transparent is perhaps the strongest part of this extremely dense and carefully thought-through novel." Legendary science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
writes "Michael Bishop's Transfigurations is as complex, as carefully thought-out, and as compelling an sf novel as you'll find anywhere, ever." Transfigurations was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Award in 1980.
Eyes of Fire
In 1980, Bishop was given the unusual opportunity by editor David Hartwell to rewrite his first novel. This completely revised version (or, as Bishop has called it, wholesale reimagining) was published by Pocket BooksPocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
as Eyes of Fire. In his introduction to the British hardcover edition of the revised work, Bishop writes "…I still feel affection for the original version of A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, its callow narrator, and a few of the flavorful images and metaphors with which I salted the text. But I also recognize the fumble-fingeredness and immaturity of that initial version." Very few publications (mostly fanzines) took enough notice to review the new version. (Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
even used the artwork of the original publisher's edition.) In one of the rare reviews, Robert Frazier writes "In almost every detail, Eyes of Fire is crafted intelligently… It is not the type of sf that pushes to the heights of wonder. Instead it is a probing, disturbing, moving reflection on humanity… Bishop's skill is at plumbing to the depths, and his basic tool is a two-way glass. [Other novels this year] will have to go a long distance to surpass this effort."
Under Heaven's Bridge
When British author Ian WatsonIan Watson (author)
Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
read Bishop's A Little Knowledge (1977), he was so fascinated with the alien Cygnusians that he wrote to inquire whether Bishop had plans to write a story about the aliens' home planet. Thus began what Bishop calls "the first ever transatlantic science fiction collaboration", with all correspondence sent by post. Although often labeled as the third book in the series, it is not truly part of the main UrNu sequence. In this novel, published in the UK by Gollancz
Gollancz
Gollancz often refers to the British publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.Gollancz, a family name originating from the Polish town Gołańcz , is mainly known as the name of a prominent British Jewish family, including:* Sir Hermann Gollancz , rabbi* Sir Israel Gollancz , scholar of...
(1981) and in the US by Ace Books
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
(1982), a Japanese linguist, crewmember of the research starship Heavensbridge, arrives on the home planet of the Kybers (so-called because they're seemingly made of flesh and metal.) She soon learns that the planet's sun will shortly go nova. Brian Stableford
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published as by Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford...
writes that the novel when compared with other recent sf collaborations "is a very solid and rewarding piece of work. Its basic premise is original and intelligently worked-out, and the storyline sustains the fascination of the reader throughout. Nevertheless, it seems to me to fall slightly behind the standard set by recent solo works by either of the two authors." He concludes that the "book is worth reading, but it is not an outstanding work in either author's canon." This is Michael Bishop's last novel-length work of other worlds fiction.
UrNu sequence
With "If a Flower Could Eclipse" (1970), his second published story, Bishop began a series of stories set in the Urban Nucleus of Atlanta, one of several domed cities in his future history. Over the next decade he would write seven stories of varying length and one novel to fill in the century-long chronology. Some of the stories first appeared in such prestigious anthology series as Damon Knight'sDamon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...
Orbit and Terry Carr's
Terry Carr
Terry Gene Carr was a U.S. science fiction author, editor, and teacher.Terry Carr was born in Grants Pass, Oregon...
Universe. Four of the stories would subsequently be chosen for best-of-the-year anthologies. (N.B.: According to the author's website A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire and Under Heaven's Bridge are only tangentially connected to the series and thus not part of the sequence proper.)
A Little Knowledge
The only novel-length work in the UrNu sequence, A Little Knowledge, was published in 1977 by Berkley PutnamG. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
. Chronologically, its events fall just before the last story in the series, "Death Rehearsals". The alien Cygnusians that first appeared in the novella "Allegiances" have been brought into the domed city of Atlanta, causing quite a stir when one of them converts to the state sponsored religion. Mary S. Weinkauf writes "…this is a cleverly done book with many elements of previously admired sf…although it is maneuvered by too carefully contrived coincidences and leaves some questions at the end… [It] is a book to think about long after you put it down." Richard Delap writes that "characters…scurry through this shifting maze as if they are buffeted by the social and political activities of this future world rather than by an author plotting to reach a predestined conclusion. A Little Knowledge is a lively, thought-provoking novel that will exercise your brain."
Catacomb Years
All of the previously published stories in Bishop's UrNu sequence, along with a new novella, "Dress Rehearsals", are contained in Catacomb Years, a fix-upFix-up
A fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
published in 1979 by Berkley Putnam
G. P. Putnam's Sons
G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
. Bishop also wrote new connecting material and provided a timeline. Spider Robinson's
Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...
comments on the book's structure: "Plainly [Bishop] intended the Domed City to be a metaphor for something or other…and it probably worked just fine in some of those individual novelettes, where an emotionally involving story made you overlook a shaky premise. But the "novel" has no emotional continuity… There are a few marvelous stories in this book, and one superb one ["The Samurai and the Willows"], but they are ruined by a setting which exposes their worst weaknesses." Robert Frazier strongly disagrees: "Catacomb Years is not a rough sculpture with visible seams and weak welds; it is a polished puzzle entity a la Miguel Berrocal
Miguel Berrocal
Miguel Ortíz y Berrocal was an artist known for his puzzle sculptures. He was born in Villanueva de Algaidas, Málaga, Spain, and married Maria Cristina de Bragança . He received formal training in mathematics, architecture, chemistry, and art...
." Author Elizabeth Lynn
Elizabeth A. Lynn
Elizabeth A. Lynn is a US writer most known for fantasy and to a lesser extent science fiction. She is particularly known for being one of the first writers in science fiction or fantasy to introduce gay and lesbian characters; in honor of Lynn, the GLBT bookstore "A Different Light" took its...
was equally impressed: "Bishop takes his wildly diverse plot elements…and weaves them into a shining and almost seamless tapestry… The material, to those who have read the pieces as they appeared…will be familiar and friendly. But set against each other they acquire new significance and a new luster. Bishop's skill at characterization is impressive, as is his ability to juggle his cast and his numerous subplots."
No Enemy But Time
Bishop's critically acclaimed novel, the Nebula AwardNebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winning No Enemy But Time, was published in 1982 by Simon & Schuster under David Hartwell's editorship and the Timescape
Timescape Books
Timescape Books was a science fiction line from Pocket Books operating from 1981 to 1985. Pocket Books is an imprint of Simon and SchusterIt was named after the Gregory Benford novel Timescape, which was not published by the Timescape imprint. The imprint was founded by David G. Hartwell. It...
imprint. John Clute
John Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
writes that the novel "intensified the movement of [Bishop's] imagination to a local habitat, and for the first time introduced a protagonist of sufficient racial (and mental) complexity to carry a storyline immured in the particular and haunted by the exotic." In this sophisticated twist on the traditional time-travel story, a modern day African-American man is recruited by the military for his special ability to "dream" himself into the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
era where he becomes involved with a tribe of habilines. Thomas Disch writes "Bishop is determined to write about human goodness without resorting to the mock heroics of formula adventure stories. There are no villains in the book, even among the habilines. The central and absorbing drama of the book is the hero's growing love for the habiline, Helen. Looming behind this love story is a larger theme, the formation across the entire span of history of the Family of Man, a phrase that becomes, as the novel ripens to its conclusion, no mere liberal piety but a fully realized dramatic affirmation." In one of the few mixed reviews, Tom Easton writes that "Kampa [the protagonist] is the only character who does come alive. All others are at least stiff. Some are outright caricatures. The book is not faultless, but it is overall a pleasure to read… Its treatment of anthropology is so effective that the few flaws are easily overlooked." Editor and critic David Pringle
David Pringle
David Pringle is a Scottish science fiction editor.Pringle served as the editor of Foundation, an academic journal, from 1980 through 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded Interzone in 1982...
writes that the novel "is narrated in an oddly detached, quizzical and dryly humorous manner… The paleo-anthropological details are superbly imagined, the African landscapes beautifully described, yet the final effect is one of coolness, distance… Michael Bishop's prose style is learned, witty, Latinate, although salted with deliberately-placed colloquialisms and low jokes. This book is the work of a talented and serious writer." In addition to winning the Nebula Award, the novel was nominated for both the John W. Campbell Memorial and British Science Fiction Awards.
Who Made Stevie Crye?
Bishop followed-up his award-winning science fiction novel with a contemporary novel set in the rural American South. Mary Stevenson ("Stevie") Crye is a young widow with two children struggling to take care of her family as a freelance writer. Her typewriter has started to act up, automatically transcribing her nightmares and subsequently her future. The only American edition of Who Made Stevie Crye? was published in 1984 by the highly esteemed specialty publisher Arkham HouseArkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
under the editorship of Jim Turner. This original edition, as well as the British edition, was photographically illustrated by J. K. Potter. When David Pringle
David Pringle
David Pringle is a Scottish science fiction editor.Pringle served as the editor of Foundation, an academic journal, from 1980 through 1986, during which time he became one of the prime movers of the collective which founded Interzone in 1982...
chose it for inclusion in his book Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels, he described the novel as "a playful metafiction about the real and the fictitious, about the writer and his or her creation…" and concluded that the novel is "…a gripping and intelligent tale of the supernatural by an author who is adept at avoiding most of the clichés of the horror genre." In his mixed review of the novel, Joe Sanders writes "Sometimes vivid, sometimes prosaic; sometimes involving but often affectless, this is not a novel to like casually. Even when it looks like standard mass-produced pop lit, it actually is nudging us toward something more disturbing and hilarious than we're comfortable imagining. It finally is impressive enough to be uneasily recommended." Sanders' editor, Robert A. Collins, chides the reviewer with the footnote "Ignore Sanders' uneasiness, which obviously stems from his difficulty in pegging the book's genre; Stevie Crye is a marvelous book which transcends genre, as all the best of Bishop does." Author Ian Watson
Ian Watson (author)
Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
writes "Here is a humane, trickster kaleidoscope questioning a genre and a market, and fiction, and reality too – yet exquisitely spiced with human reality – and delivering the eerie chill of the occult and the illicit, curdling the blood but also warming the heart."
Ancient of Days
Bishop's 1983 Locus AwardLocus Award
The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
-winning novella "Her Habiline Husband" forms the first third of Ancient of Days, published in 1985 by Arbor House. It's the story of "Adam", one of the last surviving Homo habilis
Homo habilis
Homo habilis is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately at the beginning of the Pleistocene period. The discovery and description of this species is credited to both Mary and Louis Leakey, who found fossils in Tanzania, East Africa, between 1962 and 1964. Homo habilis Homo...
who is discovered in contemporary Georgia. In this thematic companion to his novel No Enemy But Time (with an almost inverse conceit), Bishop tackles issues of racial and cultural prejudice, and explores the question of what it means to be human. Locus
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
reviewer Debbie Notkin writes "This is science fiction so precise and so well-thought-out that it reads like history, although little history is so well-written, or cares so much about its characters." Bernard Goodman of Fantasy Review believes that "Bishop's theme of evil inherent in humanity echoes William Golding
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
," and that the novel "in some ways…parallels Golding's Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
." Ancient of Days was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1988.
Philip K. Dick is Dead, Alas
Originally published as The Secret Ascension by Tor BooksTor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
in 1987 (but subsequently reprinted with the author's preferred title), this work is an homage to writer Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
, a pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
of his style, and includes an alternate reality
Parallel universe (fiction)
A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
version of Dick as a character. The novel is set in a world in which Richard Milrose Nixon, in his fourth term as president, holds fascistic control over America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
works of Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
remain unpublished, distributed underground as samizdat
Samizdat
Samizdat was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader...
, while his realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
fiction titles are the ones that are celebrated as masterpieces
Masterpieces
Masterpieces is a compilation album by Bob Dylan. The 3-LP set was released in Japan and Australia in anticipation of his 1978 tour. Primarily a greatest hits collection spanning Dylan's career up that point, the album features three previously unreleased tracks, including "Rita May", "George...
. Author and reviewer 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...
writes that "the climax is not just an inward epiphany for a character… [T]he world changes in wonderful strange ways, and the audience can read the book passionately, with sweating fingers, eager to see what happens next, yet reluctant to leave the present moment. Imagine: A writer who is already one of the best, taking risks and finding ways to be better." Card does take Bishop to task for the author's characterization of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, calling it a "caricature" and a "stock character of a madman." Locus
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
reviewer Tom Whitmore calls the book "a masterful pastiche" and "…the closest thing to a classic Dick sf novel anyone has ever done." Gerald Jonas in the New York Times writes "Mr. Bishop is a solid, serious writer whose reach (in his previous work) has always seemed to me to exceed his grasp. Here, he catches some of Dick's fire, especially in the early chapters… Then a lot happens very quickly (as in some of Dick's own novels), and the satire, which should hold things together, turns predictable. But…the ending (starring Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
) approaches sublimity." The novel was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1989.
Unicorn Mountain
In this novel, published by Arbor House/William Morrow in 1988, a man dying of AIDSAIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
is taken in by his cousin, a rancher in the Colorado mountains. Award-winning author Nancy Kress
Nancy Kress
Nancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella "Beggars in Spain" which was later expanded into a novel with the same title...
writes "Michael Bishop has pulled off a rare and amazing feat. Unicorn Mountain successfully weaves such traditional fantasy elements as unicorns and Indian lore together with the all-too-contemporary..." 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...
writes "The triumph of this, Bishop's most artistically whole and successful novel to date, is that he set out to do something that is nearly impossible in fiction: He wrote a novel about constructing a tribe...To do it, he had to bring us to know and understand and care about more fully-created characters than most writers produce in a career." John Clute's
John Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
assessment emphasizes another theme of the work: "Michael Bishop, whose voice is like a shout from the bottom of the well of the enormous South, and whose heart is on his sleeve, [manages] in Unicorn Mountain to generate a moving tale out of ecological disaster here and in another world, AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
, the death of cultures, the death of species, and the slow sea-changing of America into themeparks." The novel would go on to win the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was shortlisted for the 1989 Locus Award.
Count Geiger's Blues
Xavier Thaxton, protagonist of Count Geiger's Blues (subtitled "A Comedy"), is the fine arts editor for a newspaper in the fictional Southern metropolis of Salonika (a satirical/alternate reality version of contemporary Atlanta) with a particularly low opinion of pop culture. When he is accidentally exposed to illegally dumped nuclear waste, the radiation exposure turns him into a superhero (or, as Bishop has designated, a "stalwart"). AnalogAnalog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
reviewer Tom Easton writes "This is where Bishop falters. The satire he has painstakingly created now teeters on the brink of farce. He quite properly makes the decision to yank it back from that brink, but then he loses the satire. He becomes heavy-handed and obvious." Faren Miller disagrees: "The most ambitious comic books are no longer merely comic – may even incorporate tragedy in a critique of modern life as savage and acute, in its way, as the ferocious satire of Dante's
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
Inferno. Count Geiger's Blues also goes beyond humor – well beyond, in its remarkable closing chapters. But they build on all that has gone before. In unleashing a startling talent for comedy and a wide-ranging knowledge of pop culture in both its absurdity and its splendor, Michael Bishop has written his best book yet." John Kessel writes "Comedy is certainly a new tone from Bishop, and he demonstrates a talent for it…But it seems to me Bishop doesn't really want to write comedy. It's as if Bishop is running riffs on whatever wacky ideas come to hand, without much plan, holding his characters at arm's length; as if, trying to avoid sententiousness, he has to avoid caring – but in the end can't. The result being a loose, baggy sort of book."
Brittle Innings
Brittle Innings could for most intents and purposes be considered a sequel to Mary Shelley'sMary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
. This simple designation only begins to describe this emotionally and creatively complex story. The novel, published in 1994 by Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
, attempts to answer the questions: What if the doctor's much maligned creation managed to survive his Arctic pursuit? and How would he be perceived in modern times? Bishop places him in the American Deep South during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
playing minor league baseball. Author and critic Brian Stableford
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published as by Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford...
writes that "no potential reader should allow himself or herself to be put off by the seeming freakishness of its premise… There is not a wasted image or phrase in the text, which is extraordinarily rich and eminently readable from beginning to end. It is a very fine book indeed…" Concerning its relationship to Shelley's novel, Stableford
Brian Stableford
Brian Michael Stableford is a British science fiction writer who has published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published as by Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford...
writes that "Brittle Innings seems to me to be the best sequel imaginable." The New York Times book reviewer felt uncomfortable with the mix: "The [baseball story] is the real reason to read Brittle Innings; it has a better narrative and a more meaningful message than the subplot about the literate and sometimes likable monster. Mr. Bishop's fine prose makes each of these plot lines well worth reading, but they belong in separate novels." In his essay "Of (Human) Bondage in Michael Bishop's Brittle Innings" Joe Sanders compares Bishop's young protagonist with Philip Carey of Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage
Of Human Bondage is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It is generally agreed to be his masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although Maugham stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography, though much in it is autobiographical, more is pure invention." Maugham, who had...
. "Philip Carey's struggle toward maturity is painfully messy…unconsciously he knows what he needs: connection to and then freedom from parental authority so that he can determine his own goals in life. [Michael Bishop's] Danny Boles, with similar needs, is certain that he already has found something to believe in: baseball." Sanders concludes "Insofar as the characters of Brittle Innings learn to see life's vivid extremes and as they struggle to see more, they demonstrate that love can sometimes lead not to bondage but freedom." The novel won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1995, and was nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Campbell Awards that same year.
Selected short fiction
In his introduction to an interview with Michael Bishop, in a reference to Bishop's short story collections, Nick Gevers writes "These volumes, combining the sublimely exotic and the drawlingly familiar, satirical humour and timeless tragedy, constitute one of the finest short fiction oeuvres in SF's history.". Author, critic and sometime collaborator, Paul Di FilippoPaul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
writes
"Since his first short-story sale in 1970, Michael Bishop has revealed a questing spiritual intelligence uniquely concerned with moral conundrums. While his works are often full of both the widescreen spectacles associated with science fiction and the subtle frissons typical of more earthbound fantasy, his focus remains on the engagement of characters with ethical quandries any reader might encounter in his or her daily life. . . While only occasionally delving into explicitly religious themes, Bishop's personal Christian faith—wide enough to embrace references to Buddhism, Sufism and other creeds—shines through in every tale. . . Acknowledged as one of the genre's finest and most meticulous short-story writers, Bishop boasts six collections to date that function as treasure troves of both science fiction and fantasy. (A seventh lives up to its title, Emphatically Not SF, Almost, by hosting only mainstream tales.) "
"The Quickening", Bishop's Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winning novelette of 1981, is, according to Brian W. Aldiss
Brian Aldiss
Brian Wilson Aldiss, OBE is an English author of both general fiction and science fiction. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss. Greatly influenced by science fiction pioneer H. G. Wells, Aldiss is a vice-president of the international H. G. Wells Society...
and David Wingrove "…perhaps, a perfect modern fable. A fable about America and her values. For what is being torn down stone by stone is a world spoiled by the trite commercial values of American culture." It's the story of an ordinary American man who awakes to find himself in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. He soon discovers that the population of the whole world has been scattered, creating a potent stew of race, ethnicity, culture and language.
A major theme throughout much of Bishop's work (and especially so in his short fiction) is the role of religion in the daily lives of human beings. When several readers wrote letters of protest to Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
Asimov's Science Fiction
Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy and perpetuates the name of author and biochemist Isaac Asimov...
about its 1983 publication of Bishop's novella "The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis," Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
himself wrote an editorial defending the work and the editor's decision to publish it. He wrote "…we had a remarkable story that considered, quite fearlessly, an important idea, and we felt that most readers would recognize its legitimacy – if not at once, then upon mature reflection."
When Bishop's story "Dogs' Lives" was reprinted in Best American Short Stories 1985
Best American Short Stories
The Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
, it became one of only a handful of genre stories to appear in the prestigious anthology series. The story might have languished in limbo, had the author not pulled its submission to Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
's never-published anthology The Last Dangerous Visions
The Last Dangerous Visions
The Last Dangerous Visions was a planned sequel to the science fiction short story anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions, originally published in 1967 and 1972 respectively. It is edited by Harlan Ellison....
.
Novels
- A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975) -- Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee, 1975 - And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees (1976) (later republished as Beneath the Shattered Moons)
- Stolen Faces (1977)
- A Little Knowledge (1977); the first book in the "Urban Nucleus" series
- Catacomb Years (1979) (fix-upFix-upA fix-up is a novel created from short stories that may or may not have been initially related or previously published. The stories may be edited for consistency, and sometimes new connecting material—such as a frame story—is written for the new novel. The term was coined by the science fiction...
); the second book in the "Urban Nucleus" series - Transfigurations (1979) (expansion of novella "Death and Designation Among the Asadi") -- BSFA nominee, 1980
- Eyes of Fire (1980) (a complete revision of his first novel)
- Under Heaven's Bridge (1981, with Ian WatsonIan Watson (author)Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
) - No Enemy But TimeNo Enemy But TimeNo Enemy But Time is a 1982 science fiction novel by Michael Bishop. It won the 1982 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and was also nominated for the 1983 John W. Campbell Memorial Award...
(1982) -- Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winner, BSFA nominee, 1982; Campbell Award nominee, 1983) - Who Made Stevie Crye?Who Made Stevie Crye?Who Made Stevie Crye? is a Horror novel by author Michael Bishop. It was released in 1984 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,591 copies. It was the author's first novel and third book published by Arkham House.-Plot summary:...
(1984) - Ancient of Days (1985) -- Arthur C. Clarke AwardArthur C. Clarke AwardThe Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The award was established with a grant from Arthur C. Clarke and the first prize was awarded in 1987...
nominee, 1988 - The Secret Ascension (1987) (later republished with the author's original title: Philip K Dick Is Dead, Alas) -- Arthur C. Clarke Award nominee, 1989
- Unicorn Mountain (1988) -- Mythopoeic Award winner, Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1989
- Count Geiger's Blues (1992)
- Brittle Innings (1994) -- Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
winner, Campbell, World FantasyWorld Fantasy AwardThe World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
and HugoHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
Awards nominee, 1995 - Would It Kill You to Smile? (1998, with Paul Di FilippoPaul Di FilippoPaul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
, as "Philip LawsonPhilip Lawson (author)Philip Lawson is a pseudonym used for mystery novels written by Michael Bishop with Paul Di Filippo.The Will Keats mysteries involve a ventriloquist and include the following* Would It Kill You To Smile? 1998 Longstreet Press...
"); the first book in the "Will Keats" series - Muskrat Courage (2000, with Paul Di FilippoPaul Di FilippoPaul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
, as "Philip LawsonPhilip Lawson (author)Philip Lawson is a pseudonym used for mystery novels written by Michael Bishop with Paul Di Filippo.The Will Keats mysteries involve a ventriloquist and include the following* Would It Kill You To Smile? 1998 Longstreet Press...
"); the second book in the "Will Keats" series
Story collections
- Blooded on ArachneBlooded on ArachneBlooded on Arachne is a collection of science fiction stories by American author Michael Bishop. It was published in 1982 by Arkham House in an edition of 4,081 copies...
(1982), includes the novellas “The White Otters of Childhood” and “On the Street of the Serpents”, nine stories and two poems from 1970–1978 - One Winter in EdenOne Winter in EdenOne Winter in Eden is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by author Michael Bishop. It was released in 1984 by Arkham House in an edition of 3,596 copies. It was the author's second book published by Arkham House.-Contents:...
(1984), includes twelve stories from 1978-1983 with an introduction by Thomas M. DischThomas M. DischThomas Michael Disch was an American science fiction author and poet. He won the Hugo Award for Best Related Book – previously called "Best Non-Fiction Book" – in 1999, and he had two other Hugo nominations and nine Nebula Award nominations to his credit, plus one win of the John W... - Close Encounters With the Deity (1986), includes the novella “The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis” and thirteen stories from 1979-1986 with an introduction by Isaac AsimovIsaac AsimovIsaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
- Emphatically Not SF, Almost (1990), includes nine mainstream stories from 1982–1987
- At the City Limits of Fate (1996), includes fifteen stories from 1982–1996 -- Philip K. Dick Award nominee, 1996
- Blue Kansas Sky (2000), four novellas from 1973–2000, including the first publication of the title story
- Brighten to Incandescence: 17 Stories (2003), a compilation of previously uncollected stories from 1971–2003
- The Door Gunner and Other Perilous Flights of Fancy: A Michael Bishop Retrospective (forthcoming December 2011), a collection of 25 stories and novellas from 1970–2009, 8 of which are previously uncollected
Anthologies
- Changes (1983, with Ian WatsonIan Watson (author)Ian Watson is a British science fiction author. He currently lives in Northamptonshire, England.His first novel, The Embedding, winner of the Prix Apollo in 1975, is unusual for being based on ideas from generative grammar; the title refers to the process of center embedding...
) - Light Years and Dark (1984) (Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
winner) - Nebula Awards 23 (1989)
- Nebula Awards 24 (1990)
- Nebula Awards 25 (1991)
- A Cross of Centuries (2007)
- Passing for Human (2009, with Steven UtleySteven UtleySteven Utley is an American writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction stories.-Biography:...
)
Miscellaneous books
- Windows and Mirrors (1977), poetry collection
- Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana (1989), novella
- Time Pieces (1998), poetry collection (includes most of the selections from Windows and Mirrors)
- A Reverie for Mister RayA Reverie for Mister RayA Reverie for Mister Ray: Reflections on Life, Death, and Speculative Fiction is a collection of nonfiction work by American writer Michael Bishop published in 2005 by PS Publishing. It includes essays and reviews from 1975 to 2004, originally published in a wide variety of newspapers, magazines,...
(2005), nonfiction collection
Major stories
- "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" (1973) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "The White Otters of Childhood" (1973) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Cathadonian Odyssey" (1974) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee) - "On the Street of the Serpents" (1974) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Rogue Tomato" (1975) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee) - "The Samurai and the Willows" (1976) (Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
winner; Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "The House of Compassionate Sharers" (1977) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee) - "Old Folks at Home" (1978)
- "Within the Walls of Tyre" (1978) (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...
nominee) - "Vernalfest Morning" (1978) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Seasons of Belief" (1979) (dramatized on Tales from the DarksideTales from the DarksideTales from the Darkside is an anthology horror TV series produced by George A. Romero; it originally aired from 1983 to 1988. Similar to Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Tales From The Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot...
) - "Cold War Orphans" (1980)
- "The Quickening" (1981) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
winner) - "The Gospel According to Gamaliel Crucis" (1983) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Her Habiline Husband" (1983) (Locus AwardLocus AwardThe Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...
winner and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "The Monkey's Bride" (1983) (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...
nominee) - "Dogs' Lives" (1984) (reprinted in Best American Short StoriesBest American Short StoriesThe Best American Short Stories yearly anthology is a part of The Best American Series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the BASS anthology has striven to contain the best short stories by some of the best-known writers in contemporary American literature.-Edward O'Brien:The...
1985) - "A Gift from the GrayLanders" (1985) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
and Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "For Thus Do I Remember Carthage" (1987)
- "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana" (1989) (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...
nominee) - "The Ommatidium Miniatures" (1989) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Life Regarded as a Jigsaw Puzzle of Highly Lustrous Cats" (1991) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "Cri de Coeur" (1994) (Hugo AwardHugo AwardThe Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
nominee) - "I, Iscariot" (1995) (Theodore Sturgeon AwardTheodore Sturgeon AwardThe Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is given each year for the best science fiction short story of the year and is the short fiction counterpart of the Campbell award , published in English....
nominee) - "Among the Handlers" (1996)
- "Sequel on Skorpiós" (1998)
- "Blue Kansas Sky" (2000) (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...
nominee) - "The Sacerdotal Owl" (2003)
- "The Door Gunner" (2003) (Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award winner)
- "The Road Leads Back" (2003)
- "Bears Discover Smut" (2005) (Southeastern Science Fiction Achievement Award winner and British Science Fiction Association award nominee)
- "Vinegar Peace; or, The Wrong-Way, Used-Adult Orphange" (2008) (Nebula AwardNebula AwardThe Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
nominee) - "The Pile" (2008) (Shirley Jackson AwardShirley Jackson AwardThe Shirley Jackson Awards are literary awards named after Shirley Jackson in recognition of her legacy in writing. These awards for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic are presented at Readercon, an annual conference on imaginative...
winner) - "The City Quiet as Death" (2009, with Steven UtleySteven UtleySteven Utley is an American writer. He has written poems, humorous essays and other non-fiction, and worked on comic books and cartoons, but is best known for his science fiction stories.-Biography:...
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Interviews
- The Prophetic World of Michael Bishop, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Magazine, April 4, 1976: 8-10, 20 (interviewed by Phil Garner)
- Michael Bishop: No Two Alike, LocusLocus (magazine)Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
#335, December 1988: 1, 65-66 (interviewed by Charles N. Brown) - Interview with Michael Bishop, Science Fiction Review #1, Spring 1990: 42-43, 102 (interviewed by Elton Elliott)
- Michael Bishop: Subduing the Serpent, LocusLocus (magazine)Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
#426, July 1996: 4-5, 73-74 (interviewed by Charles N. Brown) - In Prayer the Whisper of the Void October 2000 (interviewed by Nick Gevers, reprinted in The New York Review of Science FictionThe New York Review of Science FictionThe New York Review of Science Fiction is a monthly literary journal of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. It is published by Dragon Press and the managing...
#172, December 2002) - Michael Bishop: The Blessing and the Curse, LocusLocus (magazine)Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
#526, November 2004: 8-9, 76-77 (interviewed by Charles N. Brown) - An Interview with Michael Bishop (interviewed by Kilian Melloy)
- Teamwork: Bishop, Crowther, Hutchins et al. (interviewed by Sandy Auden)
- An Interview with Michael Bishop, June 2010 (interviewed by Francesco Troccoli)
External links
- Official homepage
- Review/essay on Bishop
- Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Blue Kansas Sky
- Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Brighten to Incandescence: 17 Stories
- Michael and Jeri Bishop discuss their son's murder on ABC News, 2007-08-21.
- Michael Bishop at Worlds Without End