Phyllis Eisenstein
Encyclopedia
Phyllis Eisenstein is an American
author of science fiction
and fantasy
short stories
and novels. She was born in Chicago
, Illinois
and has lived there most of her life. While attending college at the University of Chicago
, she met her future husband Alex at a weekly gathering of Chicago's science fiction fandom
. In 1966, shortly after attending Tricon
, the 24th World Science Fiction Convention, they were married. She continued college until Alex entered the U. S. Air Force and was posted to Germany
, following basic training
; they lived there for three years, returning to Chicago upon his honorable discharge from the service.
Eisenstein had her first two science fiction stories published in 1971, the first in collaboration with husband Alex (he continues to be her writing partner for certain stories). After establishing herself as a professional writer, she returned to college and finished her education, earning a 1981 B.A. degree in anthropology
from the University of Illinois
.
She has published six novels and more than forty shorter works of varying lengths in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction
; Eisenstein also wrote a popular non-fiction book on the treatment of arthritis
. Her stories have appeared in both anthologies and in every major science fiction and fantasy magazine; these include The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact
, Galaxy Science Fiction
, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Amazing Stories
, Weird Tales
, and others.
Eisenstein's stories have been nominated twice for science fiction's Hugo Award
and three times for SFWA
's Nebula Award
.
Her 1978 short story "Lost and Found" was adapted for television
in 1986, airing on the mid-80s revival of The Twilight Zone
; the screenplay
was written by the show's then story editor
George R. R. Martin
, a life-long friend.
Eisenstein has spent much of her adult life teaching writing; this began by assisting author Roger Zelazny
at the Indiana University
Writers Conference in 1977. She has taught writing at the Clarion Science Fiction Writer's Workshop at Michigan State University
, Oakton Community College
of Skokie, Illinois
, and the Writer's Digest
School. For twenty years she was a member of the part-time faculty of Columbia College Chicago
, teaching courses in general science fiction, popular fiction writing, fantasy, and advanced science fiction writing. In 1999 Eisenstein received an "Excellence in Teaching" Award from this institution; in 2009 she retired from CCC to devote more time to her professional writing career.
Eisenstein has also worked full-time since 2000 in Chicago's very competitive advertising business; she is currently the executive manager of copy editors at Chicago's largest advertising agency
.
The completed novel, The City in Stone, the last volume of her "Book of Elementals" fantasy trilogy
, was left unpublished when Meisha Merlin Publishing
, a well-established fantasy and science fiction publisher, suddenly ceased operations in 2007. Eisenstein has since completed The Walker Between Worlds, the first novel in a new series called "The Masks of Power." In 2007 eight chapters from that novel, comprising 38,000 words, was published as a limited edition trade paperback from KaCSFFS Press, a genre small press
.
Stand-Alone Novels
Chapterbook
Chapterbook
Collections
Anthologies edited
Co-edited with Alex Eisenstein
Nonfiction
Anthologies containing stories by Phyllis Eisenstein
Short stories published
Awards
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author of 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...
short stories
Short Stories
Short Stories may refer to:*A plural for Short story*Short Stories , an American pulp magazine published from 1890-1959*Short Stories, a 1954 collection by O. E...
and novels. She was born in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and has lived there most of her life. While attending college at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, she met her future husband Alex at a weekly gathering of Chicago's science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
. In 1966, shortly after attending Tricon
Tricon
Tricon may refer to:* Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., now known as Yum! Brands* Tricon Energy, an international commodities trading company based in Houston, Texas* The 24th World Science Fiction Convention, also known as Tricon...
, the 24th World Science Fiction Convention, they were married. She continued college until Alex entered the U. S. Air Force and was posted to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, following basic training
Basic Training
Basic Training may refer to:* Basic Training, a 1971 American documentary directed by Frederick Wiseman* Basic Training , an American sex comedy* Recruit training...
; they lived there for three years, returning to Chicago upon his honorable discharge from the service.
Eisenstein had her first two science fiction stories published in 1971, the first in collaboration with husband Alex (he continues to be her writing partner for certain stories). After establishing herself as a professional writer, she returned to college and finished her education, earning a 1981 B.A. degree in anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
.
She has published six novels and more than forty shorter works of varying lengths in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
; Eisenstein also wrote a popular non-fiction book on the treatment of arthritis
Arthritis
Arthritis is a form of joint disorder that involves inflammation of one or more joints....
. Her stories have appeared in both anthologies and in every major science fiction and fantasy magazine; these include The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact
Analog 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...
, 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...
, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...
, Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
, and others.
Eisenstein's stories have been nominated twice for science fiction's 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...
and three times for SFWA
SFWA
SFWA may refer to:*Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America*Scottish Football Writers' Association...
'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...
.
Her 1978 short story "Lost and Found" was adapted for television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
in 1986, airing on the mid-80s revival of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
; the screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was written by the show's then story editor
Story editor
Story editor is a job title in motion picture and television production, also sometimes called "supervising producer". A story editor is a member of the screenwriting staff who edits stories for screenplays....
George R. R. Martin
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin , sometimes referred to as GRRM, is an American author and screenwriter of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, his bestselling series of epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted for their dramatic pay-cable series Game of...
, a life-long friend.
Eisenstein has spent much of her adult life teaching writing; this began by assisting author Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
at the Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
Writers Conference in 1977. She has taught writing at the Clarion Science Fiction Writer's Workshop at Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
, Oakton Community College
Oakton Community College
Oakton Community College is a two-year community college with campuses in Skokie, Illinois and Des Plaines, Illinois. District 535 serves 450,000 residents in northeast Cook County, Illinois...
of Skokie, Illinois
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Its name comes from a Native American word for "fire". A Chicago suburb, for many years Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Its population, per the 2000 census, was 63,348...
, and the Writer's Digest
Writer's Digest
Writer's Digest is an American magazine devoted to both beginning and established writers, offering interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, and how-to articles....
School. For twenty years she was a member of the part-time faculty of Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
, teaching courses in general science fiction, popular fiction writing, fantasy, and advanced science fiction writing. In 1999 Eisenstein received an "Excellence in Teaching" Award from this institution; in 2009 she retired from CCC to devote more time to her professional writing career.
Eisenstein has also worked full-time since 2000 in Chicago's very competitive advertising business; she is currently the executive manager of copy editors at Chicago's largest advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
.
The completed novel, The City in Stone, the last volume of her "Book of Elementals" fantasy trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
, was left unpublished when Meisha Merlin Publishing
Meisha Merlin Publishing
Meisha Merlin Publishing was an independent publishing company founded in 1996 by former New York book editor Stephen Pagel and Kevin and Brian Murphy...
, a well-established fantasy and science fiction publisher, suddenly ceased operations in 2007. Eisenstein has since completed The Walker Between Worlds, the first novel in a new series called "The Masks of Power." In 2007 eight chapters from that novel, comprising 38,000 words, was published as a limited edition trade paperback from KaCSFFS Press, a genre small press
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
.
Published works
Series- Series Novels (Tales of Alaric the Minstrel)
- 1. Born to ExileBorn to ExileBorn to Exile is a fantasy novel by author Phyllis Eisenstein, the first of her two Alaric novels. It was originally published in 1978 by longtime U. S. specialty press Arkham House in a first edition trade hardcover of 4,148 copies; it has since been published in several mass-market paperback...
(1977) - 2. In the Red Lord's Reach (1989)
- 1. Born to Exile
- Series Novels (The Book of Elementals)
- 1. Sorcerer's SonSorcerer's SonSorcerer's Son was first published as a mass-market paperback in 1979 by Del Rey Books. It is the first novel in "The Book of Elementals" series by Phyllis Eisenstein...
(1979)- 2. The Crystal PalaceThe Crystal Palace (novel)The Crystal Palace is the second novel in "The Book of Elementals" series by Phyllis Eisenstein. The Crystal Palace was originally released in 1988 as a mass-market paperback from Signet...
(1988)- The Book of Elementals (omnibus) (2002)
- 3. The City in Stone (completed but unpublished)
- 2. The Crystal Palace
- Series Novels (The Masks of Power)
- 1. The Walker Between Worlds (completed but unpublished)
Stand-Alone Novels
- Shadow of Earth (1979)
- In the Hands of Glory (1981)
Chapterbook
- Walker Between the Worlds (2007)
Chapterbook
- Conspicuous SF (2009)
Collections
- Night Lives: Nine Stories of the Dark Fantastic (2003), with Alex Eisenstein
Anthologies edited
- Spec-Lit 1: Speculative Fiction (1997)
- Spec-Lit 2: Speculative FIction (1998)
Co-edited with Alex Eisenstein
- The Stars My DestinationThe Stars My DestinationThe Stars My Destination is a science fiction novel by Alfred Bester. Originally serialized in Galaxy magazine in four parts beginning with the October 1956 issue, it first appeared in book form in the United Kingdom as Tiger! Tiger! – after William Blake's poem "The Tyger", the first verse...
, by Alfred BesterAlfred BesterAlfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
, Special Restored Edition (1996)
Nonfiction
- Overcoming the Pain of Inflammatory Arthritis, with Samuel M. Scheiner, Ph.D. (1997)
Anthologies containing stories by Phyllis Eisenstein
- New Dimensions 1 (1971)
- The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (1973)
- Long Night of Waiting (1974)
- Best SF Stories of the Year (1976)
- Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year #5 (1977)
- New Dimensions 7 (1977)
- The Year's Best Fantasy Stories 4 (1978)
- Asimov's Choice (1979)
- Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year, 1978 (1979)
- Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year #8 (1980)
- Whispers III (1981)
- Shadows 5 (1982)
- 13 Short Science Fiction Novels (1986)
- What Did Miss Darrington See (1989)
- Microcosmic Tales (1990)
- New Stories from the Twilight Zone (1990)
- New Eves: Science Fiction About the Extraordinary Women of Today and Tomorrow (1994)
- 100 Hair-Raising Little Horror Stories (1994)
- The Oxford Book of Fantasy (1994)
- Sisters In Fantasy (1995)
- Horrors! 365 Scary Stories (1998)
- Songs of the Dying Earth (2009)
- Gateways (2010)
Short stories published
- "Born to Exile" (1971)
- "The Trouble with the Past" (1971), with Alex Eisenstein
- "Inn of the Black Swann" (1972)
- "Attachment" (1974), Nebula Award (nominee)
- "Teleprobe" (1974)
- "The Weather on Mars" (1974), with Alex Eisenstein
- "The Witch and the Well" (1974)
- "The Lords of All Power (1975)
- "The Tree of Life" (1975)
- "Sleeping Beauty: The True Story" (1976), with Alex Eisenstein
- "Altar Ego" (1977), with Alex Eisenstein
- "You Are Here" (1977), with Alex Eisenstein
- "The Land of Sorrow" (1977)
- "In Answer To Your Call" (1978)
- "Lost and Found" (1978)
- "The Man With the Eye" (1978)
- "The Mountain Fastness" (1979)
- "The Fireman's Daughter" (1981)
- "In the Western Tradition" (1981), Nebula Award (nominee), Hugo Award (nominee)
- "Point of Departure" (1981)
- "Taboo" (1981)
- "Dark Wings" (1982)
- "Nightlife" (1982), Hugo Award (nominee)
- "Subworld" (1983)
- "The Amethyst Phial" (1984)
- "The Demon Queen" (1984)
- "Fair Exchange" (1985)
- "Sense of Duty" (1985)
- "The Snail Out of Space" (1985)
- "Weaseling Out" (1987)
- "No Refunds" (1994)
- "Boxes" (1998)
- "The Cat" (1998)
- "Dust in the Attic" (1998)
- "The Island in the Lake" (1998), Nebula Award (nominee)
- "The Park" (1998)
- "The Robe" (1998)
- "Wild Animals" (1998)
- "Wallpaper World" (2001), with Alex Eisenstein
- "Boltzmann Schiaparelli and the Lizard King" (2009)
- "The Last Golden Thread" (2009)
- "Von Neumann's Bug" (2010), with Alex Eisenstein
Awards
- Nebula: Best Short Story, (nominee, 1976) for "Attachment"
- Balrog Award: Novel, (winner, 1979) for Born To Exile
- Science Fiction Chronicle: Best Novella, (winner, 1981) for "In the Western Tradition"
- Hugo: Best Novella, (nominee, 1982) for "In the Western Tradition"
- Nebula: Best Novella, (nominee, 1982) for "In the Western Tradition"
- Hugo: Best Novelette, (nominee, 1983) for "Nightlife"
- Nebula Best Novelette, (nominee, 2000) for "The Island in the Lake"