Jason Sanford | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Alabama |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Auburn University |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Website | |
| www | |
Jason Sanford is an Americanscience fiction author whose 2022 novelPlague Birds was a finalist for theNebula andPhilip K. Dick Awards.[1] He's also known for his short fiction, which has been published inInterzone,Asimov's Science Fiction,Analog Science Fiction and Fact,Year's Best SF 14,InterGalactic Medicine Show and other magazines and anthologies.
Sanford is a three-time winner of theInterzone Readers' Poll and a multiple finalist for theNebula Award in the short fiction categories ofnovella,[2]novelette, andshort story.[3]Interzone published a special issue on his fiction in 2010.[4] He is also a multiple finalist for theHugo Award for Best Fan Writer.[5] His fiction has been reprinted into a number of languages, including Czech, French, Russian, and Chinese. He also founded the literary magazinestorySouth and ran their annualMillion Writers Award for best online short stories.
Sanford was born in Alabama and raised outside ofWetumpka. He attendedAuburn University, where he studiedanthropology andarchaeology.[6] After college Sanford served for two years as aPeace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, where he taught English in a junior high school. He also met his wife, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer, while in Thailand. After the Peace Corps they moved toMinneapolis, where Sanford worked as an editor.[6]
In 2001 Sanford, along with poetJake Adam York, founded the literary magazinestorySouth, which focuses on literature from the "New South."[7] One of the early journals of the online literature movement,[8] works published instorySouth have been reprinted in anthologies such asBest American Poetry 2008, Best of the Web 2008, ande2ink: The Best of the Online Journals, and have won a number of awards and honors.[9] Sanford served as the fiction and nonfiction editor, while York served as poetry editor. Both editors were heavily involved in the debate around the allegedplagiarism of Southern authorBrad Vice, with Sanford defending Vice's work[10] and his essays on the affair being mentioned in the subsequent press coverage.[11][12]
Sanford turned over publication ofstorySouth to Spring Garden Press in 2009[13] and now serves as Editor Emeritus for the journal.[7] In 2004, Sanford started thestorySouthMillion Writers Award, which highlighted each year's best online short stories.[14] In 2012 he edited two anthologies of stories from theMillion Writers Award.
Sanford is best known as ascience fiction author, although he also writes fantasy and has been published in other literary genres. His fiction has been described as "new weird SF", and compared to both the anime ofHayao Miyazaki and the early writings ofBrian Aldiss.[15] Sanford has described his writings and those of others as part of an emergent storytelling form called SciFi Strange, "which sets high literary standards, experiments with style, is infused with a sense of wonder, takes the idea of diverse sexuality for granted, focuses on human values and needs and explores the boundaries of reality and experience through philosophical speculation."[16]
Sanford's science fiction and fantasy has been published inInterzone,Analog Science Fiction and Fact,Year's Best SF 14,InterGalactic Medicine Show,Tales of the Unanticipated, and other magazines and anthologies. His non-genre works have been published inThe Mississippi Review,Diagram,Pindeldyboz, and other places. He is a three-time winner of the Interzone Readers' Poll[17][18] and a three-time finalist for the Nebula Awards. He has also received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and been nominated for theBSFA Award, theBritish Fantasy Award, and thePushcart Prize. SF critic and reviewer Patrick Wolohan named Sanford to his list of 25 authors worth watching in 2010 and beyond.[19]
His critical essays and book reviews have been published inThe New York Review of Science Fiction,[20]The Pedestal Magazine, andThe Fix Short Fiction Review. Among Sanford's more influential essays is "Who Wears Short Shorts? Micro Stories and MFA Disgust",[21] which ripped both the claimed incestuous nature ofMaster of Fine Arts programs andflash fiction. The essay prompted a large amount of online discussion on the merits of Sanford's claims.[22]
Apex Publications released Sanford's first novelPlague Birds in 2022. The novel was selected as a finalist for both theNebula Award for Best Novel andPhilip K. Dick Awards.Publishers Weekly calledPlague Birds "something like The Wizard of Oz as retold by A.E. van Vogt."[23]Maurice Broaddus called the novel "a perfect blend of sf and fantasy weaving memory, loss, technology, and family into a wholly unique tapestry that left me turning the pages just to see what he would do next."
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| Title | Year | First published | Reprinted/collected | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday's Monk | 2013 | Sanford, Jason (March 2013). "Monday's Monk".Asimov's Science Fiction.37 (3):54–67. | Novelette | |
| What Is Sand But Earth Purified? | 2014 | Sanford, Jason (October–November 2014). "What Is Sand But Earth Purified?".Asimov's Science Fiction.38 (10–11):134–146. |
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