Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer in 2019
Born	July 7, 1968 (1968-07-07) (age 57) Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation	Writer author editor publisher
Genre	Speculative fiction Fantasy Metafiction Horror Science fiction Weird fiction
Literary movement	New Weird
Notable awards	Nebula Award for Best Novel,Shirley Jackson Award,World Fantasy Award
Spouse	Ann VanderMeer
Website
www.jeffvandermeer.com

Jeff VanderMeer (born July 7, 1968^[1]) is an American author, editor, and literary critic. Initially associated with theNew Weird literary genre, VanderMeer crossed over into mainstream success with his bestsellingSouthern Reach Series. The series' first novel,Annihilation, won theNebula^[2] andShirley Jackson Awards,^[3] and was adapted into aHollywood film by directorAlex Garland.^[4] Among VanderMeer's other novels areShriek: An Afterword andBorne. He has also edited with his wifeAnn VanderMeer such influential and award-winning anthologies asThe New Weird,The Weird, andThe Big Book of Science Fiction.^[5]

VanderMeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in America today,"^[6] withThe New Yorker naming him the "King of Weird Fiction".^[7] VanderMeer's fiction is noted for eluding genre classifications^[8] even as his works bring in themes and elements from genres such aspostmodernism,^[9]ecofiction,^[10] theNew Weird andpost-apocalyptic fiction.^[11]

VanderMeer's writing has been described as "evocative" and containing "intellectual observations both profound and disturbing,"^[12] and has been compared with the works ofJorge Luis Borges,^[12][13]Franz Kafka, andHenry David Thoreau.^[7]

VanderMeer was born inBellefonte, Pennsylvania in 1968, and spent much of his childhood in theFiji Islands, where his parents worked for thePeace Corps.^[14] After returning to the United States, he spent time inIthaca, New York, andGainesville, Florida. He attended theUniversity of Florida for three years and, in 1992, took part in theClarion Writers Workshop.^[14]

When VanderMeer was 20, he readAngela Carter's novelThe Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, which he has said "blew the back of my head off, rewired my brain: I had never encountered prose like that before, never such passion and boldness on the page."^[15] Carter's fiction inspired VanderMeer to both improve and be fearless with his own writing.^[15]

VanderMeer began writing in the late 1980s while still in high school and quickly became a prolific contributor to small-press magazines.^[16] During this time VanderMeer wrote a number ofhorror andfantasy short stories, some of which were collected in his 1989 self-published bookThe Book of Frog and in the 1996 collectionThe Book of Lost Places.^[16] He also wrote poetry—his poem "Flight Is for Those Who Have Not Yet Crossed Over" was a co-winner of the 1994Rhysling Award—and edited two issues of the self-publishedzineJabberwocky.^[16][14]

One of VanderMeer's early successes was his 2001 short-story collectionCity of Saints and Madmen, set in the imaginary city of Ambergris. Several of VanderMeer's novels were subsequently set in the same place, includingShriek: An Afterword (2006) andFinch (2009), the latter of which was a finalist for theNebula Award for Best Novel.^[17] In 2000, his novellaThe Transformation of Martin Lake won theWorld Fantasy Award.

VanderMeer has also worked in other media, including on a movie based on his novelShriek that featured an original soundtrack by rock bandThe Church. The bandMurder By Death likewise recorded a soundtrack forFinch, which was released alongside a limited edition of the book. VanderMeer also wrote aPredator tie-in novel forDark Horse Comics calledPredator: South China Seas and worked with animatorJoel Veitch on a Play Station Europe animation of his story "A New Face in Hell".

In 2014,Farrar, Straus and Giroux published VanderMeer'sSouthern Reach Series, consisting of the novelsAnnihilation,Authority, andAcceptance. The story focuses on a secret agency that manages expeditions into a location known as Area X. The area is an uninhabited and abandoned part of the United States that nature has begun to reclaim after a mysterious world-changing event.^[18]

VanderMeer has said that the main inspiration for Area X and the series was his hike throughSt. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.^[19]The Other Side of the Mountain byMichel Bernanos is among the books VanderMeer has cited as also having had an influence.^[18]

The original trilogy was released in quick succession over an 8-month period, in what has been called an innovative "Netflix-inspired strategy."^[20] The strategy helped the second and third books reach theNew York Times Bestseller list, and established VanderMeer as "one of the most forward-thinking authors of the decade."^[20][21][22]

The series ended up being highly honored, withAnnihilation winning theNebula^[2] andShirley Jackson Awards for Best Novel.^[3] The entire original trilogy was also named a finalist for the 2015World Fantasy Award^[23] and the 2016Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis.^[24]Annihilation was also adapted intoa film of the same name by writer-directorAlex Garland.^[4] The film starsNatalie Portman,Gina Rodriguez,^[25]Tessa Thompson,^[26]Jennifer Jason Leigh,^[27] andOscar Isaac.^[28]

In 2017 VanderMeer releasedBorne, a "biotech apocalypse" novel^[29] about a scavenger named Rachel trying to survive both a city "plunged into a primordial realm of myth, fable, and fairy tale"^[11] and a five-story-tall flying bear named Mord. As with the Southern Reach trilogy, the novel was highly praised, withThe Guardian saying, "VanderMeer’s recent work has beenOvidian in its underpinnings, exploring the radical transformation of life forms and the seams between them."^[29]Publishers Weekly said the novel reads "like a dispatch from a world lodged somewhere between science fiction, myth, and a video game" and that withBorne Vandermeer has essentially invented a new literary genre, "weird literature."^[8]

Paramount Pictures has optioned the film rights toBorne.^[30]

In August 2017 VanderMeer released the novellaThe Strange Bird: A Borne Story.^[31] The stand-alone story is set in the same world asBorne but featuring different characters.

Dead Astronauts, a stand-alone short novel set in the Borne universe, was released on December 3, 2019.^[32] A stand-alone novel,Hummingbird Salamander, was published on April 6, 2021.

VanderMeer is a frequent writer of critical literary reviews and essays, which have appeared in numerous publications includingThe Atlantic,^[33]The Washington Post Book World,Publishers Weekly, and other places. For a number of years he was a regular columnist for the Amazon book-culture blog and has served as a judge for theEisner Awards, among others. He has been a guest speaker at such diverse events as theBrisbane Writers Festival,Finncon in Helsinki, and theAmerican Library Association annual conference.

In 2019, VanderMeer was a judge for theNational Book Award for Fiction.^[34]

VanderMeer has also edited a number of anthologies. He won a 2003World Fantasy Award forLeviathan, Volume Three, a collection of genre-bending stories he edited withForrest Aguirre. He and Mark Roberts were also finalists for the same award the next year for the anthologyThe Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases.

Most of his recent anthologies have been collaborations with his wife,Ann VanderMeer, the Hugo-award-winning former editor ofWeird Tales. These anthologies includeThe New Weird, a collection of stories from New Weird authors;Last Drink Bird Head, a charity anthology benefiting literacy;The Weird, aWorld Fantasy Award winning collection of weird fiction;Time Traveler's Almanac, an anthology of time-travel fiction;Fast Ships, Black Sails, a pirate fiction anthology; and theLocus Award winningThe Big Book of Science Fiction.^[5]

VanderMeer is the founding editor and publisher of theMinistry of Whimsy Press, which he set up in the late 1980s while still in high school.^[14][35] The press is currently an imprint ofWyrm Publishing.^[36] One of theMinistry's publications,The Troika byStepan Chapman, won thePhilip K. Dick Award in 1997.

VanderMeer has been involved in teaching creative writing. One of the projects he is involved with is Shared Worlds, an annual two-week program that aims to teach creative writing to teenagers.^[37] VanderMeer has also taught at theClarion Workshop^[38] and atTrinity Prep School. In addition to his teaching, VanderMeer has also written guides to creative writing such asWonderbook, which won a BSFA Award,^[39] a Locus Award, and was nominated for a Hugo and World Fantasy Award.^[40]

VanderMeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in America today,"^[6] withThe New Yorker naming him the "King of Weird Fiction."^[7] VanderMeer's fiction is noted for eluding genre classifications^[8] even as his works bring in themes and elements from genres such aspostmodernism,^[9]ecofiction,^[10] theNew Weird andpost-apocalyptic fiction.^[11]

VanderMeer's fiction has been described as "evocative (with) intellectual observations both profound and disturbing"^[12] and "lyrical and harrowing,"^[41] with his mixing of genres producing "something unique and unsettling."^[42]

VanderMeer's writing has been compared with the works ofJorge Luis Borges,^[12][13]Kafka, andThoreau.^[7]

In 2003, VanderMeer marriedAnn Kennedy, then editor for the small Buzzcity Press andSilver Web magazine. The couple lives inTallahassee, Florida.^[update] They have two cats.^[43] One is named Neo.^[44][43]

VanderMeer has been nominated for theWorld Fantasy Award 14 times.^[45] He has also won an NEA-funded Florida Individual Writers' Fellowship, and, the Le Cafard Cosmique award in France and the Tähtifantasia Award in Finland, both forCity of Saints. He has also been a finalist for theHugo Award,Bram Stoker Award,International Horror Guild Award,Philip K. Dick Award, and many others. Novels such asVeniss Underground andShriek: An Afterword have made the year's best lists of Amazon.com,The Austin Chronicle, theSan Francisco Chronicle, andPublishers Weekly, among others.

• Dradin, In Love (1996, collected in all editions ofCity of Saints and Madmen)
• The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, by Duncan Shriek (1999, collected in all editions ofCity of Saints and Madmen)
• Veniss Underground (2003)
• Shriek: An Afterword (2006)
• Predator: South China Sea (2008)
• Finch (2009)
• Southern Reach Series:
  • Annihilation (2014)
  • Authority (2014)
  • Acceptance (2014)
  • Absolution (2024)
• Borne (2017)
• Dead Astronauts (2019)
• The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead:
  • A Peculiar Peril (2020)
  • A Terrible Trouble (forthcoming)^[66]
• Hummingbird Salamander (2021)
• The Stone Shed (forthcoming)^[67]

• Why Should I Cut Your Throat? (2004)
• Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer (2009)
• The Steampunk Bible (2010) (with Selena Chambers)
• Monstrous Creatures: Explorations of Fantasy through Essays, Articles & Reviews (2011)
• Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction (2013)
• The Steampunk User's Manual: An Illustrated Practical and Whimsical Guide to Creating Retro-futurist Dreams (2014)

• The Book of Frog (1989)
• Lyric of the Highway Mariner: A Collection of Poems (1991)
• The Book of Lost Places (1996)
• City of Saints and Madmen: The Book of Ambergris (2001)
  • City of Saints and Madmen (2002, substantially expanded from the 2001 edition)
  • City of Saints and Madmen (2004, expanded from the 2002 edition)
• The Day Dali Died (2003)
• Secret Life (2004)
• Why Should I Cut Your Throat? (non-fiction, 2004)
• VanderMeer 2005 (promotional sampler, 2005)
• Secret Lives (2006)
• The Surgeon's Tale and Other Stories (withCat Rambo, 2007)
• The Third Bear (2010,Tachyon Publications)
• The Compass of His Bones and Other Stories (2011)
• Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance (2014)

(Uncollected)

• The Mare Tenebrosum (1988)
• Varlags Are Strange (1989)
• One-Armed Bandit (1989)
• So the Dead Walk Slowly (1989)
• Disintegration (1990)
• Requiem for the Machine (1990)
• Welcome to the Masque (1991)
• Flesh (1991)
• Ex Post Facto (1992)
• Confessions (1992)
• Ghost in the Machine (1995)
• A Report on the Living Dead (A Memoir of the Last Days) (1996)
• David Pangborn Takes A Walk (1996)
• Afterwards, Drowning (1996)
• Afterwards, Burying the Dog (1997)
• Mansions on the Moon (2001)
• An Enthusiastic Foreword by the Editors (2003)
• Tian Shan-Gobi Assimilation (2003)
• How Benjobi Song Came to Rule Iphagenia (2004)
• A New Face in Hell (2007)
• King Tales (2007)
• Island Tales (2008)
• The Situation (2008)
• Why the Vulture is Bald (2008)
• The Mona Lisa (2009) (with Tessa Kum)
• Errata (2010)
• The Three Quests of the Wizard Sarnod (2010)
• The Lizard Dance (2011) (with Gio Clairval)
• Myster Odd Theme Song (Poem) (2011)
• Komodo (2012)
• No Breather in the World but Thee (2013)
• Fragments from the Notes of a Dead Mycologist (2014)
• Marmot Season (2017)
• The Strange Bird (aBorne story) (2017)
• This World is Full of Monsters (2017)
• The Comet Man Book Club Questions (2020)
• Epilogue: Clarity, Now With Hellscape (2020)
• The Leviathan's Tale (2020)
• Wildlife (2022)

• The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals (withAnn VanderMeer, 2010,Tachyon Publications)

• Leviathan 1 (withLuke O'Grady, 1994)
• Leviathan 2 (withRose Secrest, 1998)
• Leviathan 3 (withForrest Aguirre, 2002)
• Album Zutique (2003)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases (with Mark Roberts, 2003)
• The New Weird (withAnn VanderMeer, 2007)
• Best American Fantasy (with Ann VanderMeer, 2007)
• Best American Fantasy: v. 2 (with Ann VanderMeer, 2008)
• Last Drink Bird Head, (2008)
• Steampunk (with Ann VanderMeer, 2008)
• Fast Ships, Black Sails, (with Ann VanderMeer, 2009) – Fantasy pirate stories
• Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded (2010)
• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (with Ann VanderMeer, 2011)
• ODD? (with Ann VanderMeer, 2011)
• The Weird (with Ann VanderMeer, 2012)
• The Time Traveler's Almanac (with Ann VanderMeer, 2014)
• Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology (with Ann VanderMeer, 2015)
• The Big Book of Science Fiction: The Ultimate Collection (with Ann VanderMeer, 2016)
• The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (with Ann VanderMeer, 2019)
• The Big Book of Modern Fantasy (with Ann VanderMeer, 2020)

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