Vonda N. McIntyre | |
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| Born | Vonda Neel McIntyre (1948-08-28)August 28, 1948 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | April 1, 2019(2019-04-01) (aged 70) Seattle, Washington, U.S. |
| Occupation | Writer, biologist |
| Education | University of Washington (BS) |
| Genre | Science fiction |
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| vondanmcintyre | |
Vonda Neel McIntyre (August 28, 1948 – April 1, 2019)[1] was an American science fiction writer and biologist.
Vonda N. McIntyre was born inLouisville, Kentucky, the daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, who were born inPoland, Ohio.[2] She spent her early childhood on the east coast of the United States and inThe Hague, Netherlands, and Poland, before her family settled inSeattle in the early 1960s.
In 1970, she earned a Bachelor of Science, with honors, inbiology from theUniversity of Washington.[3] That same year, she attended theClarion Writers Workshop. McIntyre went on to do graduate work atUniversity of Washington ingenetics.[3]
In 1971, McIntyre founded theClarion West Writers Workshop inSeattle, Washington, with the support of Clarion founderRobin Scott Wilson. She contributed to the workshop until 1973.[4]
McIntyre won her firstNebula Award in 1973, for the novelette '"Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand". This later became part of the novelDreamsnake (1978), which was rejected by the first editor who saw it, but went on to win both theHugo and Nebula Awards.[5] McIntyre became the third woman to receive theHugo Award for Best Novel (1979).[6]
McIntyre's debut novel,The Exile Waiting, was published in 1975. In 1976, McIntyre co-editedAurora: Beyond Equality, a feminist/humanist science fiction anthology, with Susan Janice Anderson.[7]
She also wrote a number ofStar Trek andStar Wars novels, includingEnterprise: The First Adventure andThe Entropy Effect.[8]The Entropy Effect was the first original story published in thePocket Books' series ofStar Trek novels, and was developed by McIntyre from a screenplay that she wrote at age 18.[1] It convinced Pocket Books to assign McIntyre thenovelizations of the next three filmsStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, andStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home.[8]: 65 McIntyre created given names of severalStar Trek characters that later became canon, includingHikaru Sulu andKirk's mother Winona.[1] Sulu's given name became canon afterPeter David, author of the comic book adaptation, visited the set ofStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and convinced directorNicholas Meyer to insert the name into the film's script.[9][10]: 2–3
While taking part in a science fiction convention panel on sci-fi in TV, McIntyre became exasperated at a fellow panelist's extreme negativity toward existing science fiction TV shows. She asked the panel and audience if they had managed to seeStarfarers, which she claimed was an amazing SF miniseries that had almost no viewers due to bad scheduling on the part of the network. No such show existed, but after reflecting on the plot she described, McIntyre felt it would make a good novel, and went on to writeStarfarers as well as its three sequels, later referring to it as "my Best SF TV Series Never Made".[11]
McIntyre's novelThe Moon and the Sun, set in the court ofLouis XIV of France, was rejected initially.[5][12] In 1997, Pocket Books picked up the novel, and in 2013 Pandemonium Pictures began to produceThe King's Daughter, featuringPierce Brosnan as the Sun King.[13] In October 2021, it was announced thatGravitas Ventures acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a January 21, 2022, release.[14]
She was able to complete a final novel,Curve of the World, shortly before her death in 2019.[15]
She enjoyed craftingcrocheted marine creatures to contribute to theHyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project of theInstitute For Figuring.[16]
McIntyre died on April 1, 2019, at her home in Seattle, Washington, of metastaticpancreatic cancer,[17] which was diagnosed in February.[1][18]
In 2019, Clarion West established the Vonda N. McIntyre Memorial Scholarship, to enable women writers and writers of color to attend the Clarion West Writers Workshop and Writing the Other established the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Memorial Scholarship, to help authors at any point in their career path and from every background, including those who don't have the money to pay for writing workshops.[citation needed]
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