Author Details
Author Details
Robinson, Spider
"Since he began writing professionally in 1972, Spider Robinson has won 3 Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the E.E. (""Doc"") Smith Memorial Award (Skylark), the Pat Terry Memorial Award for Humorous Science Fiction, and Locus Awards for Best Novella and Best Critic. Twenty-four of his 29 books are still in print, in 10 languages. His short work has appeared in magazines around the planet, from Omni and Analog to Xhurnal Izobretatel i Rationalizator (Moscow), and in numerous anthologies. His most recent publications are the new novel THE FREE LUNCH [Tor hc Aug.2001/pb Aug.2002] and CALLAHAN'S KEY [Bantam hc July 2000/pb June 2001], and two reissued novels, STARMIND, a collaboration with Jeanne Robinson [Baen pb May 01], and TELEMPATH [Baen July 01]. Books presently in production include another new novel, THE FREE LUNCH [Tor hc, Aug 01], and two reprint Callahan titles, TIME TRAVELERS STRICTLY CASH [Tor pb Aug 01] and CALLAHAN'S LADY [Baen pb Sept 01). In 2000 he released BELABORING THE OBVIOUS, a CD comprising readings of excerpts from CALLAHAN'S KEY, plus original music performed by Spider with legendary Alberta guitarist Amos Garrett and top session players. The music tracks were first recorded for the soundtrack of the CD-ROM computer game, ""Callahan's Crosstime Saloon,"" adapted by Josh Mandel, released in 1997 by Legend Entertainment/ Take Two. The Usenet newsgroup alt.callahans, inspired by Spider's Callahan's Place series, was rated the 151st largest newsgroup by bits posted, 172nd by messages posted (placing it in the top 1%), and propagates to over 60% of all Usenet sites, as well as IRC and other cyberbyways. Some claim it is the largest non-porn newsgroup. Mike Callahan has also appeared as a character in Marvel Comics' SPIDERMAN. Spider was born in New York City on 3 successive days (they had to handle him in sections), and holds a Bachelors degree in English from the State University of New York. In 1992 he was the Toastmaster for the 50th World SF Convention in Orlando (and will be again in Toronto in future). He was book reviewer for Galaxy, Analog and New Destinies magazines for nearly a decade, and currently writes occasional book reviews and a regular Op-Ed column, ""Future Tense,"" for The Globe and Mail, Canada's national newspaper. He has been married for 27 years to Jeanne Robinson, a Boston-born writer, modern dance choreographer, former dancer, and teacher of dance and the Alexander Technique, and lay-ordained Buddhist monk (Soto Zen lineage); she was Artistic Director of Halifax's Nova Dance Theatre during its 8-year history. The Robinsons collaborated on the Hugo-, Nebula- and Locus-winning 1976 classic novel STARDANCE [Baen Books pb, Dec 91; Easton Press leatherbound 92], which created the concept of zero-gravity dance, and on its sequels, STARSEED [Ace hc and pb, Oct 91/92, Easton Press leather 91] and STARMIND [Ace hc and pb, Easton leather, June 95/Feb 96]. (Jeanne was on NASA's short list for a Space Shuttle seat, to try out zero-gee dance in practice -- until the Challenger Tragedy ended the Civilian In Space programme.) Their first two books were reissued together in one volume as THE STAR DANCERS by Baen Books in September 97. The final volume, STARMIND, will also be reissued by Baen, in May 2001. Spider and Jeanne met in the woods of Nova Scotia in the early 1970s, and have lived for the last 17 years in British Columbia, where they raise and exhibit hopes."
