Fourth Edition
Edited by Robert Runté

H. A. Hargreaves

Dr. Hargreaves is a retired professor of English, formerly at the University of Alberta (Edmonton). He has written several quietly moving, wryly humorous short stories most of which have been collected under the title, North By 2000. All the stories take place in a consistent future, and some share the same characters, and all reflect a uniquely Canadian consciousness. He has also translated Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds by Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle (1990).

Christie Harris.

Children's author Harris has aliens learning about ecology from the Haida in Sky Man On The Totem Pole Strictly for kids and von Daniken fans. She has also published Something Weird Is Going on and Raven's Cry which may have sf overtones, but I haven't actually seen either of them. Anyone?

Tom Henighan.

Henighan teaches English at Carleton University. His first short story collection,Tourists From Algol: Stories of the Unexpected, was about half sf, his first poetry collection is entitled, Home Planet: Poems, and his first novel, The Well Of Time, is an historical fantasy. He has two books of literary criticism: Natural space in literature: imagination and environment in nineteenth and twentieth century fiction and poetry and The presumption of culture: structure, strategy, and survival in the Canadian culture landscape Most Recent: Brian W. Aldiss (Twayne's English Authors Series, Teas 555) 1999

Ken Hood

Oddly reminiscent (*cough* *cough*) of Dave Duncan's work, Ken has three fantasy novels in the "Years of Longdirk" series: Demon Sword [Harper Prism, 1995], Demon Rider and Demon Knight.

Nalo Hopkinson

Nalo won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for Brown Girl in the Ring, which then went on to win the Locus award for Best First Novel. She then won the 1998 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Recent short stories include: "Money Tree" in Tesseracts⁶, "Slow Cold Chick" in Northern Frights 5, and "A Habit of Waste" in Fireweed. Most Recent: her second novel from Warner Aspect, Midnight Robber was released March 2000 and two short stories, "Greedy Choke Puppy" and "Ganger", in Dark Matter (an anthology of speculative fiction by black writers) is due summer 2000.

Tanya Huff.

Huff's first two novels, Child of the Grove (1988)and The Last Wizard (1989), were recently re-released in a combined volume as Wizard of the Grove (see reviews). Other books include the "Blood" series which features a Toronto detective partnered with a vampire: Blood Price, Blood Lines, Blood Trail, Blood Pact, and Blood debt; the "Quarter" series with Fifth Quarter, Sing the Four Quarters, No Quarter and The Quartered Sea (Quarters 4) and the standalone novels, Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light (1989) Fire's Stone, Summon the Keeper (1998) and Scholar of Decay (TRS, 1994). What Ho! Magic (Tesseract Books,1999), collects a series of very funny short stories about a young female magician. Huff won the Aurora in 1988 for short work, "And Who is Joah?". Most Recent: Valor's Choice (April, 2000) and "Now Entering the Ring" in Winter 99 issue of On Spec.

Marian Hughes

Marian's Initiation [NY: Baen Books, 1995] is on the highly recommended list.

Matthew Hughes

Arguably the hottest 'new' Canadian SF writer, he appears regularly in all the major SF magazines (his series in which scholars navigate physically through the collective unconscious appears regularly in F&SF) and has three very drole novels out set in the last days of an old and dying Earth: Fools Errant, Fool Me Twice, and Black Brillion. Often compared to Jack Vance Dying Earth stories, Hughes' Archonate stories are much darker and funnier -- again, 'drole' is the only word that could apply. He also writes mystery under the name Matt Hughes and has won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award. (He is also the ghost writer of Breaking Trail. the memories of Len Marchand.) Member of the Lonely Cry group. Most Recent: short story collection The Gist Hunter & Other Stories due out from Night Shade Books July, 2005. .

Monica Hughes.

A popular children's author, Monica Hughes was Canada's foremost writer of sf juveniles, including: Beckoning Lights; Beyond the Dark River; Crisis on Conshelf Ten; Devil on My Back; Dream Catcher; Earthdark; The Guardian of Isis; The Keeper of the Isis Light; The Isis Pedlar; Ring Rise, Ring Set; Sandwriter; Space Trap; and The Tomorrow City. The Isis series and Ring Rise are particularly good, with more depth and subtlety than usually found in books written for teens. Hughes was born in Liverpool, England and lived in Egypt, Scotland and Rhodesia before moving to Canada in 1952. She won the Canada Council's Children's Literature Prize two years running. In 1988 she was appointed the Edmonton Public Library's first writer in residence. She received the Writers Guild of Alberta R. Ross Annett Award in 1993, 1987, 1984, 1983; Children's Book Centre Award for The Crystal Drop; Book Lion - Belgium, 1987; Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence, 1986; Vicky Metcalfe Award, 1983 & 1981. International Board of Books for Young People -Certificate of Honour, 1982. Canada Council Children's Literature Award, 1982 & 1981. Alberta Culture Young Adult Novel Award, 1981. She passed away, March, 2003/

Don Hutchison

Editor of the Northern Frights original anthologies of Canadian horror, Hutchinson has been a major force in the growth of this genre. Early volumes in series were sometimes a bit uneven, but Hutchinson has built the series up to where it now rivals the quality of On Spec or Tesseracts for horror fans.

Marie Jakober.

Better known for her two novels on the Sandinistas, (one of which won the 1985 Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction) Jakober's first novel was SF. The Mind Gods: A Novel of the Future [Toronto: Macmillian Canada, 1976] was a talky, slow moving philosophical work, but nevertheless interesting for its serious discussion of religious themes. More recently, she has published a fantasy novel, High Kamilan, [Calgary: Gullveig Books, 1993. 393pp. ISBN 0-9697631-0-7]; and Most Recent: The Black Chalice. [Calgary: Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, 1999] a historical fantasy set during the Crusades.

Jan Lars Jensen

Although previously published in Interzone his Canadian debut in Tesseracts⁵ with "Domestic Slash and Thrust" was a minor triumph, as Jensen became a major name to watch (it was subsequently reprinted in Northern Suns. "The Secret History of the Ornithopter" was nominated for Best Novelette in the 2000 Hugos. His first novel Shiva 3000 (Harcourt Brace: Nov, 1999), was also very well received.

K.V. Johansen

Mediaevalist freelance journalist, and children's author, Johansen has several sf entries, including The Serpent Bride based on the ballads of medieval Denmark. She lives in rural New Brunswick.

Paula Johanson

Co-editor (with Jean-Louis Trudel) of Tesseracts⁷, she has also published a number excellent short stories, and a book of essays on parenting.

Dennis Jones

A successful mainstream author, Jones recently moved into fantasy with the novel The Stone and the Maiden.

Sandra Kasturi

Toronto sf poet, her poems appear in various Tesseracts anthologies, On Spec and other sf magazines. MOST RECENT: "Games of Sea" in Tesseracts⁸ and her chapbook, Carnaval Perpetuel has been rereleased from Junction Books and is available for $4

Guy Gavriel Kay

Kay's work can be divided neatly into two periods: In the early period, Kay produced the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy, consisting of The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road. The triology chronicles the story of five University of Toronto students caught up in the affairs of Silvercloak the mage and Rakoth the Unraveller. All three volumes were well received, with Wandering Fire winning the 1987 Aurora, and are still widely read today. The trilogy reflected Kay's background as a Tolkien scholar, however, and drew heavily on such classical motifs as the King Arthur legend. Kay was clearly attempting to re-establish high fantasy as a serious literary form, in contrast to the hoards of Tolkien imitators whose pointless series had so debased the genre. Although Kay's trilogy stood out for its better characterizations, and superior writing, it was (in retrospect) still limited by the constraints imposed by the classical form.

In the mature period, however, all this abruptly changed as Kay began producing completely original works dealing with uniquely Canadian themes. The first of these was Tigana [1990], arguably still the greatest Canadian fantasy to date. [Tigana is also signifigant as the novel slated to launch Penguin's proposed Canadian sf line -- the line was cancelled, however, when Penguin projected that the then just-announced GST on books would kill the market for Canadian novels. Consequently, Tigana came out under the Roc imprint. It has recently (Nov 99) been reissued in trade paperback with a new (less interesting) cover.] The novel deals with a people's loss of their national identity to their more powerful neighbour, surely a theme near and dear to Canadian hearts. Tigana was followed by A Song for Arbonne (1992) a highly entertaining renaissance intrigue, and The Lions of Al-Rassan (1995), perhaps the best anti-racist novel of the decade. Lions of Al-Rassan represents a very great distance from the Fionavar Tapestry because there are practically no magical elements at all; the only apparent purpose of the fantasy setting is to distance the reader from their own prejudices (and possibly for the author to avoid the sort of death threats that plagued Salmon Rushdie.) Sailing to Sarantium. and Kay's most recent release Lord of Emperors, (Feb., 2000) form a two volume series about a bricklayer summoned to work in the capital.

Eileen Kernaghan

Kernaghan is best known for her Grey Isles trilogy: Journey To Aprilioth, Songs From The Drowned Lands and The Sarsen Witch. Songs From The Drowned Lands won the Aurora in 1984. Dance of the Snow Dragon (Thistledown Press, 1999) is a young adult fantasy with a Tibetan Buddhist background. A poetry chapbook, Dark Gardens of Zodiac, is available for $6 from Neville Books (225 Townsend Place, new Westminister, BC, V3L 1L4 ) Most Recent: "Wild Things" (originally published in On Spec) received an honorable mention in The 12th Annual Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. and her second young adult novel Snow Queen was released May 2000

David Ketterer.

Possibly the first scholar to undertake a study of Canadian sf, Ketterer's pioneering essays appeared in Other Canadas, Science-Fiction Studies Vol. 10, and The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. He is best known for Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy [Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. 206 pp. ISBN 0-253-33133-6] His other literary criticism may also be of interest: New Worlds For Old: The Apocalyptic Imagination, Science Fiction, and American Literature; Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Work, and Criticism (Authoritative Studies in World Literature) The Rationale of Deception in Poe (Southern Literary) Frankenstein's Creation: The Book, the Monster, and Human Reality (English Literary Studies/Els Monographs Series, No 16 1979); Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life and Work of James Blish (Kent State University Press, 1987) and The Science Fiction of Mark Twain (as editor). Ketterer is a professor at Concordia University

Crawford Kilian .

Born and raised in the US, Kilian teaches English at Capilano College in North Vancouver, and writes a column for the Vancouver Sun. His sf novels include Icequake; Tsunami (both disaster novels);Eyas; Lifter; Green Magic; Red Magic; Brother Jonathan; Griphon and the Chronoplane Wars series: The Fall of the Republic, Rogue Emperor, and Empire of Time.. Most Recent: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (Self-Counsel Press, 1998.)

Donald Kingsbury.

Kingsbury teaches mathematics at McGill University. His two novels (both Hugo nominees) are Courtship Rite and The Moon Goddess and the Son. He has also written a couple of novellas in the Larry Niven universe: The Man-Kzin Wars IV and The Man-Kzin Wars VI. Courtship Rite is one of those books that if I told you what it was about, you wouldn't read it, so you will just have to take my word for it: Highly recommended.

David Kirkpatrick.

Kirkpatrick's "The Effect of Terminal Cancer on Potential Astronauts" was arguably the standout story in the first Tesseracts. It is an excellent example of an sf story that only makes sense to a Canadian (particularly one raised in the era of multiculturalism).

Nancy Kilpatrick

Montreal dark fantasy author of 13 novels and over 100 short stories she has won a Arthur Ellis Award (Canadian Mystery) and been twice nominated for an Aurora and twice for the Bram Stoker. Most of her writing involves vampires.

Donn Kushner, Ph.D.

Born in Louisiana in 1927 Kushner has lived in Canada since 1948. A retired microbiologist at the University of Toronto (with 160 scientific papers), Kushner is an award-winning children's author. Of interest to sf fans is A Book Dragon, (short listed for Governor General's Award) a delightful fantasy of a miniature dragon who guards a handpainted manuscript.

This page last updated: May 23, 2000

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