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Monday 20 April 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 20 April 2026
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
Arlen, Michael
(1895-1956) UK-Bulgarian-Armenian author, born Dikran Kouyoumdjian, in the UK from 1901, not allowed to enlist in World War One because of his confused national status; naturalized in 1922 under the name Michael Arlen (which he then took by deed poll). Initially as Dikran Kouyoumdjian, he was active from 1916, writing as Arlen from about 1920. He is mainly remembered for The Green Hat: A Romance for a Few People ...
Harris, MacDonald
Pseudonym used by US academic and author Donald William Heiney (1921-1993) for most of his fiction from 1947 on; though composed in a smooth and accessible style, his novels (all as by Harris) tend significantly and non-mimetically to foreground any elements of fantasy (see Fabulation) with which they may deal. Bull Fire (1973) treats a modern family romance in terms of the myth of the Minotaur. The Balloonist (1976) recounts a failed ...
Wray, Phoebe
Working name of US actor, environmentalist and author Phoebe Rae Gregory (1935-2016), whose Jemma's World sequence opening with Jemma7729 (2008) depicts the life in the twenty-third century of a young female protagonist who discovers that the misogyny and oppressiveness of the enclosed Dystopia of her birth can be rebelled against, and escaped from. Communal life outside the walls is described comfortingly (see ...
Science Fiction Studies
Academic journal, published both from the USA and from Canada, founded Spring 1973, current, 155 issues to March 2025, three issues a year. Science Fiction Studies was initially co-edited by R D Mullen and Darko Suvin, with Mullen also acting as publisher; the magazine was first published from Indiana State University, where Mullen taught. He left at the end of 1978, and in 1979 with #17 the magazine moved to McGill ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star (1966-1967), and later in ...