SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 15 June 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 15 June 2026
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Yolen, Jane
(1939-2026) US author, partially resident in Scotland, who began publishing poems and articles when still in college, and who first came to notice with books for children, the first of many being Pirates in Petticoats (1963). Of her circa 460 titles, many of which won awards in her field, most were for children (see listing below for some of these), many of them being picture books for younger children; most of her adult fiction, of which she wrote relatively little, was ...
Kritzer, Naomi
(1973- ) US author who began publishing work of genre interest with "Faust's SASE" in Scavenger's Newsletter for September 1999; during her early career she published mostly fantasy, including the Eliana's Song sequence beginning with the Young Adult Fires of the Faithful (2002), set in a fantasy land oppressed by Religious fundamentalism, but saved by the versatile young protagonist; ...
Bermúdez, María Elvira
(1916-1988) Mexican editor, academic and author; her fiction, mostly detective novels, is mostly nonfantastic. She is of sf interest (see Women SF Writers) primarily for an influential Anthology, Cuentos Fantásticos Mexicanos ["Mexican Fantastic Tales"] (anth 1986), which presents some of her own work. Contributors with entries in this encyclopedia include Juan José ...
Pirandello, Luigi
(1867-1936) Italian playwright and author whose prolific career began with poetry – Mal Giocondo ["Unhappy Joy"] (coll 1889) – and continued with a large amount of short fiction, beginning with Amori senza Amore (coll 1894). Many of his circa 400 stories and sketches, many of them Contes-Cruels [for this term, plus entry on Pirandello with fantasy linkings, see The Encyclopedia of Fantasy under ...
Uchūjin
["Cosmic Dust"] Japanese Fanzine (1957-2009), famously and entirely a pet project of the prominent editor, translator and author Takumi Shibano, which formed an integral part of its country's Fandom in the latter part of the twentieth century. / Founded as a monthly mimeographed publication in 1957, Uchūjin was never a large-circulation journal, with print-runs ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...