Sawyer, Andy
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, Critic, Editor.
(1952- ) UK librarian, critic, academic, also involved in Fandom. He edited the British Science Fiction Association's Matrix 1977-1978 and the BSFA's review journal Paperback Inferno 1985-1992. During this period he contributed to Fanzines and reference books such as The Science Fiction Sourcebook (anth 1984) edited by David Wingrove, wrote critical essays and reviews for the BSFA's Vector and Million (see Interzone). Occasional fiction, mostly in small-press magazines, includes stories such "The Hard Man" (May/June 1992 Far Point) and "The Mechanical Art" (in Digital Dreams, anth 1990, ed David V Barrett) that reflect his interest in the popular fictions of the early seventeenth century. In 1993 he was appointed as librarian in charge of the Science Fiction Foundation Collection on its move to the University of Liverpool, where it has since been housed; associated duties include teaching on the University of Liverpool's MA in Science Fiction Studies, which he directs.
Since 1993, Sawyer has published numerous reviews and essays on science fiction and fantasy in books and academic journals including Foundation, for which he has served as Reviews Editor since 1996, and for reference books such as the seventh edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature (2009) edited by Dinah Birch. His column Foundation Favourites, on favourite titles from the SFF Collection, began in Matrix in March 2003, now appears in Vector. Co-edited books include Speaking Science Fiction (anth 2000) with David Seed; the previously unpublished John Wyndham novel Plan For Chaos (2009) with David Ketterer; and Teaching Science Fiction (anth 2011) with Peter Wright.
Sawyer advised the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, on its 2007 Josh Kirby retrospective, and co-curated the exhibition of sf at the British Library: "Out of This World: Science Fiction But Not As You Know It" (May-September 2011). He received the 2008 Thomas D Clareson Award for services to sf. [AS]
see also: The Gate; Time in Reverse.
Andrew Philip Sawyer
born Manchester, England: 1 May 1952
works as editor
- Speaking Science Fiction: Dialogues and Interpretations (Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2000) with David Seed [nonfiction: anth: hb/]
- A Celebration of British Science Fiction (Guildford: Science Fiction Foundation, 2005) with Andrew M Butler and Farah Mendlesohn [nonfiction: anth: pb/Judith Clute]
- John Wyndham. Plan for Chaos (Liverpool, England: Liverpool University Press, 2009) [edited with David Ketterer: intro by Ketterer: hb/John Woodcock]
- Teaching Science Fiction (London: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2011) with Peter Wright [nonfiction: anth: hb/nonpictorial]
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