Speller, Maureen Kincaid
Entry updated 13 January 2025. Tagged: Author, Critic.
Working name of UK editor and critic Maureen Speller (1959-2022) who also wrote as Speller, and as Maureen Porter and Maureen Speller Kincaid; partner of Paul Kincaid from 1986 until her death (they married in 1993). Initially as Maureen Porter, she was active since about 1980 in UK Fandom and as a reviewer and essayist, her work appearing widely in various journals including Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction, Interzone, Strange Horizons and the British Science Fiction Association's critical journal Vector, some of this work being assembled in And Another Thing ...: A Collection of Reviews and Criticism (coll 2011 chap). The range of topics considered, and the level-headed intensity with which she shaped her conclusions, marked her as a significant voice in UK genre criticism. The much more comprehensive A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller (coll 2023), edited by Nina Allan, includes some earlier pieces but focuses on the work of her maturity after 2010; this collection won a BSFA Award as best long nonfiction.
From 1986 to 1989 she edited Vector's companion journal Matrix, moving on to co-edit the Semiprozine The Gate. Her long involvement with the frequently Hugo-nominated Strange Horizons began in 2006; she became Senior Reviews Editor in 2015.
At various times, Speller wrote and edited personal Fanzines or perzines, including Bottled Lightning in 1987, and Snufkin's Bum from 1995 to 1998 (Snufkin being the name of her cat). In 1992 she founded the monthly UK amateur press association (see APA) Acnestis, which had a strong literary focus; she remained its administrator until it ceased in 2005. With Acnestis members Bruce Gillespie and Paul Kincaid she co-edited the professional-quality Fanzine Steam Engine Time fairly briefly from 2000. Also co-edited with Kincaid, the nonfiction anthology Best of Vector: Vol 1: The State of the Art (anth 2015 chap) efficiently assembles half a century of critical evaluations from Vector of the state of sf, with an emphasis on its evolution and fate in the UK. [JC]
see also: Eastercon; Fan Funds; Nova Awards.
Maureen Speller
born Oxford, Oxfordshire: 23 March 1959
died Folkestone, Kent: 18 September 2022
works
nonfiction
- Bumper Snufkin: The Taste and Fancy of the Speller (Croydon, Surrey: A Croydon Fanzine, 1997) [nonfiction: chap: edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer: pb/Sue Mason]
- And Another Thing ...: A Collection of Reviews and Criticism (place not given: British Science Fiction Association, 2011) [nonfiction: coll: chap: edited by Jonathan McCalmont: pb/Joshua Resnick]
- A Traveller in Time: The Critical Practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller (Edinburgh, Scotland: Luna Press Publishing, 2023) [nonfiction: coll: edited by Nina Allan: pb/Iain Clark]
nonfiction works as editor
- Best of Vector: Vol 1: The State of the Art (place not given: British Science Fiction Association, 2015) with Paul Kincaid [anth: chap: selections from Vector: pb/www.graphicstock.com]
links
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