Gardner Dozois
The editorship of Asimov's Science Fiction, which Dozois held from 1986 to 2004, stands as the defining chapter of his career — a nearly two-decade tenure at one of science fiction's prominent magazines that brought him sustained recognition across the field.
Gardner Dozois was born on July 23, 1947, in Salem, where he attended Salem High School. He went on to work as a writer, novelist, and editor, building a career within American science fiction over several decades. His fiction earned him the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, while his editorial work drew recognition from multiple award bodies: he received the Locus Award for Best Anthology and the World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology, and won multiple Hugo and Locus Awards across his career. That range of honors, covering both his writing and his editing, reflected the dual nature of his work in the field.
Dozois was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, an acknowledgment of his contribution to the genre. He remained part of the editorial world through much of his later life. He died on May 27, 2018, in Philadelphia. The Library of Congress records his name in authorized form as Dozois, Gardner R.
Quotes by Gardner Dozois
What science fiction does is take what might be possible someday and examine what might happen if it were - the drawbacks and the positive things.
When I was a boy in Salem, Mass., in the 1950s, if you wanted to buy a book, you had to take a train to Boston. And when you got there, to a bookstore, there was no such thing as a science-fiction section.
I've probably read more bad science fiction than anyone else alive. But I've also read more good science fiction than anyone else alive.
An experienced slush-pile reader doesn't need more than a few seconds to see if a story has potential. You don't need to eat all of a rotten egg to determine that it's rotten.
When I first started editing a 'Year's Best' volume in the '70s, the job was pretty straightforward - there were three or four monthly magazines to read and a few original anthologies from trade publishers every year.
Even after all these years, finding a really first-rate story is still a thrill, one I want to share with others.
Philadelphia's a good science-fiction town. There are many professional writers here, like Michael Swanwick, Tom Purdom, Gregory Frost, Victoria McManus and others. There are professional artists such as Bob Walters and Tess Kissinger and Susan McAninley.
