Bruce Boston



Bruce Boston (born 1943) is an American speculative fiction writer and poet who was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. He received a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, 1965, and an M.A., 1967. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 2001, where he worked in a variety of occupations, including computer programmer, college professor (literature and creative writing, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California, 1978–82), technical writer, book designer, gardener, movie projectionist, retail clerk, and furniture mover. As of 2008 he was living in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.

Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times: for Best Long Poem in 1989 and 1999, and for Best Short Poem in 1985, 1988, 1994, 1996, and 2001, and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record six times: 1990, 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2008. He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, a record four Bram Stoker Awards in poetry for his collections Pitchblende, 2003, Shades Fantastic, 2006, The Nightmare Collection, 2008, Dark Matters, 2010, and the first Grandmaster Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest, " received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.

Boston has also published more than a hundred short stories and the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener's Tale (the latter a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and Prometheus Award Nominee). His work has appeared widely in periodicals and anthologies, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories Magazine, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase. Writing in The Washington Post, Paul Di Filippo described his collection Masque of Dreams as containing "nearly two dozen brilliant stories ranging across all emotional and narrative terrains."

Boston has chaired the Nebula Award Novel Jury (SFWA) and the Philip K. Dick Award Jury, and served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He has served as fiction and/or poetry editor for a number of publications, including Occident, The Open Cell, Berkeley Poets Cooperative, City Miner, and Star*Line. As of 2012, he is a Book Editor for Dark Regions Press and edits speculative fiction and poetry for The Pedestal Magazine.

Poetry

 * XXO. Maya Press, 1969
 * Potted Poems. Maya Press, 1970
 * All the Clock Are Melting. Velocities, 1984
 * Alchemical Texts. Ocean View, 1985
 * Nuclear Futures. Velocities, 1987
 * Time. Titan, 1988
 * The Nightmare Collector. 2AM Publications, 1989
 * Faces of the Beast. Starmont House, 1990
 * Other Voices, Other Worlds (audio tape, music by Jack Poley). Chris Drumm, 1990, (MP3 audio) Telltale Weekly, 2004
 * Short Circuits (prose poems). Ocean View, 1991
 * Cybertexts. Talisman, 1991
 * Chronicles of the Mutant Rain Forest (with Robert Frazier). Horror's Head Press, 1992
 * Accursed Wives. Night Visions, 1993
 * Specula: Selected Uncollected Poems, 1968-1993. Talisman, 1993
 * Sensuous Debris: Selected Poems, 1970-1995. Dark Regions, 1995
 * Conditions of Sentient Life. Gothic Press, 1996
 * Cold Tomorrows. Gothic Press, 1998
 * Pavane for a Cyber-Princess (single poem chapbook). Miniature Sun, 2001
 * White Space. Dark Regions, 2001
 * Quanta: Award Winning Poems. Miniature Sun, 2001
 * Night Smoke (ebook, with Marge Simon), Miniature Sun & Quixsilver, 2002
 * She Was There for Him the Last Time (single poem chapbook). Miniature Sun, 2002
 * Head Full of Strange (ebook). CyberPulp, 2003
 * Pitchblende. Dark Regions, 2003
 * Etiquette with Your Robot Wife. Talisman, 2005
 * Shades Fantastic. Gromagon Press, 2006
 * Night Smoke (with Marge Simon, expanded print edition of 2002 ebook). Kelp Queen Press, 2007
 * The Nightmare Collection. Dark Regions, 2008
 * Double Visions (collaborative poems). Dark Regions, 2009
 * North Left of Earth. Sam's Dot, 2009
 * Dark Matters. Bad Moon Books, 2010
 * Surrealities. Dark Regions, 2011
 * Anthropomorphisms. Elektrik Milk Bath Press, 2012
 * Notes from the Shadow City (with Gary William Crawford). Dark Regions, 2012

Broadsides

 * Musings. Eldritch Emu Press, 1988
 * The Last Existentialist. Chris Drumm, 1993
 * Confessions of a Body Thief. Talisman, 1998
 * The Lesions of Genetic Sin. Miniature Sun, 2000
 * In Far Pale Clarity. Quixsilver, 2002
 * The Crow Is Dismantled in Flight (ebroadside). Miniature Sun, 2003

Fiction and poetry collections

 * The Complete Accursed Wives. Talisman/Dark Regions, 2000
 * Masque of Dreams. Wildside, 2001, 2009
 * Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 1 (ebook). Fictionwise, 2003
 * Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 2 (ebook). Fictionwise, 2003
 * Tales of the Mutant Rain Forest (with Robert Frazier). Dark Regions Press, forthcoming 2012

Novels

 * Stained Glass Rain. Ocean View, 1993, Wildside, 2003
 * The Guardener's Tale. Sam's Dot Publishing, 2007, 2011
 * El Guardian de Almas, Spanish-language edition of The Guardener's Tale, La Factoria de Ideas, 2009

Novelettes

 * After Magic. Eotu, 1990, Dark Regions, 1999
 * Houses. Talisman, 1991

Short fiction

 * Jackbird. BPW&P, 1976
 * She Comes When You're Leaving. BPW&P, 1982
 * Skin Trades, Chris Drumm, 1988
 * Hypertales & Metafictions. Chris Drumm, 1990
 * All the Clocks Are Melting (single story booklet), Pulphouse Publishing, 1991
 * Night Eyes. Chris Drumm, 1993
 * Dark Tales & Light. Dark Regions, 1999
 * Flashing the Dark. Sam's Dot Publishing, 2006