Fiona Kelleghan
Encyclopedia
Fiona Kelleghan is an American academic and critic specializing in science fiction
and fantasy
; she is also the metadata
librarian at the University of Miami
's Otto G. Richter Library.
Writing in The Washington Post
, critic Michael Dirda
called her "an expert on humor in genre fiction," and she is listed on the University of Miami's website as its official expert on "Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror." She is also interested in film both inside and outside the science-fiction genre, and is an amateur ethologist.
She has identified a secular, satiric literary movement within the science-fiction genre that she calls "Savage Humanism." Her critical anthology The Savage Humanists (Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2008) begins with a 17,000-word essay by her describing the movement and its practitioners, and collects stories by Gregory Frost, James Patrick Kelly
, John Kessel
, Jonathan Lethem
, James Morrow
, Kim Stanley Robinson
, Robert J. Sawyer
, Tim Sullivan, and Connie Willis
, with introductions to each by Kelleghan. That essay, "A Definition of Savage Humanism, with Autobiographical Anecdotes," is reprinted as the cover story in the November 2008 edition of The New York Review of Science Fiction
, and takes up most of that issue of the magazine.
Kelleghan's other books include Mike Resnick
: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to His Work (Farthest Star, 2000), and, as editor, 100 Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction (Salem Press, 2001, 2 volumes) and Magill's Choice: Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature (Salem Press, 2002).
Her scholarly work has appeared in Extrapolation
, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, The New York Review of Science Fiction
, Nova Express
, ParaDoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres, Science Fiction Studies
, and SFRA Review (a publication of the Science Fiction Research Association
, of which she is a member).
She has contributed to the reference books American Women Writers; Contemporary Novelists [7th Edition] (for which she is the authority on Ray Bradbury
, Jonathan Lethem
, and Connie Willis
, among others); Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature; Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide to Literature, Illustration, Film, TV, Radio, and the Internet, edited by Neil Barron; St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers; St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers; Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror; and Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary; and, with Daryl F. Mallett
, to Genre and Ethnic Collections: Collected Essays, and she was largely responsible for assisting Mallett and Hal Hall with the completion of Pilgrims & Pioneers: The History and Speeches of the Science Fiction Research Association Award Winners (Borgo Press, 1999). Her book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post
and as official commissioned reviews for BarnesandNoble.com, and she has contributed numerous plot summaries and mini-biographies to the Internet Movie Database
(IMDb).
Kelleghan is a book-review editor for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (since 1999) and an editorial consultant to Science Fiction Studies
(since 1994). She was on the advisory board for and a contributor to The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (edited by Gary Westfahl, Greenwood Press, 2005), and has been a judge for the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award, given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts to emerging writers.
In March 2008, she presented a paper entitled "The Intimately Human and the Grandly Cosmic: Humor and the Sublime in the Works of Robert J. Sawyer
" at the 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. In March 2009, she presented a paper entitled "Time and the Fiction of Robert J. Sawyer
: Flash Forward to the End of an Era" at the 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Her works in progress include Alfred Bester
, Grand Master: An Annotated Bibliography and further research on Savage Humanism.
Kelleghan is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami. She has been on the faculty there since 1989, and tenured since 1995. She holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Florida State University
(1988) and an M.A. in English from the University of Miami
(1996).
She is a graduate of the Clarion West science-fiction writing workshop (1995). Her short story "The Secret in the Chest: With Tests, Maps, Mysteries, & Intermittent Discussion Questions," which plays with the conventions of damsel-in-distress fairy tales, appeared in Realms of Fantasy
(October 1998), and earned an Honorable Mention from editor Gardner Dozois
in The Year's Best Science Fiction: 16th Annual Collection (1999).
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
; she is also the metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
librarian at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
's Otto G. Richter Library.
Writing in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, critic Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda , a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.-Career:Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the...
called her "an expert on humor in genre fiction," and she is listed on the University of Miami's website as its official expert on "Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror." She is also interested in film both inside and outside the science-fiction genre, and is an amateur ethologist.
She has identified a secular, satiric literary movement within the science-fiction genre that she calls "Savage Humanism." Her critical anthology The Savage Humanists (Robert J. Sawyer Books, 2008) begins with a 17,000-word essay by her describing the movement and its practitioners, and collects stories by Gregory Frost, James Patrick Kelly
James Patrick Kelly
James Patrick Kelly is an American science fiction author who began publishing in the 1970s and remains to this day an important figure in the science fiction field....
, John Kessel
John Kessel
John Kessel is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. He is a prolific short story writer and the author of two solo novels, Good News From Outer Space and Corrupting Dr...
, Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
, James Morrow
James Morrow
James Morrow is a fiction author. A self-described "scientific humanist", his work satirises organized religion and elements of humanism and atheism....
, Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer known for his award-winning Mars trilogy. His work delves into ecological and sociological themes regularly, and many of his novels appear to be the direct result of his own scientific fascinations, such as the fifteen years of research...
, Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
, Tim Sullivan, and Connie Willis
Connie Willis
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for Blackout/All Clear...
, with introductions to each by Kelleghan. That essay, "A Definition of Savage Humanism, with Autobiographical Anecdotes," is reprinted as the cover story in the November 2008 edition of The New York Review of Science Fiction
The New York Review of Science Fiction
The New York Review of Science Fiction is a monthly literary journal of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. It is published by Dragon Press and the managing...
, and takes up most of that issue of the magazine.
Kelleghan's other books include Mike Resnick
Mike Resnick
Michael Diamond Resnick , better known by his published name Mike Resnick, is an American science fiction author. He was executive editor of Jim Baen's Universe.-Biography:...
: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to His Work (Farthest Star, 2000), and, as editor, 100 Masters of Mystery and Detective Fiction (Salem Press, 2001, 2 volumes) and Magill's Choice: Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature (Salem Press, 2002).
Her scholarly work has appeared in Extrapolation
Extrapolation
In mathematics, extrapolation is the process of constructing new data points. It is similar to the process of interpolation, which constructs new points between known points, but the results of extrapolations are often less meaningful, and are subject to greater uncertainty. It may also mean...
, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, The New York Review of Science Fiction
The New York Review of Science Fiction
The New York Review of Science Fiction is a monthly literary journal of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship. It is published by Dragon Press and the managing...
, Nova Express
Nova Express (fanzine)
Nova Express is a Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine edited by Lawrence Person. Nova Express is a sercon fanzine with a focus on written science fiction, featuring interviews, reviews and critical articles. Many professional science fiction writers and major critics have contributed to it over...
, ParaDoxa: Studies in World Literary Genres, Science Fiction Studies
Science Fiction Studies
Science Fiction Studies is an academic journal founded in 1973 by R.D. Mullen. The journal is published three times per year by DePauw University. As the name implies, the journal publishes articles and book reviews on science fiction, but also occasionally on fantasy and horror when the topic...
, and SFRA Review (a publication of the Science Fiction Research Association
Science Fiction Research Association
The Science Fiction Research Association , founded in 1970, is the oldest, non-profit professional organization committed to encouraging, facilitating, and rewarding the study of science fiction and fantasy literature, film, and other media...
, of which she is a member).
She has contributed to the reference books American Women Writers; Contemporary Novelists [7th Edition] (for which she is the authority on Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
, Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
, and Connie Willis
Connie Willis
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for Blackout/All Clear...
, among others); Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature; Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide to Literature, Illustration, Film, TV, Radio, and the Internet, edited by Neil Barron; St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers; St. James Guide to Science Fiction Writers; Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror; and Twentieth-Century Literary Movements Dictionary; and, with Daryl F. Mallett
Daryl F. Mallett
Daryl Furumi Mallett, , is a freelance writer, editor and publisher; as well as an actor, director, producer and screenwriter.-Writing:...
, to Genre and Ethnic Collections: Collected Essays, and she was largely responsible for assisting Mallett and Hal Hall with the completion of Pilgrims & Pioneers: The History and Speeches of the Science Fiction Research Association Award Winners (Borgo Press, 1999). Her book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
and as official commissioned reviews for BarnesandNoble.com, and she has contributed numerous plot summaries and mini-biographies to the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
(IMDb).
Kelleghan is a book-review editor for the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (since 1999) and an editorial consultant to Science Fiction Studies
Science Fiction Studies
Science Fiction Studies is an academic journal founded in 1973 by R.D. Mullen. The journal is published three times per year by DePauw University. As the name implies, the journal publishes articles and book reviews on science fiction, but also occasionally on fantasy and horror when the topic...
(since 1994). She was on the advisory board for and a contributor to The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (edited by Gary Westfahl, Greenwood Press, 2005), and has been a judge for the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award, given by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts to emerging writers.
In March 2008, she presented a paper entitled "The Intimately Human and the Grandly Cosmic: Humor and the Sublime in the Works of Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
" at the 29th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. In March 2009, she presented a paper entitled "Time and the Fiction of Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
: Flash Forward to the End of an Era" at the 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. Her works in progress include Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
, Grand Master: An Annotated Bibliography and further research on Savage Humanism.
Kelleghan is an Associate Professor at the University of Miami. She has been on the faculty there since 1989, and tenured since 1995. She holds an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
(1988) and an M.A. in English from the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
(1996).
She is a graduate of the Clarion West science-fiction writing workshop (1995). Her short story "The Secret in the Chest: With Tests, Maps, Mysteries, & Intermittent Discussion Questions," which plays with the conventions of damsel-in-distress fairy tales, appeared in Realms of Fantasy
Realms of Fantasy
Realms of Fantasy is a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Damnation Books, which specializes in fantasy, nonfiction, and art. The magazine publishes short stories by some of the genre's most popular and most prominent authors...
(October 1998), and earned an Honorable Mention from editor Gardner Dozois
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois is an American science fiction author and editor. He was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004...
in The Year's Best Science Fiction: 16th Annual Collection (1999).
External links
- Fiona Kelleghan's website
- Her University of Miami faculty profile
- Fiona Kelleghan presenting her paper "The Intimately Human and the Grandly Cosmic: Humor and the Sublime in the Works of Robert J. Sawyer (MP3)
- Fiona Kelleghan analyzes Alfred Bester
- Fiona Kelleghan (writing as Ellen Feehan) analyzes Frank Herbert
- Fiona Kelleghan (writing as Ellen Feehan) interviews John Kessel
- Fiona Kelleghan interviews Jonathan Lethem
- Fiona Kelleghan interviews James Morrow
- Fiona Kelleghan interviews Tim Powers
- Fiona Kelleghan reviews Paul DiFilippo
- Fiona Kelleghan reviews Jeffrey Ford
- Fiona Kelleghan reviews Jonathan Lethem
- Fiona Kelleghan on "Sound Effects in Science Fiction and Horror Films"
- IMDb mini-biographies written by Fiona Kelleghan
- IMDb plot summaries written by Fiona Kelleghan