Pulphouse Publishing
Encyclopedia
Pulphouse Publishing was an American small press
publisher based in Eugene, Oregon
and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith
and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
in 1988. The press was active until 1996. Over that period, Pulphouse published 244 different titles.
, Michael Bishop
, Michael Swanwick
, and Harlan Ellison
. In addition, each issue included essays on a variety of subjects. In 1989, Smith and Rusch won the World Fantasy Award
in the Special Award: Non Professional
category for their work on Pulphouse. From 1992 through 1994, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine
.
The Best of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine was by published by Tor Books
in 1991 and collected stories which had already appeared in the magazine as well as stories which were slated for later publication.
, Mike Resnick
, Lawrence Watt-Evans
, Andre Norton
, O'Neil De Noux
and Jeff VanderMeer
. In addition to short stories, Pulphouse included serials by Spider
& Jeanne Robinson
and Robert Sheckley
.
Starting with issue zero March 1, 1991 and running through issue 19. Issue 9 started giving a month, instead of a date, and Issues 15 through 19 were undated.
(#2 Unthreatened by the Morning Light), Damon Knight
(#21: God's Nose), and Esther Friesner
(#23: It's Been Fun).
in 1986) and began using it as an imprint. From 1989 through 1994, 26 titles were published using some form of the Axolotl name.
's Ellison Under Glass) paid for but undelivered.
In the Fall of 1996, Jerry Oltion
published an anthology entitled Buried Treasure, subtitled "An Anthology of Unpublished Pulphouse Stories," which, with the approval of Rusch and Smith, was designed to look like an issue of Pulphouse Hardback.
Many of the authors who got their start publishing in Pulphouse publications or working for Rusch and Smith have gone on to have successful careers as science fiction and fantasy authors. Some authors who debuted in Pulphouse magazines include Adam-Troy Castro
and Marina Fitch. Oltion and Nina Kiriki Hoffman
were also closely connected to Pulphouse
Small press
Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts...
publisher based in Eugene, Oregon
Eugene, Oregon
Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...
and specializing in science fiction and fantasy. It was founded by Dean Wesley Smith
Dean Wesley Smith
Dean Wesley Smith is a science fiction author, known primarily for his Star Trek novels, movie novelizations, and other novels of licensed properties such as Smallville, Spider-Man, X-Men, Aliens, Roswell, Men in Black, and Quantum Leap...
and Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an American writer. She writes under various pseudonyms in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy, mystery, romance, and mainstream....
in 1988. The press was active until 1996. Over that period, Pulphouse published 244 different titles.
Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine
From 1988 through 1993, Pulphouse published a quarterly magazine in hardback form edited by Rusch. In addition to twelve issues, each of them themed, they published an "issue 0" which was a hardcover filled with blank pages to use as a sample to show prospective buyers. Pulphouse included stories by notable science fiction and fantasy authors including Charles de LintCharles de Lint
Charles de Lint is a Canadian fantasy author and folk musician. He is also the chief book critic for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction....
, Michael Bishop
Michael Bishop
Michael Bishop may refer to:* Michael Bishop, Baron Glendonbrook , British businessman and politician* Michael Bishop , American science fiction/fantasy author...
, Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...
, and Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
. In addition, each issue included essays on a variety of subjects. In 1989, Smith and Rusch won the World Fantasy Award
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...
in the Special Award: Non Professional
World Fantasy Special Award: Non-Professional
This World Fantasy Award is presented to individuals for outstanding non-professional work in the fantasy field, and voted by a panel of judges at the World Fantasy Convention.-2004:...
category for their work on Pulphouse. From 1992 through 1994, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine
Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
.
The Best of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine was by published by Tor Books
Tor Books
Tor Books is one of two imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC, based in New York City. It is noted for its science fiction and fantasy titles. Tom Doherty Associates also publishes mainstream fiction, mystery, and occasional military history titles under its Forge imprint. The company was founded...
in 1991 and collected stories which had already appeared in the magazine as well as stories which were slated for later publication.
Pulphouse Weekly
In 1991, Pulphouse announced plans to publish a weekly fiction magazine, also called Pulphouse. Although they published 19 issues between 1991 and 1995, the magazine never achieved weekly status and after the fifth issue the subtitle was changed from A Weekly Magazine to A Fiction Magazine. Pulphouse Weekly was initially edited by Smith and later by Jonathan Bond. Over the course of its run, the magazine published stories by George Alec EffingerGeorge Alec Effinger
George Alec Effinger was an American science fiction author, born in 1947 in Cleveland, Ohio.-Writing career:...
, 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:...
, Lawrence Watt-Evans
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Lawrence Watt-Evans is one of the pseudonyms of American science fiction and fantasy author Lawrence Watt Evans...
, Andre Norton
Andre Norton
Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton was an American science fiction and fantasy author under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston...
, O'Neil De Noux
O'Neil De Noux
O’Neil De Noux is a prolific US novelist and short story writer. Although most of De Noux’s fiction falls under the mystery genre, critics describe his work as character-driven crime fiction...
and Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer
Jeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American writer, editor and publisher.He is best known for his contributions to the New Weird and his stories about the city of Ambergris, in books like City of Saints and Madmen.-Biography:...
. In addition to short stories, Pulphouse included serials by Spider
Spider Robinson
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York City, Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years at the State...
& Jeanne Robinson
Jeanne Robinson
Jeanne Robinson was an American-born Canadian dancer, choreographer, teacher and co-author of three award-winning science fiction novels, The Stardance Saga...
and Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley
Robert Sheckley was a Hugo- and Nebula-nominated American author. First published in the science fiction magazines of the 1950s, his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical.Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and...
.
Starting with issue zero March 1, 1991 and running through issue 19. Issue 9 started giving a month, instead of a date, and Issues 15 through 19 were undated.
Author's Choice Monthly
Smith edited a series of twenty-nine monthly chapbooks for Pulphouse under the collective title "Author's Choice Monthly" from 1989 through 1992. Each of these books were published in a limited edition and included stories by a single author. Authors in the series included Karl Edward WagnerKarl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into...
(#2 Unthreatened by the Morning Light), Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...
(#21: God's Nose), and Esther Friesner
Esther Friesner
Esther Mona Friesner-Stutzman, née Friesner is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for her humorous pieces.- Life :...
(#23: It's Been Fun).
Short Story Paperback/Hardback
Short Story Paperback ($1.95)- Loser’s Night by Poul Anderson
- A Case of Painter’s Ear by John Brunner
- Xolotl by Robert Sheckley
- All the Clocks Are Melting by Bruce Boston
- Blossoms by Kim Antieau
- Ecce Hominid by Esther M. Friesner
- A Case of Mistaken Identity by L. Timmel Duchamp
- The Cutter by Edward Bryant
- The Girl Who Fell into the Sky by Kate Wilhelm
- Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper by Robert Bloch
- The Steel Valentine by Joe R. Lansdale
- The Quickening by Bishop, Michael
- The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth by Roger Zelazny
- More Than the Sum of His Parts by Joe W. Haldeman
- No Way Street by Bruce Clemence
- The Spider Glass by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
- Uncle Dobbin’s Parrot Fair by Charles de Lint
- Dinosaurs by Walter Jon Williams
- Listening to Brahms by Suzy McKee Charnas
- Black Air by Kim Stanley Robinson
- The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison
- Journey to the Goat Star by Brian W. Aldiss
- Piecework by David Brin
- I Remember, I Remember... by Mary Caraker
- Sedalia by David J. Schow
- Slumming in Voodooland by Brian M. Stableford
- The Sword & the Stone by Jane Yolen
- The War of the Roses by Karen Joy Fowler
- The Cat With the Tulip Face by A. R. Morlan
- Twilight Time by Lewis Shiner
- Where the Summer Ends by Karl Edward Wagner
- Into Gold by Tanith Lee
- Daisy, in the Sun by Connie Willis
- Inuit by M. Shayne Bell
- The Shade of Lo Man Gong by William F. Wu
- Buckets by F. Paul Wilson
- The Pear-Shaped Man by George R. R. Martin
- The Evening & the Morning & the Night by Octavia E. Butler
- The Peacemaker by Gardner R. Dozois
- The Hero as Werewolf by Gene Wolfe
- The Bingo Man by Joyce Carol Oates
- Schrödinger’s Kitten by George Alec Effinger
- Sisters by Greg Bear
- The Ghosts of Tivoli by Nancy Holder
- Dr. Pak’s Preschool by David Brin
- Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back by Joe R. Lansdale
- Fiddling for Waterbuffaloes by S. P. Somtow
- Rachel in Love by Pat Murphy
- Unaccompanied Sonata by Orson Scott Card
- Nine Lives by Ursula K. LeGuin
- The Skull of the Marquis de Sade by Robert Bloch
- Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood by Charles de Lint
- The Price of Oranges by Nancy Kress
- If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy by F. M. Busby
- My Brother’s Keeper by Pat Cadigan
- The Thermals of August by Edward Bryant
- Paper Dragons by James P. Blaylock
- Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick
- Candles on the Pond by Sue Ellen Sloca
- Shaunessy Fong by William F. Wu
Axolotl Press
In 1989, Pulphouse Publishing acquired Axolotl Press (founded by John PelanJohn Pelan
John C. Pelan is an American author, editor and publisher in the small press science-fiction, weird and horror fiction genres.He first founded Axolotl Press in 1986 and published several volumes by authors such as Tim Powers, Charles de Lint, Michael Shea and James P. Blaylock. Following this, he...
in 1986) and began using it as an imprint. From 1989 through 1994, 26 titles were published using some form of the Axolotl name.
- 18. "Beggars in SpainBeggars in SpainBeggars in Spain is a 1993 science fiction novel by Nancy Kress.It was originally published as a novella in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and as a limited edition paperback by Axolotl Press in 1991. Kress expanded it, adding three new volumes and eventually two sequels, Beggars and...
" by Nancy KressNancy KressNancy Kress is an American science fiction writer. She began writing in 1976 but has achieved her greatest notice since the publication of her Hugo and Nebula-winning 1991 novella "Beggars in Spain" which was later expanded into a novel with the same title...
Other imprints
In addition to Axolotl, Pulphouse introduced Mystery Scene Press, which published a handful of mysteries in 1993, including the first two volumes in an Author's Choice series focused on mysteries. Pulphouse also used Writer's Notebook Press from 1990 through 1994 for four titles which focused on non-fictional aspects of the science fiction writing business.Mystery Scene Press Author's Choice Monthly
(Single Author Collections) (Trade Paperback $5.95 Limited Cloth $25.00)- Deceptions by Marcia Muller
- Stacked Deck by Bill Prozini
- Opening Shots by Stuart M. Kaminsky
- Mostly Murder by Joe Gores
- Dark Whispers and Other Stories by Ed Gorman
- Suspended Sentences by Brian Garfield
Mystery Scene Press Short Story Paperback
($1.95)- The People of the Peacock by Edward D. Hoch
- Eight Mile and Dequindre by Loren D. Estleman
- Lieutenant Harald and the Treasure Island Treasure & My Mother, My Daughter, Me by Margaret Maron
- Cat's-Paw plus Incident in a Neighborhood Tavern by Bill Pronzini
- Ride the Lightning by John Lutz
- Afraid all the Time by Nancy Pickard
- The Perfect Crime by Max Allen Collins
- The Reason Why by Ed Gorman
- Outlaw Blues by Teri White
- My Heart Cries for You! by Bill Crider
Legacy
Pulphouse collapsed after wildly over-expanding the number of titles published every year, including several commercially unviable lines (such as the Short Story Paperback/Hardback line), leaving at least one title (Harlan EllisonHarlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
's Ellison Under Glass) paid for but undelivered.
In the Fall of 1996, Jerry Oltion
Jerry Oltion
Jerry Oltion is a science fiction author from Eugene, Oregon, known for numerous novels and short stories, including books in the Star Trek series...
published an anthology entitled Buried Treasure, subtitled "An Anthology of Unpublished Pulphouse Stories," which, with the approval of Rusch and Smith, was designed to look like an issue of Pulphouse Hardback.
Many of the authors who got their start publishing in Pulphouse publications or working for Rusch and Smith have gone on to have successful careers as science fiction and fantasy authors. Some authors who debuted in Pulphouse magazines include Adam-Troy Castro
Adam-Troy Castro
Adam-Troy Castro is a science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer living in Miami, FL. He has more than eighty stories to his credit and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker. These stories include four Spider-Man novels, including the Sinister Six trilogy,...
and Marina Fitch. Oltion and Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.-Profile:Hoffman started publishing short stories in 1975. Her first nationally published short story appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in 1983...
were also closely connected to Pulphouse