Ellen Asher

Ellen Asher became the editor of the Science Fiction Book Club in February, 1973, and held that position for thirty-four years and three months, thereby fulfilling her life's ambition of beating John W. Campbell's record as the person with the longest tenure in the same science fiction job. In 2001 she received the New England Science Fiction Association's Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark), of which she is inordinately proud. In 2007 she received a World Fantasy Award in the category Special Award: Professional for her work with the SFBC, which was, if anything, even more overwhelming. Shortly thereafter she was made a Fellow of NESFA. In April 2009, she became, in a minuscule way, a published author with a short essay in Nebula Awards Showcase 2009, edited by Ellen Datlow. In August 2009, Ellen Asher was announced as one of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winners for 2009.

Ellen Asher left the Book Club in June, 2007, and, although she does occasional freelance work, she now devotes most of her time to her hobbies: sleeping late, baking (and eating) cookies, riding horses, and reading things that aren't necessarily SF. Being retired is wonderful.

Charles N. Brown

1937-2009

Charles N. Brown died peacefully in his sleep on 12 July 2009, a few weeks after he had accepted Renovation's invitation to be one of our Guests of Honor. He is as irreplaceable in death as he was in life, and we shall therefore continue to honor him.

Charles N. Brown was involved in the science fiction field from the late 1940s and was best known as the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of 29-time Hugo winner Locus magazine which he founded in 1968. He was also the original book reviewer for Asimov's, edited several SF anthologies, and wrote for numerous magazines and newspapers. Charles Brown founded Locus in 1968 and has won more Hugos than anyone else. Also a freelance fiction editor for 40 years, many of the books he edited won awards. He travelled extensively and was regularly invited to appear on writing and editing panels at the major SF conventions around the world, was a frequent Guest of Honor and speaker and judge at writers' seminars, and was a jury member for several of the major SF awards.

The Locus website can be found at www.locusmag.com.

Tim Powers

Tim Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, on Leap Year Day in 1952, but has lived in southern California since 1959. He graduated from California State University at Fullerton with a B.A. in English in 1976; the same year saw the publication of his first two novels, The Skies Discrowned and Epitaph in Rust (both from Laser Books).

Powers' subsequent novels are The Drawing of the Dark (Del Rey, 1979), The Anubis Gates (Ace, 1983, winner of the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award and the Prix Apollo), Dinner at Deviant's Palace (Ace, 1985, winner of the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award), On Stranger Tides (Ace, 1987), The Stress of Her Regard (Ace, 1989, winner of the Mythopoeic Award), Last Call (Morrow, 1992, winner of the World Fantasy Award), Expiration Date (Tor, 1996), Earthquake Weather (Tor, 1997), Declare (Morrow, 2001, winner of the World Fantasy Award), and Three Days to Never (Morrow, 2006). He is also the author of a collection of short stories, Strange Itineraries (Tachyon, 2005).

Powers has taught at the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop at Michigan State University six times, and has for many years co-taught the Writers of the Future Workshop.

Powers is married, and lives with his wife, Serena, in San Bernardino, California. Tim's website can be found at www.theworksoftimpowers.com.

Boris Vallejo

Born in Lima, Peru, Boris Vallejo attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964.

He has since done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction and fantasy line. Boris has also illustrated for album covers, video box art and motion picture advertising.

His mastery of oil painting is immediately and abundantly clear to anyone who looks at his work, and his classic sense is as much homage to the old masters as it is to anyone contemporaneously working in the Fantasy genre.

For sheer dauntless bravura, few have ever pushed the limits as does Boris with his beautiful maidens and fearsome monsters.

Boris married Julie Bell in 1994. The two artists share their lives and their studio in Pennsylvania.

Boris & Julie's website can be found at www.imaginistix.com.