Jeff VanderMeer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jeff VanderMeer
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | July 7, 1968 (age 56) Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupation |
|
| Genre | Speculative fiction Fantasy Metafiction Horror Science fiction Weird fiction |
| Literary movement | New Weird |
| Notable awards | Nebula Award for Best Novel, Shirley Jackson Award, World Fantasy Award |
| Spouse | Ann VanderMeer |
Jeff VanderMeer (born July 7, 1968) is an American writer, editor, and critic. He is known for his unique stories that often blend different types of fiction. He became very popular with his bestselling Southern Reach Series. The first book in this series, Annihilation, won important awards like the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards. It was even made into a Hollywood movie by director Alex Garland.
Some of VanderMeer's other well-known novels include Shriek: An Afterword and Borne. He has also worked with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, to edit many influential books, such as The New Weird and The Big Book of Science Fiction. People have called VanderMeer "one of the most amazing writers of fantasy in America today." The New Yorker magazine even called him the "King of Weird Fiction."
VanderMeer's writing is special because his stories don't always fit into one specific genre. They often mix ideas from postmodernism, ecofiction (stories about nature), New Weird fiction, and post-apocalyptic fiction (stories about the world after a big disaster). His writing has been described as "evocative," meaning it makes you feel strong emotions. It also contains "deep and sometimes unsettling ideas." His work has been compared to famous authors like Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka, and Henry David Thoreau.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Jeff VanderMeer was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania in 1968. He spent a lot of his childhood in the Fiji Islands. His parents worked there for the Peace Corps, helping people in other countries. After living in Fiji, he moved back to the United States. He spent time in Ithaca, New York, and Gainesville, Florida.
He studied at the University of Florida for three years. In 1992, he took part in the Clarion Writers Workshop. This is a special program for writers. When VanderMeer was 20, he read a book called The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter. He said this book "blew the back of my head off, rewired my brain." It made him want to write better and be more daring with his own stories.
Career
Writing Stories
VanderMeer started writing in the late 1980s when he was still in high school. He quickly wrote many stories for smaller magazines. During this time, he wrote a lot of horror and fantasy short stories. Some of these were put together in his self-published book The Book of Frog (1989) and The Book of Lost Places (1996). He also wrote poetry and edited a self-published magazine called Jabberwocky.
One of VanderMeer's early successful books was his 2001 collection of short stories, City of Saints and Madmen. These stories were set in an imaginary city called Ambergris. Several of his later novels also took place in Ambergris. These include Shriek: An Afterword (2006) and Finch (2009). Finch was even nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel. In 2000, his shorter novel, The Transformation of Martin Lake, won the World Fantasy Award.
VanderMeer has also worked on projects in other media. A movie based on his novel Shriek was planned, and the rock band The Church created music for it. The band Murder By Death also recorded music for his book Finch. VanderMeer wrote a Predator tie-in novel for Dark Horse Comics called Predator: South China Seas. He also worked with animator Joel Veitch on a PlayStation animation of his story "A New Face in Hell."
The Southern Reach Series
In 2014, a publisher called Farrar, Straus and Giroux released VanderMeer's Southern Reach Series. This series includes three novels: Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. The story is about a secret agency that sends teams into a mysterious place called Area X. Area X is an empty part of the United States that nature has started to take over after a strange event changed the world.
VanderMeer has said that his hikes through St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge inspired Area X and the series. He also mentioned that the book The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos influenced him.
The original three books were released very quickly, within an 8-month period. This was a new idea, like how Netflix releases TV shows. This strategy helped the second and third books become New York Times bestsellers. It also made VanderMeer known as "one of the most forward-thinking authors of the decade."
The series received many honors. Annihilation won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards for Best Novel. The whole series was also a finalist for the 2015 World Fantasy Award. Annihilation was also made into a film by writer and director Alex Garland. The movie stars famous actors like Natalie Portman, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Oscar Isaac.
Later Writing
In 2017, VanderMeer released Borne. This novel is about a scavenger named Rachel who tries to survive in a city that has become wild and strange. She also has to deal with a five-story-tall flying bear named Mord. Like the Southern Reach trilogy, Borne was highly praised. The Guardian newspaper said VanderMeer's recent work explores how living things change and the connections between them. Publishers Weekly said the novel feels like a message from a world that mixes science fiction, myths, and video games. They also said that with Borne, VanderMeer has created a new type of literature called "weird literature."
Paramount Pictures has bought the rights to make Borne into a film. In August 2017, VanderMeer released a shorter novel called The Strange Bird: A Borne Story. This story is set in the same world as Borne but features different characters. Dead Astronauts, another novel set in the Borne universe, came out on December 3, 2019. A stand-alone novel, Hummingbird Salamander, was published on April 6, 2021.
Teaching Creative Writing
VanderMeer has also taught creative writing. He is involved with Shared Worlds, a two-week program that teaches creative writing to teenagers every year. He has also taught at the Clarion Workshop and at Trinity Prep School. Besides teaching, VanderMeer has written guides on how to write creatively. One of these is Wonderbook, which won several awards, including a BSFA Award and a Locus Award.
Personal Life
In 2003, Jeff VanderMeer married Ann Kennedy. At that time, she was an editor for a small press and a magazine. As of 2018, the couple lives in Tallahassee, Florida. They have two cats, and one of them is named Neo.
Awards and Recognition
Jeff VanderMeer has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award 14 times. He has also won an NEA-funded Florida Individual Writers' Fellowship. He received the Le Cafard Cosmique award in France and the Tähtifantasia Award in Finland, both for his book City of Saints. He has also been a finalist for many other awards, including the Hugo Award, Bram Stoker Award, and Philip K. Dick Award. His novels like Veniss Underground and Shriek: An Afterword have been listed among the best books of the year by Amazon.com, The Austin Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Publishers Weekly.
Here are some of his other awards:
- 2000 – World Fantasy Award for his shorter novel The Transformation of Martin Lake
- 2003 – World Fantasy Award for his book Leviathan 3 (with Forrest Aguirre)
- 2009 – World Fantasy Award nomination for Finch
- 2009 – Nebula Award nomination for Best Novel for Finch
- 2012 – World Fantasy Award for his book The Weird (with Ann VanderMeer)
- 2013 – BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction for Wonderbook
- 2013 – Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction for Wonderbook
- 2013 – Hugo Award nomination for Wonderbook
- 2013 – World Fantasy Award nomination for Wonderbook
- 2014 – Nebula Award for Best Novel for Annihilation
- 2014 – Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel for Annihilation
See also
In Spanish: Jeff VanderMeer para niños
