Linda Addison (poet) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Linda D. Addison
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Linda Addison in 2014
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| Born | September 8, 1952 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Education | Carnegie Mellon University (BS) |
| Occupation | Writer |
Linda D. Addison (born September 8, 1952) is an American poet and writer. She creates exciting stories and poems in the genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Linda Addison is famous for being the first African-American person to win the Bram Stoker Award. She has won this important award five times!
Her winning works include poetry collections like Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (2001) and Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (2007). Her collection How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend won in 2011. She also won for The Four Elements, which she wrote with Marge Simon, Rain Graves, and Charlee Jacob. Her fifth award was for The Place of Broken Things, written with Alessandro Manzetti. Linda Addison is also a founding member of a writing group called CITH.
Contents
Growing Up and Education
Linda Addison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 8, 1952. She was the oldest of nine children. Her parents were Janet Marie Webster and J. Decarsta Webster.
She went to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied there from 1970 to 1975. She earned a degree in Mathematics.
In 1975, she moved to New York City with her fiancé, Ken Addison. She started working at RCA Records. Linda and Ken married in 1975. Their son, Brian, was born in 1982.
Her Writing Journey
Linda Addison's writing career began to take off in the 1990s.
Early Stories and Poems
In 1996, her short story "Little Red in the Hood" was published. It appeared in a magazine called Tomorrow Speculative Fiction. This story was also recognized as an "Honorable Mention" in a yearly book called Year's Best Fantasy and Horror in 1997.
While at Carnegie Mellon, Linda became a big fan of science fiction author Isaac Asimov. She often sent her short stories to Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Another science fiction writer, Frederik Pohl, gave her a tip. He said that to get published in science fiction, "everyone has to write a how the dinosaurs died story."
Linda took his advice. She turned a short story idea into a poem called "Why the Dinosaurs Died." This poem was published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1997. She had four more pieces published in Asimov's magazine between 1997 and 1999.
In 1997, she released her first collection of writings. It was called Animated Objects. This book included her science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories, along with journal entries and poems.
Important Collections and Awards
An African-American editor named Sheree Thomas asked for stories from African-American writers. This led to a very important book series called Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction From the African Diaspora. Linda Addison's work was included in this series. Other famous writers like Octavia E. Butler and Samuel Delaney were also featured. Her work also appeared in Dark Dreams and Dark Thirst.
Linda Addison created the poetry collection Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes. This book won a Bram Stoker Award. This made her the first African American to win this award. The first time she signed copies of this book was on September 11, 2001, at a Barnes & Noble store in Rockefeller Center.
In 2007, her third book of poetry was released. It was called Being Full of Light, Insubstantial. This book also won a Bram Stoker Award. Linda was inspired to write it after her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, a serious illness that affects memory. She felt a strong urge to write 100 poems. This collection included both new and older poems. She finished her 100th poem on March 14, 2007.
Working with Others
Linda Addison is a member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA). She has been part of discussions with other well-known writers like Harlan Ellison. She was honored as "Poet Guest of Honor" at The World Horror Convention in 2005. She has also read her work at the Fantastic Fiction Reading Series in New York City.
Her writing has been featured in Essence Magazine. She is currently the poetry editor for Space and Time Magazine.
In March 2012, Linda Addison won her third Bram Stoker Award. This was for her book How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend. This collection had new poems, old poems, and short stories.
In 2013, she won her fourth HWA Bram Stoker Award for The Four Elements. This poetry collection was inspired by the idea of the four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Linda talked with another writer about female Bram Stoker Award winners. She then asked three other award-winning female authors to choose their "element." Marge Simon chose Earth, Rain Graves chose Water, Charlee Jacob chose Fire, and Linda Addison chose Air.
In 2020, she won her fifth HWA Bram Stoker Award. This was for The Place of Broken Things, a poetry collection she wrote with Alessandro Manzetti. Her story, Shadow Dreams, was published in March 2021 in a book called Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda.
Personal Life
Linda Addison ended her marriage with Ken Addison in 1995. In 1995, she started a relationship with horror writer Gerard Houarner. They married in 2004 but ended their marriage in 2015. She now lives near Tucson, Arizona.
Awards and Honors
- She has won the HWA Bram Stoker Award five times.
- In 2018, she received the Horror Writers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in 2017.
- In 2020, she was named SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry.
