Curriculum Vitae

Biography

I was born September 4, 1962 in Brandon Manitoba. My family are Mennonites, part of a community which has lived in southern Manitoba for over one hundred years. I am the second science fiction writer to come out of this small community -- the first was A.E. van Vogt!

I moved to Toronto in 1986 to pursue my writing career. I married Janice Beitel in April 2001, on the shore of the Indian Ocean, Kalbarri Western Australia, and our daughter Paige was born in May 2003.

I divide my time between writing fiction and consulting--chiefly in the area of Foresight Studies and technology.

Fiction Writing

Novels and Collections

• The Claus Effect
  With David Nickle; published by Tesseract Books, fall 1997.
• Ventus
  Tor books, December 2000. Ventus was declared a New York Times Notable book in 2001, and was short-listed for the Sunburst Award.
• Permanence
  Tor Books, June 2002. Permanence won the 2003 Aurora Award for best Canadian SF novel.
• Lady of Mazes
  Tor Books, July 2005. Lady was chosen by the Sci Fi channel as its August, 2005 Sci Fi Essentials book.
• The Engine of Recall
  Red Deer Press, April 2005.
• Crisis in Zefra, Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts, National Defense Canada; November 2005.
• Sun of Suns
  Tor Books, October 2006.

French Editions

• Ventus,
  Editions Denoel, France, published June, 2002. (Two-volume trade paper)
• Mass-market single-volume edition, Editions Gallimard, December 2005.

Nonfiction Books

• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Science Fiction, MacMillan; written with Cory Doctorow; August, 2000.

Other Languages

• Ventus was published in Russian by AST Press, Moscow, in 2002. A Lithuanian edition is forthcoming.

Short Story Publications

• "The Great Worm"
  Pierian Spring, Fall 1983. This story won the Pierian Spring Best Story award, 1982.
• "The Pools of Air"
  Tesseracts3 anthology, Press Porcepic, 1991.
• "Hopscotch"
  On Spec magazine, summer 1992 issue; reprinted in
  On Spec: The First Five Years, Tesseract Books, 1995. Nominated for a 1993 Aurora award.
• "The Toy Mill"
  Tesseracts4 anthology, Beach Holme Press, 1992. Winner of the 1993 (with David Nickle) Aurora award in the Best Short Work in English category; reprinted in Tor Books'
  Christmas Magic anthology, 1994.
• "Solitaire"
  Figment magazine; cover story for Fall/Winter 1992 issue. Reprinted in the April 1997 issue of
  Cosmic Visions (Cosmic Visions Vol. 2 #2).
• "The Cold Convergence"
  Figment magazine, spring 1993 issue. Reprinted in the July 1997 issue of
  Cosmic Visions (Cosmic Visions Vol. 2 #5). Won the Context '89 fiction contest.
• "Making Ghosts"
  On Spec, Hard SF Issue, spring 1994; translated into French for publication in Solaris, scheduled for late 2002.
• "The Engine of Recall"
  Aboriginal SF, Winter, 1997 issue.
• "Ball of Blood"
  Horrors! 365 Scary Stories anthology (Barnes and Noble, 1997).
• "Halo"
  Tesseracts 5 anthology, Tesseract Books, 1996.
• "Dawn"
  Tesseracts 7 anthology, Tesseract Books, Spring, 1999.
• "The Dragon of Pripyat"
  Tesseracts 8 anthology, Tesseract Books, Fall, 1999. Reprinted in
  The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Edition, ed. by Gardner Dozois, 2000; translated into French for Bifrost magazine (see below).
• "Allegiances"
  The Touch: Epidemic of the Millennium, Steven-Elliot Altman (Editor), Patrick Merla (Editor), iBooks, 2000.

Publications in French

• "Le Dragon de Pripiat", Bifrost (La revue des mondes imaginaires) 26, Spring, 2002.
"Profession: Batisseur de Mondes", Bifrost 27, Summer 2002.

Dramatic Writing

• A Mourning Place SF play, part of a play cycle written by the members of the Cecil Street Workshop. Given public reading on March 25 and April 2, 1993 at Solar Stage in North York.

Other Writing

• "Traitor to Both Sides"
  The New York Review of Science Fiction, April 2005.
• "Merry Christmas, You Ungrateful Bastards"
  On Spec Summer 1993. An article on the Writing of "The Toy Mill".
• "Warm Fuzziness: Quantum Mechanics and the New Age"
  Transforum, August 1993. Criticism of "The Tao of Physics".
• "Worldbuilding"
  On the art of creating fictional worlds, primarily fantastic worlds that have to support strong stories. This article has been widely linked to and circulated on the internet, to strong favourable reviews. A French version of it is available in Bifrost 27, entitled "Profession: Batisseur de Mondes".
• "Traitor to Both Sides", The New York Review of Science Fiction, TBP.

Awards

• Permanence won the 2003 Aurora Award for Best Long Work, English (novel). The Aurora Award is Canada's top award for SF and Fantasy; it is voted for by the general public.
• Two of my novels, Ventus and Permanence have been short-listed for the Sunburst Award. In addition, Permanence was one of the top 12 novels nominated for the 2003 Hugo Award.
• "The Cold Convergence" (then titled "Live Wire") won the Context '89 Short Story contest. Jurors included Charles de Lint.
• "The Toy Mill" won the 1993 Aurora award for best short work in English, at the 1993 Aurora awards ceremony, Wolfville Nova Scotia, Sunday March 14, 1993. The story "Hopscotch" was also nominated in this category.

Interviews

• Small World podcast interview, Feb. 1, 2006. One of the most engaging and far-ranging interviews that I've had the pleasure to do.
• Locus Magazine, May 2003. A three-page interivew with photos. My picture appeared on the cover.
• Challenging Destiny, Number 15, December 2002.
• SF Revu, November 2002.
• SFSite, June 2002.
• SF Magazine (France), Spring 2003.

Seminars, Colloquia and Consulting (Foresight Studies)

• Scenario designer, facilitator, presenter and writer for Prospective Protective Futures workshop at DRDC, Shirley's Bay, Ottawa, March 27-29th 2006. This was a foresight exercise for security experts, attended by about 60 people. It was highly successful, and I managed to have a hand in all the critical exercises and activities.
• Contracted to write a dramatization, “Crisis in Zefra”, for the Defence R&D Canada (May-June 2004). This dramatization is a novella-length scenario detailing what military operations might be like in thirty years.
• Facilitator and scenario author for the 2004 NRC Foresight symposium, March 21-22nd 2004, held at NRC headquarters in Ottawa. This year's topic was the future of biotech and health care in Canada.
• Canada 2025, a two-day workshop held by the "Science and Technology Foresight Pilot Project" of the National Research Council, March 19 and 20, 2003, NRC headquarters, Ottawa. I was one of 80 specialists from all numerous professions called upon to make predictions about where Canada will be in 2025. Our predictions were presented as a policy paper to Cabinet.
• One of four panelists in a two-day colloquium with some of 2002's Canadian Millennium Scholarship laureates. The Millennium Excellence Awards National Conference, which has the title Think Again 2002 -- Exploring New Paths, took place in Ottawa, Ontario on September 27-28th, 2002.

Invited Talks and Readings

• Keynote speaker at 2004 Defense R&D Canada Science and Technology symposium, April 21-22, 2004. The theme of the symposium was "Computers Everywhere and in Everything". My keynote speech was on Imagined Worlds.
• Keynote speaker at the 2004 NRC Foresight symposium, March 21-22nd 2004, held at NRC headquarters in Ottawa. This year's topic was the future of biotech and health care in Canada.
• I was invited to address members of the American Library Association at their annual convention. The seminar, held on June 21, 2003 was very well attended (over a hundred in the audience). A written version of my talk subsequently appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction under the title "Traitor to Both Sides".
• Invited participant at the 2003 Science Fiction Research Association annual meeting, held in Guelph, Ontario, June 22, 2003.
• I am regularly invited to give readings and sit on panels at science fiction conventions across the continent and internationally. Since 2000, I've attended the annual World Science Fiction convention (held in places as diverse as Glasgow, San Jose and Toronto). I have also been a regular guest at Toronto's Ad Astra convention for many years.

Broadcasting

• Since 1998, numerous appearances on the Canadian Space Channel's Shelf Space, a regular spot that appears between regularly scheduled programs.
• The Space channel did a special on the making of the televised version of Frank Herbert's Dune. In my part of the special I talk about how Herbert's novel was one of the first in SF to use the ideas of the then-new science of ecology.
• CBC National Magazine Interview: I was interviewed by Hannah Gartner for the national news program Magazine on Christmas Eve, 1996. The subject of the interview was futurism and prediction. The other interviewee was consultant and futurist Frank Ogden. The interview was eight minutes long, and served to end a half-hour special program on Canada in 30 years.
• I was interviewed by Magic 100, an Ottawa radio station on July 8, 1997 regarding the Mars Pathfinder mission.
• Grand Illusions: The Story of Magic: Magic In Literature, Discovery Channel series, 1998 (Wilson Coneybear, producer). I was extensively interviewed for this episode of the popular series; its most recent airing on Canadian TV was August 5, 2002.

  Other known Canadian air dates: June 9, 1999; June 12, 1999; June 13, 1999.

Editorial Work

• Co-editor of Communique, the official publication of SF Canada, 1991.
• Guest editor for the Hard SF issue of On Spec, spring 1994.

Teaching

• George Brown College Writing SF & Fantasy, ELS 9390 (continuing education), Spring, 1992-Fall 1994.
• World Science Fiction Convention Annual Writer's Workshop, San Jose, August 30-Sept. 2 2002.

Service to the Writing Community

• Founding member, SF Canada. Vice-president 1994-95; President, 1996-97.
• Since 1988, I have hosted dozens of writing retreats and workshops for new and established writers in SF, fantasy and horror. The main venue for the retreats has been Hart House Farm, a 200 acre estate in the beautiful rolling countryside of the Caledon Hills in Ontario.
• Pioneered use of the Internet to bring SF writers together in a growing on-line community. In 1992 I created the SF Canada listserver, which unites members of this organization worldwide.
• Created listservers for alumni of Clarion (the US national SF writer's workshop) and the francophone SF community.
• In spring 1995 I created the SF Canada web site as a central clearing house for information on Canadian SF, and as a home for members' web pages, maintained for them as an SF Canada service free of cost.

Professional Affiliations

• Active Member, SFWA
• Elected president of SF Canada on July 21, 1996 at the organization's annual general meeting, held at ConVersion XIII in Calgary. I had previously been elected vice president at the Ad Astra 12 Science Fiction convention in April, 1993.
• Founding Member, SF Canada

How to Reach Me

You can send me e-mail at karlds@rogers.com. If you have a professional query about my work, please contact my agent, Donald Maass.

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Personal Note

This is a view along one of the paths at Hart House Farm. The Farm is a 200 acre estate owned by the University of Toronto. I have a membership, and have been hosting writing retreats here for fifteen years now. The award-winning story The Toy Mill was written here by me and David Nickle.