Andy Duncan, an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer, will be reading from his work on Thursday, Feb. 6, at 5 p.m., in Combs 139. A signing will follow the reading. The reading is free and open to the public.
Duncan’s work frequently deals with Southern U.S. themes. He was born in Batesburg, S.C. and graduated from high school from W.W. Wyman King Academy. He earned a degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina and worked for seven years at the Greensboro News & Record.
His novelette “Close Encounters” won the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novelette. “Close Encounters” is included in The Pottawatomie Giant and Other Stories.
He won the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and two World Fantasy Awards, and was nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award. The Night Cache was nominated in the Best Novella category for a 2010 World Fantasy Award.
Duncan earned an M.A. in creative writing (fiction) from North Carolina State University and an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Alabama. Duncan also attended Clarion West in 1994.
His fiction has appeared in a number of venues, including Asimov’s Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, SciFiction, and Escape Pod. He has also published poetry, essays, and reviews.
His fiction has received much critical praise. Mark Kelly in Locus has described Duncan as “One of SF and fantasy’s most distinctive voices.” According to Craig Jacobsen in SFRA Review, “ If Harper Lee and Gene Wolfe had a love child, Andy Duncan is it.” Mark Wingenfeld, in The New York Review of Science Fictioni asserts that “All of his stories ring true, as if they had the whole weight of human history behind them.”
Duncan currently lives with his wife Sydney in Frostburg, Md., and he teaches English and creative writing at Frostburg State University.
This event is sponsored by: The Department of English, Linguistics, & Communication; The Department of Modern Languages and Literature; Simpson Library and The Writing Intensive Program and the Writing Center.