Lucius Shepard

Template:Main otherTemplate:Wikidata image Lucius Shepard (August 21, 1943 – March 18, 2014) was an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leaned into other genres, such as magical realism.

Career

Shepard was a native of Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was born in 1943. His first short stories appeared in 1983, and his first novel, Green Eyes, appeared in 1984. At the time, he was considered part of the cyberpunk movement. Shepard came to writing late, having first enjoyed a varied career, including a stint playing rock and roll in the Midwest and extensive travel throughout Europe and Asia. Algis Budrys, reviewing Green Eyes, praised Shepard's "ease of narrative style that comes only from a profound love and respect for the language and the literatures that have graced it."

Lucius Shepard won several awards for his science fiction: in 1985 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, followed in 1987 with a Nebula Award for Best Novella for his story "R&R". This story later became part of his 1987 novel Life During Wartime, which won the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis in 1990. His novella "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" won a Hugo Award in 1993. His poem "White Trains" won the Rhysling Award in 1988. Two early collections of short stories won the World Fantasy Award for best collection: The Jaguar Hunter in 1988 and The Ends of the Earth Collection in 1992. His novella "Vacancy" won a Shirley Jackson Award in 2008.

Lucius Shepard resided in Portland, Oregon.

Themes and evolution

Template:Ref section Shepard embraced many different themes throughout his career. In his early work, he wrote extensively about Central America. This included clearly science-fictional stories about near future high-tech jungle war (such as "R&R" and "Salvador"), as well as stories that seemed more in line with magic realism. Many of these, such as "Black Coral" (which concerns an American living on an island off of Honduras) and "The Jaguar Hunter" (the story of a man whose wife's debt forces him to hunt a mythical black jaguar, which his people consider sacred), explore cultural clashes. Shepard traveled extensively in Central America and lived there for a time.

Shepard stopped writing fiction for much of the 1990s.Template:Why He returned near the end of that decade, producing such works as the novella Radiant Green Star, which won a Locus Award for Best Novella in 2001. Though he still wrote Central American fiction, Shepard's interest seemed to be moving north: he published two short novels, "A Handbook of American Prayer" and "Viator", both set in North America. On that same note, he published many works where culture and geography were secondary (his novella "Jailwise" is a prime example), preferring to focus on wider questions such as the role of justice in society.

Much of Shepard's later work was nonfiction. He researched the Freight Train Riders of America and spent time riding the rails, writing both fiction and nonfiction based on those experiences. He was also a regular movie reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and electricstory.com. His reviews are marked by general contempt for the current state of American film.

According to fellow author James Patrick Kelly, Shepard was an avid sports fan who often used dramatic sports moments as inspiration to write.

In the summer of 2008, Shepard moved to Neuchatel, Switzerland in order to work on several screenplays. He served on the jury of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) with the American director Joe Dante.

He died in March 2014 at the age of 70 of complications from a stroke.

Bibliography

Short fiction

Collections

Stories

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected	Notes
"All the perfumes of Araby"	1992			Novelette
"The All-Consuming"	1990
"The Arcevoalo"	1986			Novelette
Ariel	2003			Novella
Aymara	1986			Novelette
AZTECHS	2001			Novella/chapbook
Barnacle Bill the Spacer	1992			Novella
"Beast of the heartland"	1992
"The black clay boy"	1987
"Black coral"	1984
"Bound for glory"	1989
"Chango"	1989
Crocodile rock	1999			Novella
Dagger Key	2007			Novella
"Dancing it all away at Nadoka"	1986
"Delta Sly Honey"	1987
Dog-eared paperback of my life	2009			Novella
The drive-in Puerto Rico	2002			Novella
"The end of life as we know it"	1985
"The ends of the Earth"	1989
Eternity and afterward	2001			Novella
"The etheric transmitter"	1984
"The exercise of faith"	1987
The Father of Stones	1989			Novella/Chapbook
"Fire Zone Emerald"	1986
"The fundamental things"	1985
"The glassblower's dragon"	1987
Halloween Town	2009			Novella
"... How my heart breaks when I sing this song ..."	1985
"How the wind spoke at Madaket"	1985
Human history	1995			Novella
"Jack's decline"	1988
"The jaguar hunter"	1985
"Jail bait"	2004			Novelette
Kalimantan	1990			Novella/Chapbook
The last time	1994			Novella/Chapbook
Liar's house	2003			Novella/Chapbook; "The Dragon Griaule"
"Life of Buddha"	1988
"A little night music"	1992
Louisiana breakdown	2003			Novella
"The man who painted the Dragon Griaule"	1984	F&SF, December 1984		"The Dragon Griaule"
"Mengele"	1985
"The night of White Bhairab"	1984	F&SF, October 1984
"Noman's land"	1988	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Oct 1988
"On the border"	1987	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, August 1987
"A personal matter"	1993	Amazing Stories, July 1993		Excerpt from The Golden
Pizza man	1996
"R & R"	1986	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1986
"Radiant green star"	2000	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, August 2000
"Reaper"	1984	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1984
"Romance of the Century"	2000
"Salvador"	1984	F&SF, April 1984	The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection, ed. Gardner Dozois
The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter	1988		Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 1988	Novella/Chapbook
"Shades"	1987		Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1987
The skull	2012	Subterranean Press		Novella
"Skull City"	1990	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1990
"Solitario's eyes"	1983	F&SF, September 1983
"A Spanish lesson"	1985	F&SF, December 1985
"Sparring partner"	2001	Playboy, March 2001
"Sports in America"	1991	Playboy, July 1991
Stars seen through stone	2007	F&SF, July 2007		Novella
"The storming of Annie Kinsdale"	1984	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, September 1984
"The sun spider"	1987	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1987
"Surrender"	1989			Novelette
The Taborin Scale	2010	Subterranean Press		Novella
"The Taylorsville reconstruction"	1983
A traveler's tale	1984			Novella
Valentine	2002	Four Walls Eight Windows		Novella
"Victory"	1992	Omni, May 1992
"Voyage south from Thousand Willows"	1986
A walk in the garden	2003			Novelette
"The way it sometimes happens"	1988	Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1988
"A wooden tiger"	1988	F&SF, October 1988
"Youthful folly"	1988	Omni, November 1988

Poetry

Chapbooks

List of poems

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
Cantata of death, weakmind & generation	1967
Challenger as viewed from the Westerbrook Bar	1986
Pictures made of stones	1987
White trains	1987

Film reviews

Film title	Director	Reviewed in
X-Men	Bryan Singer
Lost Souls	Janusz Kaminski
Iron Man	Jon Favreau
District 9	Neill Blomkamp
9	Shane Acker
Jennifer's Body	Karyn Kusama
Pandorum	Christian Alvart
The Adjustment Bureau	George Nolfi
Paul	Greg Mottola
Battle: Los Angeles	Jonathan Liebesman

Comics

• Shepard, Lucius (w) Vermillion ().
• Shepard, Lucius (w), James Romberger, Marguerite Van Cook (a). [[[:Template:If empty]] ""] Gangland, no.  (). Vertigo.

Critical studies and reviews of Shepard's work

Beautiful blood

Five autobiographies and a fiction

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Notes

External links

• Template:Isfdb name
• A more complete bibliography
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Louisiana Breakdown
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Two Trains Running
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About The Golden (trade paperback reprint)