About
(For more information, visit Jeff’s Wikipedia entry.)
Widely regarded as one of the world’s best fantasists, Jeff VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and spent six months traveling through Asia, Africa, and Europe before returning to the United States. These travels have deeply influenced his fiction. He is the recipient of an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for excellence in fiction and a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. VanderMeer’s book-length fiction has been translated into 20 languages, while his short fiction has appeared in several year’s best anthologies and short-listed for Best American Short Stories.
VanderMeer has collaborated on short films with rock groups like The Church, is in the preliminary stages of collaboration with Ben Templesmith, co-creator of 30 Days of Night, has had his fiction adapted for promotional purposes by Playstation Europe (by filmmaker Joel Veitch), and writes for the Amazon book blog and The Washington Post. His online nonfiction has been name-checked frequently by the likes of the LA Times, Boing Boing, and many more. A two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award, VanderMeer has also been a finalist for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. His most recent books have made the year’s best lists of Publishers Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Weekly, Publishers’ News, and Amazon.com. He has lectured at MIT and the Library of Congress, among many others.
His wife Ann VanderMeer was the fiction editor for Weird Tales for five years and won the Hugo for her work there. She is also an award-winning publisher, and co-editor with Jeff on Best American Fantasy, Fast Ships, Black Sails (pirates), Steampunk, New Weird, The Weird, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, and many more. Together, they have taught writing workshops and given lectures all over the world. This literary “power couple” (Boing Boing) has been profiled on Wired.com, NYT blog, and on national NPR.
Ann and Jeff live in Tallahassee, Florida, with four cats.
For queries re foreign rights or reprint rights, please query Jeff’s agent, Sally Harding, at the Cooke Agency. You can also query Jeff using the feedback form.
Jeff VanderMeer is a two-time winner, 12-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award as a fiction writer, editor, and publisher. The final novel in his Ambergris Cycle, Finch,was published in 2009 and was a finalist for the Locus Award, Nebula Award, and World Fantasy Award. The Steampunk Bible came out in 2011. Recent books coedited with his wife Ann include The Weird and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. His writer guide Booklife and associated Booklifenow website focus on sustainable creativity and he his currently working on a unique illustrated guide to writing entitled Wonderbook. His short fiction has appeared in Conjunctions, Library of America's American Fantastic Tales, and several year's best anthologies. He writes nonfiction for The Washington Post Book World, Omnivoracious, The New York Times Book Review, the B&N Review, the LA Times, The Guardian, and many others. He has lectured at MIT and the Library of Congress and helps run the Shared Worlds teen SF/Fantasy writing camp out of Wofford College. VanderMeer recently completed the first novel in the Southern Reach series, titled Annihilation.