Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 20:12, 18 August 2009

John C. Wright (John Charles Justin Wright, born 1961) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy novels. A Nebula award finalist (for the fantasy novel Orphans of Chaos), he was called "this fledgling century's most important new SF talent" by Publishers Weekly (after publication of his debut novel, The Golden Age).

Personal History

A former attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, he graduated from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary in 1987. As an undergraduate, he studied the Great Books program at St. John's College of Maryland in 1984. He was admitted to the practice of law in three jurisdictions (New York, May 1989; Maryland, December 1990; Washington, DC, January 1994). His law practice was unsuccessful and drove him into bankruptcy soon thereafter. He then worked for the newspaper St. Mary's Today. He currently works as a technical writer in Virginia, where he lives with his wife, fellow author L. Jagi Lamplighter (St. John's College of Maryland, class of 1985), and their three children, named Orville, Roland, and Justinian Wright. At the age of 42, Wright converted from atheism to Christianity. In 2008 he converted to the Roman Catholic Church of which he approvingly stated "If Vulcans had a church, they'd be Catholics." For several years Wright has made regular posts to a LiveJournal page on many topics, especially sci-fi, writing, economics, politics, and culture in general, often sparking lively debates and occasional controversy.

On July 29, 2009, Wright posted an entry in his blog entitled More Diversity and More Perversity in the Future! where he criticized SyFy's promises of more diversity in programming, calling homosexuality an "abomination". After much backlash, threats of boycotts, and his complaining about people mentioning this entry on Misplaced Pages, Wright deleted the original post from his blog. However, cartoonist Pab Sungenis of The New Adventures of Queen Victoria and other bloggers managed to preserve Wright's original post and have posted mirrors of it.

Novels

The Golden Age

• The Golden Age (2002)
• The Phoenix Exultant (2003)
• The Golden Transcendence (2003)

War of the Dreaming

• Last Guardian of Everness (2004)
• Mists of Everness (2005)

Chronicles of Chaos

• Orphans of Chaos (2005)
• Fugitives of Chaos (2006)
• Titans of Chaos (2007)

Other Novels

• Null-A Continuum (sequel to The World of Null-A, 2008)

Stories in the Night Land setting

• "Awake in the Night," (novella) William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love, edited by Andy W. Robertson, Wildside Press (December 2003).
• "The Cry of the Night Hound," (novella) William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Nightmares of the Fall, also edited by Robertson (August 2007).
• "Silence of the Night", as of 2008 only published here at Robertson's thenightland.co.uk website.
• "The Last of All Suns," (novella) William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Nightmares of the Fall.

Other publications

• "Farthest Man from Earth," (novella) Asimov's Science Fiction, Vol. 19 # 4 & 5, No.229-230, April 1995.
• "Guest Law," (novella) Asimov's Science Fiction, Vol. 21 # 6, No.258, June 1997.
  • Reprinted in Year's Best SF 3, ed. David G. Hartwell, HarperPrism, 1998, and in The Space Opera Renaissance.
• "Not Born a Man," (short story) Aberrations, #24, October 1994.
  • Reprinted in No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle, 2005.
• "Forgotten Causes," (short story) Absolute Magnitude, #16, Summer 2001.
  • Reprinted in Breach the Hull, ed. Mike McPhail, Marietta, 2007.
• "Father's Monument," (short story) No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle, 2005.
• "The Kindred," (short story) No Longer Dreams, ed. Danielle McPhail, Lite Circle, 2005.
• "Peter Power Armor," (short story) Breach the Hull, ed. Mike McPhail, Marietta, 2007.
• "Choosers of the Slain," (short story) Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, ed. Mike Allen, Norilana Books, 2008.
• "One Bright Star to Guide Them," (short story) The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Vol. 116, #4 & 5, Whole No. 682, April/May 2009.

Interviews

• Interview conducted by Nick Gevers of Locus Online
• Review at SFSignal, features a detailed account of Wright's conversion story in the comments below.
• John C. Wright- Libertarian -- Advocates for Self-Government
• Interview on the SciFiDimensions Podcast

External links

• Fantastic and Speculative Fiction by John C. Wright, a web site devoted to John C. Wright's publications
• John C. Wright's Journal his blog.

• John C. Wright at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

References

1. John C. Wright's Journal
2. Now they are slandering my Misplaced Pages page at John C. Wright's blog
3. Mirror of Wright's More Diversity and More Perversity in the Future!

• 1961 births
• Living people
• Science fiction writers
• American science fiction writers
• American fantasy writers
• St. John's College, U.S. alumni
• Marshall-Wythe School of Law alumni
• American Roman Catholics
• Converts to Roman Catholicism
• Former atheists and agnostics
• Roman Catholic converts from atheism or agnosticism