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Chris Beckett is a British social worker, university lecturer, and science fiction author. He has written several textbooks, dozens of short stories, and two novels.

Background

Beckett was educated at the Dragon School in Oxford and Bryanston School in Dorset, England. He holds a BSc (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Bristol (1977), a CQSW from the University of Wales (1981), a Diploma in Advanced Social Work from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1977), and an MA in English Studies from Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge (2005). He has been a senior lecturer in social work at APU since 2000. He was social worker for eight years and the manager of a children and families social work team for ten years. Beckett has authored or co-authored several textbooks and scholarly articles on social work.

Works

Beckett began writing science fiction short stories in 2005, and had his first science fiction novel, The Holy Machine, published in 2007. He published his second novel in 2009, Marcher, based on a short story of the same name. (The Holy Machine and Marcher were issued by Cosmos in 2009 as mass market paperbacks.) His third novel, Dark Eden, is a sequel — some five generations on — to the short story of the same name, and will be published in 2010. Paul Di Filippo reviewed The Holy Machine for Asimov's, calling it "One of the most accomplished novel debuts to attract my attention in some time...", and a review in Interzone by Tony Ballantyne declared, "Let’s waste no time: this book is incredible."

Beckett has written over 20 short stories, many of them originally published in Interzone and Asimov's. Several of his short stories have appeared among the top three favorites in Interzone's annual readers' polls. Several have also been selected for republication, including in volumes 9, 19, 20, and 23 of The Year's Best Science Fiction, volumes 5 and 6 of the Year's Best SF, Robots and A.I.s in the Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois Ace anthology series.

Bibliography

Novels

• Dark Eden, PS Publishing, 2010 (forthcoming)
• Marcher, Dorchester Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-0843961973
• The Holy Machine, Wildside Press, 2004, ISBN 978-1592242085

Short story collections

• The Turing Test, Elastic Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0955318184.
  It comprises: "Karel's Prayer", "Dark Eden", "The Perimeter", "Piccadilly Circus", "We Could be Sisters", "Monsters", "The Turing Test", "Snapshots of Apirania", "The Gates of Troy", "The Marriage of Sky and Sea", "Valour", "The Warrior Half-and-Half", "Jazamine in the Green Wood", and "La Macchina".

Short Stories

• "The Famous Cave Paintings on Isolus 9" (forthcoming)
• "Johnny's New Job" — originally published in Interzone (forthcoming)
• "Atomic Truth" — originally published in Asimov's (2009)
• "Greenland" — originally published in Interzone (2008)
• "Poppyfields" — originally published in Interzone (2008)
• "Rat Island" — originally published in Interzone (2008)
• "Karel's Prayer" — originally published in Interzone (2006)
• "Dark Eden" — originally published in Asimov's (2006)
• "The Perimeter" — originally published in Asimov's (2005); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
• "Picadilly Circus" — originally published in Interzone (2005); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Third Annual Collection (2006); reprinted in Russian in Esli magazine
• "We Could be Sisters" — originally published in Asimov's (2004)
• "Tammy Pendant" — originally published in Asimov's (2004)
• "Monsters" — originally published in Interzone (2003)
• "The Turing Test" — originally published in Interzone (2002); republished in A.I.s, edited by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, Ace Books (2004)
• "To Become a Warrior" — originally published in Interzone (2002); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twentieth Annual Collection (2003)
• "Watching the Sea" — originally published in Interzone (2001)
• "Marcher" — originally published in Interzone (2001); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Nineteenth Annual Collection (2002)
• "Snapshots of Apirania" — originally published in Interzone (2000)
• "The Welfare Man Retires" — originally published in Interzone (2000)
• "The Gates of Troy" — originally published in Interzone (2000)
• "The Marriage of Sky and Sea" — originally published in Interzone (2000); republished in Year's Best SF 6 (2001)
• "Valour" — originally published in Interzone (1999); republished in Year's Best SF 5 (2000)
• "The Warrior Half-and-Half" — originally published in Interzone (1995); republished in Year's Best SF 5 (2000); republished in The Ant Men of Tibet, edited by David Pringle, Big Engine Books (2001)
• "Jazamine in the Green Wood" — originally published in Interzone (1994)
• "The Welfare Man" — originally published in Interzone (1993); republished in The Best of Interzone, edited by David Pringle, Voyager (HarperCollins) (1997); truncated version published in Health and Disease: a Reader, Open University Press (1995)
• "The Circle of Stones" — originally published in Interzone (1992)
• "The Long Journey of Frozen Heart" — originally published in Interzone (1991)
• "La Macchina" — originally published in Interzone (1991); republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992); republished in Gedanken Fictions: Stories on Themes in Science, Technology and Society, edited by Thomas Easton, Wildside Press (2000); republished in Robots (2005)
• "A Matter of Survival" — originally published in Interzone (1990)

Textbooks

• Essential Theory for Social Work Practice, Sage, 2006
• Values and Ethics in Social Work: An Introduction, Sage, 2005 (co-written with Andrew Maynard)
• Social Work Assessment and Intervention in Social Work, Russell House, 2003 (co-written with Steven Walker)
• Child Protection: An Introduction, Sage, 2003; 2nd Edition, 2007
• Human Growth and Development, Sage, 2002

Interviews

• The October 2008 issue of Interzone contains an interview with the author by Andrew Hedgecock. The same issue contains three of his short stories.

References

1. Chris Beckett, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University.
2. Paul Di Filippo, On Books, Asimov's Science Fiction.
3. Chris Beckett, Reviews of The Holy Machine<.
4. Chris Beckett, Short Stories.

External links

• Chris Beckett's Fiction, author's official website
• Chris Beckett at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

• 1955 births
• Living people
• Old Dragons
• Old Bryanstonians
• Alumni of the University of Bristol
• Alumni of the University of Wales
• Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
• Alumni of Anglia Ruskin University
• English science fiction writers
• British social workers
• British textbook writers
• Academics of Anglia Ruskin University