Steve Rasnic Tem (born 1950) is an American author. He was born in

Jonesville, Virginia Jonesville is a town in and the county seat of Lee County, Virginia, United States. The population was 872 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Jonesville was a small but thriving center of local commerce in the late ninet ...

. Rasnic attended college at

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

, and also at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

. He earned a B.A. in English education. In 1974, he moved to

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and studied creative writing at

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado, United States. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University Syst ...

. He married Melanie Kubachko, and the couple took the joint surname "Tem". They had four children and lived in

. Rasnic Tem's short fiction has been compared to the work of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Dino Buzzati Dino Buzzati-Traverso (; 14 October 1906 – 28 January 1972) was an Italian novelist, short story writer, painter and poet, as well as a journalist for ''Corriere della Sera''. His worldwide fame is mostly due to his novel '' The Tartar St ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury ( ; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, Horror fiction, horr ...

, and

Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. He published his first collection of stories, '' Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?'', in 1976. His breakout collection, '' What We Talk About ...

, but to quote Joe R. Lansdale: "Steve Rasnic Tem is a school of writing unto himself." His 500 plus published pieces have garnered him a

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

, a

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

and four

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

Bibliography

Novels

* ''Excavation'' (1986) *''Daughters'' (2001) (with Melanie Tem) *''The Book of Days'' (2002) *''The Man on the Ceiling'' (2008) (with Melanie Tem) * ''Among the Living'' (2011) *''Deadfall Hotel'' (2012) *''Blood Kin'' (2014) * ''In the Lovecraft Museum'' (2015) *''Ubo'' (2017, Solaris) – * ''The Mask Shop of Doctor Blaack'' (2018)

Short fiction

Collections

*''Decoded Mirrors: Three Tales After Lovecraft'' (1978) *''Fairytales'' (1985) *''Absences: Charlie Goode's Ghosts'' (1991) *''City Fishing'' (2000) * ''Imagination Box'' (2001) (with Melanie Tem) *''The Far Side of the Lake'' (2001) * ''The Hydrocephalic Ward'' (2003) * ''In Concert'' (2010) (with Melanie Tem) * ''Ugly Behavior'' (2012) * ''Twember'' (2013) * ''Onion Songs'' (2013) * ''Celestial Inventories'' (2013) * ''Here with the Shadows'' (2014) * ''Out of the Dark. A Storybook of Horrors'' (2017) * ''A Primer to Steve Rasnic Tem'' (2017) * ''Figures Unseen: Selected Stories'' (2018) * ''Everything Is Fine Now'' (2018) * ''The Harvest Child and Other Fantasies'' (2018) * ''The Night Doctor and Other Tales'' (2019) * ''Thanatrauma'' (2021) * ''Everyday Horrors'' (2024) * ''Queneau's Alphabet. A Story Cycle'' (2025)

Stories

''(Uncollected)'' * ''Kiss'' (1981) * ''Night Cry'' (1981) * ''The Owl wth Human Eyes'' (1981) * ''White Rose'' (1981) * ''Early Warning'' (1981) * ''Interlude in a Laboratory'' (1981) * ''Again, the Hit-and-Miss'' (1981) * ''A Fairytale'' (1982) * ''Housewarming'' (1982) * ''The Reincarnation'' (1982) * ''On a Path of Marigolds'' (1982) * ''Shadows on the Grass'' (1983) * ''The Moths'' (1983) * ''First Rights'' (1983) * ''The Day it Rained Vaginas'' (1984) * ''The End of the Yarn'' (1984) * ''Spidertalk'' (1984) * ''Piano Moon'' (1985) * ''Katherine's Shadow'' (1986) * ''Self-Possessed'' (1986) * ''The Three Billy Goats Gruff'' (1986) * ''In Control'' (1986) * ''Presents of Mind'' (1986) (with

Edward Bryant Edward Winslow Bryant Jr. (August 27, 1945 – February 10, 2017) was an American science fiction and horror fiction, horror writer sometimes associated with the Dangerous Visions series of anthologies that bolstered New Wave (science fiction), ...

Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works that span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes ...

Connie Willis Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born December 31, 1945), commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major SF awards than ...

) * ''Wake'' (1987) * ''L is for Love'' (1987) * ''Her New Parents'' (1988) * ''The Lie'' (1988) * ''The Double'' (1988) * ''Motherson'' (1989) * ''The Deep Blue Sea'' (1989) * ''The Strangers'' (1989) * ''Black'' (1989) * ''Bodies and Heads'' (1989) * ''Back Windows'' (1990) * ''My Wife, with the Yellow Hair'' (1990) * ''Playing Dead'' (1990) * ''The Adoptions'' (1990) * ''The Regulars'' (1991) * ''Plainclothes'' (1991) * ''Going North'' (1992) * ''The Process'' (1992) * ''Blue Alice'' (1992) * ''Devourings'' (1993) * ''Passing Through'' (1993) * ''The Child Killer'' (1993) * ''The Garden, in Autumn'' (1994) * ''Release of Flesh'' (1994) * ''Sampled'' (1995) * ''Shades'' (1995) (with Roma Felible) * ''After the Night'' (1995) * ''Blood Knot'' (1995) * ''Close to You'' (1996) * ''Elena'' (1996) * ''Sharp Edges'' (1997) * ''Andrew'' (1997) * ''What Slips Away'' (1998) * ''Each Day'' (1998) * ''The Cough'' (1998) * ''Heat'' (1999) * ''Creeps'' (2000) * ''This Thing Called Love'' (2002) * ''Denegare Spasticus'' (2003) * ''Espectare Necrosis'' (2003) * ''Excerpt: First Entry in The Book of Days'' (2003) * ''Yesterday'' (2004) * ''Spirited'' (2005) * ''Mysteries of the Colon'' (2005) * ''The House by the Bulvarnoye Koltso'' (2007) * ''Burning Snow'' (2008) * ''Noppero-Bo'' (2008) * ''Shadow'' (2009) * ''The Stench'' (2009) * ''Last Drink Bird Head'' (2009) * ''Red Light'' (2009) * ''Shaggy Dog Story'' (2010) * ''Old Men on Porches'' (2010) * ''The Passing'' (2010) * ''S.D. Watkins, Painter of Portraits'' (2010) * ''Living Arrangement'' (2010) * ''Cattiwampus'' (2011) * ''El Lagarto'' (2011) * ''The Ex'' (2011) * ''Pillows'' (2011) * ''To Denver (With Hiram Battling Zombies'' (2012) * ''Scree'' (2012) * ''Waiting at the Crossroads Motel'' (2012) * ''The Old Man Beset by Demons'' (2012) * ''Jack and Jill'' (2012) * ''Miranda Jo's Girl'' (2012) * ''Congregate'' (2012) * ''The Sleeping Ute'' (2013) * ''The Monster Makers'' (2013) * ''Home Invasion'' (2013) * ''Lookie-Loo'' (2013) * ''Crawldaddies'' (2014) * ''The Grave House'' (2015) * ''In the Lovecraft Museum'' (2015) * ''Deep Fracture'' (2015) * ''The Common Sea'' (2017) * ''I Saw Santa'' (2017) * ''Love Letters'' (2018) * ''A Space of One's Own'' (2018) * ''Eidetic'' (2019) * ''Night Vision'' (2019) * ''Captain Zack & the Data Raiders'' (2019) * ''Miguel Prays While His Mother Cries'' (2019) * ''Bigger Than Life'' (2019) * ''Z is for Zombie'' (2020) * ''Conversations with the Departed'' (2020) * ''E is For Eye'' (2020) * ''Mummies'' (2021) * ''Do You Remember?'' (2022) * ''The Year of the Robot Suicides'' (2022) * ''Eye of the Storm'' (2022) * ''The Man in the Mirror'' (2022) * ''N Is for Night'' (2022) * ''The Sire'' (2022) * ''Y Is for Yesterday'' (2022) * ''Subsidence'' (2023) * ''W Is for Whispers'' (2023) * ''H Is for the Hunt'' (2023) * ''F Is for the Farm'' (2023) * ''P Is for Phantasies'' (2023) * ''Higher Powers'' (2023) * ''Tutti i Morti'' (2023) * ''A Is for Alphabet'' (2023) * ''Sundown in Duffield'' (2023) * ''The Return'' (2024) * ''Imago'' (2024) * ''He Has Always Lived in This House Alone'' (2024) * ''The Stroll'' (2024) * ''Carcinogenesis'' (2024) * ''Jolly'' (2024) * ''Before and After'' (2024) * ''Prime Purpose'' (2025)

Anthologies

*''The Umbral Anthology of Science Fiction Poetry'' (1982) *''High Fantastic: Colorado's Fantasy, Dark Fantasy and Science Fiction'' (1987)

Poetry

''(Uncollected)'' * ''My Daughter'' (1978) * ''The Other State'' (1978) * ''The Hydrocephalic Ward'' (1979) * ''Lighting the Colony'' (1980) * ''Alternate Worlds Ghazal'' (1980) * ''The Landed Gentry'' (1980) * ''The New Weather'' (1980) * ''Dragon Lore'' (1980) * ''Seeding the Last Freedom'' (1980) * ''Changes'' (1981) * ''On Defining & Not Defining Speculative Poetry'' (1981) * ''The Swimmer'' (1982) * ''Dinosaurs'' (1982) * ''ESP'' (1982) * ''Three Cinquains'' (1982) * ''Time Paradox Cinquain'' (1982) * ''Dirt Under His Nails'' (1982) * ''Syrup'' (1982) * ''Doubles'' (1983) * ''Faery'' (1983) * ''The Lovers'' (1983) * ''After the Collapse'' (1983) * ''First Contact'' (1983) * ''The Dreaming Machine Dreams it Becomes Human'' (1984) * ''The Dreaming Machine Eats an Apple'' (1984) * ''The Dreaming Machine Has a Nightmare'' (1984) * ''Ghost Signs'' (1987) * ''Ancient Astronomies'' (1988) * ''No Man Is'' (1988) * ''Looking Back at Apollo'' (1989) * ''Nocturne'' (1989) * ''The Adolescence of NGC 4535'' (1992) * ''Head'' (1992) * ''Belly'' (1993) * ''Cells'' (1993) * ''Ulcer'' (1995) * ''Dark at the Door'' (1995) * ''Shreve House'' (1995) * ''The Dead Who Do Not Sleep Under Green Street'' (1995) * ''Digits'' (1997) * ''Genital'' (1997) * ''Heart'' (1997) * ''Limbs'' (1997) * ''Lung'' (1997) * ''Muscle'' (1997) * ''The Little Match Girl'' (1997) * ''Creatures Without Names'' (2002) * ''What Must Not Happen'' (2004) * ''What Happens at Night'' (2004) * ''This is the Last Time I'm Telling the Truth'' (2004) * ''The Window'' (2004) * ''The Colors of Dark'' (2004) * ''All Used Up'' (2004) * ''Hair'' (2004) * ''The Troll on 23rd Ave'' (2006) * ''The Great Man's Apology'' (2007) * ''How to Play Dead'' (2010) * ''Pumpkin Eater'' (2010) * ''39'' (2011) * ''After We're Gone'' (2013) * ''In Quietude'' (2016) * ''Wraith'' (2017) * ''The Night Arrives'' (2019) * ''Leaving Home'' (2020)

Awards

Notes

External links

Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem Official Website

Bibliography
*
Story behind Celestial Inventories by Steve Rasnic Tem - Online Essay
1950 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American male writers American fantasy writers American horror writers American male novelists American male short story writers Asimov's Science Fiction people Colorado State University alumni Date of birth missing (living people) Novelists from Virginia People from Jonesville, Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University alumni Virginia Tech alumni American weird fiction writers World Fantasy Award–winning writers Long stubs with short prose {{US-novelist-1950s-stub