Vonda Neel McIntyre ()
was an American science fiction writer and biologist.
Early life and education
Vonda N. McIntyre was born in
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
, the daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, who were born in
Poland, Ohio. She spent her early childhood on the east coast of the United States and in
The Hague, Netherlands, and Poland, before her family settled in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
in the early 1960s.
In 1970, she earned a Bachelor of Science, with honors, in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
from the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
.
That same year, she attended the
Clarion Writers Workshop. McIntyre went on to do graduate work at
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
in
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
.
Career
In 1971, McIntyre founded the
Clarion West Writers Workshop
Clarion West Writers Workshop is an intensive six-week program for writers preparing for professional careers in science fiction and fantasy. It runs annually from late June through the end of July. The workshop is limited to 18 students per year. ...
in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
, with the support of Clarion founder
Robin Scott Wilson
Robin Scott Wilson (September 19, 1928September 2013) was an American science fiction author and editor, and former President of California State University, Chico.
Life and career
Wilson was born in Columbus, Ohio and earned a Bachelor of Arts, ...
. She contributed to the workshop until 1973.
McIntyre won her first
Nebula Award in 1973, for the novelette '"
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand". This later became part of the novel ''
Dreamsnake'' (1978), which was rejected by the first editor who saw it, but went on to win both the
Hugo and Nebula Awards.
McIntyre became the third woman to receive the
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is available for works of fiction of 40,000 ...
(1979).
McIntyre's debut novel, ''The Exile Waiting'', was published in 1975. In 1976, McIntyre co-edited ''
Aurora: Beyond Equality'', a feminist/humanist science fiction anthology, with Susan Janice Anderson.
She also wrote a number of ''
Star Trek'' and ''
Star Wars'' novels, including ''Enterprise: The First Adventure'' and ''
The Entropy Effect''.
''The Entropy Effect'' was the first original story published in the
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.
History
Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing ...
' series of
''Star Trek'' novels, and was developed by McIntyre from a screenplay that she wrote at age 18.
It convinced Pocket Books to assign McIntyre the
novelizations of the next three films ''
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', ''
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'', and ''
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home''.
McIntyre created given names of several ''Star Trek'' characters that later became canon, including
Hikaru Sulu
Hikaru Kato Sulu is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. A member of the crew in the original ''Star Trek'' series, Sulu also appears in the animated ''Star Trek'' series, the first six ''Star Trek'' movies, one episode ...
,
Nyota Uhura
Nyota Uhura () is a fictional character in the '' Star Trek'' franchise. In the original television series, the character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, who reprised the role for the first six ''Star Trek'' feature films. A younger Uhura is ...
, and
Kirk's mother Winona.
Sulu's given name became canon after
Peter David
Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games.Buxton, Marc (March 29, 2014)"From 'Future Imperfect' to '2099': Peter David's Greatest Hits" Co ...
, author of the comic book adaptation, visited the set of ''
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', and convinced director
Nicholas Meyer to insert the name into the film's script.
While taking part in a science fiction convention panel on sci-fi in TV, McIntyre became exasperated at a fellow panelist's extreme negativity toward existing science fiction TV shows. She asked the panel and audience if they had managed to see ''Starfarers'', which she claimed was an amazing SF miniseries that had almost no viewers due to bad scheduling on the part of the network. No such show existed, but after reflecting on the plot she described, McIntyre felt it would make a good novel, and went on to write ''Starfarers'' as well as its three sequels, later referring to it as "my Best SF TV Series Never Made".
McIntyre's novel ''
The Moon and the Sun'', set in the court of
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of ...
, was rejected initially.
In 1997, Pocket Books picked up the novel, and in 2013 Pandemonium Pictures began to produce ''
The King's Daughter'', featuring
Pierce Brosnan as the Sun King. In October 2021, it was announced that
Gravitas Ventures
Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...
acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a January 21, 2022, release.
She was able to complete a final novel, ''Curve of the World,'' shortly before her death in 2019.
Personal life
She enjoyed crafting
crocheted marine creatures to contribute to the ''Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef'' project of the
Institute For Figuring.
McIntyre died on April 1, 2019, at her home in Seattle, Washington, of metastatic
pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in February.
Legacy
In 2019, Clarion West established the Vonda N. McIntyre Memorial Scholarship, to enable women writers and writers of color to attend the Clarion West Writers Workshop and Writing the Other established the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Memorial Scholarship, to help authors at any point in their career path and from every background, including those who don't have the money to pay for writing workshops.
Awards and tributes
* "
Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand": 1974 Nebula Award, nominated for the 1974 Hugo Award and the 1974 Locus Poll Award
* ''
Dreamsnake'': 1979 Hugo Award, 1979 Nebula Award
*
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accu ...
dedicated his 1982 novel ''
Friday
Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth d ...
,'' "to Vonda" (among many others).
* ''
The Moon and the Sun'': 1998 Nebula Award, nominated for the 1998 Locus Poll Award and the 1997
James Tiptree, Jr. Award
* "Little Faces": Nominated for the 2005 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, 2006
Sturgeon Award, and the 2007 Nebula Award
* McIntyre was a Guest of Honor at Sasquan, the
73rd World Science Fiction Convention
The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Sasquan, was held on 19–23 August 2015 at the Spokane Convention Center in Spokane, Washington, United States.
The convention was chaired by Sally Woehrle.
Participants
...
.
Bibliography
References
External links
Vonda N. McIntyre– Memorial website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McIntyre, Vonda N.
1948 births
2019 deaths
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American writers
21st-century American women writers
American science fiction writers
Hugo Award-winning writers
Star Trek fiction writers
Nebula Award winners
Women science fiction and fantasy writers
Writers from Seattle
American women novelists
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
Novelists from Washington (state)
Novelists from Kentucky
Kentucky women writers
University of Washington alumni
Deaths from cancer in Washington (state)
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
People from Poland, Ohio