Brian Lee Durfee is an American

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

, and fantasy painter, and a fantasy and horror writer. His paintings have appeared in various genre and other magazines, games, and books. One of his wildlife paintings is in the permanent collection at the

Grand Canyon National Park Grand Canyon National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyo ...

visitors center.

Saga Press Gallery Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster which houses the imprints Gallery Books, Pocket Books, Scout Press, Gallery 13, and Saga Press. Jen Bergstrom is the Senior Vice President and Publisher. ...

published his epic grimdark fantasy series, beginning with '' The Forgetting Moon''. He also has a horror alternate history series.

Biography

Durfee grew up in

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a Municipal home rule, home rule city and the county seat, borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior Alaska, interior region of Alaska and the second la ...

and

Monroe, Utah Monroe is a city in Sevier County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,256 at the 2010 United States Census. Geography Monroe is located in rural central Utah. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3 ...

. He played high school football, then served a mission for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, though he is no longer a practicing member of that church. He graduated from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

with a degree in illustration and fine arts. In 1992, he won second place in the second quarter Illustrators of the Future contest and was chosen to illustrate "The Monitor" by John Richard DeRose and "Lady's Portrait, Executed in Archaic Colors" by Charles M. Saplak in ''Writers of the Future, Volume IX''. He was a member of the

Society of Illustrators The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. Since absorbing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (M ...

in New York. Durfee cites works by

Robert Jordan James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan," Robert Jordan" was the name of the protagonist in the 1940 Hemingway novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', though this is not how the n ...

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror novels and has also explored other genres, among them Thriller (genre), suspense, crime fiction, crime, scienc ...

George R. R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...

Larry McMurtry Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas.

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Hollywood, California, in 1981 by bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, with guitarist Mick Mars and lead vocalist Vince Neil joining right after. The band has sol ...

, the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

, and

Tad Williams Robert Paul "Tad" Williams (born March 13, 1957) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer. He is the author of the multivolume ''Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'' series, ''Otherland'' series, '' Shadowmarch'' series, and ''The Bobby Dollar'' ...

as being influential on his life and his works. His oil painting, "Grand Canyon Cliffs–Peregrine Falcons", won the 1999 Bird Award of Merit and the Grand Canyon National Park Association Purchase Award. One of his paintings is in the permanent collection at the Kolb Gallery at the visitors center at

. He was the artist guest of honor at CONduit 10 in 2000. Durfee works as a prison guard at the

Utah State Prison Utah State Prison (USP) was one of two prisons managed by the Utah Department of Corrections' Division of Institutional Operations. It was located in Draper, Utah, United States, about southwest of Salt Lake City.Utah Department of Correc ...

, where he has worked in the mental health unit, the gang unit, processing new inmates, and overseeing the six libraries within the prison. He initially got the job because he wanted to be a police officer, but then decided to stay in that job. He worked with author

James Dashner James Smith Dashner (born November 26, 1972) is an American writer known for speculative fiction. Many of his books are primarily aimed at children or young adults. He is best known for ''The Maze Runner'' series and the young adult fantasy seri ...

to put on a convention for the inmates at the prison, and he has taught creative writing classes to some of the inmates.

Bibliography

''The Five Warrior Angels''

An epic

grimdark Grimdark is a subgenre of speculative fiction with a tone, style, or setting that is particularly dystopian, amoral, and violent. The term is inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game ''Warhammer 40,000'': "In the grim darkness of t ...

fantasy series. *'' The Forgetting Moon'' (August 2016,

, ) *''The Blackest Heart'' (February 2019, Saga Press, ) *''The Lonesome Crown'' (November 2022, Saga Press, )

South Severe

An alternate history horror series set in a small, rural town, published under the pseudonym "Brian D. Lee". *''South Severe'' (December 2011, B.Lee.D Books, ) *''Bedlam Blues'' (December 2011, B.Lee.D Books, )

As artist

Cover art

*'' The Leading Edge'' edited by Alex Grover (issue 32, February 1996,

) *''Adventures of Sword and Sorcery'', Spring 1996 issue edited by Randy Dannenfelser *''Adventures of Sword and Sorcery'', Issue 3, 1996 edited by Randy Dannenfelser *''Pirate Writings'' edited by Edward J. McFadden (issue 14, 1997) *'' Dragon Magazine'' (issue 239, September 1997)

Interior art

*"The Froglover" in ''

Tomorrow Speculative Fiction ''Tomorrow Speculative Fiction'' was a science fiction magazine edited by Algis Budrys, published in print and online in the United States from 1993 to 1999. It was launched by Pulphouse Publishing as part of its attempt to move away from book ...

'' edited by

Algis Budrys Algirdas Jonas "Algis" Budrys (January 9, 1931 – June 9, 2008) was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, copy editing, editor and critic. He was also known under the pen names Frank Mason, Alger Rome in collaboration with Jerome ...

(February 1994) *"Planned Obsolescence" in ''

'' edited by Algis Budrys (April 1994) *"Character Creation" in ''Spectrum III: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art'' (as Brian Durfee) (1996, Underwood Books, )

Collectible card games

Durfee illustrated several cards for '' Magic: The Gathering''

collectible card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with ''Magic: The G ...

, including four mountain cards, "Blossoming Wreath", and "Sylvan Hierophant". He also illustrated three cards for the ''

Middle-earth Collectible Card Game Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG) is an out-of-print collectible card game released by Iron Crown Enterprises in late 1995. It is the first CCG based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, with added content from ICE's ...

'': "Black Númenóreans", "Returned Exiles", and "Hey, come merry dol!".

Wildlife and landscape works

*"The Bear" (1998, oil) *"Red Tailed Hawk" (1998, oil) *"Grand Canyon Cliffs–Peregrine Falcons" (1999, oil)

Awards and honors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durfee, Brian Lee Living people 20th-century American artists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century male writers American fantasy writers American horror writers Artists from Utah Brigham Young University alumni Tolkien artists Writers from Utah Writers from Fairbanks, Alaska People from Monroe, Utah Year of birth missing (living people)