James Raymond Frenkel (born 1948) is an American editor and agent of science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, and other books, formerly for Tom Doherty Associates (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

and Forge Books). He has edited numerous prominent authors such as

Vernor Vinge Vernor Steffen Vinge (; October 2, 1944 – March 20, 2024) was an American science fiction author and professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technolo ...

, Joan D. Vinge,

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American list of science fiction authors, science-fiction writer, editor, and science fiction fandom, fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first ...

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen na ...

, Loren D. Estleman,

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 ...

Jack Williamson John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006) was an American list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, one of several called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the t ...

Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn (born 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''Star Wars'' List of Star Wars books, books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, ''Thrawn'' trilogy, and has published several ...

Marie Jakober Marie Jakober (August 27, 1941 – March 26, 2017) was a Canadian novelist. Based in Calgary, Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prair ...

and

Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American science fiction writer. His work covered themes of Interstellar_war, galactic conflict (''The Forge of God, Forge of God'' books), parallel universes (''The Way (Greg Bear ...

. His agency clients include John C. Wright and

L. Jagi Lamplighter L. Jagi Lamplighter is an American children's and fantasy children's writer and editor. Personal life Lamplighter graduated from St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe), St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland. She is married to fellow author ...

. He and his wife, author Joan D. Vinge lived in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

for many years, but have moved to

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange and Durham County, North Carolina, Durham counties, North Carolina, United States. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 United States census, making Chapel Hill the List of municipa ...

. In 1968, Frenkel founded The Science Fiction Forum at

the State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State Univ ...

, a student-run organization which continues to operate a large lending library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books. He was the publisher of Bluejay Books, an independent trade publisher of the mid-1980s. Bluejay Books published

Gardner Dozois Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fict ...

's ''The Year's Best Science Fiction'' for three years. He also was the packager of ''The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (for sixteen years) and then Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for five years). In July 2013, Frenkel left Tor after two complaints about

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

at WisCon, a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction subgenre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of ex ...

where he had been a regular attendee and presenter, and (in 1994) a Guest of Honor. Frenkel was subsequently permanently banned from attending the convention, with science fiction editor Michi Trota describing Frenkel as "someone who has been an industry

missing stair The missing stair is a metaphor for a person within a social group or organization who many people know is untrustworthy or otherwise has to be "managed", but around whom the group chooses to work by discreetly warning newcomers of their behavior ...

for decades." However, in 2017, he was on the convention committee of

Odyssey Con The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divide ...

, a different

also held in

, and scheduled as a presenter, prompting several authors (one of whom claimed to have had unpleasant experiences with Frenkel in the past) to withdraw from the convention.

References

External links

Interview With James Frenkel Interview With James Frenkel Part Two
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James Frenkel and Associates Literary Agency
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frenkel, James American book editors American science fiction editors American literary agents Writers from New York (state) Writers from Wisconsin Living people 1948 births People from Queens, New York People from Green Valley, Arizona American speculative fiction editors