Sheila Finch (born 29 October 1935) is an author of science fiction and fantasy. She is best known for her sequence of stories about the Guild of Xenolinguists.

Biography

Sheila Finch was born on 29 October 1935 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. She attended Bishop Otter College (now Chichester University) from 1954 to 1956, then taught for a year (1956–1957) in a primary school in Hackney, London. Following her marriage to Clare Grill Rayner in 1957 (divorced 1980), she emigrated to the US and completed her BA in English Literature at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

in 1959, followed by an MA in linguistics and medieval history in 1962. She has three daughters. From 1963 to 1967, when the family lived in

San Luis Obispo, California ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

, she taught part-time at

Cuesta College Cuesta College is a Public college, public community college in San Luis Obispo County, California. History The first community college in the San Luis Obispo area was founded in 1916 as a San Luis Obispo High School division. It lasted until 1 ...

and began publishing poetry. The family moved to

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

in 1967. Sheila taught creative writing and science fiction at El Camino College from 1970 to 2005. The family relocated for two years to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany in the 1970s, where Sheila studied German and taught English as a second language. She is a member of the

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, trade name, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a Non-profit organization, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional sci ...

, serving as Vice-President for two years, then Chair of the Grievance Committee for five years. As Western Regional Director, during the 1980s and 1990s she organized activities for the organization aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. She is also a charter member of the Asilomar Writers Consortium, founded by Jerry Hannah in Monterey, California in 1976. Besides teaching and publishing, Sheila has been active in the community, serving first as a volunteer in a residential hospice, then for ten years as a volunteer for St Luke's Episcopal Church's program for the homeless. She also served for eight years on the City of Long Beach Mayor's Advisory Committee for Homelessness. Sheila Finch currently lives in Long Beach, California.

Xenolinguists

In her 1986 book ''Triad'', Finch used the term "xenolinguist" to describe the linguists who decode

alien language Alien languages are a hypothetical subject since none have been encountered so far. The research in these hypothetical languages is variously called exolinguistics, xenolinguistics or astrolinguistics. A group of prominent linguists and animal com ...

s. The word has gained widespread acceptance in the science fiction industry and was used to describe the character

Uhura Nyota Uhura (), or simply Uhura, is a fictional character in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. In the Star Trek: The Original Series, original television series, the character was portrayed by Nichelle Nichols, who reprised the role for the first six L ...

in the remake of

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

. Finch created a series of tales about communicating with aliens which eventually was consolidated in collection of short stories entitled'' The Guild of Xenolinguists'' (Golden Gryphon Press, 2007). The Guild was founded on Earth in the middle of the 22nd century after first contact with a race from somewhere in the

Orion Arm The Orion Arm, also known as the Orion–Cygnus Arm, is a minor spiral arm within the Milky Way Galaxy spanning in width and extending roughly in length. This galactic structure encompasses the Solar System, including Earth. It is sometimes r ...

of the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

Galaxy. A few early linguists, neurolinguists, ethnographers and computer scientists established the Guild which then took over the responsibility for training xenolinguists to make first contact and to record alien languages in the field. Later, the Guild provided translation services for the expanding commerce and colonization of the following centuries.

Bibliography

Novels

Collections

Short stories

Articles and non-fiction

Poetry

Awards

* "Reading the Bones" (1998) Nebula novella award winner * ''Tiger in the Sky'' (1999) Winner of the San Diego Book Award for Best Juvenile Fiction *'' Infinity's Web'' (1985) Winner of the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel

Notes

External links

Official website The author's blog site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finch, Sheila 1935 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English women writers Alumni of the University of Chichester American science fiction writers American women novelists American women short story writers Asimov's Science Fiction people English women science fiction and fantasy writers English emigrants to the United States English science fiction writers English women novelists Indiana University Bloomington alumni The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people Nebula Award winners American women science fiction and fantasy writers Schoolteachers from London Writers from London Writers from Long Beach, California