"The Fire When It Comes" is a

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

short story by American writer

Parke Godwin Parke Godwin (January 28, 1929 – June 19, 2013) was an American writer. He won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1982 for his story " The Fire When It Comes". He was a native of New York City, where he was born in 1929. He was the ...

. It was first published in the January 1981 issue of ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiv ...

''.

Plot summary

A young couple rents an apartment that is haunted by the ghost of an actress.

Reception

"The Fire When It Comes" won the 1982

World Fantasy Award for Best Novella The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

,1982: the 8th World Fantasy Convention
at WorldFantasy.org; retrieved September 4, 2018 and was a finalist for the 1981

Nebula Award for Best Novelette The Nebula Award for Best Novelette is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) to a science fiction or fantasy novelette. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novelette if it is between 7,5 ...

The Fire When It Comes
at

Science Fiction Writers of America The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, doing business as Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and commonly known as SFWA ( or ) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. Whi ...

; retrieved September 4, 2018 and the 1982

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

.1982 Hugo Awards
at TheHugoAward.org; retrieved September 4, 2018 ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' considered it to be "dandy", judging it to be the best story in Godwin's 1984 identically-named collection ''The Fire When It Comes''.THE FIRE WHEN IT COMES, by Parke Godwin
reviewed at ''

'', published April 20, 1984; retrieved September 4, 2018 Mike Ashley called it 'powerful'.Science Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990
by Mike Ashley; published 2016 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

References

World Fantasy Award for Best Novella winners Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1981 short stories Works by Parke Godwin {{1980s-fantasy-story-stub