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 List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
, 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 the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
in the early 1960s.
In 1970, she earned a Bachelor of Science, with honors, in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...
from the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
.
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 and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
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 Augustinians, Augustinian ...
.
Career
In 1971, McIntyre founded the
Clarion West Writers Workshop
Clarion West is a non-profit organization best known for their intensive six-week workshop for writers preparing for professional careers in speculative fiction. The Six-Week Workshop is a space for writing short stories and learning how to worksho ...
in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...
, with the support of Clarion founder
Robin Scott Wilson. She contributed to the workshop until 1973.
McIntyre won her first
Nebula Award
The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...
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 by the World Science Fiction Society for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is ava ...
(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
''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 ...
'' and ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...
'' 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 Paperback#Mass market paperback, mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and ...
' 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
novelization
A novelization (or novelisation) is a derivative novel that adapts the story of a work created for another medium, such as a film, TV series, stage play, comic book, or video game. Film novelizations were particularly popular before the advent ...
s 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 and
Kirk's mother Winona.
Sulu's given name became canon after
Peter David, author of the comic book adaptation, visited the set of ''
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', and convinced director
Nicholas Meyer
Nicholas Meyer (born December 24, 1945) is an American screenwriter, director and author known for his best-selling novel '' The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'', and for directing the films '' Time After Time'', two of the ''Star Trek'' feature films, ...
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
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
, 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
Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...
as the Sun King. In October 2021, it was announced that
Gravitas Ventures 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
crochet
Crochet (; ) is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread (yarn), thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term ''crochet'', which means 'hook'. Hooks can be made ...
ed 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
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
, 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 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 8601-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth ...
,'' "to Vonda" (among many others).
* ''
The Moon and the Sun'': 1997 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.
Bibliography
References
External links
Vonda N. McIntyre– Memorial website
*
Vonda N. McIntyre papersat University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives
{{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 women novelists
American science fiction writers
Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Washington (state)
Hugo Award–winning writers
Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees
Star Trek fiction writers
Nebula Award winners
Novelists from Kentucky
Novelists from Washington (state)
People from Poland, Ohio
University of Washington alumni
American women science fiction and fantasy writers
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
Writers from Seattle