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Vonda N. McIntyre

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Vonda N. McIntyre
BornVonda Neel McIntyre
(1948-08-28)August 28, 1948
Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedApril 1, 2019(2019-04-01) (aged 70)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
OccupationWriter, biologist
EducationUniversity of Washington (BS)
GenreScience fiction
Website
vondanmcintyre.net

Vonda Neel McIntyre (August 28, 1948 – April 1, 2019)[1] was an American science fiction writer and biologist.

Early life and education

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Vonda N. McIntyre was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, who were born in Poland, Ohio.[2] 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 in the early 1960s.

In 1970, she earned a Bachelor of Science, with honors, in biology from the University of Washington.[3] That same year, she attended the Clarion Writers Workshop. McIntyre went on to do graduate work at University of Washington in genetics.[3]

Career

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In 1971, McIntyre founded the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, Washington, with the support of Clarion founder Robin Scott Wilson. She contributed to the workshop until 1973.[4]

McIntyre won her first Nebula Award 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.[5] McIntyre became the third woman to receive the Hugo Award for Best Novel (1979).[6]

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.[7]

She also wrote a number of Star Trek and Star Wars novels, including Enterprise: The First Adventure and The Entropy Effect.[8] The Entropy Effect was the first original story published in the Pocket Books' series of Star Trek novels, and was developed by McIntyre from a screenplay that she wrote at age 18.[1] It convinced Pocket Books to assign McIntyre the novelizations 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.[8]: 65  McIntyre created given names of several Star Trek characters that later became canon, including Hikaru Sulu, Nyota Uhura, and Kirk's mother Winona.[1] 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 to insert the name into the film's script.[9][10]: 2–3 

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".[11]

McIntyre's novel The Moon and the Sun, set in the court of Louis XIV of France, was rejected initially.[5][12] In 1997, Pocket Books picked up the novel, and in 2013 Pandemonium Pictures began to produce The King's Daughter, featuring Pierce Brosnan as the Sun King.[13] In October 2021, it was announced that Gravitas Ventures acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a January 21, 2022, release.[14]

She was able to complete a final novel, Curve of the World, shortly before her death in 2019.[15]

Personal life

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She enjoyed crafting crocheted marine creatures to contribute to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project of the Institute For Figuring.[16]

McIntyre died on April 1, 2019, at her home in Seattle, Washington, of metastatic pancreatic cancer,[17] which was diagnosed in February.[1][18]

Legacy

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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.[citation needed]

Awards and tributes

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Bibliography

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Main article: Vonda N. McIntyre bibliography

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Holland, Steve (April 4, 2019). "Vonda N McIntyre obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  2. ^ Sandomir, Richard (April 5, 2019). "Vonda N. McIntyre, 70, Champion of Women in Science Fiction, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 7, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Kelleghan, Fiona (January 1999). "McINTYRE, Vonda N.". In Benbow-Pfalzgraf, Taryn (ed.). American Women Writers: From Colonial Times to the Present: a Critical Reference Guide. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Detroit: St. James Press. pp. 118–19. ISBN 9781558624320.
  4. ^ "Our Mission". Clarion West Writers Workshop. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  5. ^ a b McIntyre, Vonda N. [@vondanmcintyre] (July 8, 2012). "Both Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun were rejected by the first editors who saw them. #feministSF" (Tweet). Retrieved November 15, 2013 – via Twitter.
  6. ^ "Hugo Awards by Year". The Hugo Awards. July 19, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  7. ^ "Summary Bibliography: Vonda N. McIntyre". ISFDB. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  8. ^ a b Greenberger, Robert (November 1986). "The Novel Adventures of Star Trek". Starlog Magazine. Vol. 112. pp. 63–67. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  9. ^ "The Comics Buyer's Guide". Comics Buyer's Guide. No. 1614. March 2006. p. 10.
  10. ^ David, Peter (2021). "When I First Thought About Writing This...". Mr. Sulu Grabbed My Ass, and Other Highlights from a Life in Comics, Novels, Television, Films and Video Games. McFarland. pp. 1–7. ISBN 9781476683546.
  11. ^ McIntyre, Vonda N. (October 18, 2009). "Casting Starfarers". bookviewcafe.com. Archived from the original on April 17, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
  12. ^ "Title: The Moon and the Sun". ISFDB. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  13. ^ Groves, Don (August 9, 2013). "Australia attracts The Moon & the Sun". IF Magazine. Retrieved October 31, 2013.
  14. ^ Grobar, Matt (October 20, 2021). "'The King's Daughter': Gravitas Ventures Nabs Rights To Fantasy Film Starring Pierce Brosnan & More, With Narration By Julie Andrews". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  15. ^ "Vonda N. McIntyre, 1948-2019". Tor.com. April 2, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
  16. ^ "Contributors". Crochet Coral Reef. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2013.
  17. ^ Glyer, Mike (April 1, 2019). "Science Fiction Author Vonda N. McIntyre, Official Obituary". File 770. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  18. ^ "Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019)". Locus. April 2, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2022.
  19. ^ Davitt, Jane (2002). "Heinlein's Dedications". Nitrosyncretic Press.
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