Jeffrey Ford biography

Jeffrey Ford was born November 8, 1955 in New York. He is an American fantasy writer whose work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humour, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales.

He lives in southern New Jersey and teaches writing and literature at Brookdale Community College in Monmouth County. He has also taught at the summer Clarion Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in Michigan. He has contributed stories, essays and interviews to various magazines and e-magazines including MSS, Puerto Del Sol, Northwest Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Argosy, Event Horizon, Infinity Plus, Black Gate and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

He published his first story, "The Casket", in Gardner's literary magazine MSS in 1981 and his first full-length novel, Vanitas, in 1988.

Awards

  • The Physiognomy (World Fantasy Award)
  • The Fantasy Writer's Assistant (World Fantasy Award)
  • Creation (World Fantasy Award)
  • Botch Town (World Fantasy Award)
  • The Empire of Ice Cream (Nebula Award)
  • The Annals of Eelin-Ok (The Fountain Award)
  • The Girl in the Glass (Edgar Allan Poe Award)

Jeffrey Ford books

  • Vanitas
  • The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque
  • The Girl in the Glass
  • The Shadow Year

Well-Built City Trilogy

  • The Physiognomy
  • Memoranda
  • The Beyond

Collections

  • The Fantasy Writer's Assistant
  • The Empire of Ice-Cream
  • The Drowned Life

Latest news: Jeffrey Ford

Tender Morsels and The Shadow Year share World Fantasy Award
Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels and Jeffrey Ford's The Shadow Year were named joint winners of the World Fantasy award for best novel. Tender Morsels [link to review] was Fantasy Book Review's favourite amongst the nominees with the reviewer saying "If you remove all the fuss surrounding the novel [...]

Tender Morsels our pick to win the World Fantasy Award
Last month we ran a story on the nominations for the World Fantasy Award. Unfortunately, we do not have the time to read and review all the entrants, but we thought that we should at least cover the five nominations for best novel. So which book do we here at Fantasy Book Review believe should win t [...]

The latest Fantasy Book Reviews
It has been a busy week on Fantasy Book Review with new reviews being added daily. The nominations for the World Fantasy Award were announced in August and we are reading and reviewing the five books that have been shortlisted for the prestigious award. Margo Lanagan’s stunning Tender Morsels has [...]

World Fantasy Award Nominations
The World Fantasy Award nominations have now been announced. Good luck to all participants. Best Novel The House of the Stag, Kage Baker The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan Best Novella Uncle Cha [...]

Image: Apartment 16 book cover

Book of the Month

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill
Some doors are better left closed . . . In Barrington House, an upmarket block in London, there is an empty apartment. No one goes in, no one comes out. And it’s been that way for fifty years. Until the night watchman hears a disturbance after midnight and investigates. What he experiences is enough to change his life forever.

Previous winners of Book of the Month

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Latest interviews

Interviews plus question and answer sessions with authors, narrators and publishers.

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Must-reads

The following reviews are of books that begin the very best fantasy series available.

Special Feature: Fantasy Book Review talks to the Book View Cafe

Book View Cafe is a cooperative site created by a group of writers - including internationally renowned authors Katharine Kerr, Ursula Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre - who want to take advantage of the internet's possibilities for reaching a wider audience and to distribute their work directly to their readers. The Book View Cafe is a place where you can find free, original fiction plus the authors' best and out-of-print work for a fee. Fantasy Book Review spoke to Book View Cafe member, science fiction author and memoirist Chris Dolley in February 2010.

Special Feature: Understanding the author of Alice in Wonderland

Image: The Mystery of Lewis Carroll book cover

Lewis Carroll, the elusive author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, has been the subject of enduring fascination for the past hundred years. The destruction of many major documents about his personal life by his descendants has only magnified the mystery. Jenny Woolf's biography, published to coincide with the release of the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland film, lays waste to the myths and suspicions that have obscured Carroll's reputation by placing him firmly in the context of his own time.

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News

Introducing Knighttime, The Hazardous Players’ ongoing humorous fantasy adventure

The Hazardous Players have been building a fantasy adventure which constructs multiple narratives using various media: writing, video, audio performance and art to create a story that is an expanding [...]

Apartment 16 by Adam Nevill reviewed on Fantasy Book Review

You just can’t beat a damn good horror book, particularly one that manages to scare and disturb you late at night, even though you are safe and sound in your own home. Adam Nevill’s Apartment 16 is [...]

Penny Arcade’s Love Affair with Patrick Rothfuss

One of the better webcomics on the internet is Penny Arcade, written and drawn by Tycho (Jerry Holkins) and Gabe (Mike Krahulik). They’re the masterminds behind not just a great comic but also PAX, th [...]

Limited Edition Neverwhere Edition

For Neil Gaiman fans this will be some good news. Subterranean Press have just notified us that copies of the “Signed Limited Edition of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere” are “en route to our warehouse.” The [...]

The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Man from Hell by Barrie Roberts

The world’s greatest detective returns in a story that forms part of a new series entitled The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. In The Man from Hell Barrie Roberts creates a perfect emulation [...]

Harriet Wilson joins HarperCollins Children's Books

Harriet Wilson is to join HarperCollins Children's Books as Editorial Director. She will commission and develop authors and series across the fiction list with a particular focus at the younger end. [...]

First edition of The Wind in the Willows a star lot at Bonhams

A first edition of the much loved children’s classic, The Wind in the Willows, inscribed by Kenneth Grahame to the daughter of the man who inspired the character of Ratty, is among the star lots offe [...]

Templar Publishing to publish 10 fiction titles in 2010

Templar Publishing has launched into fiction with a commitment to hardback publishing and distinctive formats. The company plans to publish 10 fiction titles this year, ranging from early readers to y [...]

Julia Donaldson to visit Burnley this Friday

Children’s author Julia Donaldson will be giving a talk at Burnley Youth Theatre on Friday 19 March at 2pm. The event, which is being run by Mid Pennine Arts, provides a rare opportunity for people l [...]

Lee & Low Books acquire Tu Publishing

Lee & Low Books, the independent children's book publisher, has acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for middle grade and young adult [...]