Curated playlist
World Fantasy Award–winning writers
- Stephen KingA minivan hit Stephen King on a Maine road in June 1999. A dog in the back distracted the driver.
- Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis Borges directed Argentina's National Library while completely blind.
- Ursula K. Le GuinUrsula K. Le Guin was eleven years old when she mailed her first short story to Astounding Science Fiction. The magazine sent it back. She then submitted nothing else for ten years. Nearly sixty years of publishing lay ahead of her after…
- Clive BarkerUnhappy with how others filmed his screenplays, Clive Barker directed Hellraiser himself. It opened in 1987.
- George R. R. MartinA chess craze helped save George R. R. Martin's writing career. Bobby Fischer's 1972 win got him a tournament job.
- L. Sprague de CampL. Sprague de Camp turned the word extraterrestrial into a noun. He also coined E.T. in a 1939 magazine article.
- Michael MoorcockMichael Moorcock created Elric as a reversal of the comfort fantasy that followed Tolkien.
- Diana Wynne JonesDiana Wynne Jones began writing mostly to keep her sanity. Her first book was a farce for adults, not a fantasy.
- Jack VanceJack Vance memorized an eye chart to join the Merchant Marine. He later kept writing novels after going legally blind.
- Fritz LeiberFritz Leiber is credited with coining the term "sword and sorcery".