Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard (born August 21, 1947 in Lynchburg, Virginia^[1]) is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents. Shepard's first short stories appeared in 1983, and his first novel, Green Eyes, appeared in 1984. At the time, he was considered part of the cyberpunk movement. Shepard came to writing late, having first enjoyed a varied career, including a stint playing rock and roll in the Midwest and extensive travel throughout Europe and Asia.

Lucius Shepard has won several awards for his science fiction: in 1985 he won John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, followed in 1986 with a best novella Nebula Award for his story "R&R", which would later become part of his 1987 novel Life During Wartime. His novella "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" won a Hugo in 1993. His poem "White Trains" won the Rhysling Award in 1988.

Shepard currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland.

Themes and evolution

Shepard has embraced many different themes throughout his career. In his early work, he wrote extensively about Central America. This included clearly science-fictional stories about near future high-tech jungle war (such as "R&R" and "Salvador"), as well as stories that seemed more in line with magic realism. Many of these, such as "Black Coral" (which concerns an American living on an island off of Honduras) and "The Jaguar Hunter" (the story of a man whose wife's debt forces him to hunt a mythical black jaguar which his people consider sacred), explore cultural clashes. Shepard has traveled extensively in Central America and lived there for a time; in multiple interviews, he has stated his belief that the Bush Administration will launch an attack against that region.

Shepard stopped writing fiction for much of the 1990s. He returned near the end of that decade, producing such works as the novella Radiant Green Star, which won a Locus Award for Best Novella in 2001.^[2]. Though he still writes Central American fiction, Shepard's interest seems to be moving north: he has recently published two short novels, "A Handbook of American Prayer" and "Viator", both set in North America. On that same note, he has recently published many works where culture and geography are secondary (his novella "Jailwise" is a prime example), preferring to focus on wider questions such as the role of justice in society.

Much of Shepard's recent work has been non-fiction. He researched the Freight Train Riders of America and spent time riding the rails, writing both fiction and non-fiction based on those experiences. He is also a regular movie reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and electricstory.com [1] His reviews are marked by general contempt for the current state of American film.

According to fellow author James Patrick Kelly, Shepard is an avid sports fan who has often used dramatic sports moments as inspiration to write[2].

Shepard is deeply dissatisfied with the current sociopolitical situation in the United States, and pessimistic about any prospects of change. In the summer of 2008, he moved to Switzerland, feeling that the United States was finished as a world power and broke after a authors tour. Out of money, and in need of desperate charity, he moved in with friends in Switzerland. He was an early critic of Barack Obama, and writing on his blog on 7 November 2008, 70 days before Obama's inauguration, he expressed the opinion that the Obama presidency promised to be nothing more than a repeat of Bill Clinton's. "It's not a new dawn of leadership or whatever the hell he said, it's gonna be the same old same old knuckle-dragging smoke-filled-room stuff that never works, that fucks up everything, that has created an oligarchy in the US, and that hasn't given us a president worth a damn since forever."

References

Bibliography

Novels

• Green Eyes (1984)
• Life During Wartime (1987)
• The Golden (1993)
• Valentine (2002)
• Louisiana Breakdown (2003)
• Colonel Rutherford’s Colt (2003)
• Floater (2003)
• Liar’s House (2004)
• A Handbook of American Prayer (2004)
• Viator (2004)
• Softspoken (2007)

Novellas

• "The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter" (1988)
• "The Father of Stones" (1989)
• "Kalimantan" (1990)
• "The Last Time" (1995)
• "Aztechs" (2003)
• "Trujillo" (2005)

Collections

• The Jaguar Hunter (1987)
• The Ends of the Earth (1990)
• Sports & Music (1994)
• Barnacle Bill the Spacer and Other Stories (1997; US title Beast of the Heartland)
• Trujillo (2004)
• Two Trains Running (2004)
• Eternity and Other Stories (2005)
• Dagger Key and Other Stories (2007)
• The Best of Lucius Shepard (2008)

Non-fiction

• Weapons of Mass Seduction (2005)
• With Christmas in Honduras: Men, Myths and Miscreants in Modern Central America (2008)

Film reviews

• Shepard writes a regular film review column for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Comics

• Vermillion (1996-1997, comic book series: writer)

Work available online

• The Night of White Bhairab
• Liar's House^{[dead link]}
• A Walk in the Garden^{[dead link]}
• Jailwise^{[dead link]}
• Senor Volto^{[dead link]}
• Emerald Street Expansions^{[dead link]}
• Over Yonder^{[dead link]}
• AZTECHS^{[dead link]}
• The Jaguar Hunter

External links

• Lucius Shepard at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• A more complete bibliography
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Louisiana Breakdown
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About Two Trains Running
• Golden Gryphon Press official site - About The Golden (trade paperback reprint)