Connie Willis

Although I’m not a regular reader of science fiction or fantasy, there are a handful of authors whose book I seek out. Connie Willis is one (Jack Finney is another). My particular favorites are Ms. Willis’s books dealing with time travel (To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsday Book). Doomsday Book is set in England in both the 21st and 14^th centuries; To Say Nothing of the Dog takes its theme from the book Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog written by Jerome K. Jerome and first published in 1889. I also loved Passage, which is about scientific exploration of near-death experiences. Those three books are great (but not fast) reads and show off the author’s wonderful storytelling and sense of fun. She’s won every award in her field and it’s no surprise. If you’re not a reader of sci-fi/fantasy, I hope you’ll look beyond genre designations and give a wonderful writer a try. Most of her books remain in print and they shouldn’t be hard to find.

Books

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

• (2007) Winds of Marble Arch (September)
• (2005) Inside Job* (novella)
• (2001) Passage
• (1997) To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last
• (1997) Promised Land (with Cynthia Felice)
• (1996) Bellwether
• (1994) Uncharted Territory
• (1994) Remake
• (1992) Doomsday Book
• (1989) Light Raid (with Cynthia Felice)
• (1988) Lincoln's Dreams
• (1980) Water Witch (with Cynthia Felice)

* won the Hugo Award for best novella

Other

• (2003) Just like the Ones We Used to Know (Novella) published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
• (2001) A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and about Women (editor, with Sheila Williams)
• (1999) Nebula Awards 33: The Year's Best SF and Fantasy (editor)
• (1999) Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories
• (1994) The New Hugo Winners, Volume 3, (Editor)
• (1994) Fire Watch (science fiction stories)
• (1993) Impossible Things (science fiction stories)
• (1985) Berserker Base (with others)

Website http://www.sftv.org/cw/

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_Willis

Webcast of Bookfest 2004 Speech (from the Library of Congress): http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3646  (go there when you have at least 37 minutes to view it.)