Joel Lane
Joel Lane (1963 – 26 November 2013)[1] was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, critic and anthology editor.[2] He received the World Fantasy Award in 2013 and the British Fantasy Award twice.
Life
Born in Exeter, he was the nephew of tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott. At the time of his death, Lane was living in south Birmingham, where he worked in health industry-related publishing. His location frequently provided settings for his fiction.
Works
The majority of Lane's short stories can be categorised as horror or dark fantasy, and he cited Robert Aickman, Ramsey Campbell and M. John Harrison as influences on his fiction.[2] His short stories were usually published in small-press books and magazines. Lane's work was also anthologized by both Karl Edward Wagner (in Wagner's The Year's Best Horror Stories series) and Stephen Jones (in Jones' Best New Horror series).[2] Much of Lane's fiction is set in Birmingham and the Black Country.[3] Lane's novels are more overtly mainstream. From Blue to Black (2000) is a portrait of a disturbed rock musician, whilst The Blue Mask (2003) follows the aftermath of a brutal and disfiguring attack.
Something Remains, edited by Peter Coleborn and Pauline E. Dungate (Alchemy Press, 2016), is a collection of stories by other hands "based on and inspired by the notes left by Joel Lane".[4] This Spectacular Darkness, edited by Mark Valentine and John Howard (Tartarus Press, 2016), is a collection of his critical essays on fantasy and horror fiction, together with appreciations of his work.[5]
Guest appearances
Lane addressed the Birmingham Science Fiction Group in March 2002. Together with his friend Steve Green, he was a guest speaker at Microcon 30 at Exeter University in March 2010.
Politics
Lane was described in an obituary as "a passionate supporter of equality and a tireless scourge of fascism",[3] was strongly left wing and opposed to the politics advocated by Tony Blair and New Labour.[3] He joined the Socialist Party in 2009 and contributed to its newspaper, The Socialist, and its journal, Socialism Today.[6]
Partial bibliography
Novels
- From Blue to Black (2000)
- The Blue Mask (2003)
Novella
- The Witnesses Are Gone (2009)
Short story collections
- The Earth Wire and Other Stories (1994)
- The Lost District and Other Stories (2006)
- The Terrible Changes (2009)
- Do Not Pass Go (booklet, 2011)
- Where Furnaces Burn (2012)
- Scar City (2015)
- The Anniversary of Never (2015)
Poetry
- The Edge of the Screen (1998)
- Trouble in the Heartland (2004)
- The Autumn Myth (2010)
- Instinct (pamphlet, 2012)
Anthologies edited
- Birmingham Noir: Urban Tales of Crime and Suspense (2002, co-edited with Steve Bishop)
- Beneath the Ground (2003)
- Never Again (2010, co-edited with Allyson Bird)
Awards
- 1993: Eric Gregory Award (poetry)
- 1994: British Fantasy Award, best anthology / collection, The Earth Wire and Other Stories
- 2008: British Fantasy Award, best short story, My Stone Desire
- 2008: Shirley Jackson Award, novella finalist, The Witnesses are Gone
- 2013: World Fantasy Award, best collection, Where Furnaces Burn (PS Publishing, 2012)
References
- ^ "Joel Lane (1963–2013)", Locus, 26 November 2013.
- ^ a b c Chris Morgan, "Lane, Joel", in David Pringle, St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers (London: St. James Press, 1998), pp. 345–46. ISBN 978-1-55862-206-7
- ^ a b c Nicholas Royle, "Joel Lane: The Conscience of the Circuit", Black Static 38, January/February 2014, pp. 4-9.
- ^ "Something Remains". 28 June 2016.
- ^ "Lane: This Spectacular Darkness".
- ^ "Obituary: Joel Lane, 1963–2013", The Socialist, 11 December 2013. Retrieved 1 March 2014.
External links
- Partial bibliography, including short story appearances
- Joel Lane at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- "Forbidden questions: the politics of noir fiction" by Joel Lane, Socialism Today, October 2009
- v
- t
- e
- Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman (1975)
- The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy by Avram Davidson (1976)
- Frights by Kirby McCauley (1977)
- Murgunstrumm and Others by Hugh B. Cave (1978)
- Shadows by Charles L. Grant (1979)
- Amazons! by Jessica Amanda Salmonson (1980)
- Dark Forces by Kirby McCauley (1981)
- The Dark Country by Terri Windling and Mark Alan Arnold (1982)
- Nightmare Seasons by Charles L. Grant (1983)
- High Spirits by Robertson Davies (1984)
- Books of Blood, Vols. I-III by Clive Barker (1985)
- Imaginary Lands by Robin McKinley (1986)
- Tales of the Quintana Roo by James Tiptree Jr. (1987)
- The Jaguar Hunter by Lucius Shepard (1988)
- Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison / Storeys from the Old Hotel by Gene Wolfe (1989, tie)
- Richard Matheson: Collected Stories by Richard Matheson (1990)
- The Start of the End of It All and Other Stories by Carol Emshwiller (1991)
- The Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard (1992)
- The Sons of Noah & Other Stories by Jack Cady (1993)
- Alone with the Horrors by Ramsey Campbell (1994)
- The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians and A Conflagration Artist by Bradley Denton (1995)
- The Grass Princess by Gwyneth Jones (1996)
- The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye by Jonathan Lethem (1997)
- The Throne of Bones by Brian McNaughton (1998)
- Black Glass by Karen Joy Fowler (1999)
- Moonlight and Vines by Charles de Lint / Reave the Just and Other Tales by Stephen R. Donaldson (2000, tie)
- Beluthahatchie and Other Stories by Andy Duncan (2001)
- Skin Folk by Nalo Hopkinson (2002)
- The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories by Jeffrey Ford (2003)
- Bibliomancy by Elizabeth Hand (2004)
- Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (2005)
- The Keyhole Opera by Bruce Holland Rogers (2006)
- Map of Dreams by M. Rickert (2007)
- Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman (2008)
- The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford (2009)
- There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbor's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya / The Best of Gene Wolfe by Gene Wolfe (2010, tie)
- What I Didn't See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler (2011)
- The Bible Repairman and Other Stories by Tim Powers (2012)
- Where Furnaces Burn by Joel Lane (2013)
- The Ape's Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan (2014)
- The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings by Angela Slatter / Gifts for the One Who Comes After by Helen Marshall (2015, tie)
- Bone Swans by C. S. E. Cooney (2016)
- A Natural History of Hell by Jeffrey Ford (2017)
- The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen (2018)
- The Tangled Lands by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell (2019)
- Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson (2020)
- Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda (2021)
- Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan by Usman T. Malik (2022)