ADDISON, Linda D. 1952-

PERSONAL: Born September 8, 1952, in Philadelphia, PA; daughter of Decarsta (a welder) and Janet (a homemaker; maiden name, Warrick) Webster; married Kenneth Addison (divorced); children: Brian. Ethnicity: "African American." Education: Carnegie Mellon University, B.S., 1975.

ADDRESSES: Home—3444 Cannon Pl., Bronx, NY 10463. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, poet, and systems analyst. Bristol Myers Squibb, senior system analyst, 1991-99; AXA Financial Solutions, senior system analyst, 1999—.

MEMBER: Science Fiction Writers of America, Horror Writer's Association, Science Fiction Poetry Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: Bram Stoker Award, Horror Writers Association, 2001, for Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes; numerous honorable mention listings for poems and short stories, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

WRITINGS:

Animated Objects, introduction by Barry N. Malzberg, Space & Time (New York, NY), 1997.

Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes, illustrated by Marge Simon, Space & Time (New York, NY), 2001.

Fiction has appeared in anthologies, including Rough Beasts, Lone Wolf Publications (Oklahoma City, OK) and Dark Voices: A Collection of Poetry from the Writers of Wicked Verse, Flesh & Blood Press (Bayville, NJ). Contributor to periodicals, including African Voices, White Knuckles, Space & Time, Pirate Writings, Lore, Haiku Headlines, and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Poetry editor of Space & Time.

WORK IN PROGRESS: A science-fiction novel based on author's short story in Dark Matter; A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, edited by Sheree Thomas Warner Aspect (New York, NY), 2001. Story is based on a Yanomami rain forest tribe relocated to a multi-generational space ship.

SIDELIGHTS: A computer specialist and systems analyst by day, Linda D. Addison writes short fiction and poetry in the genre of science fiction. Addison told CA: "My writings have always gone in the direction of science fiction or horror. I loved watching scary movies while growing up. My science fiction is always involved with the effect of technology on humans—how will we handle this environment or that situation. That is what makes me think and wonder and write."

Animated Objects, a collection of poetry and short stories, presents "cleverly devised and amusing takes" on science-fiction and fantasy topics such as aliens, mythological creatures, and things found in the darkness, wrote a reviewer in Science Fiction Chronicle. The book contains work both serious and comic. Reviewer Paula Guran, writing on the DarkEcho Horror Web site, called Animated Objects "inspirational."

Addison's poetry collection Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes contains thirty-one narrative poems that provide "glimpses of a world as it is and proceeds seamlessly, slipping and oozing through the crevices of what we will and won't accept as reality, into a world as it could be," wrote Jacqueline Jones La Mon on the African American Literature Book Club Web site. Addison's work "brings a tight focus to small, intimate details which in turn illuminate and echo larger concerns," wrote Charles de Lint in Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Addison told CA: "My poetry is a reflection of life with all its promise and disappointments sung through the filter of horror or science fiction. There are many influences on my poetry; a few are Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Shakespeare, and Poe. My fiction is influenced by the above and a slew of others: Isaac Asimov, Octavia Butler, Nancy Kress, Anne Rice. … The list could go on for pages.

"I try to write every day, rewrite until it's as good as I can make it, and then send it into the world to find a place to sing. I'm inspired by everything around me, something someone says, a strange face in the street, a story in the news, past emotions, and future hopes. Life with its highs and lows inspires me. I am forever curious about how we humans make it through hard times, what we will and won't do to get what we want."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 2002, Charles de Lint, review of Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes, pp. 23-24.

Science Fiction Chronicle, August, 1998, Don D'Ammassa, review of Animated Objects, p. 44.

ONLINE

African-American Literature Book Club Web site,http:/www.aalbc.com/ (January 20, 2003), Jacqueline Jones LaMon, review of Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Gray Ashes.

Circles in the Hair,http://www.cith.org/ (October 27, 2003),

Dark Echo,http://www.darkecho.com/ (January 20, 2003), Paula Guran, review of Animated Objects.