Ford, Jeffrey 1955-

PERSONAL: Born 1955; married Lynn Gallagher, 1979; children: Jackson, Derek. Education: Attended community college; State University of New York, Binghamton, B.A., M.A.; doctoral studies at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.

ADDRESSES: Home—Medford Lakes, NJ. Office—c/o Author Mail, Avon Books/EOS, 1350 Ave. of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer and educator. Brookdale Community College, Monmouth County, NJ, writing and literature teacher. Previously worked at numerous jobs, including clammer, machine shop worker, truck loader, security guard, and bar worker.

AWARDS, HONORS: World Fantasy Award, 1998, for The Physiognomy; Hugo Award nomination for best short story, World Science Fiction Society, 2003, for Creation"; World Fantasy Award for best short story "Creation," and for best collection for The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, both 2003; Nebula Award for best novelette and Hugo Award nomination for best novelette, both 2004, both for The Empire of Ice Cream.

WRITINGS:

Vanitas, Space and Time (New York, NY), 1988.

The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, Golden Gryphon Press (Urbana, IL), 2002.

The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, W.W. Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.

The Girl in the Glass Dark Alley/HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2005.

The Cosmology of the Wider World, PS Publishing (East Yorkshire, England), 2005.

The Empire of Ice Cream (short stories), with an introduction by Jonathan Carroll, Golden Gryphon Press (Urbana, IL) 2006.

Author of numerous short stories, including "Creation" "At Reparata," which was included in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror Volume 13, and "The Green Word," which appeared in the anthology The Green Man and Other Tales of the Mythic Wood, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, Penguin. Contributor to periodicals, including Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Puerto del Sol.

"WELL-BUILT CITY" TRILOGY

The Physiognomy, Avon Eos (New York, NY), 1997.

Memoranda, Avon Eos (New York, NY), 1999.

The Beyond, Avon Eos (New York, NY), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Jeffrey Ford is a fantasy writer whose first novel, Vanitas, is the story of the brilliant inventor Scarfinati, who is killed by young Caroline. Scarfinati's dormant inventions are called upon to bring him back from the dead. A Science Fiction Chronicle reviewer called Vanitas a "very strange first novel, full of bizarre images and situations."

The Physiognomy is the first book of the "Well-Built City" trilogy. The protagonist, Physiognomist First Class Cley, is trained in the science that reveals everything about a person, including his or her thoughts, through body and facial shapes. Cley's job is to alter aspects of a person by cutting and reshaping their face in accordance with physiognomic principles. Cley himself is addicted to a drug called "sheer beauty," which produces dreams that cannot be distinguished from reality. Cley works under orders from Drachton Below, Master of the borderless "Well-Built City." Below sends him to Anamasobia, a remote mining town where the miners turn into blue statues as they mine the mineral blue spire. The miners have discovered the mummy of the Traveler, who had held a white fruit that is supposed to bring immortality to its owner and is now missing. In interrogating the miners, Cley meets Arla, who changes the life of the drugged servant of Below. Below sends in troops to kill the people and capture Arla, the Traveler, the fruit, and Cley, who he condemns to work in the sulfur mines, guarded by the diabolical Corporal Matters. Cley is later pardoned, reintroduced to drugs, and returns to the "Well-Built City," where Below has found and eaten the fruit. Cley has confronted the truth about his profession and now seeks to overthrow Below and save Arla and the Traveler.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted "Ford's evident, childlike delight in his alter-world." Booklist reviewer Ray Olson called The Physiognomy "colorful and fastpaced quest fantasy." Gerald Jonas noted in the New York Times Book Review that Ford "writes equally well about the scientific cult of precision and the acceptance of ambiguity." Some reviewers were of the opinion that although The Physiognomy can be read as either science fiction or fantasy, it does not fit into either genre. A Kirkus Reviews writer called the novel "seriously, logically, stunningly surreal: a compact, richly textured, enthralling fantasy debut."

In Memoranda, Cley lives in an agrarian society in the primitive village of Wenau where he dedicates his life to herbal healing. When a sleeping sickness released by Below spreads through the village via an exploding mechanical bird, Cley returns to the fallen Well-Built City to seek the cure, fights off werewolves and birds, and finds Below has succumbed to his own plague. Misrix, a demon sired by Below, suggests that Cley enter Below's mind where a symbol for the cure can be found. In Below's "memory palace," memories and thoughts are seen as living things. The question is whether or not Cley can survive the dangers of Below's memory and the dying man's disintegrating mind.

A Publishers Weekly reviewer wrote that "reading Ford's descriptions of Below's bizarre subconscious is like stepping into a Dali painting. Ford's symbolic view of memory and desire is as intriguing as it is haunting." The reviewer called Memoranda "a worthy sequel" to The Physiognomy.

The Beyond is the final novel in the trilogy. This time, Cley, along with his dog Wood, ventures beyond the Well-Built City to find a mysterious world with ghosts, unseen monsters, and trees that eat anything. Cley's quest is narrated by the demon Misrix, who also tells his own story as he is in pursuit of Cley. Davidson Taylor, writing in the South Florida-Sun Sentinel, commented that the novel is "strong from beginning to end." Library Journal contributor Jackie Cassada noted Ford's "elegant style and Kafkaesque prose." Writing in Publishers Weekly, a reviewer commented: "Ford's graphic imagination is as powerful as ever."

Following the completion of his trilogy, Ford next presented The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, a historical thriller set in New York City in 1893. The story revolves around a portraitist named Piero Piambo, who is offered the mysterious job of painting a Mrs. Charbuque and then must paint the lady sight unseen as she sits behind a screen. Piambo's only way to devise what she looks like is to ask her questions. Mrs. Charbuque claims to be psychic, and Piambo begins to suspect their may be a relationship between his mysterious subject and macabre deaths caused by a parasite that causes its victims to shed blood instead of tears. "Chillingly surreal with occasional lapses into downright silliness, but by and large Ford keeps the pages turning," wrote a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Emily Lloyd, writing in the School Library Journal, noted: "This book is smart, spellbinding, and sure to knock any teen's favorite suspense/horror tale from top place to second."

The author presents sixteen of his short stories in The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, including "Creation," a fantasy story about growing up Catholic. Roland Green wrote in Booklist that the stories are "far too good to be left languishing in moldering obscurity in magazines and chapbooks." A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the book was "sure to be one of the keynote collections of the year."

Ford presents another thriller in The Girl in the Glass. The story revolves around a group of con artists who, through a phony mystic who calls himself Ondoo, steal money from rich Long Islanders in 1932. When the head of the group, Thomas Schell, sees an apparition in a glass that may be a missing girl, he thinks that perhaps he has received a sign that mysticism is real. A Kirkus Reviews contributor noted that the author "romps engagingly here—his Schell an intriguing scoundrel, as if Sherlock Homes had a Moriarity taint in his gene pool." Whitney Scott, writing in Booklist, noted the novel's "whacked-out humor and compelling suspense."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of The Physiognomy, p. 67; June 1, 2002, Roland Green, review of The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, p. 1696; July, 2005, Whitney Scott, review of The Girl in the Glass, p. 1898.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 1997, p. 1073; April 1, 2002, review of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, p. 440; June 15, 2005, review of The Girl in the Glass, p. 655.

Library Journal, January 1, 2001, Jackie Cassada, review of The Beyond, p. 163.

M2 Best Books, April 19, 2004, "2003 Nebula Award Winners Announced."

New York Times Book Review, November 2, 1997, Gerald Jonas, review of The Physiognomy, p. 36.

Publishers Weekly, July 28, 1997, review of The Physiognomy, p. 53; September 13, 1999, review of Memoranda, p. 65; December 18, 2000, review of The Beyond, p. 60; April 15, 2002, review of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, p. 40, and review of The Fantasy Writer's Assistant and Other Stories, p. 46; May 30, 2005, review of The Girl in the Glass, p. 33.

School Library Journal, January, 2003, Emily Lloyd, review of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, p. 174.

Science Fiction Chronicle, June, 1988, review of Vanitas, p. 49; October, 1998, p. 51.

Small Press Book Review, July, 1988, p. 18.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, June 1, 2001, Davidson Taylor, review of The Beyond.

ONLINE

Agony, http://trashotron.com/agony/ (February 21, 2006), Rick Kleffel, reviews of The Beyond and The Physiognomy.

BookPage, http://www.bookpage.com/ (February 21, 2006), Gavin J. Grant, "Picture Perfect Suspense: Jeffrey Ford Captures the Gritty Landscape of 1890s New York," interview with author.

Infinity Plus, http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/ (February 21, 2006), John Grant, review of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque; Jeff VanderMeer, "An Interview with Jeffrey Ford."

Jeffrey Ford Home Page, http://users.rcn.com/delicate (February 21, 2006).

Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/ (June 20, 2002), Suzy Hansen, review of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque.

SciFi.com, http://www.scifi.com/ (February 21, 2006), Nick Gevers, interview with author.

SF Site, http://www.sfsite.com/ (February 21, 2006), Nick Gevers, "In A Vision Of The Drama: an Interview with Jeffrey Ford."