Kit Reed

{{Infobox writer

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| name = Kit Reed

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| pseudonym = Kit Craig

| birth_name = Lillian Hyde Craig

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1932|06|07}}

| birth_place = San Diego, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|09|24|1932|06|07}}

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| occupation = Author

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| education = College of Notre Dame of Maryland

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| genre = Speculative fiction and literary fiction

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| notable_works = Kit Reed bibliography

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| relatives = Lillian Hyde and John R. Craig

| awards = Guggenheim Fellow

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| website = {{Official website|http://www.kitreed.net/}}

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Kit Reed, also known as Lillian Hyde Craig or Lil(l)ian Craig Reed (June 7, 1932 – September 24, 2017),{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/reed-kit-1932-kit-craig-shelley-hyde|title=Reed, Kit 1932– (Kit Craig, Shelley Hyde)|publisher=encyclopedia.com|access-date=September 27, 2017}}{{cite web|url=https://www.sfsite.com/news/2017/09/24/obituary-kit-reed/|title=Obituary: Kit Reed|publisher=SF Site|access-date=September 26, 2017|archive-date=September 8, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908182002/https://www.sfsite.com/news/2017/09/24/obituary-kit-reed/|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/obituaries/kit-reed-dead-author-of-darkly-humorous-fiction.html|title=Kit Reed, Author of Darkly Humorous Fiction, Dies at 85|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 28, 2017|access-date=October 7, 2017}}{{refn|group=nb|name=spelling|Many sources spell her first name "Lillian",{{cite book|last=Reginald|first=R.|title=Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L25ycEzuXxIC&pg=PA1044|date=September 2010|publisher=Wildside Press LLC|isbn=978-0-941028-77-6|page=1044}} although some spell it "Lilian".}} was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.

Biography

Reed was born Lillian Hyde Craig{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/obituaries/kit-reed-dead-author-of-darkly-humorous-fiction.html|title=Kit Reed, Author of Darkly Humorous Fiction, Dies at 85|first=Richard|last=Sandomir|date=September 28, 2017|publisher=|access-date=October 22, 2017|via=www.nytimes.com}} on June 7, 1932, in San Diego, California.{{refn|group=nb|name=spelling}} She was a daughter of schoolteacher Lillian Hyde and US Naval officer John R. Craig. She was nicknamed "Kitten" at an early age and later legally changed her name to Kit Reed.{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/reed_kit|title=Reed, Kit|publisher=The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|access-date=September 26, 2017}} Her father would command the submarine USS Grampus (SS-207), which was lost with all hands early in 1943, probably sunk by the Japanese.

By age 12, she had written a series of books about a stand-up bunny rabbit. At the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University), nuns let her write short stories instead of a research paper for her senior thesis, allowing her to avoid the research she hated."

Reed worked as a journalist for a number of years, including for The St. Petersburg Times and The New Haven Register. She won awards for a series of articles about juvenile courts in Connecticut and twice was named "New England Newspaperwoman of the Year."Editor comments to 'Automatic Tiger'" by Judith Merril, The Year's Best S-F, 10th Annual Edition, edited by Judith Merril, Dell Books, 1965, page 23.

Reed served as a professor and resident writer at Wesleyan University for decades. She was married to Joseph Reed and had three children including Kate Maruyama, who is also an author. Reed died on September 24, 2017, at age 85, after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.[http://www.sfwa.org/2017/09/memoriam-kit-reed/ In Memoriam Kit Reed], September 24, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2017

Writing

Reed's first short story, "The Wait" (1958), was published by Anthony Boucher in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.{{cite web|url=http://www.sffworld.com/interview/188p0.html|title=Interview with Kit Reed – SFFWorld|website=www.sffworld.com|access-date=October 22, 2017}} She is a Guggenheim Fellow{{cite web|url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/12069-kit-reed|title=Kit Reed|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604003137/http://www.gf.org/fellows/12069-kit-reed|archive-date=June 4, 2011|access-date=September 25, 2017}} and recipient of a five-year grant literary from the Abraham Woursell Foundation.

The New York Times Book Review said about her short fiction in 2006: "Reed has a prose style that's pure dry ice, displayed in dystopian stories that specialize in bitterness and dislocation."{{cite magazine|last=Ferguson|first=Sarah|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/01/books/review/fiction-chronicle.html|title=Fiction Chronicle|magazine=The New York Times Book Review|date=January 1, 2006|access-date=September 25, 2017}} The Wall Street Journal said: "The title of Kit Reed's [2013] selection of her own short stories, The Story Until Now (Wesleyan), reminds us that although she has been writing award-winning fiction for some 50 years, she's still accelerating. The scope of these 35 stories is immense, their variety unmatched."[https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324128504578344330371139190 Bookshelf], Genre Neutral. Wall Street Journal. April 12, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2013.

Her stories appeared in venues ranging from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction to The Yale Review and The Kenyon Review, and are widely anthologized. Many of her stories are published as feminist science fiction and she was nominated for the James Tiptree Jr. Award three times.{{cite web|url=http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/TiptreeTallies.html|title=Locus Index to SF awards|website=locusmag.com|access-date=October 22, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511214854/http://locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/TiptreeTallies.html|archive-date=May 11, 2008}} In 2005 her novel, Thinner Than Thou, was given the Alex Award by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

Bibliography

Notes

References

External links

{{isfdb name|id=Kit_Reed|name=Kit Reed}}
[http://www.fantlab.ru/autor1646/ Kit Reed's bibliography]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20140423170009/http://upcoming4.me/news/book-news/story-behind-son-of-destruction-by-kit-reed Story Behind Son of Destruction – Online Essay by Kit Reed]
Joseph W. and Kit Reed Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Category:1932 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American short story writers

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American novelists

Category:21st-century American short story writers

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American fantasy writers

Category:American horror writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:American women short story writers