Sheila Finch

{{infobox writer

| name = Sheila Finch

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1935|10|29}}

| birth_place = London, England

| nationality = {{Flatlist|

British
American

}}

| occupation = Author

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

Bishop Otter College (BA)
Indiana University Bloomington (MA)

}}

| genres = {{flatlist|

}}

|spouse = {{marriage|Clare Grill Rayner|1957|1980|end=div}}

|children = 3

|website ={{url|http://sheilafinch.net}}

}}

Sheila Finch (born 29 October 1935) is an author of science fiction and fantasy.{{Cite web|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?468|title=Summary Bibliography: Sheila Finch|website=www.isfdb.org|access-date=2016-07-30}} She is best known for her sequence of stories about the Guild of Xenolinguists.

Biography

Sheila Finch was born on 29 October 1935 in London, England. She attended Bishop Otter College (now Chichester University) from 1954 to 1956, then taught for a year (1956–1957) in a primary school in Hackney, London. Following her marriage to Clare Grill Rayner in 1957 (divorced 1980), she emigrated to the US and completed her BA in English Literature at Indiana University Bloomington in 1959, followed by an MA in linguistics and medieval history in 1962. She has three daughters. From 1963 to 1967, when the family lived in San Luis Obispo, California, she taught part-time at Cuesta College and began publishing poetry. The family moved to Long Beach in 1967. Sheila taught creative writing and science fiction at El Camino College from 1970 to 2005. The family relocated for two years to Munich, Germany in the 1970s, where Sheila studied German and taught English as a second language.

She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, serving as Vice-President for two years, then Chair of the Grievance Committee for five years. As Western Regional Director, during the 1980s and 1990s she organized activities for the organization aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. She is also a charter member of the Asilomar Writers Consortium, founded by Jerry Hannah in Monterey, California in 1976.

Besides teaching and publishing, Sheila has been active in the community, serving first as a volunteer in a residential hospice, then for ten years as a volunteer for St Luke's Episcopal Church's program for the homeless. She also served for eight years on the City of Long Beach Mayor's Advisory Committee for Homelessness.

Sheila Finch currently lives in Long Beach, California.

Xenolinguists

In her 1986 book Triad, Finch used the term "xenolinguist" to describe the linguists who decode alien languages.{{Cite web|url=http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/2009/07/sheila-finch-at-ttyu.html|title=TalkToYoUniverse: Sheila Finch at TTYU!|last=Wade|first=Juliette|date=2009-07-19|website=TalkToYoUniverse|access-date=2016-07-30}}{{cite web| url=https://sfdictionary.com/view/1638/xenolinguist| title=Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: xenolinguist| access-date=2022-11-14}} The word has gained widespread acceptance in the science fiction industry and was used to describe the character Uhura in the remake of Star Trek.{{Cite web|url=http://www.subzin.com/quotes/M46184cc17/Star+Trek/Xenolinguistics.+You+have+no+idea+what+that+means|title=Xenolinguistics. You have no idea what that means {{!}} Star Trek quotes|website=www.subzin.com|access-date=2016-07-30}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/star-trek-script-transcript-abrams.html|title=Star Trek Script - transcript from the screenplay and/or the J.J. Abrams reboot|website=www.script-o-rama.com|access-date=2016-07-30}}

Finch created a series of tales about communicating with aliens which eventually was consolidated in collection of short stories entitled The Guild of Xenolinguists (Golden Gryphon Press, 2007). The Guild was founded on Earth in the middle of the 22nd century after first contact with a race from somewhere in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. A few early linguists, neurolinguists, ethnographers and computer scientists established the Guild which then took over the responsibility for training xenolinguists to make first contact and to record alien languages in the field. Later, the Guild provided translation services for the expanding commerce and colonization of the following centuries.{{Cite web|url=https://sff.net/people/sheila-finch/guild_of_xenolinguists.html|title=Sheila Finch Bibliography|website=sff.net|access-date=2016-07-30|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119031439/http://www.sff.net/people/sheila-finch/guild_of_xenolinguists.html|archivedate=2017-01-19}}

Bibliography

=Novels=

class="wikitable"

|+Novels

!Year

!Title

!Publisher

!ISBN

!Notes

1985

|Infinity's Web

|New York: Bantam Books

|0-553-25251-8

|Compton Crook Award for best First Novel

1986

|Triad

|New York: Bantam Books

|0-553-25792-7

1987

|The Garden of the Shaped

|New York: Bantam Books

|0-553-26801-5

1989

|Shaper's Legacy

|New York: Bantam Books

|0-553-28167-4

1989

|Shaping The Dawn

|New York: Bantam Books

|1434401601

1999

|Tiger in the Sky

|New York: Avon Books

|0-380-79971-5

|San Diego Book Award for Best Juvenile Fiction

2003

|Reading the Bones

|Tachyon Books

|1-892391-08-2

2004

|Birds

|Wildside Press

|0-8095-0056-6

2017

|A Villa Far From Rome

|Hadley Rille Books

|9780997118834

|[https://www.audible.com/pd/A-Villa-Far-from-Rome-Audiobook/B07DF7Z1XW?qid=1597081885&sr=1-3&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_3&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=WY7KV82CYW8GVMMQ373Y AudioBook]

=Collections=

class="wikitable"

|+Collections

!Year

!Title

!Publisher

!ISBN

!Notes

2007

|The Guild of Xenolinguists

|Golden Gryphon Press

|9781930846487

2014

|Myths, Metaphors, and Science Fiction

|Aqueduct Press

|9781619760554

2022

|Fork Points

|Aqueduct Press

|9781619762183

= Short stories =

class="wikitable"

|+Short stories

!Year

!Title

!Originally Published In

!Notes

1974

|Green Liberation

|Girl Scout Leader, June

1977

|The Confession of Melakos

|Sou'wester, Fall

1980

|Symphony for Sarah Ann

|Mississippi Valley Review

1982

|A Long Way Home

|Asimov's Science Fiction, December

1983

|The Man Who Lived on the Queen Mary

|Pandora, Spring

1983

|Darkness Comes Rattling

|Amazing Stories, July

1984

|The Seventh Dragon

|Fantasy Book, June

1986

|Reichs-peace

|Hitler Victorious, ed. Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg, New York: Garland

|transl: Hitler Victorioso, Ediciones Destino, Spain, 1990

1987

|Hitchhiker

|Amazing Stories

1988

|Babel Interface

|Amazing Stories, May

1989

|Ceremony After a Raid

|Amazing Stories, July

1989

|A World Waiting

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, August

1989

|Rembrandts of Things Past

|Tarot Tales, ed. Rachel Pollack and Caitlin Matthews. London: Century Hutchinson

1989

|PAPPI

|Foundation's Friends, ed. Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Tor Books, November

|transl: Selected Short Science Fiction of the World, China, 2017

1989

|The Old Man and C

|Amazing Stories, November

|Dramatic version, arr. by Jason Trucco, NY, NY, 2019

1990

|Sequoia Dreams

|Amazing Stories, July

1990

|Cyberella

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, August

|transl: Cyberella, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Germany 1995

:Millimondi Estate, Mondadori, Italy 1991

:Bli-Panika, www.space.ort.org.il, Israel 2003

1992

|If There Be Cause

|Amazing Stories, February

1995

|Firstborn, Seaborn

|Sisters in Fantasy, ed. Susan Shwartz. ROC

1996

|Communion of Minds

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, September

|transl: Der Lincoln Zug, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Germany, 1997

1997

|Out of the Mouths

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, November–December

1997

|The Roaring Ground

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, April

1997

|A Flight of Words

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, February

|transl. Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016

1997

|The Falcon and the Falconer

|Tomorrow SF

1998

|Reading the Bones

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, January

|Nebula Award for Best Novella

transl: Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016

1998

|The Naked Face of God

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, June

1999

|No Brighter Glory

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, April

2000

|Nor Unbuild the Cage

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, September

2002

|Forkpoints

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, February

2002

|Miles to Go

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, June

2003

|Reach

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, February

|[https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Best-of-Fantasy-and-Science-Fiction-Magazine-January-February-2003-Audiobook/B002VA3L7G?qid=1597077963&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=e81b7c27-6880-467a-b5a7-13cef5d729fe&pf_rd_r=VWFMH4SJ03CR96VNBQEF AudioBook]

2004

|Confessional

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, January

2004

|So Good A Day

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, May

2007

|First Was the Word

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, June

|transl: Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016

2010

|Failed Harvest

|Nova SF 25

2010

|Where Two or Three

|Is Anybody Out There? ed. Marty Halpern and Nick Gevers, June

2010

|The Persistence of Butterflies

|2020 Visions, ed. Rick Novy

2010

|Fortune's Stepchild

|Lace and Blade 3, ed. Deborah Ross

2011

|The Evening and the Morning

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April

2013

|A Very Small Dispensation

|Asimov's SF Magazine, October/November

2014

|Burdens

|Mythic Delirium, January

2016

|The Language of the Silent

|Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April

|collaboration with Juliette Wade

2016

|First Hunt

|Hadley Rille Books, Summer

2017

|Homecoming

|Seat 14C, X-Prize, June

2018

|Survivors

|Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October

2019

|Talking in Pictures

|Current Features, X-Prize, June

2020

|Not This Tide

|Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February

2021

|Love At First Sight

|Ink; Queer Sci-Fi

2021

|Czerny At Midnight

|Asimov's Science Fiction, November/December

2022

|The Wine - Dark Deep

|Asimov's Science Fiction, May/June

2022

|Wanton Gods

|Asimov's Science Fiction,

= Articles and non-fiction =

class="wikitable"

|+Articles and non-fiction

!Year

!Title

!Originally Published In

!Notes

1982

|Fantasy as a Super-Vitamin

|Patchin Review, June

1985

|The Unseen Shore: Thoughts on the Popularity of Fantasy

|Journal of Popular Culture, Spring

1985

|Paradise Lost: Prison Imagery at the Heart of Le Guin's Utopia

|Extrapolation, Fall

1985

|Oath of Fealty: No Thud, Some Blunders

|Science Fiction Review, Winter

1987

|Science Fiction's Magical Mystery Tours

|SFWA Bulletin, Spring

1988

|Berlitz in Outer Space: How Alien Communication Just Might Work

|Amazing Stories, May

1989

|Oath of Fealty: A Look at Another Ambiguous Utopia

|Australian Science Fiction Review, Spring

1989

|Untitled

|SFWA Bulletin, Spring

1996

|The War Zone of Art: Science Fiction Writers, Publishers and the Modern Marketplace

|Science Fiction and Market Realities, ed. George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin.

The University of Georgia Press

1996

|Doctor, Will the Patient Survive?

|Nebula Awards 30, ed. Pamela Sargent. New York: Harcourt Brace

1996

|Teaching Science Fiction: A Writer's Concerns

|inside english, March

1996

|Being Alien in Beijing

|SFWA Bulletin, March

2000

|Dispatches From the Trenches: Science Fiction in the College Classroom

|Extrapolation, Spring

2000

|Dreams, Truth, and Hope

|Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction,

ed. Marleen Barr. Rowman & Allenheld

2003

|Creativity in the Fishbowl

|SFWA Bulletin, Spring

2004

|Future Tense: Reflecting Language Change in Science Fiction

|SFWA Bulletin, Spring

2006

|How to Rate a Writing Program

|SFWA Bulletin, Winter

2012

|Fantastic Journeys of the Mythic Kind

|James Gunn's AD ASTRA, July

2014

|Of Myth and Memory

|SFWA Bulletin, Winter

2016

|Ambiguous Utopias

|James Gunn's AD ASTRA, Summer

=Poetry=

class="wikitable"

|+ Poetry

!Year

!Title

!Publisher

!Notes

1973

|Chichester

|AAUW Journal

1973

|Izaac Mizraki

|Poet Lore

1973

|Study Group

|The Writer

1973

|The Eagle on the Washing Machine

|Ball State Forum, Summer

|2nd Place, Steven Vincent Benet Award for Narrative Poetry

1974

|Evensong

|Encore

1975

|In the Museum at Mesa Verde

|Encore, Spring

1975

|The Hangover

|Hyacinths and Biscuits

1975

|Vacation Special

|Hartford Courant

1975

|Aubade in Forest Fire Season

|Moving Out

1976

|War Games

|Tattoes and Other Scars

1977

|Mockingbird Mantra

|Encore

1983

|Message to a Friend in Another Solar System

|Aurora, Winter

Awards

"Reading the Bones" (1998) Nebula novella award winner
Tiger in the Sky (1999) Winner of the San Diego Book Award for Best Juvenile Fiction
Infinity's Web (1985) Winner of the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel