Vonda N. McIntyre

{{Short description|American science fiction writer (1948–2019)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Vonda N. McIntyre

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Vonda Neel McIntyre

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1948|08|28}}

| birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2019|04|01|1948|08|28}}

| death_place = Seattle, Washington, U.S.

| occupation = Writer, biologist

| genre = Science fiction

| website = {{URL|vondanmcintyre.net}}

| education = University of Washington (BS)

}}

Vonda Neel McIntyre ({{Daterangedash|1948-08-28|2019-04-01|mdy}}) was an American science fiction writer and biologist.

Early life and education

Vonda N. McIntyre was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, who were born in Poland, Ohio.{{Cite news|last=Sandomir|first=Richard|date=April 5, 2019|title=Vonda N. McIntyre, 70, Champion of Women in Science Fiction, Dies|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/obituaries/vonda-n-mcintyre-dead.html|access-date=April 7, 2019|issn=0362-4331}} She spent her early childhood on the east coast of the United States and in The Hague, Netherlands, and Poland, before her family settled in Seattle in the early 1960s.

In 1970, she earned a Bachelor of Science, with honors, in biology from the University of Washington.{{Cite encyclopedia|title=McINTYRE, Vonda N.|publisher=St. James Press|location=Detroit|edition=2nd|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomenwri0000unse|date=January 1999|volume=3|first=Fiona|last=Kelleghan|editor-last=Benbow-Pfalzgraf|editor-first=Taryn|isbn=9781558624320|encyclopedia=American Women Writers: From Colonial Times to the Present: a Critical Reference Guide|pages=118–19}} That same year, she attended the Clarion Writers Workshop. McIntyre went on to do graduate work at University of Washington in genetics.

Career

In 1971, McIntyre founded the Clarion West Writers Workshop in Seattle, Washington, with the support of Clarion founder Robin Scott Wilson. She contributed to the workshop until 1973.{{Cite web|title=Our Mission|url=https://www.clarionwest.org/about/|access-date=April 2, 2019|website=Clarion West Writers Workshop}}

McIntyre won her first Nebula Award in 1973, for the novelette '"Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand". This later became part of the novel Dreamsnake (1978), which was rejected by the first editor who saw it, but went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.{{Cite tweet|last=McIntyre|first=Vonda N.|user=vondanmcintyre|title=Both Dreamsnake and The Moon and the Sun were rejected by the first editors who saw them. #feministSF|number=222034183122452482|access-date=November 15, 2013|date=July 8, 2012}} McIntyre became the third woman to receive the Hugo Award for Best Novel (1979).{{Cite web|title=Hugo Awards by Year|url=http://www.thehugoawards.org/hugo-history/|access-date=November 15, 2013|website=The Hugo Awards|date=July 19, 2007 }}

McIntyre's debut novel, The Exile Waiting, was published in 1975. In 1976, McIntyre co-edited Aurora: Beyond Equality, a feminist/humanist science fiction anthology, with Susan Janice Anderson.{{Cite web|title=Summary Bibliography: Vonda N. McIntyre|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?423|access-date=October 31, 2013|website=ISFDB}}

She also wrote a number of Star Trek and Star Wars novels, including Enterprise: The First Adventure and The Entropy Effect.{{Cite magazine|url = https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-112/page/n63|magazine = Starlog Magazine|volume = 112|pages = 63–67|date = November 1986|title = The Novel Adventures of Star Trek|first = Robert|last = Greenberger|authorlink = Robert Greenberger|access-date = 27 February 2022}} The Entropy Effect was the first original story published in the Pocket Books' series of Star Trek novels, and was developed by McIntyre from a screenplay that she wrote at age 18. It convinced Pocket Books to assign McIntyre the novelizations of the next three films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.{{rp|65}} McIntyre created given names of several Star Trek characters that later became canon, including Hikaru Sulu and Kirk's mother Winona.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/04/vonda-mcintyre-obituary|title=Vonda N McIntyre obituary|first = Steve|last = Holland|authorlink = Steve Holland (writer)|newspaper = The Guardian|date = 4 April 2019|access-date = 27 February 2022}} Sulu's given name became canon after Peter David, author of the comic book adaptation, visited the set of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and convinced director Nicholas Meyer to insert the name into the film's script.{{Cite magazine|date=March 2006|title=The Comics Buyer's Guide|magazine=Comics Buyer's Guide|issue=1614|page=10}}{{cite book|first = Peter|last = David|authorlink = Peter David|title = Mr. Sulu Grabbed My Ass, and Other Highlights from a Life in Comics, Novels, Television, Films and Video Games|chapter = When I First Thought About Writing This...|pages = 1–7|isbn = 9781476683546|year = 2021|publisher = McFarland|chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-_cQEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA2}}{{rp|2–3}}

While taking part in a science fiction convention panel on sci-fi in TV, McIntyre became exasperated at a fellow panelist's extreme negativity toward existing science fiction TV shows. She asked the panel and audience if they had managed to see Starfarers, which she claimed was an amazing SF miniseries that had almost no viewers due to bad scheduling on the part of the network. No such show existed, but after reflecting on the plot she described, McIntyre felt it would make a good novel, and went on to write Starfarers as well as its three sequels, later referring to it as "my Best SF TV Series Never Made".{{Cite web|last=McIntyre|first=Vonda N.|date=October 18, 2009|title=Casting Starfarers|url=http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2009/10/18/casting-starfarers/|access-date=April 16, 2019|website=bookviewcafe.com|archive-date=April 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417161913/http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2009/10/18/casting-starfarers/}}

McIntyre's novel The Moon and the Sun, set in the court of Louis XIV of France, was rejected initially.{{Cite web|title=Title: The Moon and the Sun|url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?9841|access-date=October 31, 2013|website=ISFDB}} In 1997, Pocket Books picked up the novel, and in 2013 Pandemonium Pictures began to produce The King's Daughter, featuring Pierce Brosnan as the Sun King.{{Cite web|last=Groves|first=Don|date=August 9, 2013|title=Australia attracts The Moon & the Sun|url=http://if.com.au/2013/08/09/article/Australia-attracts-The-Moon--the-Sun/SSUGQUDEHX.html|access-date=October 31, 2013|website=IF Magazine}} In October 2021, it was announced that Gravitas Ventures acquired distribution rights to the film, and set it for a January 21, 2022, release.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2021/10/the-kings-daughter-gravitas-ventures-acquires-pierce-brosnan-film-1234859061/|title='The King's Daughter': Gravitas Ventures Nabs Rights To Fantasy Film Starring Pierce Brosnan & More, With Narration By Julie Andrews|website=Deadline Hollywood|first=Matt|last=Grobar|date=October 20, 2021|access-date=October 20, 2021}}

She was able to complete a final novel, Curve of the World, shortly before her death in 2019.{{Cite web|date=April 2, 2019|title=Vonda N. McIntyre, 1948-2019|url=https://www.tor.com/2019/04/02/vonda-n-mcintyre-1948-2019/|access-date=April 3, 2019|website=Tor.com}}

Personal life

She enjoyed crafting crocheted marine creatures to contribute to the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project of the Institute For Figuring.{{Cite web|title=Contributors|url=https://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/index.php|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203114522/https://crochetcoralreef.org/contributors/index.php|archive-date=December 3, 2013|access-date=November 15, 2013|website=Crochet Coral Reef}}

McIntyre died on April 1, 2019, at her home in Seattle, Washington, of metastatic pancreatic cancer,{{Cite web|last=Glyer|first=Mike|date=April 1, 2019|title=Science Fiction Author Vonda N. McIntyre, Official Obituary|url=http://file770.com/science-fiction-author-vonda-n-mcintyre-official-obituary/|access-date=April 2, 2019|website=File 770}} which was diagnosed in February.{{Cite news|date=April 2, 2019|title=Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019)|newspaper=Locus|url=https://locusmag.com/2019/04/vonda-n-mcintyre-1948-2019/|access-date=February 27, 2022}}

Legacy

In 2019, Clarion West established the Vonda N. McIntyre Memorial Scholarship, to enable women writers and writers of color to attend the Clarion West Writers Workshop and Writing the Other established the Vonda N. McIntyre Sentient Squid Memorial Scholarship, to help authors at any point in their career path and from every background, including those who don't have the money to pay for writing workshops.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}}

Awards and tributes

"Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand": 1974 Nebula Award, nominated for the 1974 Hugo Award and the 1974 Locus Poll Award
Dreamsnake: 1979 Hugo Award, 1979 Nebula Award
Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1982 novel Friday, "to Vonda" (among many others).{{Cite web|last=Davitt|first=Jane|date=2002|title=Heinlein's Dedications|url=http://www.nitrosyncretic.com/rah/dedications.html|website=Nitrosyncretic Press}}
The Moon and the Sun: 1997 Nebula Award, nominated for the 1998 Locus Poll Award and the 1997 James Tiptree, Jr. Award
"Little Faces": Nominated for the 2005 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, 2006 Sturgeon Award, and the 2007 Nebula Award
McIntyre was a Guest of Honor at Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention.

Bibliography

References

External links

[http://vondanmcintyre.net/ Vonda N. McIntyre] – Memorial website
{{ISFDB name|id=423|name=Vonda N. McIntyre}}
[https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/8744 Vonda N. McIntyre papers] at University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives

Category:1948 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:20th-century American novelists

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:21st-century American writers

Category:21st-century American women writers

Category:American women novelists

Category:American science fiction writers

Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Washington (state)

Category:Hugo Award–winning writers

Category:Science Fiction Hall of Fame inductees

Category:Star Trek fiction writers