James Raymond Frenkel (born 1948) is an American editor and agent of science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, thrillers, historical fiction, and other books, formerly for Tom Doherty Associates (

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese sci ...

and Forge Books). He has edited numerous prominent authors such as

Vernor Vinge Vernor Steffen Vinge (; born October 2, 1944) is an American science fiction author and retired professor. He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University. He is the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singu ...

, Joan D. Vinge, Frederik Pohl,

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

, Loren D. Estleman,

Dan Simmons Dan Simmons (born April 4, 1948) is an American science fiction and horror writer. He is the author of the Hyperion Cantos and the Ilium/Olympos cycles, among other works which span the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres, sometimes wi ...

Jack Williamson John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of the first uses of the term '' gen ...

Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''Star Wars'' books, chiefly the ''Thrawn'' series, and has published several other series of sci-fi and f ...

Marie Jakober Marie Jakober (August 27, 1941 – March 26, 2017) was a Canadian novelist. Based in Calgary, Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie prov ...

and

Greg Bear Gregory Dale Bear (August 20, 1951 – November 19, 2022) was an American writer and illustrator best known for science fiction. His work covered themes of galactic conflict ('' Forge of God'' books), parallel universes ('' The Way'' series), c ...

. His agency clients include John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter. He and his wife, author Joan D. Vinge lived in

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

for many years, but have moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1968, Frenkel founded The Science Fiction Forum at

the State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system' ...

, a student-run organization which continues to operate a large lending library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books. He was the publisher of Bluejay Books, an independent trade publisher of the mid-1980s. Bluejay Books published

Gardner Dozois Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of ''The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fictio ...

's ''The Year's Best Science Fiction'' for three years. He also was the packager of ''The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (for sixteen years) and then Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for five years). In July 2013, Frenkel left Tor after two complaints about sexual harassment at

WisCon WisCon or Wiscon, a Wisconsin science fiction convention, is the oldest, and often called the world's leading, feminist science fiction convention and conference. It was first held in Madison, Wisconsin in February 1977, after a group of fans at ...

, a feminist

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expre ...

where he had been a regular attendee and presenter, and (in 1994) a Guest of Honor. Frenkel was subsequently permanently banned from attending the convention. However, in 2017, he was on the convention committee of Odyssey Con, a different

also held in

, and scheduled as a presenter, prompting several authors (one of whom claimed to have had unpleasant experiences with Frenkel in the past), to withdraw from the convention.

References

External links

Interview With James Frenkel Interview With James Frenkel Part Two
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James Frenkel and Associates Literary Agency
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frenkel, James American book editors American speculative fiction editors Science fiction editors Literary agents Writers from New York (state) Writers from Wisconsin Living people 1948 births People from Queens, New York People from Green Valley, Arizona Male speculative fiction editors