Gordon Van Gelder (born 1966) is an American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

editor. From 1997 until 2014, Van Gelder was editor and later publisher of ''

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher a ...

'', for which he has twice won the

Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form The Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The award is available for editors of magazines, ...

. He was also a managing editor of ''

The New York Review of Science Fiction ''The New York Review of Science Fiction'' is a monthly literary magazine of science fiction that was established in 1988. It includes works of science fiction criticism, essays, and in-depth critical reviews of new works of fiction and scholarship ...

'' from 1988 to 1993, for which he was nominated for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier a ...

a number of times. As of January 2015, Van Gelder has stepped down as editor of ''Fantasy & Science Fiction'' in favor of

Charles Coleman Finlay Charles Coleman Finlay (born July 1, 1964 in New York City, NY) is an American science fiction and fantasy author and editor. He grew up in Marysville, Ohio and attended Ohio State University. His first story, ''Footnotes'', was published in 2 ...

, but remains publisher of the magazine.Locusmag.com
/ref>

Biography

He was born in 1966. After graduating from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

(where he edited a science fiction magazine called ''Infinity''), Van Gelder started working as an editorial assistant at

St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...

in 1988, later rising to full editor. In January 1997, he became the editor of ''

'' upon the resignation of

Kristine Kathryn Rusch Kristine Kathryn Rusch (born June 4, 1960) is an American writer and editor. She writes under various pseudonyms in multiple genres, including science fiction, fantasy literature, fantasy, Mystery fiction, mystery, Romance novel, romance, and m ...

. He continued working at St. Martin's until October 2000, when he bought the magazine from Edward L. Ferman to become its publisher. During his tenure, ''F&SF'' became the second longest-running science fiction magazine, surpassing ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...

'' in total number of issues published. It is exceeded only by '' Astounding/Analog''. Van Gelder also began focusing on the publication of themed anthologies drawing from the magazine's back list rather than the best-of annuals published when Ferman was the magazine's publisher. He later edited a collection of notable stories from F&SF, ''The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', published by

Tachyon Publications Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies ...

. Van Gelder has made some behind-the-scenes changes to ''F&SF''. While the Fermans published the magazine through Mercury Press, Van Gelder founded his own press, Spilogale Inc., named for a genus of

spotted skunk The genus ''Spilogale'' includes all skunks commonly known as spotted skunks. Currently, there are four accepted extant species: ''S. gracilis'', ''S. putorius'', ''S. pygmaea'', and ''S. angustifrons''. New research, however, proposes that ther ...

. He has also moved the editorial offices from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. Van Gelder currently lives in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,690 i ...

. He has been an administrator of the

Philip K. Dick Award The Philip K. Dick Award is an American science fiction award given annually at Norwescon and sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and (since 2005) the Philip K. Dick Trust. Named after science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, ...

since 1995 and an administrator of the World Fantasy Award since 2014. In 2011,

OR Books OR Books is a New York City-based independent publishing house founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson in 2009. The company sells digital and print-on-demand books directly to the customer and focuses on creative promotion through traditional med ...

released an anthology edited by Van Gelder,
Welcome to the Greenhouse: Science Fiction on Climate Change
', with an introduction by journalist

Elizabeth Kolbert Elizabeth Kolbert (born 1961) is an American journalist, author, and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book '' The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'', and as an observer and commentator ...

Family

Richard Van Gelder Richard George Van Gelder (December 17, 1928 – February 23, 1994) was an American mammalogist who served as the Curator of Mammalogy for the American Museum of Natural History in New York for more than twenty-five years. Career Among his acc ...

, his father, was Curator of Mammalogy at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...

, an uncle of Van Gelder, was a senior editor at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' until his retirement in 2008. Van Gelder is also distantly related to noted

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

recording engineer

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...

.Night Shade Message Boards: June 2005: Bedfellows
/ref>

Bibliography

Books

* * * * * * * *

Articles

*''F&SF'

*"A Few Thoughts on Jack Cady’s The Off Season" October 1, 201

*"The New Yorker Festival Panel ‘Nouveau Science Fiction’ " ''Locus'' magazine, November 2015.

References

External links

Interview at Green Man Review
(late 1997 or early 1998?)

(1999)

(2001)
Interview by Richard Brignall at Strange Horizons
(May 2003)
Interview by Ken Rand at IROSF.COM
(2004)

April 2004

(Winter 2006)
Interview at SFRevu
(June 2007)
Interview by Lynne Jamneck
(2007)
Interview by Wolfgang Trubshaw
(March 2008)

(Nov. 2008)
Interview by Jason Heninger at Tor.com
(May 2009)
Interview by Jeremy L. C. Jones at Clarkesworld
(June 2009)

(Aug. 2009)
Odyssey Workshop interview
(Dec. 2013)
Excerpt of an interview by D. Blake Werts from ''The Digest Enthusiast'' #1
(Jan. 2015)
Welcome to the Greenhouse: Science Fiction on Climate Change anthology edited by Gordon Van Gelder
(March 2011)
The Virtual Memories Show interview
(Aug. 2017)
File 770 interview by Carl Slaughter
(September 2017)
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interview by David Barr Kirtley
May 2018 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Gelder, Gordon 1966 births Living people American book editors American magazine editors American speculative fiction critics American speculative fiction editors Place of birth missing (living people) Hugo Award-winning editors Princeton University alumni Science fiction critics Science fiction editors The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people Male speculative fiction editors