Shawna Lee McCarthy (born 1954) 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 uni ...

and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

editor and literary agent. McCarthy graduated from the

Wilkes University Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...

and studied at the American University.

Career

McCarthy edited various magazines for several years, starting as editorial assistant and editor of Firehouse Magazine before working as the managing editor at Asimov's. In 1983, she took over from Kathleen Moloney as the editor-in-chief of ''

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publicatio ...

'', a change under which the magazine "acquired an edgier and more literary and experimental tone." During her time at ''Asimov's'', McCarthy edited four anthologies of stories from the magazine (''Isaac Asimov's Wonders of the World'' (1982), ''Isaac Asimov's Aliens & Outworlders'' (1983), ''Isaac Asimov's Space of Her Own'' (1984) and ''Isaac Asimov's Fantasy!'' (1985)), and received the 1984

Hugo Award for Best Professional Editor 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, ...

(she was nominated for this award three times). She left the magazine in 1985 and was succeeded by

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 ...

. After leaving ''Asimov's'', McCarthy became an editor for Bantam in 1985 and co-edited the first two volumes of that publisher's ''Full Spectrum'' anthology series with

Lou Aronica Lou Aronica (born 1958) is an American editor and publisher, primarily of science fiction. He co-edited the ''Full Spectrum'' anthologies with Shawna McCarthy. As a publisher he began at Bantam Books and formed their Bantam Spectra science fictio ...

, ''et al.'' Upon leaving Bantam in 1988, she began working as a literary agent, first with

Scott Meredith Scott Meredith, born Arthur Scott Feldman (1923, New York City, NY – 1 July 1992, Manhasset, NY) was a prominent American literary agent, and founder of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. His clients included famous and successful writers ...

, then with Scovil Chichak Galen, and now as an independent. In addition, she was the fiction editor of ''

Realms of Fantasy ''Realms of Fantasy'' was a professional bimonthly fantasy speculative fiction magazine published by Sovereign Media, then Tir Na Nog Press, and Damnation Books, which specialized in fantasy fiction (including some horror), related nonfiction (wit ...

'' magazine from its debut in 1994 until its closure after the October 2011 issue.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Shawna 1954 births Living people Hugo Award-winning editors Science fiction editors Women speculative fiction editors