Stephen H. Segal is a Hugo Award-winning American editor, author, journalist and publication designer.
Editing career
Segal began his editorial career as a journalist at ''
In Pittsburgh Weekly
The ''Pittsburgh City Paper'' is Pittsburgh's leading alternative weekly newspaper which focuses on local news, opinion, and arts and entertainment. It bought out ''In Pittsburgh Weekly'' in 2001. As of April 2015, ''City Paper'' is the 14th la ...
'' and
WQED's ''
Pittsburgh Magazine
Pittsburgh Magazine is a lifestyle magazine covering the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It hosts an annual "40 Under 40" featuring prominent young Pittsburghers. It's known for listicles including Pittsburgh's 25 Best Restaurants, Best of the 'Bur ...
''. In 2006, he joined the staff of the long-running fantasy magazine ''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'', and was named its editorial and creative director in early 2007 as part of an overall revamp of the publication. The April/May 2007 edition (issue #344) featured the magazine's first all-new design in almost 75 years; subsequently, under Segal's direction, ''Weird Tales'' published works by a wide range of strange-fiction authors including
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939) is an English writer, best-known for science fiction and fantasy, who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worke ...
,
Caitlín R. Kiernan,
Cherie Priest
Cherie Priest (born July 30, 1975) is an American novelist and blogger living in Seattle, Washington.
Biography
Priest is a Florida native, born in Tampa in 1975. She graduated from Forest Lake Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school ...
,
Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad (born September 15, 1940) is an American science fiction author, essayist, and critic. His fiction has won the Prix Apollo and been nominated for numerous awards, including the Hugo Award and multiple Nebula Awards.
Pe ...
,
Jay Lake
Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake, Jr. (June 6, 1964 – June 1, 2014) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for B ...
, and
Carrie Vaughn
Carrie Vaughn (born January 28, 1973) is an American writer, the author of the urban fantasy '' Kitty Norville'' series. She has published more than 60 short stories in science fiction and fantasy magazines as well as short story anthologies and ...
, as well as artwork by a younger generation of artists such as
Molly Crabapple,
Steven Archer, and Jason Levesque.
In 2009, Segal and fiction editor
Ann VanderMeer
Ann VanderMeer (née Kennedy) is an American publisher and editor, and the second female editor of the horror magazine '' Weird Tales''. She is the founder of Buzzcity Press.
Work from her press and related periodicals has won the British Fantas ...
won a
Hugo Award for ''Weird Tales'', the first and only time in its 75-year history. Segal and VanderMeer were also nominated for a 2009
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...
for their work at the magazine, and were nominated again for Hugo Awards in 2010 and 2011. In 2010 Segal left the post of editorial and creative director to pursue book editing full-time; he remained ''Weird Tales senior contributing editor, while VanderMeer was elevated to editor-in-chief.
As a freelance book editor and designer, Segal served as chief book-cover designer for the World Fantasy Award-winning publisher
Prime Books
Sean Wallace (born January 1, 1976) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologist, editor, and publisher best known for founding the publishing house Prime Books and for co-editing three magazines, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', '' ...
and the urban fantasy line Juno Books. He also contributes to the Interstitial Arts Foundation, where he was a board member from 2005 to 2010.
In 2012, Segal was named editor in chief of the ''
Philadelphia Weekly''. During his tenure (2012-2016) both he and the paper received numerous awards, including Best Overall Non-Daily Paper, Best Headline Writing and Best Tabloid Page Design by the
Society of Professional Journalists; Best Staff Blog by the national
Association of Alternative Newsmedia
The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. A ...
; Best Headline Writing, Best News Presentation and General Excellence in Pennsylvania’s Newspaper of the Year Awards; and Best Special Project and the Distinguished Writing Award in the annual
Keystone Press Awards.
Segal is currently Managing Editor of
Legacy.com.
Books
In 2011, Segal's book ''Geek Wisdom: The Sacred Teachings of Nerd Culture'', written collaboratively with coauthors Zaki Hasan,
N. K. Jemisin, Eric San Juan, and
Genevieve Valentine, was published by
Quirk Books
Quirk Books is an American independent book publisher based in Philadelphia.
History
Before 2002, Quirk Books was a creative studio that would pitch novel ideas to other publishers. Quirk Books was founded as a publishing company in 2002 by Da ...
.
Released August 2011
This was followed in 2016 with ''Geek Parenting: What Joffrey, Jor-El, Maleficent, and the McFlys Teach Us about Raising a Family'', co-authored with
Valya Dudycz Lupescu. Released April 2016
His latest book, ''Forking Good,'' co-authored with
Valya Dudycz Lupescu. is scheduled for release Fall 2019
Personal life
A native of
Atlantic City, New Jersey, he currently resides in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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.
Works edited
*''Philadelphia Weekly'', 2012-2016
*''Geek Wisdom'',
Released August 2011
*''
Weird Tales
''Weird Tales'' is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine founded by J. C. Henneberger and J. M. Lansinger in late 1922. The first issue, dated March 1923, appeared on newsstands February 18. The first editor, Edwin Baird, pri ...
'' magazine, 2006-2009
*Co-editor, anthology, ''Weird Tales, 21st Century, Volume 1'' (2007)
*Editor, ''Weird Tales'': 85th anniversary issue (2008)
*Editor, ''Pittsburgh Magazine'': Golden Quill Award finalist (2005)
*Editor, ''InPittsburgh Weekly'':
Keystone Press Award
The Keystone Press Awards are a prominent series of awards presented by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association to Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the ...
finalist (2000)
Works designed
*''Weird Tales'': first redesign in 75 years (April 2007 issue)
*''The Secret History of Moscow'' by ''Ekaterina Sedia''
*''The Alchemy of Stone'' by ''Ekaterina Sedia''
*''Myth-Chief'' by ''Robert Asprin''
*''Seeds of Change'' by ''John Joseph Adams''
*''Fantasy Magazine''
References
External links
Stephen H. Segal Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Segal, Stephen H.
American magazine editors
American book editors
Living people
Mainland Regional High School (New Jersey) alumni
Writers from Atlantic City, New Jersey
American male non-fiction writers
Year of birth missing (living people)