Richard Gilliam is a short story author and the editor of such theme anthologies as ''Confederacy of the Dead'' (1993), ''Phobias'' (1994) and the ''Grails'' series (1992–94). He has contributed fantasy short stories to numerous books and magazines, and his non-fiction includes ''Joltin' Joe DiMaggio'' (1999). Gilliam began as a sportswriter and worked as a publicist to Coach Bear Bryant at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...

. A veteran anthologist, he worked from his home in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He devised the Movie Links online game in 1990, and it was played extensively on

GEnie Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

four years before the quite similar

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Bacon's Law is a parlor game where players challenge each other to arbitrarily choose an actor and then connect them to another actor via a film that both actors have appeared in together, repeating this process to t ...

game was promoted in 1994. Gilliam's game is much more difficult in that a player is required to find the shortest number of movies linking actors as diverse as, say,

Gloria Swanson Gloria May Josephine Swanson (March 27, 1899April 4, 1983) was an American actress and producer. She first achieved fame acting in dozens of silent films in the 1920s and was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most f ...

and

Chris Farley Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style, and was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the ...

rather than links to the same specific actor (a feat which can be memorized).

Awards

His story "Caroline and Caleb" was a Best Novella nominee in the 1993 Bram Stoker Awards, given annually by the

Horror Writers Association The Horror Writers Association (HWA) is a worldwide non-profit organization of professional writers and publishing professionals dedicated to promoting the interests of Horror and Dark fantasy writers. Overview HWA was formed in 1985 with t ...

Read

Gilliam, Richard. "Crone Woman Gandy" ''100 Wicked Little Witch Stories'' (Sterling, 1995)

References

External links

Bibliography: Richard GilliamFantastic Fiction: Richard Gilliam
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilliam, Richard American fantasy writers American short story writers Writers from Green Bay, Wisconsin Living people American male short story writers American male novelists Novelists from Wisconsin Year of birth missing (living people)