Kate Wilhelm
Kate Wilhelm was an influential American author, born on June 8, 1928, in Ohio. She began her writing career in 1956 after pursuing various occupations, including modeling and working as a switchboard operator. Wilhelm gained prominence for her genre-defying narratives, initially publishing mystery novels and science fiction short stories. She was married twice, first to Joseph Wilhelm and later to fellow writer Damon Knight, with whom she co-directed the Milford Science-Fiction Writers' Conference. Throughout her career, she authored over sixty novels and numerous short stories, essays, and poetry, receiving several prestigious accolades, including multiple Nebula and Hugo Awards. Wilhelm was also an educator, teaching writing at Michigan State University and participating in various writing workshops, notably the Clarion Writers' Workshop. In 2003, she was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, and in 2016, the Solstice Award was renamed in her honor. Wilhelm passed away on March 8, 2018, leaving behind a significant legacy in the literary world.
Kate Wilhelm
American mystery and speculative fiction novelist.
- Date of birth: June 8, 1928
- Place of birth: Ohio
- Date of death: March 8, 2018
- Place of death: Eugene, Oregon
Biography
Kate Wilhelm was born Katie Gertrude Meredith on June 8, 1928, in Ohio, the daughter of Jesse Thomas Meredith and Ann Meredith. She attended high school in Louisville, Kentucky, and after a brief stint at the University of Louisville, she married Joseph Wilhelm in 1947. She later earned a PhD at Michigan State University.
After working as a model, telephone operator, sales clerk, switchboard operator, and insurance company underwriter, Wilhelm became a full-time writer in 1956. She and her husband had two sons, Richard and Douglas, before divorcing in 1962. Wilhelm met her second husband, Damon Knight (1922–2002), when she was submitting stories to a magazine that Knight edited. Though he did not buy any of her stories, he invited her to a science-fiction writers’ conference he was hosting in Milford, Pennsylvania. Wilhelm and Knight married in 1963, and the couple codirected the annual writers’ conferences there until 1976. They had a son, Jonathan, in 1966, and Wilhelm gained three stepchildren.
Wilhelm's first published books were More Bitter Than Death (1962), a mystery novel, and The Mile-Long Spaceship (1963), a collection of science-fiction short stories. Wilhelm’s editor at the time advised her to choose one genre. Though she tried to follow his advice, she continued to write more than one type of fiction and, indeed, became known for her genre-defying narratives. In later decades, she did devote herself more exclusively to writing mystery and crime fiction.
Wilhelm eventually developed a severe allergy that affected her eyes to the point where she required surgery. Her doctors advised her to move away from the allergen. She left Milford in 1971 and lived in Madeira Beach, Florida, before settling in Eugene, Oregon, in 1976. Despite their move, Wilhelm and Knight continued to call their writers’ gatherings the Milford Science-Fiction Writers’ Conference.
Robin Scott Wilson, who was developing a summer school course for Clarion State College, attended the Milford conference in 1967. The following year, he launched the course with Wilhelm as one of the instructors. She and Knight went on to teach at the Clarion Writers’ Workshop for twenty-seven years, offering an intensive six-week writing program for novice writers. The program was dubbed “boot camp for writers” by some of its participants. In 1971, Wilhelm described the workshop in the anthology Clarion. She later published several more articles and books on the craft of writing.
From 1968 until 1996, Wilhelm taught at Michigan State University as well. She and Knight also lectured together in Asia and South America.
Over more than half century, Wilhelm penned more than sixty novels, as well as numerous collections of short shorties, essays, and poetry. She also edited anthologies for Clarion and Nebula. She is best remembered for her near-future settings and characterization rather than big ideas.
Wilhelm, along with her sons Richard and Jonathan and daughter-in-law Sue, established the independent publishing house InfinityBox Press in 2012 to sell Wilhelm's and Damon's backlisted books and to print her new works.
For her contributions to science fiction, Wilhelm received a number of prestigious awards. Among them were two Nebula Awards for best short story (1968, 1987), a Nebula for best novelette (1986), and Hugo Awards for the novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) and the nonfiction book Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop (2005). Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang also garnered her Jupiter and Locus Awards. In 2003, Wilhelm was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) presented her with its lifetime achievement award, the Solstice Award, in 2009, and renamed the honor after her in 2016.
Wilhelm died of respiratory failure on March 8, 2018, at the age of eighty-nine.
Author Works
Long Fiction
More Bitter Than Death, 1962
The Clone, 1965 (with Theodore L. Thomas)
The Nevermore Affair, 1966
The Killer Thing, 1967 (also known as The Killing Thing, 1967)
Let the Fire Fall, 1969
The Year of the Cloud, 1970 (with Theodore L. Thomas)
Abyss: Two Novellas, 1971
Margaret and I, 1971
City of Cain, 1974
The Clewison Test, 1976
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang, 1976
Fault Lines, 1977
Juniper Time, 1979
A Sense of Shadow, 1981
Listen, Listen, 1981 (contains four novellas)
The Winter Beach, 1981
Oh, Susannah!, 1982
Welcome, Chaos, 1983
Huysman's Pets, 1986
The Hamlet Trap, 1987
Crazy Time, 1988
The Dark Door, 1988
Children of the Wind: Five Novellas, 1989
Smart House, 1989
Cambio Bay, 1990
Sweet, Sweet Poison, 1990
Death Qualified: A Mystery of Chaos, 1991
Naming the Flowers, 1992 (novella)
Seven Kinds of Death, 1992
Justice for Some, 1993
The Best Defense, 1994
A Flush of Shadows: Five Short Novels Featuring Constance Leidl and Charlie Meiklejohn, 1995
Malice Prepense, 1996 (also known as For the Defense, 1997)
The Good Children, 1998
Defense for the Devil, 1999
The Casebook of Constance and Charlie, 1999–2000 (2 volumes; collects The Hamlet Trap, Smart House, Seven Kinds of Death, The Dark Door, Sweet, Sweet Poison, and three novellas)
The Deepest Water, 2000
No Defense, 2000
Desperate Measures, 2001
Skeletons, 2002
Clear and Convincing Proof, 2003
The Unbidden Truth, 2004
The Price of Silence, 2005
Sleight of Hand, 2006
A Wrongful Death, 2007
Cold Case, 2008
Heaven Is High, 2011
Death of an Artist, 2012
Short Fiction
The Mile-Long Spaceship, 1963 (published in UK as Andover and the Android, 1966)
The Downstairs Room, and Other Speculative Fiction, 1968
The Infinity Box: A Collection of Speculative Fiction, 1975
Somerset Dreams, and Other Fictions, 1978
State of Grace, 1991
And the Angels Sing, 1992
Kate Wilhelm in Orbit, 2015 (2 volumes; e-book only)
Poetry
Better Than One, 1980 (with Damon Knight; also contains short stories and essays)
Nonfiction
The Works of Kate Wilhelm, 1983
The Hills Are Dancing, 1986 (with Richard Wilhelm)
Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop, 2005
Edited Texts
Nebula Award Stories, volume 9, 1974
Clarion SF, 1977
Bibliography
Bradfield, Scott. "Kate Wilhelm: An Appreciation." Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2018, www.latimes.com/books/la-et-jc-kate-wilhelm-appreciation-20180313-story.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2018.
"In Memoriam - Kate Wilhelm." SFWA, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, 12 Mar. 2018, www.sfwa.org/2018/03/in-memoriam-kate-wilhelm. Accessed 20 Nov. 2018.
Lukin, Josh. "Cold War Masculinity in the Early Work of Kate Wilhelm." Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, edited by Justine Larbalestier, Wesleyan UP, 2006, pp. 107–29. Examines the gender roles and relations in Wilhelm's story "No Light in the Window."
Roberts, Sam. "Kate Wilhelm, Prolific Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 89." The New York Times, 16 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/obituaries/kate-wilhelm-prolific-science-fiction-writer-dies-at-89.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2018.
Van Gelder, Gordon. "Kate Wilhelm: An Appreciation." Fantasy & Science Fiction, Sept. 2001, pp. 66–73. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=4888211&site=ehost-live. Accessed 9 Nov. 2017.