M. J. Engh

Mary Jane Engh, author of Arslan and Wheel of the Winds among other works, will be honored as Author Emerita by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America for the 2009 Nebula Awards Weekend in Los Angeles, California. Under the pseudonym Jane Beauclerk, Engh published her first science fiction story, "We Serve the Star of Freedom," in the July 1964 issue of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Over the next four decades, her short fiction appeared in a wide range of markets including Universe 1, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Arabesques. In 1976 Engh published her first novel, Arslan, about a future United States conquered by a third-world power, to widespread critical acclaim. She followed that with Wheel of the Winds in 1988 and Rainbow Man in 1993. Engh's other works range from non-fiction (2007's In the Name of Heaven: 3,000 Years of Religious Persecution) to children's fiction (1987's The House in the Snow) as well as poetry. Her past honors include the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship Grant, 1982, the Mellon "Starving Artist Award," 1997, and the Women's Classical Caucus Oral Paper Award for 1999, shared with Kathryn E. Meyer. Engh lives in eastern Washington state where she shares a house and a very large garden with her younger son and daughter-in-law, one dog and four cats.