Stalin's Teardrops

Ian Watson

Born in England in 1943, Ian Watson graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1963 with a first class Honours degree in English Literature, followed in 1965 by a research degree in English and French 19th Century literature. After lecturing in literature at universities in Tanzania and Tokyo, and in Futures Studies (including Science Fiction) in Birmingham, England, he became a full-time writer in 1976 following the success of his first novel, The Embedding (1973) which won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and in France the Prix Apollo, and The Jonah Kit (1975) which won the British Science Fiction Association Award and the Orbit Award.

Numerous novels of SF, Fantasy, and Horror followed, and 9 story collections. His stories have been finalists for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and widely anthologised. From 1990 to 1991 he worked full-time with Stanley Kubrick on story development for the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence, directed after Kubrick's death by Steven Spielberg, for which Ian has screen credit for Screen Story. He lives with a black cat called Poppy in a small rural village 60 miles north of London.

Previously Ian wrote a number of poems – such as whenever one of his characters was a poet and needed to demonstrate this! – but in the past few years he has become much more prolific, poems sprouting like mushrooms although lasting a bit longer, one hopes. DNA Publications (www.dnapublications.com) released his first book of poetry, The Lexicographer's Love Song, in 2001. This includes his poem "True Love" which won the 2002 Rhysling Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.

His recent story collection, The Great Escape (Golden Gryphon Press, 2002; www.goldengryphon.com) was chosen by The Washington Post as one of the 8 best sf fantasy books of the year. Golden Gryphon Press released his latest novel, Mockymen, in Autumn 2003.

In 2001 Ian was a guest of the Semana Negra at Gijón in Spain, of the Aachen Poetenfest in Germany, of Science+Fiction, Festival Internazionale della Fantascienza in Trieste, and was Guest of Honour at the Polish National SF Convention in Katowice.

In 2003 Ian was a guest of the Science Fiction Foundation and the British SF Association at The Goldfish Factor in London. He appeared as himself and also as the "Ghost of Honour" of H.G.Wells during the Second International Week of Science Science Fiction in Timisoara, Romania; was a guest at Hungarocon in Salgótarján, Hungary; visited the Madrid Book Fair to launch the Spanish edition of his novel The Fire Worm; was a guest at the Terni Film Festival in Italy; and he revisited Hungary as guest at ÁtjáróCon in Budapest.