Howard Waldrop

Born in Houston, Mississippi,^[1] Waldrop spent most of his life in Texas. He moved to Washington state for several years, but returned to Austin.

As a child, he corresponded with A Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin about their shared love of comic books. He was an avid fly fisherman. He was a member of the Turkey City Writer's Workshop, attended the Rio Hondo Writing Workshop,^[2] and taught at the Clarion Workshop.^[3]

Waldrop was a frequent attendee of ArmadilloCon, the local science fiction convention held annually in Austin. He was the Toastmaster at the inaugural ArmadilloCon #1 (1979) and again at ArmadilloCon #29 (2007); he was Guest of Honor at ArmadilloCon #5 (1983).^[4]

Waldrop was one of three writer Guests of Honor at the 1995 World Fantasy Convention^[5] held in Baltimore and at Readercon 15^[6] held in Burlington, Massachusetts, in 2003.^[7]

Waldrop was Professional Writer Guest of Honor at Loscon 46 in Los Angeles, California, in 2019.^[8] In 2004 he started writing movie reviews with Lawrence Person for Locus Online.^[9]

Waldrop died from a stroke in Austin, on January 14, 2024, at the age of 77.^[10][11]

Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternative history, American popular culture, the American South,^[12] old movies (and character actors), classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. His style is sometimes obscure or elliptical: Night of the Cooters is a pastiche of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds told from the perspective of a small town Texas sheriff (a homage to Slim Pickens) who faces a Martian cylinder crashing down near his town; "Heirs of the Perisphere" involves robotic Disney characters waking up in the far future; "Fin de Cyclé" describes the Dreyfus affair from the perspective of bicycle enthusiasts.

Waldrop's work is frequently out-of-print, though still available for sale online; several of his books have been reprinted in omnibus editions.

Several of his stories have been nominated for the genre's awards; "The Ugly Chickens" — about the extinction of the dodo — won a Nebula Award for best novelette in 1980, and also a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction in 1981; this is perhaps his best known work. His collection Night of the Cooters: More Neat Stories won the Locus Award for Best Collection in 1992.^[13] In 2021, he won the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement.^[14]

At least three novels remained unfinished/unpublished: I, John Mandeville, The Search for Tom Purdue and The Moone World.^[15]

Three of his stories ("The Ugly Chickens", "Mary Margaret Road Grader", and "Night of the Cooters"), have been adapted to film, while George R. R. Martin has signed on as producer for an animated adaptation of A Dozen Tough Jobs.^[16][17]