Willis, Connie 1945–

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Willis, Connie 1945–

PERSONAL: Born December 31, 1945, in Denver, CO; daughter of LaMarlys Crook Trimmer (a homemaker) and stepdaughter of William Trimmer (a lineman); married Courtney W. Willis (a physics professor), August 23, 1967; children: Cordelia. Education: Colorado State College (now University of Northern Colorado), B.A., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Home—1716 13th Ave., Greeley, CO 80631. Agent—Ralph Vicinanza, 111 8th Ave., Ste. 1501, New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Writer and educator. Branford Public Schools, Branford, CT, teacher of fifth and seventh grades, 1967–69; freelance writer, 1969–; Colorado artist-in-residence.

MEMBER: Science Fiction Writers of America.

AWARDS, HONORS: National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 1980; Hugo Awards, World Science Fiction Convention, 1982, for novelette "Fire Watch," 1988, for novella "The Last of the Winnebagos," 1993, for novel Doomsday Book and for short story "Even the Queen," 1994, for short story "Death on the Nile," 1997, for short story "The Soul Selects Her Own Society…," 1999, for novel To Say Nothing of the Dog, 2000, for novella "The Winds of Marble Arch"; John W. Campbell Memorial Award, World Science Fiction Convention, 1988, for novel Lincoln's Dreams; Nebula Awards, Science Fiction Writers of America, both 1982, for "Fire Watch" and short story "A Letter from the Clearys," 1988, for "The Last of the Winnebagos," 1989, for novelette "At the Rialto," 1992, for novel Doomsday Book and short story "Even the Queen"; shortlisted for Arthur C. Clarke Award, 2002, for Passage; Hugo Award nomination for Best Novella, 2004, and Nebula Award nomination for best novella, 2005, both for Just like the Ones We Used to Know; Locus Award for Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Writer of the Nineties; Alex Award, American Library Association, for To Say Nothing of the Dog.

WRITINGS:

SCIENCE FICTION NOVELS

(With Cynthia Felice) Water Witch, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1980.

Lincoln's Dreams, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Cynthia Felice) Light Raid, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1989.

Doomsday Book, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Uncharted Territory, Spectra (New York, NY), 1994.

Remake, M.V. Ziesing (Shingletown, CA), 1994.

Bellwether, Bantam (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Cynthia Felice) Promised Land, Ace Books (New York, NY), 1997.

To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last, Bantam (New York, NY), 1997.

Passage, Bantam (New York, NY), 2001.

Inside Job (novella), Subterranean Press (Burton, MI), 2005.

OTHER

Fire Watch (science fiction stories), Bluejay (New York, NY), 1984.

(With others) Berserker Base, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Impossible Things (science fiction stories), Bantam (New York, NY), 1993.

(Editor) The New Hugo Winners, Volume 3, Baen Books (New York, NY), 1994.

Even the Queen and Other Short Stories (sound recording), 1997.

Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories, Bantam (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor and author of commentary) Nebula Awards 33: The Year's Best SF and Fantasy Chosen by the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1999.

(Editor, with Sheila Williams) A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and about Women, Warner Books (New York, NY), 2001.

Also author of the novella Just like the Ones We Used to Know, published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 2003. Contributor of stories to science fiction magazines, including Omni and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

SIDELIGHTS: The recipient of numerous Hugo and Nebula Awards, as well as the first American to be shortlisted for the 2002 Arthur C. Clarke science fiction award, Connie Willis has written novels and stories that have been acclaimed not only by critics and readers but also by her fellow science-fiction writers. Willis's first solo novel, Lincoln's Dreams, focuses on Annie, a young woman plagued by dreams about the U.S. Civil War, and Jeff, a researcher who helps identify the source of those dreams. The nightmares are so detailed that they could only be the dreams of someone else—most likely Confederate General Robert E. Lee. In a New York Times Book Review article, Gerald Jonas said the book "literally gave me dreams—strange narrative fantasies that left me with a not unpleasant sense of being on the verge of some important revelation. As the book itself did." Willis conceals nothing, and the mystery of Lincoln's Dreams is solved. David Brin indicated in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that "whether writing drama or witty humor or, in this case, a poignant examination of duty, Willis conveys through her characters a sense of transcendent pity that few modern authors ever attempt."

Willis followed Lincoln's Dreams with Doomsday Book, a time-travel novel set in England in both the mid-twenty-first century and the fourteenth century. Against the wishes of her tutor, Oxford history student Kivrin decides to travel back to the year 1320. An error in the time-travel procedure sends her back to 1348 instead, a time when the Black Death was raging throughout England. Kivrin becomes deeply involved with the people of the era and in fighting the epidemic. Meanwhile, a plague also breaks out in the world from which Kivrin had traveled, revealing that although science has progressed in its ability to combat contagious disease the human reaction to it has not. While noting some errors in Willis's historical research, New Statesman & Society critic David V. Barrett nevertheless called Doomsday Book "one of the harshest yet most beautiful novels I have read for years." A Publishers Weekly reviewer found the novel to be "an intelligent and satisfying blend of classic science fiction and historical reconstruction," and concluded: "This book finds villains and heroes in all ages, and love, too, which Kivrin hears in the revealing and quietly touching deathbed confession of a village priest."

Willis's Uncharted Territory is a farce set in the far future. On the backwater world of Bhoote, two gently feuding planetary surveyors and a visiting "socioexozoologist" who is studying alien mating customs are taken on a horseback tour of the planet by a larcenous native guide who makes up violations of native customs, and the fines that accompany them, as they proceed. The slapstick narrative eventually leads to a revelation about the geology of Bhoote. A critic for Publishers Weekly described Uncharted Territory as "a pleasant diversion," while noting "there's little for the reader to take away." However, Carl Hays observed in Booklist: "Willis proves unsurpassed in SF in her ability to unload, within a short but thoroughly satisfying narrative space, a full literary bag of tricks ranging from wry dialogue to extraterrestrial intrigue."

Willis shifted tone again with the 1994 title Remake. In a near-future Hollywood, traditional moviemaking has been replaced by computer graphics. Tom, the narrator of the story, is in charge of mining old films to create new ones, often starring dead actors. It is also his job to make sure the remakes adhere to the politically correct attitudes of the times. Tom falls in love with Alis, a young woman who has come to Hollywood to become a star in the kind of movies that are no longer made. Oddly, Alis begins turning up as a dancer in the old movies Tom watches to create new ones. To pursue his love, Tom must unravel this mystery. "Willis's writing, as usual, is transparently clean and deft," a Publishers Weekly writer commented. Gary K. Wolfe, writing in Locus, compared Remake to "a good cocktail-party debate about old movies," and noted that much of the book's charm comes from "Willis's own random opinions and observations about the movies she loves." Science Fiction Age contributor Martha Soukup referred to Remake as a movie in her review, writing that "Willis in this movie is all tricky plot, social satire, and snappy, appealing dialogue at a hundred miles an hour."

According to a Publishers Weekly critic in a review of Willis's Bellwether, "In Willis's fifth solo novel, her practiced screwball style yields a clever story which, while imperfect, is a sheer pleasure to read." Bellwether takes place in the near future at a corporation known as Hi-Tek. Sociologist/statistician Sandy Foster is joined by a mail girl and an expert in chaos theory in her research into the source of fads. According to a Publishers Weekly critic, "Where the story's headed becomes transparent too early…. But none of that counts much against this bright romantic comedy, where the real pleasure is the thick layers of detail … and the wryly disdainful commentary on human stupidity."

In To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last Willis returns to England and the theme of time travel. The plot revolves around time-traveler Ned Henry, a rich dowager who wants to rebuild Coventry Cathedral by scavenging the past, and a supposed vacation back to 1888 where Ned discovers that he must correct an incongruity in time with the help of love interest and fellow time-traveler Verity Kindle. "What a stitch!" proclaimed Sally Estes in Booklist. Estes continued: "Take an excursion though time, add chaos theory, romance, plenty of humor, a dollop of mystery, and a spoof of the Victorian novel and you end up with what seems like a comedy of errors but is actually a grand scheme 'involving the entire course of history and all of time and space.'" A Publishers Weekly writer commented: "While thematically not the major novel that Willis's much-acclaimed Doomsday Book was, her newest shares its universe as well as its near flawlessness of plot, character and prose." To Say Nothing of the Dog "establishes Willis not only as SF's premiere living humorist, but possibly as the genre's premiere humorist ever," wrote Wolfe in Locus. Michael Berry wrote in the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle: "Few writers can match Willis' blend of comedy and science fiction. To Say Nothing of the Dog finds her in top form."

Passage, Willis's 2001 novel, focuses on a topic that has long been of interest to the author: how people deal with death. The book tells the story of neurologist Richard Wright and psychologist Joanna Lander, who are studying the phenomena of Near Death Experiences by inducting test subjects into simulated near-death states through the use of psychoactive drugs. After several of their test subjects drop out of the experiment, Joanna goes under herself and finds herself reliving memories of the Titanic. After each session, the anxiety Joanna experiences grows, and she must solve the mystery of why she sees what she sees, as well as try to understand why people experience what they do so near to death. "With memorable characters, believable science, and convincing hospital ambiance … [Passage] will rock readers back on their heels," wrote Estes in Booklist. Jackie Cassada of the Library Journal praised Willis for "constructing an unforgettable tale of courage and selfsacrifice." According to Dori DeSapin in the School Library Journal, "This novel will draw not only science fiction fans, but also those who have wondered about their own passage from this existence into the next."

In an interview with Publishers Weekly reporter Dorman T. Shindler, Willis explained that instead of focusing on death on a "Hallmark card level," as she referred to stories that treat death as something not to be worried about, Willis wanted to show that "whatever death brings, it's huge, it's major, it's terrifying! And it's awesome (in the old fashioned sense of the word.)" So in Passage, though the characters' experiences might be surreal, they never physically communicate with the dead, and they feel what it must be like to be alone at the time of death.

In 2005, Willis published a novella titled Inside Job. The author again deals with the paranormal by following the story of skeptical magazine publisher Rob and ex-actress Kildy as they become involved with a psychic channeler named Ariaura. While Kildy and Rob try to figure out if Ariaura is a fake, the channeler accuses the couple of trying to destroy her career. Several critics responded positively to Inside Job, finding that the author's writing is intensified in this shorter form, enhancing the story and character development. "Willis grows even better in her short fiction, bringing to this novella both richness and integrity," wrote Jackie Cassada in a review for Library Journal. Others thought the book was smart, informative, and appealing to Willis's continually growing group of fans. Inside Job is "highly enjoyable, somewhat educational and will leave readers happy at the end," observed one Publishers Weekly contributor.

In addition to her solo novels, Willis has collaborated on three novels with fiction writer Cynthia Felice, and she has also published several collections of stories. In a review of Willis's third collaboration with Felice, 1997's Promised Land, a Publishers Weekly critic remarked: "Since they first teamed up, in Water Witch, Willis and Felice have been a solidly successful pair known for smoothly mixing SF adventure with humor and light romance." The reviewer considered Promised Land, a young woman's coming-of-age story set on a desolate colony planet, to be no exception: "Lively characters, a well-defined setting and sure-handed storytelling add up to a novel that's bound to capture readers' imaginations." Commenting in Booklist on Willis's collection Impossible Things, Carl Hays stated, "Ranging in style from biting satire to speculative history, Willis' second collection of short fiction displays a versatility of form and conception few in the genre can match." Willis's third collection, Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories, provides strange twists on some traditional Christmas icons, including Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. A writer for Publishers Weekly stated: "The witty, literate Willis offers a wonderfully enjoyable ode to Christmas with this collection of eight fantastic seasonal titles."

In 2001, Willis was the only writer of science fiction to have won eight Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards. "All I ever wanted to be was a science fiction writer," she told Shindler. She explained in the same interview: "My characters are always trying to figure out the world, and they never have enough information. Everything depends on their understanding the situation; yet it's a situation much too big and complicated for them to understand. That, to me, is the human condition in a nutshell."

Willis once told CA: "I have been writing for … years, beginning with confessions and settling in science fiction, where I am happy to be able to write whatever I want: screwball comedies, stories about the distant past and the distant future, fairy tales, serious science stories, horror and fantasy and romance, almost anything. I love the short form best and never intend to abandon it, even though I am working on novels. I have been an Anglophile forever and write a great many of my stories about England."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, December 15, 1993, Carl Hays, review of Impossible Things, p. 741; May 1, 1994, Carl Hays, review of Uncharted Territory, p. 1586; July, 1997, Laurie Hartshorn, review of Even the Queen and Other Short Stories, p. 1829; January 1, 1998, Sally Estes, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog; or, How We Found the Bishop's Bird Stump at Last, p. 786; April 15, 1999, Roland Green, review of Nebula Awards 33: The Year's Best SF and Fantasy Chosen by the Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, p. 1518; March 15, 2001, Sally Estes, review of Passage, p. 1361; August 2001, Regina Schroeder, review of A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and about Women, p. 2102; June 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Inside Job, p. 1770.

Bookseller, April 5, 2002, "Brits Dominate SF Prize," p. 27.

Denver Post, April 20, 2001, Dorman T. Shindler, review of Passage.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2001, review of Passage.

Kliatt, July, 2003, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 6.

Library Journal, February 15, 1997, Susan Hamburger, review of The Promised Land, p. 165; December, 1998, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 188; April 1, 1999, Laurel Bliss, review of Nebula Awards 33, p. 132; April 15, 2001, Jackie Cassada, review of Passage, p. 135, Wilda Williams, "Crossing the Final Frontier," p. 136; July, 2001, Nancy Pearl, "Summer Book Report," p. 160; January, 2002, review of Passage, p. 51; August 5, 2005, Jackie Cassada, review of Inside Job, p. 76.

Locus, January, 1995, Gary K. Wolfe, review of Remake, p. 21; November, 1997, Faren Miller, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 19; January, 1998, Gary K. Wolfe, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 15.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 7, 1988, David Brin, review of Lincoln's Dreams.

Mythprint, August, 2001, Paula DiSante, "A Foot in the Door of Hereafter," p. 4.

New Statesman & Society, November 27, 1992, David V. Barrett, review of Doomsday Book, p. 38.

New York Times Book Review, June 7, 1987, Gerald Jonas, review of Lincoln's Dreams, p. 18; December 21, 1997, Gerald Jonas, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, January 18, 1985, review of Fire Watch, p. 64; April 14, 1989, Sybil Steinberg, review of Light Raid, p. 54; May 4, 1992, review of Doomsday Book, p. 54; November 29, 1993, review of Impossible Things, p. 59; June 6, 1994, review of Uncharted Territory, p. 62; December 19, 1994, review of Remake, p. 51; January 29, 1996, review of Bellwether, p. 96; January 27, 1997, review of The Promised Land, p. 82; October 27, 1997, review of To Say Nothing of the Dog, p. 56; March 8, 1999, review of Nebula Awards 33, p. 51; October 25, 1999, review of Miracle, and Other Christmas Stories, p. 55; March 12, 2001, review of Passage, p. 67; May 21, 2001, Dorman T. Shindler, "Connie Willis: The Truths of Science Fiction," p. 76; July 30, 2001, review of A Woman's Liberation, p. 66; May 30, 2005, review of Inside Job, p. 44.