Bruce Boston

Bruce Boston (July 16, 1943 – November 11, 2024) was an American speculative fiction writer and poet.

Early years Boston was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. He received a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1965, and an M.A. in 1967. He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1961 to 2001, where he worked in a variety of occupations, including computer programmer, college professor (literature and creative writing, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, California, 1978–82), technical writer, book designer, gardener, movie projectionist, retail clerk, and furniture mover.

According to Boston, he meant to major in math at university and write on the side, but soon found that he was more interested in writing. After being advised by a friend that he should not major in English to become a writer, he decided on economics instead.

Writing career Boston has won the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry a record seven times, and the Asimov's Readers' Award for poetry a record seven times. He has also received a Pushcart Prize for fiction, 1976, a record four Bram Stoker Awards for solo poetry collections, and the first Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, 1999. His collaborative poem with Robert Frazier, "Return to the Mutant Rain Forest, " received first place in the 2006 Locus Online Poetry Poll for Best All-Time Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror Poem.

Boston's first two short story collections, Jackbird (1976) and She Comes When You're Leaving & Other Stories (1982) were published by Berkeley Poets' Workshop and Press. BPW&P was run by the Berkeley Poets' Cooperative, whose writing workshops Boston attended in the 1970s after meeting Co-op cofounder Charles Entrekin when they were both working as computer analysts for Pacific Telephone.

Boston has also published more than a hundred short stories and the novels Stained Glass Rain and The Guardener's Tale (the latter a Bram Stoker Award Finalist and Prometheus Award Nominee). His work has appeared widely in periodicals and anthologies, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories Magazine, Analog Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Science Fiction Age, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Nebula Awards Showcase. Writing in The Washington Post, Paul Di Filippo described his collection Masque of Dreams as containing "nearly two dozen brilliant stories ranging across all emotional and narrative terrains."

Boston has chaired the Nebula Award Novel Jury (SFWA), the Bram Stoker Award Novel Jury, and the Philip K. Dick Award Jury, and served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He has served as fiction and/or poetry editor for a number of publications, including Occident, The Open Cell, Berkeley Poets Cooperative, City Miner, Star*Line and The Pedestal Magazine.

Personal life Boston lived in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.