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.
He was the poet guest of honor at the World Horror Convention in 2013.
Personal life
Boston lived in Ocala, Florida, with his wife, writer-artist Marge Simon, whom he married in 2001.
Novels
Stained glass rain. Denver: Ocean View Books. 1993.
Stained glass rain. Reprint. Doylestown, Pennsylvania: Wildside Press. 2003.
The Guardener's tale. Signed, limited ed. Sam's Dot Publishing. 2007.
The Guardener's tale. 2nd ed. Sam's Dot Publishing. 2011.
El Guardián de Almas, Spanish-language edition of The Guardener's Tale, La Factoria de Ideas, 2009
The Guardener's tale. ebook ed. Independent Legions. 2021.
Short fiction
Collections
Jackbird. BPW&P, 1976
She Comes When You're Leaving. BPW&P, 1982
Skin Trades, Chris Drumm, 1988
Hypertales & Metafictions. Chris Drumm, 1990
All the Clocks Are Melting (single story booklet), Pulphouse Publishing, 1991
Night Eyes. Chris Drumm, 1993
Dark Tales & Light. Dark Regions, 1999
Masque of Dreams, Wildside, 2001, 2009
Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 1 (ebook), Fictionwise, 2003
Bruce Boston: Short Stories, Volume 2 (ebook), Fictionwise, 2003
Flashing the Dark. Sam's Dot Publishing, 2006
Gallimaufry. Plum White Press, 2021, 2nd edition, Mind's Eye Publications, 2023
Stories
Poetry
Collections
XXO. Maya Press, 1969
Potted Poems. Maya Press, 1970
All the Clock Are Melting. Velocities, 1984
Alchemical Texts. Ocean View, 1985
Nuclear Futures. Velocities, 1987
Time. Titan, 1988
The Nightmare Collector. 2AM Publications, 1989
Faces of the Beast. Starmont House, 1990
Other Voices, Other Worlds (audio tape, music by Jack Poley). Chris Drumm, 1990, (MP3 audio) Telltale Weekly, 2004
Short Circuits (prose poems). Ocean View, 1991
Cybertexts. Talisman, 1991
Frazier, Robert & Bruce Boston (1992). Chronicles of the mutant rain forest. Introduction by Lucius Shepard; cover by Robert Frazier. Horror's Head Press.
Accursed Wives. Night Visions, 1993
Specula: Selected Uncollected Poems, 1968-1993. Talisman, 1993
Sensuous Debris: Selected Poems, 1970-1995. Dark Regions, 1995
Conditions of Sentient Life. Gothic Press, 1996
Cold Tomorrows. Gothic Press, 1998
The Complete Accursed Wives, Talisman/Dark Regions, 2000
White Space. Dark Regions, 2001
Quanta: Award Winning Poems. Miniature Sun, 2001
Night Smoke (ebook, with Marge Simon), Miniature Sun & Quixsilver, 2002
Head Full of Strange (ebook). CyberPulp, 2003
Pitchblende. Dark Regions, 2003
Etiquette with Your Robot Wife. Talisman, 2005