ALPERS, Hans Joachim

(1943-)

   German sf editor, critic, SMALL-PRESS publisher, literary agent and author, sometimes as Jurgen Andreas; editor 1978-80 of Knaur SF and 1980-86 of the Moewig SF list. With Ronald M.Hahn (1948-) he edited the first anthology of native German sf (GERMANY), Science Fiction aus Deutschland Science Fiction from Germany (anth 1974), and he was a co-editor of Lexicon der Science Fiction Literatur (2 vols 1980; rev 1988; new edn projected 1993), an important sf encyclopedia covering almost all authors with German editions of their work. Further lexicons, of weird fiction and fantasy, are projected for 1993-4. With Hahn again and Werner Fuchs, HJA edited Reclams Science Fiction Fuhrer (1982), an annotated survey of sf novels with listings by author. With Fuchs HJA edited for Hohenheim six anthologies of sf stories (1981-4) covering sf history by the decades 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, with 2 vols for each, and has edited the Kopernikus sf anthologies for Moewig (15 vols 1980-88). Also for Moewig he edited a German paperback edition of Analog (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION) (8 vols 1981-4) and a series of sf almanacs and year books - Science Fiction Jahrbuch (1981-7) and Science Fiction Almanach (1982-7) - containing sf data, stories and essays, the Almanac concentrating on the German scene. He wrote the GERMANY entry in this encyclopedia.