COLLINGS, Michael R(obert)

(1947-)

   US poet, story writer and author of a number of nonfiction studies of sf and fantasy writers, including several on various aspects of the work of Stephen KING. In Naked to the Sun: Dark Visions of Apocalypse (coll 1986 chap) and Dark Transformations: Deadly Visions of Change (coll 1990 chap), he published POETRY which tended to use sf and fantasy motifs as premises for metamorphic brooding. His nonfiction includes Piers Anthony (1984 chap), Brian W. Aldiss (1986) and In the Image of God: Theme, Characterization, and Landscape in the Fiction of Orson Scott Card (1990), plus the various books on King: Stephen King as Richard Bachman (1985), The Shorter Works of Stephen King (1985) with David Engebretson, The Many Facets of Stephen King (1986), The Films of Stephen King (1986), The Stephen King Phenomenon (1987) and The Work of Stephen King: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide (1992). His criticism tends to be theme-oriented. He edited Reflections on the Fantastic: Selected Essays from the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (anth 1987).

   JC