RUSCH, Kristine Kathryn

(1960-)

   US editor and writer who began publishing work of genre interest with "Sing" for Aboriginal Science Fiction in 1987; she won the 1990 JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for Best New Writer. Her work is strongly emotional innature, focusing on critical experiences and rites of passage in the lives of characters existing in relatively conventional sf, fantasy and horror settings. Sometimes, as in "Story Child" (1990) - about a healing child in a post- HOLOCAUST society - this approach can lead her into sentimentality; but other pieces, such as "Trains" (1990) - in which a battered wife finds temporary happiness with a supernatural hipster - are genuinely moving. The Gallery of his Dreams (1991 chap) is a TIME-TRAVEL tale featuring the photographer Matthew B. Brady (c1823-1896), whose work illuminated the US Civil War. The White Mists of Power (1991), her first novel, is a fantasy. Afterimage (1992) with Kevin J. ANDERSON is sf.Despite this activity, KKR was considerably more prominent in the late 1980s for her editorial work as cofounder (with Dean Wesley SMITH) in 1987of PULPHOUSE PUBLISHING, through which she edited the magazine/anthology series PULPHOUSE: THE HARDBACK MAGAZINE , which stopped with \#11 in 1993, and The Best of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine (anth 1991). While continuing to work at Pulphouse (her responsibilities lessened but still considerable), KKR in late 1991 became editor of The MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, and soon edited, with Ed FERMAN, The Best fromFantasy and Science Fiction: a 45th Anniversary Anthology (anth 1994). With Smith she ed Science Fiction Writers of America Handbook: The Professional Writer's Guide to Writing Professionally (anth 1990), which is not well organized but is dense with information and advice.

   NT/JC

   Other works: Facade (1993); Heart Readers (1993 UK); Traitors (1993 UK); Alien Influences (1994 UK); Sins of the Blood (1994).

   See also: SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA; SMALL PRESSES AND LIMITED EDITIONS.