UTLEY, Steve(n)

(1948-)

   US short-story writer whose black verve and acidulous knowingness about the absurdities of the genre made him, for a while, a figure of edgy salience in the field. He began publishing with "The Unkindest Cut of All" for Perry Rhodan 20 (anth 1972), but stopped by theend of the decade. Some of his best work - like "Custer's Last Jump" (1976), which illuminates in MAGIC-REALIST terms an ALTERNATE-WORLD USA -was written with Howard WALDROP, as was "Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole" (1977), which has been cited as a significant influence on 1980sSTEAMPUNK. Other tales likewise tend - after the fashion of the group of writers who came to maturity in Texas in the 1970s - to fabulate (FABULATION) the USA's past. Some of the stories in Lone Star Universe:Speculative Fiction from Texas (anth 1976) ed with Geo W. PROCTOR exemplify this tendency.

   JC

   See also: HOLLOW EARTH; LOST WORLDS.