Quick Facts
Biography
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis (born December 31, 1945), commonly known as Connie Willis, is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards for particular works—more major awards than any other writer—most recently the year's "Best Novel" Hugo and Nebula Awards for Blackout/All Clear (2010). She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 28th SFWA Grand Master in 2011.
Several of her works feature time travel by history students at a faculty of the future University of Oxford—sometimes called the Time Travel series. They are the short story "Fire Watch" (1982, also in several anthologies and the 1985 collection of the same name), the novels Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog (1992 and 1997), as well as the two-part novel Blackout/All Clear (2010). All four won the annual Hugo Award and all but To Say Nothing of the Dog won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Early life
Willis is a 1967 graduate of Colorado State College, now the University of Northern Colorado, where she completed degrees in English and Elementary Education. She lives in Greeley, Colorado, with her husband Courtney Willis, a former professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado. They have one daughter, Cordelia.
Career
Willis's first published story was "The Secret of Santa Titicaca" in Worlds of Fantasy, Winter 1970 (December). At least seven stories followed (1978–81) before her debut novel, Water Witch by Willis and Cynthia Felice, published by Ace Books in 1982. After receiving a National Endowment for the Arts grant that year, she left her teaching job and became a full-time writer.
Scholar Gary K. Wolfe has written, "Willis, the erstwhile stand-up superstar of SF conventions – having her as your MC is like getting Billy Crystal back as host of the Oscars – and the author of some of the field's funniest stories, is a woman of considerably greater complexity and gravity than her personal popularity reflects, and for all her facility at screwball comedy knock-offs and snappy parody, she wants us to know that she's a writer of some gravity as well."
Willis is known for writing "romantic 'screwball' comedy in the manner of 1940s Hollywood movies."
Willis is acclaimed as a science-fiction writer, with much of her writing exploring the social sciences. She often weaves technology into her stories in order to prompt readers to question what impact it has on the world. For instance, Lincoln's Dreams plumbs not just the psychology of dreams, but also their role as indicators of disease. The story portrays a young man's unrequited love for a young woman who might or might not be experiencing reincarnation or precognition, and whose outlook verges on suicidal. Similarly, Bellwether is almost exclusively concerned with human psychology.
Among other themes, Uncharted Territory contemplates the extent to which technology shapes expectations of gender; "technology" here ranges from a land rover and binoculars to Built's online "tchopping" and the pop-up holograms—even socioexozoology. Remake embraces old movies and the computer graphics revolution, as well as intellectual property, digital copyright issues, and the question of public domain.
Other Willis stories explore the so-called "hard" sciences, following in the classic science fiction tradition. "The Sidon in the Mirror" harks back to the interplanetary and interstellar romanticism of the 1930s and 1940s. "Samaritan" is another take on the theme of Heinlein's "Jerry Was a Man", while "Blued Moon" is similarly reminiscent of Heinlein's "The Year of the Jackpot".
Personal life
Willis is an Episcopalian.
Awards
Hugo Awards
Wins
- Fire Watch : novelette : 1983
- The Last of the Winnebagos : novella : 1989
- Doomsday Book : novel : 1993
- Even the Queen : short story : 1993
- Death on the Nile : short story : 1994
- The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective : short story : 1997
- To Say Nothing of the Dog : novel : 1999
- The Winds of Marble Arch : novella : 2000
- Inside Job : novella : 2006
- All Seated on the Ground : novella : 2008
- Blackout/All Clear : novel (published in two parts): 2011
Nominations
- Daisy, In the Sun : short story : 1980
- The Sidon in the Mirror : novelette : 1984
- Blued Moon : novelette : 1985
- Spice Pogrom : novella : 1987
- At the Rialto : novelette : 1990
- Time-Out : novella : 1990
- Cibola : short story : 1991
- In the Late Cretaceous : short story : 1992
- Jack : novella : 1992
- Miracle : novelette : 1992
- Remake : novel : 1996
- Passage : novel : 2002
- Just Like the Ones We Used to Know : novella : 2004
Nebula Awards
Wins
- Fire Watch : novelette : 1983
- A Letter from the Clearys : short story : 1983
- The Last of the Winnebagos : novella : 1988
- At the Rialto : novelette : 1990
- Doomsday Book : novel : 1993
- Even the Queen : short story : 1993
- Blackout/All Clear : novel : 2010
Nominations
- The Sidon in the Mirror : novelette : 1984
- Schwarzschild Radius : novelette : 1988
- Jack : novella : 1992
- Death on the Nile : novelette : 1994
- Bellwether : novel : 1998
- To Say Nothing of the Dog : novel : 1999
- Passage : novel : 2002
- Just Like the Ones We Used to Know : novella : 2005
Locus Awards
Wins
- Doomsday Book: SF novel: 1993
- To Say Nothing of the Dog: SF Novel: 1999
- Passage: SF novel: 2001
- Blackout/All Clear : novel (published in two volumes): 2010
Nomination
- Lincoln's Dreams: Fantasy Novel: 1988
Arthur C. Clarke Awards
Nominations
- Doomsday Book: SF novel: 1993
- Passage: SF novel: 2001
World Fantasy Awards
Nominations
- Chance : novella : 1987
- The Winds of Marble Arch : novella : 2000
John W. Campbell Memorial Award
Win
- Lincoln's Dreams: 1988
British Science Fiction Association Award
Nomination
- Doomsday Book: SF novel: 1993
Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award
- Lifetime achievement, 2011, presented at the Nebula Awards banquet, May 2012