Lee Harris

Lee Harris (born 1968) is a British editor of science fiction, fantasy and horror. He is the only British editor ever to have been nominated in the Hugo Awards "short form" editing category (with two nominations), and the first British editor ever to have been nominated in the editing "long form" category.

His early jobs included actor and bartender (where he was a finalist in the Bols / Exchange Bar and Grill Cocktail Bartender of the Year competition in 1993).

He was also a director (both company director and stage director) for The Dreaming Production Company from 2003-2005 (now no longer operating),. a professional theatre group that staged fantasy and horror-themed plays across the UK. He co-wrote and directed the first professional adaptation of a Terry Pratchett book, Eric, among others.

Later he worked as a communications executive for CPP, an insurance company based in York.

Immediately prior to working in a full-time publishing role, Harris was an analyst for iOn (a division of Xerox). He was jointly responsible for setting up a new financial system that allowed the company to accurately invoice several UK government departments for their outsourced printing and copying needs.

Publishing career

Hub Magazine

He was the publisher of Hub Magazine from 2007 until 2013. Hub Magazine was a short fiction magazine, which lasted for just two issues in print, before becoming a semi-weekly magazine. The magazine folded with issue 147. The print editions were supported by advertising, and when the magazine moved to online-only, they were sponsored by Orbit (part of Hachette), Solaris and Abaddon (part of Rebellion Publishing) and finally by HarperCollins, where Harris worked as part of the editorial staff at Angry Robot Books.

Angry Robot Books

Harris joined Angry Robot Books when they formed as part of HarperCollins UK in January 2009, during which time he discovered and published authors such as Wesley Chu, Adam Christopher, Cassandra Rose Clarke and Maurice Broaddus. He started as an Assistant Editor, and was gradually promoted until he reached the role of Senior Editor in 2013. He was instrumental in devising and implementing a new ebook subscription service in 2011. He left Angry Robot to head up the editorial division of Macmillan's newly-formed Tor.com Publishing imprint.

Tor.com Publishing

He joined the newly-created Tor.com Publishing (part of Macmillan Publishing, and a sister imprint to Tor Books) in August 2014, specialising in publishing novellas, though he also edits and publishes full-length novels. His authors' books have won the Nebula and Hugo Awards every year since the imprint's inception, and he regularly edits such authors as Martha Wells, Seanan McGuire, Nnedi Okorafor and Paul Cornell. Seanan McGuire describes him as "Amazing... he makes me better. He forces me to be better. That's a rare and precious thing."

Work life

Harris travels extensively between his home in the UK and Tor.com Publishing's Head Office in the Flatiron Building in New York. He is also a regular at several British and international conventions, including FantasyCon (UK), the World Fantasy Convention, WorldCon and CONvergence (Minneapolis), where he has been a Guest of Honor on two occasions. On February 8, 2019, he was named as the Guest of Honour for the Canadian science fiction convention, Can*Con.

Interviews in the media

Harris has been interviewed for various literary and genre publications on a number of occasions, including audio interviews with The Creative Writer's Toolbelt and The Archivos Round Table Podcast. Life in Sci-Fi reported on a kaffeeklatsch Harris hosted at the British science fiction convention, EasterCon. Tor.com interviewed him and the author Seanan McGuire about the multi award-winning book Every Heart a Doorway. He was also interviewed by Ron Charles in the Washington Post], talking about the newly-formed Tor.com Publishing imprint.

Personal life

Affiliations

He is a former Chair of the British Fantasy Society, and has chaired two FantasyCon conventions for the society - the first in York in 2014, the second in Nottingham in 2015. He is currently serving on the society's Executive Committee as treasurer. He is also a regular presenter of the British Fantasy Awards.

He has co-written several plays and short stories, including one story published in Snowbooks' Beside the Seaside anthology

Plays

• Eric- co-written with Scott Harrison, based on the book by Terry Pratchett
• The Antipope - co-written with Scott Harrison, based on the book by Robert Rankin
• Dracula - (contributor). Mostly written by Scott Harrison, based on the book by Bram Stoker.

Harris has been nominated for a Hugo Award multiple times for his editing. He is the first British editor of science fiction, fantasy or horror ever to have been nominated for these awards.

• In 2014 he was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor (Long Form).
• In 2018 he was nominated for the Hugo for Best Editor (Short Form).
• In 2019 he was nominated for the Hugo forBest Editor (Short Form) having received the joint highest number of nominations at the nomination stage.