Richard A. Lovett

Richard A. Lovett (born October 28, 1953) is an American science fiction author and science writer from Portland, Oregon. He has written numerous short stories and factual articles that have appeared in multiple literary and scientific magazines and websites, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact, National Geographic News, Nature, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, Cosmos, and Psychology Today.

Lovett is one of the most prolific and decorated writers in Analog's 80-plus-year history. His first formal appearance in the magazine other than a 1993 letter to the editor was "Tricorders, Yactograms and the Future of Analytical Chemistry: When 'Nano-' Isn't Small Enough" (April 1999), a science article. His first fiction appearance was the novelette "Equalization" (March 2003).

Lovett first won the magazine's reader's choice award, the Analytical Laboratory (AnLab), in 2002 for a 2001 fact article, "Up in Smoke: How Mt. St. Helens Blasted Conventional Scientific Wisdom" (April 2001). Since then he has won the award a record eleven times, three times for novelettes, three times for novellas, and five times for science articles. Including the 2015 awards, he has also placed in the top five 33 additional times, more than any other Analog contributor. As of the July/Aug 2015 issue, his work had appeared in the magazine 134 times, placing him second place on the magazine's all-time contributor list. In addition to writing fiction and science articles for the magazine, he has also written profiles (called Biologs) since 2006, and a series of how-to articles about writing short stories. These special features comprise about a quarter of his total contributions to the magazine.

His science fiction stories have also appeared in Nature, Cosmos, Abyss and Apex, Esli (Russian translation), Running Times, and Marathon & Beyond.

In addition to writing science fiction, Lovett is coach of Team Red Lizard, a 300-member running club in Portland, Oregon, as well as of two women who qualified to compete for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team, and one member of the U.S. Snow Shoe Racing Team. He writes frequent features about distance running for Running Times magazine and Marathon & Beyond, and has written Olympic-related news articles and features for National Geographic News, Cosmos, and the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. He has also co-authored two running books with marathon legend Alberto Salazar, plus two books on bicycle touring and one on cross-country skiing.

Sports themes, particularly running, have infused seven of his science fiction stories: "Equalization" (Analog, March 2003),"Original Sin" (Analog, June 2006), "Olympic Talent" (Nature, July 5, 2007), "Excellence" (Analog, Jan/Feb 2009), "Jak and the Beanstalk" (Analog, Jul/Aug 2011), "Running 2030" (Running Times, Dec 2011), and "Morgan's Run" (Cosmos, Nov/Dec 2012).

• "Equalization" is the story of a futuristic 10,000-meter runner in a world in which runners are annually handicapped by mind/body swaps in which highly competitive individuals receive less-talented bodies;
• "Original Sin" centers around a memory-recording device that allows coaches to feel exactly what their runners feel in training;
• "Olympic Talent" and "Excellence" involve athletes who improve performance through gene doping, a technology in which gene therapy methods are used to enhance strength and endurance,
• "Jak and the Beanstalk" centers around an endurance athlete who finds a way to climb a space elevator (the titular "beanstalk") all the way to geosynchronous orbit,
• "Running 2030" is a day in the life of a futuristic runner.
• "Morgan's Run" addresses the same themes as "Running 2030."