American writer, editor, and publisher
Steven H Silver (born April 19, 1967)[1] is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, author, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer twelve times and Best Fanzine seven times without winning (three for Argentus and four for Journey Planet).[2]
The "H" is his middle name and not an initial.
Editor, publisher, and writer
Silver was born in Hinsdale, Illinois. He is a longtime contributing editor to SF Site and wrote that site's news page from its inception in 2002 until it closed in 2014.
Anthologies
In 2003, he co-edited three anthologies with Martin H. Greenberg, Wondrous Beginnings, Magical Beginnings, and Horrible Beginnings, which reprinted the first published stories of authors in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. From 2004 through 2012 he was the publisher and editor of ISFiC Press.[3] He co-edited the alternate history anthology Alternate Peace in 2019 with Joshua Palmatier.[4]
Short fiction
Silver published his first short story, "Les Lettres de Paston", in the final issue of Helix SF.[5] Silver had earlier written a column on alternate history for the magazine. He has continued to publish short stories since, as well as some poetry.
Collections
In 2009 and 2010, he edited the two volume Selected Stories of Lester del Rey for NESFA Press. The first volume is entitled War and Space and appeared in August, 2009.[6] The second volume, Robots and Magic was published in February 2010.[7]
Novels
Silver's first novel, After Hastings, an alternate history in which Harold Godwinson prevented the Norman conquest of Britain by defeating William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, was published by Ring of Fire Press in July 2020.[8][9]
Fandom
Sidewise and Nebula Awards
In 1995, he founded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and has served as a judge ever since.[10] He was on the short story jury for the Nebula Award in 2002,[11] and on the novel jury for the Nebula Award in 2003,[12] 2006,[13] and chaired the novel jury in 2008.[14] In 2005, Silver was one of the co-ordinators of the Nebula weekend in Chicago.[15] In 2008, he was appointed SFWA Event Coordinator and has helped run the Nebula Award Weekends in that capacity since 2009.[16]
Fanzines
Silver is known as an on-line reviewer and has written several articles for science fiction fanzines, as well as publishing his own annual fanzine Argentus, which was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 2008, 2009, and 2010,[2] and won the Chronic Rift Roundtable Award for Best Fanzine in 2009[17] and the monthly APA-zine Plata. He has guest edited four issues of Journey Planet.
Conventions
In addition to his writing and editing activities, Silver is involved in running science fiction conventions. He has chaired Windycon three times,[18] founded Midfan and chaired the first Midwest Construction, and ran programming for Chicon 2000,[19] the Worldcon. From 1998 through 2006 and again from 2008, he sat on the board of directors for ISFiC. He served as a vice chair for Chicon 7 in 2012.
Personal background
In 2000, Silver appeared on Jeopardy![20] winning two days and coming in second on his third day. He won $15,000.[21]
