Joel Lane

This article is about a British writer. For a North Carolina colonist of the same name, see Joel Lane House.

The writer and journalist Joel Lane.

Joel Lane (1963 – 25 November 2013) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, critic and anthology editor. He received the World Fantasy Award in 2013 and the British Fantasy Award twice.

Profile

Works

Born in Exeter, he was the nephew of tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott. At the time of his death, Lane lived in south Birmingham, where he worked in health publishing. The latter city frequently provided settings for his fiction.

Although the majority of Lane's short stories can be categorised as horror or dark fantasy, his novels are more overtly mainstream. From Blue to Black (2000) is a portrait of a disturbed rock musician, whilst The Blue Mask (2003) follows the aftermath of a brutal and disfiguring attack. As a gay man, Lane wrote several stories that included queer themes.

Guest appearances

Lane addressed the Birmingham Science Fiction Group in March 2002 and was a guest speaker at Microcon 30 in March 2010.

Politics

Lane joined the Socialist Party in 2009 and contributed to its newspaper, the Socialist, and its journal, Socialism Today.

Partial bibliography

Fiction

Novels

• From Blue to Black (2000)
• The Blue Mask (2003)

Novella

• The Witnesses Are Gone (2009)

Single author short story collections

• The Earth Wire and Other Stories (1994)
• The Lost District and Other Stories (2006)
• The Terrible Changes (2009)
• Do Not Pass Go (booklet, 2011)
• Where Furnaces Burn (2012)

Poetry

• The Edge of the Screen (1998)
• Trouble in the Heartland (2004)
• The Autumn Myth (2010)
• Instinct (pamphlet, 2012)

Anthologies

• Birmingham Noir: Urban Tales of Crime and Suspense (2002, co-edited with Steve Bishop)
• Beneath the Ground (2003)
• Never Again (2010, co-edited with Allyson Bird)

Awards

• 1993: Eric Gregory Award (poetry)
• 1994: British Fantasy Award, best anthology / collection, The Earth Wire and Other Stories
• 2008: British Fantasy Award, best short story, My Stone Desire
• 2008: Shirley Jackson Award, novella finalist, The Witnesses are Gone
• 2013: World Fantasy Award, best collection, Where Furnaces Burn (PS Publishing, 2012)

External links

• Partial bibliography, including short story appearances
• Joel Lane on S T Joshi
• Joel Lane at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Obituary by Ted Woodley in the Socialist
• Forbidden questions: the politics of noir fiction by Joel Lane in Socialism Today October 2009