Martha Soukup

Martha Soukup (born 20 July 1959 in Aurora, Illinois) is a Nebula award-winning and Hugo award-nominated science fiction author, and playwright for the Monday Night PlayGround emerging playwrights group. In 2003, she won their annual June Anne Baker Prize commission.

The 1994 short film Override, directed by Danny Glover, was based on her short story "Over the Long Haul".

She attended the Clarion science fiction writing workshop in 1985, with such other emerging SF talents as Robert J. Howe, Geoffrey A. Landis, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, William Shunn, and Mary Turzillo.

She lives in San Francisco, California.

Collections

• Rosemary's Brain: And Other Tales of Wonder (1992)

Wildside Press - ISBN 1-880448-08-4

With introduction by John Gregory Betancourt.

• Arbitrary Placement of Walls (1997)

Dreamhaven Books - ISBN 0-9630944-9-1 (Hardback) - ISBN 0-9630944-8-3 (Paperback)

Contains the Nebula-award winning story "A Defense of the Social Contracts". With introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Trivia

• Upon seeing a review in which someone said that Martha Soukup was one of the most discussed authors, friend Neil Gaiman wrote a poem for her, in which the entire world (and a few beings in outer space) talk of nothing but Martha Soukup: "It's Martha this and Martha that and Martha Soukup said, and if you cannot talk of Martha, then you might as well be dead.", which he read at his "Live at the Aladdin" show. The poem can be found in Gaiman's introduction to her collection "The Arbitrary Placement of Walls."

Awards and nominations

• 1991: Nominee, Hugo Award for Best Novelette for "Over the Long Haul"
• 1991: Nominee, Nebula Award for Best Novelette for "Over the Long Haul"
• 1992: Nominee, Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Dog's Life"
• 1992: Nominee, Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "Dog's Life"
• 1993: Nominee, World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction for "The Arbitrary Placement of Walls"
• 1993: Nominee, Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "The Arbitrary Placement of Walls"
• 1993: Nominee, Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "The Arbitrary Placement of Walls"
• 1994: Nominee, Nebula Award for Best Novelette for "Things Not Seen"
• 1994: Nominee, Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "The Story So Far"
• 1995: Winner, Nebula Award for Best Short Story for "A Defense of the Social Contracts"

References

• Bibliography at Fantastic Fiction

External links

• Martha Soukup at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "Five Stories by Martha Soukup" - article from the New York Review of Science Fiction by Ray Davis.
• The Arbitrary Placement of Walls - review by Susan Dunman in Science Fiction Weekly.
• Martha Soukup interview at The WELL