William Sanders (writer)

For other people named William Sanders, see William Sanders (disambiguation).

William Sanders (born April 28, 1942) is an American speculative fiction writer, primarily of short fiction, and was the senior editor of the now defunct online science fiction magazine Helix SF

Sanders has written several novels, including Journey to Fusang (1988), The Wild Blue and the Gray (1991) and The Ballad of Billy Badass & the Rose of Turkestan (1999). The first two are alternate histories with a humorous bent while the last is a fantasy novel.

He has also written a number of mystery novels, including a series featuring Western writer Taggart Roper beginning with The Next Victim (St. Martin's Press 1993), as well as novels marketed by the publisher as Action/Adventure, beginning with Hardball (Berkley Jove 1992).

Sanders, a former powwow dancer, is best known for his use of American Indian themes and his dry, often cynical sense of humor. His most-anthologized and perhaps best known work is "The Undiscovered", an alternate history in which Shakespeare is transported to Virginia and writes "Hamlet" for the Cherokee tribe. The story won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 1997. Sanders won a second Sidewise Award for his story Empire in 2002. Sanders has said that he considers his best story to be Dry Bones.

A stickler for detail and accuracy, Sanders has studied history, which led to the publication in 2003 of Conquest: Hernando de Soto and the Indians, 1539-1543, a book begun some two decades earlier and researched by travelling extensively in the southeastern quarter of the US, by motorcycle and small boat and on foot, retracing Soto's probable routes.

As a non-fiction writer, he has written numerous articles on the martial arts and outdoor sports, as well as books on bicycle racing, kayaking, and backpacking.

From 2006 until the final issue in 2008, Sanders was the editor and publisher of the online quarterly magazine Helix SF. During this time, he wrote a rejection letter in which he called Muslim terrorists "sheet heads" "worm brained" and "incapable of honesty." Sanders would later deny that he was referring to Muslims as a whole, but the controversy ultimately resulted in several authors asking to pull their stories from the Helix archives, after they found out Sanders had offered that option to N.K. Jemisin.

Sanders and his wife live in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Bibliography

• The Bicycle Racing Book (1979) non-fiction
• Guide to Inflatable Canoes and Kayaks (1979) non-fiction
• Backcountry Bikepacking (1982) non-fiction
• Kayak Touring (1984) non-fiction
• Journey to Fusang (1988)
• Pockets of Resistance (1990) written under Will Sundown pseudonym
• The Hellbound Train (1990) written under Will Sundown pseudonym
• The Wild Blue and the Gray (1991)
• Steel Wings (1991)
• Hardball (1992) Hardball series
• Aryan Legion (1992) Hardball series
• Skorpion (1992) Hardball series
• The Next Victim (1993) Taggart Roper series
• A Death on 66 (1994) Taggart Roper series
• Blood Autumn (1995) Taggart Roper series
• The Ballad of Bill Badass and the Rose of Turkestan (1999)
• Smoke (2000)
• The Bernadette Operation (2000)
• J. (2001)
• Are We Having Fun Yet? American Indian Fantasy Stories (2002) short story collection
• Conquest: Hernando de Soto and the Indians, 1539-1543 (2003) non-fiction
• Is It Now Yet? (2005) short story collection
• East of the Sun and West of Fort Smith (2008) short story collection

External links

• William Sanders Official site
• William Sanders at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database