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{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
⚫
[[Image:Tim Powers.jpg|thumb|175px|Powers at the [[Israel]]i [[ICon festival|ICon]] Convention in [[2005]]]]
| name = Tim Powers

| image = Tim Powers.jpg
⚫
| caption = Powers at the [[Israel]]i [[ICon festival|ICon]] Convention in [[2005]].
| pseudonym =
| birthdate = {{Birth date and age|1952|2|29}}
| birthplace = [[United States]]
| deathdate =
| deathplace =
| occupation = Writer
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| period =
| genre = [[Adventure fiction|Adventure]]
| subject =
| movement = [[Steampunk]]
| influences = [[Philip K. Dick]]
| influenced =
| website = http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/
}}
'''Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers''' (born February 29, 1952) is an American [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy fiction|fantasy]] author. Powers has won the [[World Fantasy Award]] twice for his critically acclaimed novels ''[[Last Call (novel)|Last Call]]'' and ''[[Declare]]''. His 1988 novel ''[[On Stranger Tides]]'' was optioned for adaptation into the fourth ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)#On Stranger Tides|Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film.
'''Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers''' (born February 29, 1952) is an American [[science fiction]] and [[fantasy fiction|fantasy]] author. Powers has won the [[World Fantasy Award]] twice for his critically acclaimed novels ''[[Last Call (novel)|Last Call]]'' and ''[[Declare]]''. His 1988 novel ''[[On Stranger Tides]]'' was optioned for adaptation into the fourth ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)#On Stranger Tides|Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' film.


Revision as of 09:35, 1 February 2010

Tim Powers
Powers at the Israeli ICon Convention in 2005.
Powers at the Israeli ICon Convention in 2005.
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
GenreAdventure
Literary movementSteampunk
Website
http://www.theworksoftimpowers.com/

Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare. His 1988 novel On Stranger Tides was optioned for adaptation into the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film.

Most of Powers's novels are "secret histories": he uses actual, documented historical events featuring famous people, but shows another view of them in which occult or supernatural factors heavily influence the motivations and actions of the characters.

Typically, Powers strictly adheres to established historical facts. He reads extensively on a given subject, and the plot develops as Powers notes inconsistencies, gaps and curious data; regarding his award-winning 2000 novel Declare, Powers stated[1],

"I made it an ironclad rule that I could not change or disregard any of the recorded facts, nor rearrange any days of the calendar - and then I tried to figure out what momentous but unrecorded fact could explain them all."

— Timothy Thomas Powers

Life and career

Powers during visit in ICon festival in Israel

Powers was born in Buffalo, New York, and grew up in California, where his Roman Catholic family moved in 1959.

He studied English Literature at Cal State Fullerton, where he first met James Blaylock and K. W. Jeter, both of whom remained close friends and occasional collaborators; the trio have half-seriously referred to themselves as "steampunks"[2] in contrast to the prevailing cyberpunk genre of the 1980s. Powers and Blaylock invented the poet William Ashbless while they were at Cal State Fullerton. :)

Another friend Powers first met during this period was noted science fiction writer Philip K. Dick; the character named "David" in Dick's novel VALIS is based on Powers. When Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was retitled Blade Runner to tie-in with the movie based on the novel, Dick dedicated it to Tim and Serena Powers.

Powers's first major novel was The Drawing of the Dark (1979), but the novel that earned him wide praise was The Anubis Gates, which won the Philip K. Dick Award, and has since been published in many other languages.

Powers also teaches part-time in his role as Writer in Residence for the Orange County High School of the Arts, where Blaylock directs the Creative Writing Conservatory, and Chapman University, where Blaylock teaches.

Powers and his wife, Serena, currently live in Muscoy, California. He has frequently served as a mentor author as part of the Clarion science fiction/fantasy writer's workshop.

He also taught part time at the University of Redlands.

Tim Powers will be a guest of honor at the 2011 Worldcon, Renovation, in Reno, Nevada.

He is not to be confused with Los Angeles stand-up comic Tim Powers.

Bibliography

Novels

The Skies Discrowned (1976)
also published as Forsake The Sky: a science fiction adventure novel.
An Epitaph in Rust (1976)
also published as Epitaph in Rust.
Powers of Two (2004)
re-release of Skies Discrowned and Epitaph in Rust.
The Drawing of the Dark (1979)
The siege of Vienna was actually a struggle between Muslim and Christian magicians over the spiritual center of the West, which happens to be a small inn and brewery in Vienna. The "dark" is a beer that has been brewing for centuries, which the Fisher King will eventually drink.
The Anubis Gates (1983)
Philip K. Dick Award winner, 1983[3]; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1984 [4]; BSFA nominee, 1985 [5]
A time travel story set mostly in 1810, featuring a brainwashed Lord Byron, magic, Egyptian gods and a werewolf.
Dinner at Deviant's Palace
Philip K. Dick Award winner, and Nebula Award nominee, 1985 [5]
Unusually for Powers, this is set in the future, in a postatomic America in which an extraterrestrial psychic vampire is slowly taking over.
In 2001 the group Cradle of Filth released a song entitled "Dinner at Deviant's Palace" that was simply the Lord's Prayer backmasked.
On Stranger Tides
Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1988 [6]
Moves to the 18th century Caribbean; with pirates (many of them real characters, primarily Blackbeard, as well as a fictional protagonist named Jack), voodoo, zombies, Juan Ponce de Leon, and a strangely quantum-mechanical Fountain of Youth. In 2009, Disney optioned the novel in order to incorporate elements of it into the fourth "Pirates Of The Caribbean" film, tentatively titled Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, planned for release in 2011.[7]
The Stress of Her Regard
Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 1990 [8]
Concerning the dealings of the Romantic poets—Byron and Shelley are major characters—with vampire-like beings from Greek mythology.
Fault Lines series
Last Call
Locus Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards winner, 1993 [9]
A professional poker player finds out that he lost far more than he won in a poker game played with Tarot cards two decades ago.
Expiration Date
World Fantasy Award nominee, 1996 [10]; 1996 Nebula Award nominee [10]
A boy possessed by the spirit of Thomas Edison is hunted through Los Angeles by people wanting to consume the ghost he carries.
Earthquake Weather
BSFA Award nominee, 1997 [11]; Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1998 [12]
Sequel to both Last Call and Expiration Date, involving the characters of both: two fugitives from a psychiatric hospital, the magical nature of multiple personality disorder, and the secret history of wine production in California.
Declare (2001)
World Fantasy Award winner and Locus Fantasy nominee, 2001 [13]; 2001 Nebula Award nominee,[13]
A Cold War espionage thriller which evokes Lovecraftian horror and the work of John le Carré, involving Kim Philby, djinn and the Ark on Mount Ararat.
Three Days to Never (2006)
Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2007 [14]
Time travel, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, and more.

Short story collections

  • Night Moves and Other Stories (2000)
  • On Pirates (as William Ashbless; written with James Blaylock) (2001)
  • The Devils in the Details (with James Blaylock) (2003)
  • Strange Itineraries: 2005, published by Tachyon Publications of San Francisco, California

Other published work

  • The Complete Twelve Hours of the Night (1986): Joke pamphlet co-written with James Blaylock, as William Ashbless, and published by Cheap Street Press; features in The Anubis Gates
  • A Short Poem by William Ashbless (1987): Another joke chapbook written by Phil Garland which Tim Powers and James Blaylock went along with. Published by The Folly Press.
  • The William Ashbless Memorial Cookbook (2002): A cookbook co-written with James Blaylock. Published by Subterranean Press.
  • The Bible Repairman (2005): A chapbook containing an original short story. Published by Subterranean Press.
  • Nine Sonnets by Francis Thomas Marrity (2006): A chapbook containing nine sonnets "written" by one of the main characters in Three Days to Never. Published by Subterranean Press and given away with the collectors' edition of Three Days To Never.
  • A Soul in a Bottle (2007): A ghost story about a poetess largely based on American poet Edna St Vincent Millay. This novella published by Subterranean Press.
  • Three sonnets by Cheyenne Fleming (2007): Printed loose and inserted into the collectors' edition of A Soul in a Bottle.

References

  1. ^ Powells.com Interviews - Tim Powers
  2. ^ Nova Express, Volume 6, Number 1, "An Interview with Tim Powers," Page 9.
  3. ^ "1983 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  4. ^ "1984 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  5. ^ a b "1985 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  6. ^ "1988 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  7. ^ http://www.locusmag.com/News/2009/09/powers-novel-optioned-for-new-pirates.html
  8. ^ "1990 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  9. ^ "1993 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  10. ^ a b "1996 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  11. ^ "1997 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  12. ^ "1998 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  13. ^ a b "2001 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
  14. ^ "2007 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
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