Sheila Finch

Sheila Finch (born 1935) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy.[1] She is best known for her sequence of stories about the Guild of Xenolinguists.

Biography

Sheila Finch was born in London, UK, 29 October 1935. She attended Bishop Otter College (now Chichester University) from 1954-56, then taught for a year (1956-1957) in a primary school in Hackney, London. Following her marriage to Clare Grill Rayner in 1957 (divorced 1980), she emigrated to the US and completed her BA in English Literature at Indiana University in 1959, followed by an MA in linguistics and medieval history in 1962. Her first daughter April Virginia was born 1960 in Indiana. Two more daughters were born when the family relocated to California in 1962, Dawn Helen (1962) and Laurel Elizabeth (1969). From 1963-1967, when the family lived in San Luis Obsipo, she taught part-time at Cuesta College and began publishing poetry. The family moved to Long Beach, California in 1967. Sheila  taught creative writing and science fiction at El Camino College,  from 1970- 2005. The family relocated for two years to Munich, Germany in the 1970s, where Sheila studied German and taught English as a second language.

She is a member of SFWA, serving as Vice-President for two years, then Chair of the Grievance Committee for five years. As Western Regional Director,during the 1980s and 1990s she organized activities for the organization aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbor. She is also a charter member of the Asilomar Writers Consortium, founded by Jerry Hannah in Monterrey, 1976.

Besides teaching and publishing, Sheila has been active in the community, serving first as a volunteer for four years in a residential hospice, then for ten years as a volunteer for St Luke’s Episcopal Church’s program for the homes. She also served for eight years on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Homelessness.

Sheila Finch currently lives in Long Beach, California.

Xenolinguists

In her 1986 book Triad, Finch coined the term "xenolinguist" to describe the lingsters who decode alien languages.[2][3] The word has gained widespread acceptance in the science fiction industry and was used to describe the character Uhura in the remake of Star Trek.[4][5]

Finch created a series of tales about communicating with aliens which eventually was consolidated in collection of short stories entitled The Guild of Xenolinguists (Golden Gryphon Press, 2007). The Guild was founded on Earth in the middle of the 22nd century after first contact with a race from somewhere in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. A few early linguists, neurolinguists, ethnographers and computer scientists established the Guild which then took over the responsibility for training xenolinguists to make first contact and to record alien languages in the field. Later, the Guild provided translation services for the expanding commerce and colonization of the following centuries.[6]

Bibliography

I. Novels

Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes
1985 Infinity's Web New York: Bantam Books 0-553-25251-8
1986 Triad New York: Bantam Books 0-553-25792-7
1987 The Garden of the Shaped New York: Bantam Books 0-553-26801-5
1989 Shaper's Legacy New York: Bantam Books 0-553-28167-4
1989 Shaping The Dawn New York: Bantam Books 1434401601
1999 Tiger in the Sky New York: Avon Books 0-380-79971-5 San Diego Book Award for Best Juvenile Fiction
2003 Reading the Bones Tachyon Books 1-892391-08-2
2004 Birds Wildside Press 0-8095-0056-6
2017 A Villa Far From Rome Hadley Rille Books 9780997118834 AudioBook

II. Collections

Year Title Publisher ISBN Notes
2007 The Guild of Xenolinguists Golden Gryphon Press 9781930846487
2014 Myths, Metaphors, and Science Fiction Aqueduct Press 9781619760554

III. Short Stories

Year Title Originally Published In Notes
1974 Green Liberation Girl Scout Leader, June
1977 The Confession of Melakos Sou'wester, Fall
1980 Symphony for Sarah Ann Mississippi Valley Review
1982 A Long Way Home Asimov's Science Fiction, December
1983 The Man Who Lived on the Queen Mary Pandora, Spring
1983 Darkness Comes Rattling Amazing Stories, July
1984 The Seventh Dragon Fantasy Book, June
1986 Reichs-peace Hitler Victorious, ed. Gregory Benford and Martin H. Greenberg, New York: Garland transl: Hitler Victorioso, Ediciones Destino, Spain, 1990
1987 Hitchhiker Amazing Stories
1988 Babel Interface Amazing Stories, May
1989 Ceremony After a Raid Amazing Stories, July
1989 A World Waiting Fantasy and Science Fiction, August
1989 Rembrandts of Things Past Tarot Tales, ed. Rachel Pollack and Caitlin Matthews. London: Century Hutchinson
1989 PAPPI Foundation's Friends, ed. Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Tor Books, November transl: Selected Short Science Fiction of the World, China, 2017
1989 The Old Man and C Amazing Stories, November Dramatic version, arr. by Jason Trucco, NY, NY, 2019
1990 Sequoia Dreams Amazing Stories, July
1990 Cyberella Fantasy and Science Fiction, August transl: Cyberella, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Germany 1995

          Millimondi Estate, Mondadori, Italy 1991

          Bli-Panika, www.space.ort.org.il , Israel 2003

1992 If There Be Cause Amazing Stories, February
1995 Firstborn, Seaborn Sisters in Fantasy, ed. Susan Shwartz. ROC
1996 Communion of Minds Fantasy and Science Fiction, September transl: Der Lincoln Zug, Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Germany, 1997
1997 Out of the Mouths Fantasy and Science Fiction, November-December
1997 The Roaring Ground Fantasy and Science Fiction, April
1997 A Flight of Words Fantasy and Science Fiction, February transl. Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016
1997 The Falcon and the Falconer Tomorrow SF
1998 Reading the Bones Fantasy and Science Fiction, January Nebula Award for Best Novella

transl: Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016

1998 The Naked Face of God Fantasy and Science Fiction, June
1999 No Brighter Glory Fantasy and Science Fiction, April
2000 Nor Unbuild the Cage Fantasy and Science Fiction, September
2002 Forkpoints Fantasy and Science Fiction, February
2002 Miles to Go Fantasy and Science Fiction, June
2003 Reach Fantasy and Science Fiction, February AudioBook
2004 Confessional Fantasy and Science Fiction, January
2004 So Good A Day Fantasy and Science Fiction, May
2007 First Was the Word Fantasy and Science Fiction, June transl: Galaktika XL, Metropolis Media Group Kft, Hungary 2016
2010 Failed Harvest Nova SF 25
2010 Where Two or Three Is Anybody Out There? ed. Marty Halpern and Nick Gevers, June
2010 The Persistence of Butterflies 2020 Visions, ed. Rick Novy
2010 Fortune's Stepchild Lace and Blade 3, ed. Deborah Ross
2011 The Evening and the Morning Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April
2013 A Very Small Dispensation Asimov's SF Magazine, October/November
2014 Burdens Mythic Delirium, January
2016 The Language of the Silent Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April collaboration with Juliette Wade
2016 First Hunt Hadley Rille Books, Summer
2017 Homecoming Seat 14C, X-Prize, June
2018 Survivors Asimov's Science Fiction, September/October
2019 Talking in Pictures Current Features, X-Prize, June
2020 Not This Tide Asimov's Science Fiction, January/February

VI. Articles & Non-Fiction

Year Title Originally Published In Notes
1982 Fantasy as a Super-Vitamin Patchin Review, June
1985 The Unseen Shore: Thoughts on the Popularity of Fantasy Journal of Popular Culture, Spring
1985 Paradise Lost: Prison Imagery at the Heart of Le Guin's Utopia Extrapolation, Fall
1985 Oath of Fealty: No Thud, Some Blunders Science Fiction Review, Winter
1987 Science Fiction's Magical Mystery Tours SFWA Bulletin, Spring
1988 Berlitz in Outer Space: How Alien Communication Just Might Work Amazing Stories, May
1989 Oath of Fealty: A Look at Another Ambiguous Utopia Australian Science Fiction Review, Spring
1989 Untitled SFWA Bulletin, Spring
1996 The War Zone of Art: Science Fiction Writers, Publishers and the Modern Marketplace Science Fiction and Market Realities, ed. George Slusser and Eric S. Rabkin.

The University of Georgia Press

1996 Doctor, Will the Patient Survive? Nebula Awards 30, ed. Pamela Sargent. New York: Harcourt Brace
1996 Teaching Science Fiction: A Writer's Concerns inside english, March
1996 Being Alien in Beijing SFWA Bulletin, March
2000 Dispatches From the Trenches: Science Fiction in the College Classroom Extrapolation, Spring
2000 Dreams, Truth, and Hope Future Females, The Next Generation: New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction,

ed. Marleen Barr. Rowman & Allenheld

2003 Creativity in the Fishbowl SFWA Bulletin, Spring
2004 Future Tense: Reflecting Language Change in Science Fiction SFWA Bulletin, Spring
2006 How to Rate a Writing Program SFWA Bulletin, Winter
2012 Fantastic Journeys of the Mythic Kind James Gunn's AD ASTRA, July
2014 Of Myth and Memory SFWA Bulletin, Winter
2016 Ambiguous Utopias James Gunn's AD ASTRA, Summer

V. Poetry

Year Title Publisher Notes
1973 Chichester AAUW Journal
1973 Izaac Mizraki Poet Lore
1973 Study Group The Writer
1973 The Eagle on the Washing Machine Ball State Forum, Summer 2nd Place, Steven Vincent Benet Award for Narrative Poetry
1974 Evensong Encore
1975 In the Museum at Mesa Verde Encore, Spring
1975 The Hangover Hyacinths and Biscuits
1975 Vacation Special Hartford Courant
1975 Aubade in Forest Fire Season Moving Out
1976 War Games Tattoes and Other Scars
1977 Mockingbird Mantra Encore
1983 Message to a Friend in Another Solar System Aurora, Winter

Awards

  • "Reading the Bones" (1998) Nebula novella award winner
  • Tiger in the Sky (1999) Winner of the San Diego Book Award for Best Juvenile Fiction
  • Infinity's Web (1985) Winner of the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel

Notes

  1. "Summary Bibliography: Sheila Finch". www.isfdb.org. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  2. Wade, Juliette (2009-07-19). "TalkToYoUniverse: Sheila Finch at TTYU!". TalkToYoUniverse. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  3. "Science Fiction Citations for OED". www.jessesword.com. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  4. "Xenolinguistics. You have no idea what that means | Star Trek quotes". www.subzin.com. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  5. "Star Trek Script - transcript from the screenplay and/or the J.J. Abrams reboot". www.script-o-rama.com. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
  6. "Sheila Finch Bibliography". sff.net. Archived from the original on 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2016-07-30.
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