Biography of Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer, dubbed the "Weird Thoreau" by The New Yorker, was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but spent much of his early life traveling and in the Fiji Islands due to his parents' involvement in the Peace Corps. VanderMeer attended the University of Florida for undergraduate studies and participated in the Clarion Writers Workshop, a six-week science fiction and fantasy writing workshop in Pennsylvania. He began writing prolifically in high school and never slowed down. He cites his discovery of Angela Carter's novel The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman as having sparked a new, daring chapter in his own prose writing.

VanderMeer has been the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships for his work, including three World Fantasy Awards (and fifteen additional nominations), a BSFA and Locus Award for best Non-Fiction for Wonderbook, and a Nebula and Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel for Annihilation. He is also the recipient of a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant and an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship. He has taught and lectured at a number of prestigious institutions including Yale Writer's Conference, MIT, Brown, and the Library of Congress. He's also lent his talents to teaching youth writers workshops.

VanderMeer is married to a prominent, award-winning "weird fiction" publisher and editor Ann VanderMeer with whom he lectures and teaches writing workshops around the globe. They live together in Tallahassee, Florida.