Orson Scott Card

Guide Note

Award winning science fiction and fantasy author Orson Scott Card had his first literary success with 1977's Ender's Game, a short story published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Card later turned Ender's Game into a novel, which became his most popular work and earned him both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in 1985. The sequel, Speaker for the Dead, also won both awards, making Card the first author in history to achieve such an honor two years in a row.

Fast Facts

  1. Born: August 24, 1951
  2. Birthplace: Richland, Washington
  3. Awards: Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award, Nebula Award, Hugo Award, Chronicle Readers Poll Award, Locus Award, World Fantasy Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Contribution to Young Adult Literature
  4. Only author to win both the Hugo and Nebula awards in consecutive years.
  5. Runs a "Literary Boot Camp" one week a year
  6. Teaches at Southern Virginia University

Early Career

Card started his early career as a poet while studying English at Brigham Young University. He later moved into theatre and founded the Utah Valley Repertory Company, where, in addition to acting, he honed his literary skills writing and adapting scripts. His "day jobs" during this time included work as a copy editor for the Brigham Young University Press and as assistant editor of the LDS Church magazine, Ensign. He published his first short story, Gert Fram in 1977.

Later Career

Card's current works include contemporary fiction, horror, LDS fiction, comic books, video game scripts and non-fiction. Card also penned the novelization of the James Cameron film The Abyss. In 2005, Card accepted a permanent teaching position at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia.

Quotes

  1. "The lies we live will always be confessed in the stories that we tell."
  2. "In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him."
  3. "In order to learn, one must change one's mind"
  4. "Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space."
  5. "If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side."
  6. "The most important training, though, is to experience life as a writer, questioning everything, inventing multiple explanations for everything. If you do that, all the other things will come; if you don't, there's no hope for you."

The Mahalo Top 7

  1. Official Site: Hatrack River: The Official Web Site of Orson Scott Card
  2. Wikipedia: Orson Scott Card
  3. The Ornery American: World Watch Weekly Column by Orson Scott Card
  4. Taleswapper Production Company: Orson Scott Card Films in Development | Theatre
  5. Wiki: The Orson Scott Card Knowledge Base
  6. Interview: A Conversation With Orson Scott Card (September, 1999)  Lynn: Awesome in depth interview!
  7. YouTube Video: NYCC '08 Orson Scott Card Interview (Time 4:07)


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