Graham Joyce

British writer

Graham William Joyce

Joyce signing books at Imagicon 2: Swecon 2009

Born| (1954-10-22)22 October 1954
Keresley, England, UK
Died| 9 September 2014(2014-09-09) (aged 59)
Occupation| Writer and teacher
Genre| Speculative Fiction
Website
grahamjoyce.co.uk

Graham William Joyce (22 October 1954 – 9 September 2014) was a British writer of speculative fiction and the recipient of numerous awards, including the O. Henry Award and the World Fantasy Award, for both his novels and short stories.[1]

## Contents

* 1 Biography
* 2 Style and themes
* 3 Film
* 4 Music
* 5 Games
* 6 Critical reception
* 7 Bibliography
* 7.1 Novels and short story collections
* 7.2 Short stories
* 7.3 Articles
* 8 References
* 9 External links
* 9.1 Interviews

## Biography[edit]

He grew up in a small mining village just outside Coventry to a working-class family. After receiving a BEd degree from Bishop Lonsdale College in 1977 (now University of Derby) and an M.A. degree from the University of Leicester in 1980,[2] Joyce worked as a youth officer for the National Association of Youth Clubs until 1988. He subsequently quit his position and moved to the Greek islands of Lesbos and Crete to write his first novel, Dreamside. After selling Dreamside to Pan Books in 1991, Joyce moved back to England to pursue a career as a full-time writer. He was awarded a PhD degree by publication at Nottingham Trent University, where he taught creative writing from 1996 until his death and was made a reader in creative writing.

Graham Joyce resided in Leicester with his wife, Suzanne Johnsen, and their two children, Ella and Joseph.

Joyce was the regular first-choice goalkeeper for the England Writers football team, appearing in international fixtures against Germany, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Hungary, Turkey and Austrian Writers teams. He described his footballing experiences in his non-fiction book Simple Goalkeeping Made Spectacular.

He was a supporter of Coventry City FC and occasionally wrote pieces for fanzines.

Joyce died on 9 September 2014. He had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 2013.[3] Joyce's reaction to his cancer was to publish several essays on the "shocking clarity" the news had brought him on the subject of death. He said "your life is suddenly propelled along a remorseless narrative that has the structure of all great mythical journeys".[4]

## Style and themes[edit]

Publishers and critics alike have found difficulty in classifying Joyce's writing. His novels have been categorized as fantasy, science fiction, horror, and mainstream literature—with some even overlapping genres. Joyce utilizes a wide variety of settings and character perspectives. Settings include Scotland, The English Midlands, Greece, the Middle East, and the jungles of Thailand. He has penned for both adult and juvenile protagonists, with an emphasis on strong female characters. The greater unity in Joyce's works, however, lies in their thematic and philosophical topics. Bill Sheehan, who wrote the introduction for Partial Eclipse, states:

> "Among the issues Graham dramatizes are the inevitability of grief, loss, growth, and change, the primal importance of family bonds, the beauty of the feminine, the life altering effects of parenthood, the nature of the creative unconscious, the overwhelming power of the erotic, the corrupting effects of power, the importance of self-awareness, and the fundamental need for order, meaning, and coherence in the face of a chaotic, inimical universe".[5]

American author, editor and literary critic Jeff VanderMeer said:

> "Joyce's fiction has always displayed a certain generosity of spirit that lifts it above the ordinary. This generosity is not at all sentimental, but is alive with sentiment and an appreciation for the mysteries of life."[6]

The mystical or supernatural often play a pivotal role in Joyce's works. For this, he taps the mythical or folkloric associations of his settings. Joyce's treatment of these experiences is what distinguishes his novels from genre fiction. The supernatural is not seen as a conflict or an obstacle to be overcome, but rather an integral part of a natural order that a character must accept and integrate. Running parallel to these phenomena is the possibility of a rational or psychological explanation. This literary approach is influenced in part by Joyce's experiences with his own family:

> "My grandmother was one of these old women who used to have dreams and visions and messages arriving. She would fall asleep in a chair, there would be a knock on the door, she would go to the door, someone strange would come to the door and deliver a message. And then she would wake up again in her chair. Now my mother and my aunties told me these stories over and over again. But they just lived with it side by side. They didn't fight it as in a fantasy or horror film. They didn't have to overcome it. It didn't get worse and worse and worse. They just accepted this mystery and then they cooked the dinner."[7]

This particular quality has prompted some critics to classify Joyce as a magic realist in the vein of such Latinamerican writers as Gabriel García Márquez or Julio Cortázar. Joyce disagrees with this, feeling that his lineage is tied more closely to writers of the English "weird tale" such as Arthur Machen or Algernon Blackwood. He calls his style of writing "Old Peculiar."[8]

## Film[edit]

Parts of this article (those related to Film) need to be updated. The reason given is: written from "as of 2010". it's 2022.. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (June 2022)

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The short film Black Dust was released in 2012, produced by James Laws of Pretzel Films, scripted by Joyce and Laws. Currently, there are no feature-length films based on Joyce's novels or shorts. However, the film rights to Dreamside, The Tooth Fairy, and Dark Sister have all been optioned. As of October 2010[update] Dreamside, Do the Creepy Thing (Joyce scripting) The Silent Land and Some Kind of Fairy Tale are all in development.

## Music[edit]

Joyce co-wrote song lyrics for French songwriter and composer Emilie Simon on her albums The Big Machine (2009) and Franky Knight (2011).

## Games[edit]

On 16 January 2009, the site Computer and Video Games reported that Graham Joyce had been hired by id Software to "help develop the storyline potential"[9] of Doom 4; after Joyce died in 2014, Adam Gascoine was brought in as a replacement.[10]

## Critical reception[edit]

Adam Roberts stated "Graham Joyce's The Year of the Ladybird showed that he is one of the best writers of ghost stories we have."[11]

## Bibliography[edit]

According to his official site and the Internet Database of Speculative Fiction, Graham Joyce published fourteen novels and twenty-six short stories.[12]

### Novels and short story collections[edit]

Name  | Published  | ISBN  | Notes

|
|
|

Dreamside | 1991  | ISBN 978-0-312-87546-6 |
Dark Sister | 1992  | ISBN 978-0-312-87254-0 | British Fantasy Award winner, 1993[13]
House of Lost Dreams | 1993  | ISBN 978-0-7472-4248-2 |
Requiem | 1995  | ISBN 978-0-312-86452-1 | British Fantasy Award winner, 1996;[14]
World Fantasy Award nominee, 1996[14]
The Tooth Fairy | 1996  | ISBN 978-0-312-86833-8 | British Fantasy Award winner, 1997[15]
The Stormwatcher | 1997  | ISBN 978-1-892389-36-7 | British Fantasy Award nominee, 1999[16]
The Web: Spiderbite | 1997  | ISBN 978-1-85881-527-5 | young adult
Indigo | 1999  | ISBN 978-0-671-03937-0 | British Fantasy Award winner, 2000[17]
Smoking Poppy | 2001  | ISBN 978-0-671-03939-4 | British Fantasy Award nominee, 2002[18]
The Facts of Life | 2002  | ISBN 978-0-7434-6342-3 | World Fantasy Award winner, 2003;[19]
British Fantasy Award nominee, 2003[19]
Partial Eclipse and Other Stories | 2003  | ISBN 978-1-931081-62-7 | collection
The Limits of Enchantment | 2005  | ISBN 978-0-7434-6344-7 | World Fantasy Award nominee, 2006[20]
TWOC | 2005  | ISBN 978-0-571-22513-2 | young adult Angus Award "winner"
Do the Creepy Thing | 2006  | ISBN 978-0-571-23035-8 | young adult;
released in the US as The Exchange (2008) ISBN 978-0-670-06207-2
Three Ways to Snog an Alien | 2008  | ISBN 978-0-571-23951-1 | young adult
Memoirs of a Master Forger | 2008  | ISBN 978-0-575-08297-7 | as William Heaney;
released in the US as How to Make Friends with Demons (2009) ISBN 978-1-59780-142-3 British Fantasy Award winner
The Devil's Ladder | 2009  | ISBN 978-0-571-24247-4 | young adult
The Silent Land | 2011  | ISBN 978-0-385-53380-5 | World Fantasy Award nominee, 2011;[21]

British Fantasy Award nominee, 2011[22]

Some Kind of Fairy Tale | 2012  | ISBN 978-0-385-53578-6 | British Fantasy Novel award winner, 2013[23]
The Year of the Ladybird | 2013  | ISBN 978-0-575-11531-6 | released in the US in 2014 as The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit
25 Years in the Word Mines: The Best of Graham Joyce | 2014  | ISBN 978-1-848-63804-4 | posthumous collection from PS Publishing

### Short stories[edit]

* "Monastic Lives" (1992)
* "The Careperson" (1992)
* "Last Rising Sun" (1992)
* "The Ventriloquial Art" (1993)
* "The Apprentice" (1993)
* "Under the Pylon" (1993)
* "Gap-Sickness" (1993)
* "Eat Reecebread" (1994) with Peter F. Hamilton
* "The Reckoning" (1994)
* "Black Ball Game" (1995)
* "A Tip from Bobby Moore" (1996)
* "The White Stuff" (1997) with Peter F. Hamilton
* "Pinkland" (1997)
* "The Mountain Eats People" (1998)
* "As Seen on Radio" (1998)
* "Leningrad Nights" (1999)
* "Candia" (1999)
* "Incident in Mombasa" (1999)
* "Horrograph" (1999)
* "Partial Eclipse" (2000)
* "Xenos Beach" (2000)
* "Coventry Boy" (2001)
* "Leningrad Nights" (2002)
* "The Coventry Boy" (2002)
* "First, Catch Your Demon" (2002)
* "Black Dust" (2002)
* "Tiger Moth" (2003)
* "The Oversoul" (2008) – first published in Who Can Save Us Now? (2008), edited by Owen King and John McNally
* "An Ordinary Soldier of the Queen" (2009)

### Articles[edit]

* "Working Class Monster" (June 2000)
* "Greek Virtues"
* "The Great God Pan"
* "Two weeks, three couples and six kids equals hell"

## References[edit]

1. ^ Kellogg, Carolyn (9 September 2014). "Award-winning fantasy novelist Graham Joyce has died at 59". Los Angeles Times.
2. ^ Review of The Limits of Enchantment by Victor Gollancz
3. ^ Graham Joyce (1954–2014), obituary in Locus 9 September 2014
4. ^ Priest, Christopher (10 September 2014). "Graham Joyce obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
5. ^ Joyce, Graham. Partial Eclipse and Other Stories. Subterranean Press, 2003. p. 9.
6. ^ VanderMeer, Jeff (4 July 2012). "Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 April 2021.
7. ^ Video of an Interview at Le Festival Du Film Fantastique
8. ^ Audio Interview by Rick Kleffel
9. ^ Computer and Video Games article
10. ^ Crecente, Brian (23 May 2016). "How Doom lived up to nearly a decade's worth of expectations (update)". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
11. ^ Best science fiction books of 2013 The Guardian, 3 December 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
12. ^ Summary bibliography at the Internet Database of Speculative Fiction Archived 22 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ "1993 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
14. ^ a b "1996 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
15. ^ "1997 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
16. ^ "1999 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
17. ^ "2000 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
18. ^ "2002 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
19. ^ a b "2003 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
20. ^ "2006 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 6 July 2009.
21. ^ "2011 World Fantasy Award Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
22. ^ "2011 British Fantasy Award Short list". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
23. ^ "Announcing the 2013 British Fantasy Awards: Tor Books". Retrieved 28 May 2014.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Graham Joyce.

* Official website
* Graham Joyce at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
* Profile at Fantastic Fiction
* Literature map of Joyce
* Simon & Schuster profile page

### Interviews[edit]

* Interview at Actusf
* August 2007 interview. Located under "Fiction"
* Graham Joyce at Worlds Without End

* v
* t
* e

Works by Graham Joyce

Novels|

* Dreamside (1991)
* The Tooth Fairy (1996)
* The Facts of Life (2002)
* The Silent Land (2010)
* Some Kind of Fairy Tale (2012)

* v
* t
* e

World Fantasy Award—Novel

1975–2000|

* The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia A. McKillip (1975)
* Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson (1976)
* Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle (1977)
* Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber (1978)
* Gloriana by Michael Moorcock (1979)
* Watchtower by Elizabeth A. Lynn (1980)
* The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe (1981)
* Little, Big by John Crowley (1982)
* Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea (1983)
* The Dragon Waiting by John M. Ford (1984)
* Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock (1985, tie)
* Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart (1985, tie)
* Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1986)
* Perfume by Patrick Suskind (1987)
* Replay by Ken Grimwood (1988)
* Koko by Peter Straub (1989)
* Lyonesse: Madouc by Jack Vance (1990)
* Only Begotten Daughter by James K. Morrow (1991, tie)
* Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (1991, tie)
* Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon (1992, tie)
* Last Call by Tim Powers (1993)
* Glimpses by Lewis Shiner (1994)
* Towing Jehovah by James K. Morrow (1995)
* The Prestige by Christopher Priest (1996)
* Godmother Night by Rachel Pollack (1997)
* The Physiognomy by Jeffrey Ford (1998)
* The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich (1999)
* Thraxas by Martin Scott (2000)

2001–present|

* Declare by Tim Powers (2001, tie)
* Galveston by Sean Stewart (2001, tie)
* The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin (2002)
* The Facts of Life by Graham Joyce (2003, tie)
* Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip (2003, tie)
* Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton (2004)
* Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2005)
* Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2006)
* Soldier of Sidon by Gene Wolfe (2007)
* Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay (2008)
* The Shadow Year by Jeffrey Ford (2009, tie)
* Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan (2009, tie)
* The City & the City by China Miéville (2010)
* Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor (2011)
* Osama by Lavie Tidhar (2012)
* Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson (2013)
* A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar (2014)
* The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (2015)
* The Chimes by Anna Smaill (2016)
* The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North (2017)
* Jade City by Fonda Lee / The Changeling by Victor LaValle (2018)
* Witchmark by C. L. Polk (2019)
* Queen of the Conquered by Kacen Callender (2020)
* Trouble the Saints by Alaya Dawn Johnson (2021)

Authority control

General|

* ISNI
* 1
* VIAF
* 1
* WorldCat

National libraries|

* Norway
* Spain
* 2
* France (data)
* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Japan
* Australia
* Greece
* Netherlands
* Poland

Scientific databases|

* CiNii (Japan)

Other|

* MusicBrainz artist
* RERO (Switzerland)
* 1
* SUDOC (France)
* 1
* Trove (Australia)
* 1

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