Avram Davidson Tribute, at the Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport, 213 Water Street, New York City
7:00 p.m., 6 November 2007

Avram Davidson (1923-1993) was author of nineteen novels and more than two hundred short stories and essays. He won the Hugo Award in science fiction, the Queen's Award and Edgar Award in the mystery genre, and the World Fantasy Award (three times). His writings defy genre stereotypes and are filled with wit, wonder, and the bizarre. The Avram Davidson Treasury and The Other Nineteenth Century collect many of his best stories; Adventures in Unhistory is a collection of his essays on unusual subjects (all published by Tor).

Thomas M. Disch is author of classic novels 334, On Wings of Song, and Camp Concentration, and his short fiction and criticism have defined the science fiction genre.

Tom La Farge is author of The Crimson Bears (1993), A Hundred Doors (1994), Terror of Earth (1996), and Zuntig (2001).

Michael Swanwick's novels include Bones of the Earth, In The Drift, and The Dragons of Babel (forthcoming), and his short story collections include Gravity's Angels, Moon Dogs, and The Dog Said Bow-Wow, just published by Tachyon. He lives in Philadelphia.

Wendy Walker is author of the The Secret Service (1992), Stories out of Omarie (1995), Knots (2006), and Blue Fire (forthcoming from Proteotypes / Proteus Gowanus Publications, 2008).

Jacob Weisman is publisher of Tachyon Publications in San Francisco.

Henry Wessells is bibliographer and editor of Avram Davidson, author of Another green world (2003), publisher of Temporary Culture, and an antiquarian bookseller in New York City.

A note from David G. Hartwell, publisher of The New York Review of Science Fiction :

Avram Davidson is a writer of clever and entertaining short fiction. Avram Davidson produced a body of work that is deeply intelligent and satirically resonant, steeped in researches that range far beyond the ordinary lives of ordinary people into the alien lives of foreign cultures, present and historical. Avram Davidson wrote novels of varying quality and impact that nevertheless invariably reward the experienced reader with many pleasures page by page, and very often sparkle with wit. Avram Davidson was a difficult man in life, and a difficult writer to champion after death. His virtues do not sound appealing to the casual reader of novels, and his virtues are daunting to consider even for most readers in the academy. In life he was sometimes best liked and admired from a distance. His works, nevertheless, put him in the company of the best writers of prose fiction of his century. So we celebrate him here, now. — David G. Hartwell

The New York Review of Science Fiction Reading Series is curated by Jim Freund.