Richard Bowes

Richard Bowes
Richard Bowes in 2008
Born(1944-01-08)January 8, 1944
Boston
DiedDecember 24, 2023(2023-12-24) (aged 79)
OccupationWriter
NationalityAmerican
GenreScience fiction, Urban fantasy, Horror fiction
Notable worksMinions of the Moon, From the Files of the Time Rangers, Dust Devils on a Quiet Street

Richard Dirrane Bowes (January 8, 1944 – December 24, 2023) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy who has been described as an "urban fantasist."[1] He won two World Fantasy Awards for his short fiction along with the Lambda Award for his 1999 mosaic novel Minions of the Moon.[2] He was also an eight-time finalist for the Nebula Award.[3]

Biography

Richard Bowes was born January 8, 1944, to an Irish-Catholic family in Boston, Massachusetts.[2][4][5] In an interview, Bowes said that his parents were both actors and that some of his great uncles were writers.[6] His younger brother is the artist David Bowes. He attended school both in Boston and later in Long Island, New York, where he occasionally went on drug and alcohol binges.[7] Bowes also had a "contentious, tragic relationship" with his father.[7]

In his third year, Bowes took writing courses with Mark Eisenstein at Hofstra University and, after graduation, moved to Manhattan in 1965. While there he worked in the Garment District as an advertising writer.[4] During this time he also developed and overcame a serious drug problem.[8] Bowes later became an antique toy dealer, designed boardgames, and worked as a reference librarian at New York University.[4][9]

Bowes described his time living in New York by saying "I was present at the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and watched the World Trade Center towers fall from the end of my block on 9/11."[2]

Bowes struggled with his identity as a gay man and "often imagined himself to be a different person inhabiting a different reality. He credited this experience with the development of his mastery of fantasy literature. He also credited the immensity of New York City life and the possiblity of so many parallel lives being played out in one setting."[8]

He died on December 24, 2023, at the age of 79.[2]

Career

Bowes launched his Speculative Fiction writing career in the early 1980s and published novels Warchild,[10] Feral Cell and Goblin Market.

In 1992, Bowes began writing a series of semi-autobiographical stories narrated by Kevin Grierson. These stories were published primarily in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and later became the novel Minions of the Moon. One story, "Streetcar Dreams," won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novella in 1998.[11][12] The novel itself won the Lambda Literary Award in 2000.[13]

A short fiction collection, Transfigured Night and Other Stories, was published by Time Warner in 2001. It included the original novella My Life in Speculative Fiction, a semi-autobiographical "gay coming-of-age story with sci-fi tinges" that "follows a confused college kid in the early '60s as he grapples with issues of family, politics, and sexuality."[14] These stories plus recent material appeared in Streetcar Dreams and Other Midnight Fancies from England's PS Publishing in 2006.

During his later years, Bowes wrote a series of stories about time travelers interacting with ancient Greek gods, which formed the mosaic novel From the Files of the Time Rangers, published in 2005 by Golden Gryphon Press. As with Bowes' earlier novel Minions of the Moon these stories were also semi-autobiographical and narrated by the character of Kevin Grierson.[11] Most of the stories were originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction[11] with two of them – the novelettes "The Ferryman's Wife" and "The Mask of the Rex" – being finalists for the 2002 and 2003 Nebula Awards.[13] Other Time Rangers stories appeared in Sci Fiction and Black Gate.

In 2013 Bowes published the novel/story cycle Dust Devils on a Quiet Street, about a group of writers in New York City before, during, and after 9/11. Dust Devils appeared on the World Fantasy and Lambda Award short lists.[13] The first chapter is his widely reprinted 2005 short story "There's a Hole in the City", which won the 2006 storySouth Million Writers Award, The International Horror Guild Award and was nominated for a Nebula.[13]

"If Angels Fight" won the Novella 2009 World Fantasy Award.[12] The story was published in the February 2008 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. "I Needs Must Part, the Policeman Said" was nominated in the Best Novella category for the 2010 World Fantasy Awards.[15] The story ran in the December 2009 edition of F&SF.

Critical Reception

Bowes was seen as an icon to "young, LGBTQIA+ writers in the speculative fiction community" and as one of the best-known writers "who, beginning in the 1980s and 90s, wrote about queer lives in speculative fiction."[4] When Bowes passed away, author Sam J. Miller said "Speculative fiction wasn't always this queer. For a long time, there were only a handful of folks holding it down. Rick Bowes blazed his own trail, writing brilliant weird queer haunted tales his own way ..."[16]

Bowes' stories have been described by The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction as reading like "highly sophisticated Urban Fantasy"[17] while editor and critic Rich Horton has described Bowes as an "urban fantasist."[1] His fictionalized memoir Dust Devil on a Quiet Street, which was a finalist for the World Fantasy and Lambda Awards, was described by Publishers Weekly as depicting "a New York at once beautiful and terrible, dangerous and glorious, where mundane life is only one step away from the supernatural."[18]

Bibliography

  • Warchild. New York: Popular Library. 1986.
  • Goblin Market. New York: Popular Library. 1987.
  • Feral Cell. New York: Warner Books. 1987.
  • "The shadow and the gunman". F&SF. 86 (2). February 1994.
  • Minions of the Moon. New York: Tor. 1999.
  • Transfigured Night and Other Stories. New York: Grand Central Publishing. 2001.
  • My Life in Speculative Fiction. iPublish.com. 2001.
  • From the Files of the Time Rangers. Urbana, Illinois: Golden Gryphon Press. 2005., additionally 2017 from Lethe Press
  • Streetcar Dreams and Other Midnight Fancies. Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing. 2006.
  • "Sir Morgravain Speaks of Night Dragons and Other Things". F&SF. 121 (1&2): 186–194. July–August 2011.
  • Dust Devil on a Quiet Street. Maple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press. 2013.
  • The Queen, the Cambion, and Seven Others. Seattle, Washington: Aqueduct Press. 2013.
  • If Angels Fight: Stories. Bonney Lake, Washington: Fairwood Press. 2013.

References

  1. ^ a b "Introduction" by Rich Horton, The Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2009 Edition edited by Rich Horton, Prime Books, 2009, page 11.
  2. ^ a b c d "Richard Bowes (1944–2023)". Locus. December 26, 2023. Retrieved December 27, 2023.
  3. ^ "Richard Bowes: Past Nominations and Wins," The Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, accessed 12/17/2025.
  4. ^ a b c d "Richard Bowes: A Remembrance" by Matthew Kressel, Uncanny Magazine, Issue Fifty-Seven, March/April 2024.
  5. ^ "SFF Author Richard Bowes | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews". Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  6. ^ "Aqueduct Press". www.aqueductpress.com. Retrieved 2025-10-22.
  7. ^ a b "My Life in Speculative Fiction/Transfigured Night and Other Stories (Book Review)" by Jeff Zaleski, Publishers Weekly, 10/1/2001, Vol. 248, Issue 40, page 59.
  8. ^ a b "Richard Bowes" by Christopher B. Fellerhoff, Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works, Salem Press, January 2007, accessed through Literary Reference Plus.
  9. ^ Cardno, Anthony (2015-07-02). "RICHARD BOWES, author - Interview". ANTHONY R. CARDNO. Retrieved 2025-10-22.
  10. ^ "Author Spotlight: Richard Bowes". Nightmare Magazine. 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
  11. ^ a b c "Richard Bowes," Baker & Taylor Author Biographies, 1/5/2000, accessed through Literary Reference Plus.
  12. ^ a b "Winners". World Fantasy Awards. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  13. ^ a b c d "Richard Bowes". science fiction awards database. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  14. ^ "Book Shorts" by Nan Mooney, Yahoo Internet Life Magazine, October 2001, pages 50 - 51.
  15. ^ World Fantasy Convention (2010). "2010 World Fantasy Award Winners & Nominees". Archived from the original on October 27, 2012. Retrieved 4 Feb 2011.
  16. ^ "Author Richard Bowes Passes Away At 79" by Vanessa Armstrong, Reactor Magazine, January 2, 2024.
  17. ^ "Bowes, Richard". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved 24 September 2025.
  18. ^ "Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes," Publishers Weekly, 5/27/2013.
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