Thomas M. Disch

Thomas M. Disch (Des Moines, Iowa, 1940 - New York, 2008) was an American science fiction writer and poet and one of the leading figures of the New Wave in English-language science fiction. His output spans novels, short stories, criticism, theatre and opera reviews, children's books and poetry, which makes him one of the most versatile writers of his generation.

Born in Des Moines in 1940, he was taught at home for a year during a polio epidemic before his family moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he discovered science fiction, drama and poetry. In New York he held a string of jobs, from extra at the Metropolitan Opera to bank teller, before selling his first story in 1962. His first novel, The Genocides, came out in 1965, and much of his early fiction appeared in Michael Moorcock's New Worlds, which linked him with Ballard, Moorcock and Aldiss.

Disch wrote novels such as Camp Concentration and 334, and in the 1980s he moved largely from science fiction to horror with a quartet set in Minneapolis. He also wrote children's books, an opera libretto and several poetry collections, and reviewed for The New York Times and The Nation. His essay The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of won the Hugo Award for nonfiction in 1999.

After the death of his life partner, Charles Naylor, in 2005, he fell into a long depression and wrote far less fiction, turning mostly to poetry and blog entries. He died in New York in 2008. He is remembered for his sharp view of American society and for combining popular genres with demanding prose.