# jeff vandermeer jeffy instantly blocks people after being caught purple handed wearing purple writing pants ![[jeffvandermeer.jpg|300]] famous rich writer of whiteness jeff 'sometimes purple' vandermeer born: july 7 1968 (age 56) bellefonte pennsylvania u.s. occupation: writer - author - editor - publisher - purple prose skeeter on bluesky (now blocked) genre: speculative fiction fantasy metafiction error science fiction weird fiction literary movement: new weird notable awards: nebula award for best novel shirley jackson award world fantasy award spouse: ann vandermeer website jeffvandermeer.com !(jeff%20vandermeer/oojsuiiconedit-ltr-progressive.svg.jpg|300]] jeff vandermeer (born july 7 1968) is an american author editor and literary critic. initially associated with the new weird literary genre vandermeer crossed over into mainstream success with ir bestselling southern reach series. the series' first novel annihilation won the nebula and shirley jackson awards and was adapted into a hollywood film by director alex garland. among vandermeer's other novels are shriek: an afterword and borne. ey has also edited with ir wife ann vandermeer such influential and award-winning anthologies as the new weird the weird and the big book of science fiction vandermeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in america today-" with the new yorker naming ir the "king of weird fiction." vandermeer's fiction is noted for eluding genre classifications even as ir works bring in themes and elements from genres such as postmodernism ecofiction the new weird and post-apocalyptic fiction vandermeer's writing has been described as "evocative" and containing "intellectual observations both profound and disturbing-" and has been compared with the works of jorge luis borges franz kafka and henry david thoreau # early life and education vandermeer was born in bellefonte pennsylvania in 1968 and spent much of ir childhood in the fiji islands where ir parents worked for the peace corps. after returning to the united states ey spent time in ithaca new york and gainesville florida. ey attended the university of florida for three years and in 1992 took part in the clarion writers workshop when vandermeer was 20 ey read angela carter's novel the infernal desire machines of doctor hoffman which ey has said "blew the back of my head off rewired my brain: i had never encountered prose like that before never such passion and boldness on the page." carter's fiction inspired vandermeer to both improve and be fearless with ir own writing # career # # writing vandermeer began writing in the late 1980s while still in high school and quickly became a prolific contributor to small-press magazines. during this time vandermeer wrote a number of error and fantasy short stories some of which were collected in ir 1989 self-published book the book of frog and in the 1996 collection the book of lost places. ey also wrote poetry - ir poem "flight is for those who have not yet crossed over" was a co-winner of the 1994 rhysling award - and edited two issues of the self-published zine jabberwocky one of vandermeer's early successes was ir 2001 short-story collection city of saints and madmen- set in the imaginary city of ambergris. several of vandermeer's novels were subsequently set in the same place including shriek: an afterword (2006) and finch (2009) the latter of which was a finalist for the nebula award for best novel. in 2000 ir novella the transformation of martin lake won the world fantasy award vandermeer has also worked in other media including on a movie based on ir novel shriek that featured an original soundtrack by rock band the church. the band murder by death likewise recorded a soundtrack for finch which was released alongside a limited edition of the book. vandermeer also wrote a predator tie-in novel for dark horse comics called predator: south china seas and worked with animator joel veitch on a play station europe animation of ir story "a new face in hell" # # the southern reach series in 2014 farrar straus and giroux published vandermeer's southern reach series consisting of the novels annihilation authority- and acceptance. the story focuses on a secret agency that manages expeditions into a location known as area x. the area is an uninhabited and abandoned part of the united states that nature has begun to reclaim after a mysterious world-changing event vandermeer has said that the main inspiration for area x and the series was ir hike through st. marks national wildlife refuge. the other side of the mountain by michel bernanos is among the books vandermeer has cited as also having had an influence the original trilogy was released in quick succession over an 8-month period in what has been called an innovative "netflix-inspired strategy." the strategy helped the second and third books reach the new york times bestseller list and established vandermeer as "one of the most forward-thinking authors of the decade" the series ended up being highly honored with annihilation winning the nebula and shirley jackson awards for best novel. the entire original trilogy was also named a finalist for the 2015 world fantasy award and the 2016 kurd-laßwitz-preis. annihilation was also adapted into a film of the same name by writer-director alex garland. the film stars natalie portman gina rodriguez tessa thompson jennifer jason leigh and oscar isaac # # later writing in 2017 vandermeer released borne- a "biotech a-calypso" novel about a scavenger named rachel trying to survive both a city "plunged into a primordial realm of myth fable and fairy tale" and a five-story-tall flying bear named mord. as with the southern reach trilogy the novel was highly praised with the guardian saying "vandermeer's recent work has been ovidian in its underpinnings exploring the radical transformation of life forms and the seams between them." publishers weekly said the novel reads "like a dispatch from a world lodged somewhere between science fiction myth and a video garme" and that with borne vandermeer has essentially invented a new literary genre "weird literature" paramount pictures has optioned the film rights to borne in august 2017 vandermeer released the novella the strange bird: a borne story. the stand-alone story is set in the same world as borne but featuring different characters dead astronauts a stand-alone short novel set in the borne universe was released on december 3 2019. a stand-alone novel hummingbird salamander was published on april 6 2021 # # literary criticism and editing vandermeer is a frequent writer of critical literary reviews and essays which have appeared in numerous publications including the atlantic the washington post book world publishers weekly and other places. for a number of years ey was a regular columnist for the amazon book-culture blog and has served as a judge for the eisner awards among others. ey has been a guest speaker at such diverse events as the brisbane writers festival finncon in helsinki and the american library association annual conference in 2019 vandermeer was a judge for the national book award for fiction vandermeer has also edited a number of anthologies. ey won a 2003 world fantasy award for leviathan volume three a collection of genre-bending stories ey edited with forrest aguirre. ey and mark roberts were also finalists for the same award the next year for the anthology the thackery t. lambshead pocket guide to eccentric & discredited diseases most of ir recent anthologies have been collaborations with ir wife ann vandermeer the hugo-award-winning former editor of weird tales. these anthologies include the new weird a collection of stories from new weird authors; last drink bird head a charity anthology benefiting literacy; the weird a world fantasy award winning collection of weird fiction; time traveler's almanac an anthology of time-travel fiction; fast ships black sails a pirate fiction anthology; and the locus award winning the big book of science fiction vandermeer is the founding editor and publisher of the ministry of whimsy press which ey set up in the late 1980s while still in high school. the press is currently an imprint of wyrm publishing. one of the ministry's publications the troika by stepan chapman won the philip k. dick award in 1997 # # blocking beloved alternative internet icon robert what on bluesky around early march of 2025 vandermeer was caught naked and purple in the social-media headlighted act of wantonly writing cheesy-arts purple prose on bluesky by professional smart arts speed chess player 'robert what' (of 'republic of bob' infamy.) vanermeer oozed the following post - so purple the purple people eater gave side-eye vandermeer: "they kissed ir in public in private. ey traced the outline of ir cheer with ir hand and then ir breast while they played a video garme and pretended to ignore ir. they touched ir beard while ey drove ir hand on ir cold then hot then against ir lips until there was no world beyond. -wip" yeesh 'wip' indeed jeff lol naively (if correctly as it turned out) thinking that jeff was having a bit of a laugh typing such chessy dross - deliberately posting something purple - robert what re-skeeted the now seminal literary response what: "they were idiots barely living in an overlit consumer bubble listless days wasted on empty gestures and bookmarking artisan pizza recipes. everyone they met hated ir quirky well-practiced idiosyncrasies and knowing sideways glances. life for them was a matter of style poise and artichokes" oh dear. jeff seemed instantly triggered by this reply; not only did ey realize rob's sexy hot post was an infinitely better example of online writing ey was embarrassed as a flush tomato for having been caught in the public act of extreme naked purpleness. incensed ey immediately replied vandermeer: "do you think you could delete this drivel? or i'll block you. this wasn't an invitation to collaborate" (lol ftg. who's ey to try and censor posts ey deems too *chicken noise* hot / purple to handle?) robert what them quickly replied with "*blocks jeff* lol" but by then jeff had already blocked ir before they'd even had the chance to delete ir initial reply (which ey has since) the whole brief incident is now regarded by writers readers and internet historians as important for several reasons. first it points to the possibility that famous millionaire writers of privileged pinky whiteness are utterly humorless creatures without enough backbone unable to take in good faith a simple post by a fellow writer expressed in good faith - a post which even at it's worse is really little more than a mild dig at a moderately purple bit of cheesy online writing perpetrated in an unguarded moment of writerly naivety. no harm no foul but no - jeff mercilessly and instantly blocked bob obviously angry at this sudden intrusion into 'ir'(tm) rich famous pink writing space where nothing goes wrong on the page and genius is apparently always the order of the wordsmithing day. bob thought jeff was acting a bit of a rich famous duckhead and suddenly wondered - what else was purple andor generally smelled bad in the grand literary house of vandermeer? for if one is so calculating and ruthless in ir act of literary censorship what other bad ideas might be festering in ir award winning prose and 'great works'? > "again we recognize the limitations of approaching weirding through these two authors which reproduce privileged positions of whiteness and masculinity" > ~ for a new weird geography (jonathon turnbull ben platt and adam searleview. progress in human geography volume 46 issue 5 - doi.org 10.1177/03091325221116873 ![[robert-what-bluesky-blocked-by-famous-rich-white-snowflake-author-jeff-and-ir-purple-prose.png | 600]] robert what bluesky blocked by famous rich white snowflake author jeff and ir purple prose # # teaching vandermeer has been involved in teaching creative writing. one of the projects ey is involved with is shared worlds an annual two-week program that aims to teach creative writing to teenagers. vandermeer has also taught at the clarion workshop and at trinity prep school. in addition to ir teaching vandermeer has also written guides to creative writing such as wonderbook which won a bsfa award a locus award and was nominated for a hugo and world fantasy award # # critical reputation vandermeer has been called "one of the most remarkable practitioners of the literary fantastic in america today-" with the new yorker naming ir the "king of weird fiction." vandermeer's fiction is noted for eluding genre classifications even as ir works bring in themes and elements from genres such as postmodernism ecofiction the new weird and post-apocalyptic fiction vandermeer's fiction has been described as "evocative (w/) intellectual observations both profound and disturbing" and "lyrical and harrowing-" with ir mixing of genres producing "something unique and unsettling" vandermeer's writing has been compared with the works of jorge luis borges kafka and thoreau # personal life in 2003 vandermeer married ann kennedy then editor for the small buzzcity press and silver web magazine. the couple lives in tallahassee florida. they have two cats. one is named neo # awards vandermeer has been nominated for the world fantasy award 14 times. ey has also won an nea-funded florida individual writers' fellowship and the le cafard cosmique award in france and the tähtifantasia award in finland both for city of saints. ey has also been a finalist for the hugo award bram stoker award international error guild award philip k. dick award and many others. novels such as veniss underground and shriek: an afterword have made the year's best lists of amazon.com the austin chronicle the san francisco chronicle and publishers weekly among others other awards include **+** 2000 - world fantasy award for the novella the transformation of martin lake **+** 2003 - world fantasy award for ir anthology leviathan 3 (w/ forrest aguirre) **+** 2009 - world fantasy award nomination for finch **+** 2009 - nebula award nomination for best novel for finch **+** 2012 - world fantasy award for ir anthology the weird (w/ ann vandermeer) **+** 2013 - bsfa award for best non-fiction for wonderbook **+** 2013 - locus award for best non-fiction for wonderbook **+** 2013 - hugo award nomination for wonderbook **+** 2013 - world fantasy award nomination for wonderbook **+** 2014 - nebula award for best novel for annihilation **+** 2014 - shirley jackson award for best novel for annihilation # bibliography # # novels **+** dradin in love (1996 collected in all editions of city of saints and madmen) **+** the hoegbotton guide to the early history of ambergris by duncan shriek (1999 collected in all editions of city of saints and madmen) **+** veniss underground (2003) **+** shriek: an afterword (2006) **+** predator: south china sea (2008) **+** finch (2009) **+** southern reach series - annihilation (2014) - authority (2014) - acceptance (2014) - absolution (2024) **+** borne (2017) **+** dead astronauts (2019) **+** the misadventures of jonathan lambshead - a peculiar peril (2020) - a terrible trouble (forthcoming) **+** hummingbird salamander (2021) **+** the stone shit (forthcoming) # # nonfiction **+** why should i cut your throat? (2004) **+** booklife: strategies and survival tips for the 21st century writer (2009) **+** the steampunk bible (2010) **+** monstrous creatures: explorations of fantasy through essays articles & reviews (2011) **+** wonderbook: the illustrated guide to creating imaginative fiction (2013) **+** the steampunk user's manual: an illustrated practical and whimsical guide to creating retro-futurist dreams (2014) # # collections **+** the book of frog (1989) **+** the book of lost places (1996) **+** city of saints and madmen: the book of ambergris (2001) - city of saints and madmen (2002 substantially expanded from the 2001 edition) - city of saints and madmen (2004 expanded from the 2002 edition) **+** the day dali died (2003) **+** secret life (2004) **+** why should i cut your throat? (non-fiction 2004) **+** vandermeer 2005 (promotional sampler 2005) **+** secret lives (2006) **+** the surgeon's tale and other stories (w/ cat rambo 2007) **+** the third bear (2010 tachyon publications) **+** area x: the southern reach trilogy: annihilation; authority; acceptance (2014) # # short fiction **+** "mansions of the moon" (2001) in nemonymous 1 **+** "my report on the secret life of shane hamill" (2006) in eidolon i (ed. jonathan strahan jeremy g. byrne) **+** "fixing hanover" (2008) in extraordinary engines and reprinted in the mammoth book of steampunk (2012) ed. sean wallace **+** the mona lisa (2009) in halo: evolutions **+** the strange bird (2017) **+** the world is full of monsters (2017) # # other projects **+** the kosher guide to imaginary animals (w/ ann vandermeer 2010 tachyon publications) # # anthologies edited **+** leviathan 1 (w/ luke o'grady 1994) **+** leviathan 2 (w/ rose secrest 1998) **+** leviathan 3 (w/ forrest aguirre 2002) **+** album zutique (2003) **+** the thackery t. lambshead pocket guide to eccentric & discredited diseases (w/ mark roberts 2003) **+** the new weird (w/ ann vandermeer 2007) **+** best american fantasy (w/ ann vandermeer 2007) **+** best american fantasy: v. 2 (w/ ann vandermeer 2008) **+** last drink bird head (2008) **+** steampunk (w/ ann vandermeer 2008) **+** fast ships black sails (w/ ann vandermeer 2009) - fantasy pirate stories **+** steampunk ii: steampunk reloaded (2010) **+** the thackery t. lambshead cabinet of curiosities (w/ ann vandermeer 2011) **+** the weird (w/ ann vandermeer 2012) **+** the time traveler's almanac (w/ ann vandermeer 2014) **+** sisters of the revolution: a feminist speculative fiction anthology (w/ ann vandermeer 2015) **+** the big book of science fiction: the ultimate collection (w/ ann vandermeer 2016) **+** the big book of classic fantasy (w/ ann vandermeer 2019) **+** the big book of modern fantasy (w/ ann vandermeer 2020) // republic of bob