S. T. Joshi

{{Short description|American literary critic (born 1958)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}} {{BLP primary sources|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox writer | name = S. T. Joshi | image = S._T._Joshi_(2002_promotional_photo).jpg | caption = Joshi in 2002 | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1958|6|22|mf=y}} | birth_place = Pune, India | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Writer | citizenship = United States | period = | genre = | subject = Weird fiction | website = {{URL|stjoshi.org}} | education = Brown University (BA, MA) }}

'''Sunand Tryambak Joshi''' (born June 22, 1958) is an American literary critic whose work has largely focused on weird and fantastic fiction, especially the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers.

==Career== His literary criticism focuses upon the worldviews of authors. His ''The Weird Tale'' examines horror and fantasy writing by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Lovecraft.<ref name="STJAuto">{{cite web |title=S.T. Joshi: An Autobiography |url=http://www.stjoshi.org/biography.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403202039/http://stjoshi.org/biography.html |archive-date=April 3, 2019}}</ref>

==Personal life== S. T. Joshi was born on June 22, 1958, in Pune, India, to Marathi parents Tryambak M. Joshi and Padmini T. Joshi.<ref name="setiya1">{{Cite journal |last=Setiya |first=Kieran |date=2020 |title=Correspondence; Revisiting H. P. Lovecraft |journal=The Yale Review |language=en |volume=108 |issue=3 |page=138 |doi=10.1353/tyr.2020.0048 |issn=0044-0124 |hdl=1721.1/130173|s2cid=236895320 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1994-02-26 |title=Obituary for Tryambak M. Joshi (Aged 83) |page=15 |work=Muncie Evening Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83991356/obituary-for-tryambak-m-joshi-aged-83/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823170217/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/83991356/obituary-for-tryambak-m-joshi-aged-83/ |archive-date=August 23, 2021}}</ref><ref name="ancestrylibrary1978">{{cite web |date=August 15, 1978 |title=Sunand Tryambak Joshi |url=https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/imageviewer/collections/61197/images/100007539_00435 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823173319/https://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com/aleweb/ale/do/login |archive-date=August 23, 2021 |publisher=Federal Naturalization Records, 1892–1992 |location=Indianapolis |via=Ancestry.com}}</ref> When he was four, his family moved to the United States and settled in Indiana.<ref name="setiya1" /><ref name="ancestrylibrary1978" /> He discovered the work of Lovecraft at age 13 in a public library in Muncie, Indiana. He also read L. Sprague de Camp's biography of Lovecraft, ''Lovecraft: A Biography'', on publication in 1975, and began thereafter to devote himself to Lovecraft. This devotion led him to decline offers from Yale and Harvard so that he could attend Brown University, which is located in Providence, Rhode Island where Lovecraft had lived.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 8, 1977 |title=New Fans: H. P. Lovecraft Is As Good As Poe, They Say |page=11 |work=The Ludington Daily News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45766115/the-ludington-daily-news/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228023010/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45766115/the-ludington-daily-news/ |archive-date=February 28, 2020 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="oppenheimer1">{{Cite news |last=Oppenheimer |first=Mark |date=2014-03-15 |title=Spreading the Word on the Power of Atheism |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/us/spreading-the-word-on-the-power-of-atheism.html |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|2213674612}} |archive-date=July 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709120012/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/15/us/spreading-the-word-on-the-power-of-atheism.html |url-status=live }}</ref> He is an atheist.<ref name="oppenheimer1"/>

He lives in Seattle, Washington.<ref name="STJAuto" /><ref name="oppenheimer1"/> Joshi married Leslie Gary Boba on September 1, 2001.<ref name="STJAuto" /> They divorced in December 2010.<ref>{{cite web |last=S. T. Joshi |title=Blog |url=http://stjoshi.org/news.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312123740/http://stjoshi.org/news.html |archive-date=March 12, 2012 |publisher=S. T. Joshi}}</ref>

In August 2014, Joshi opposed the decision to retire and replace Gahan Wilson's bust of Lovecraft as the World Fantasy Award statuette in light of a campaign highlighting Lovecraft's history of racism; Joshi returned his World Fantasy Awards in protest.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=2015-11-11 |title=HP Lovecraft biographer rages against ditching of author as fantasy prize emblem |language=en |work=The Guardian |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/11/hp-lovecraft-biographer-rages-against-ditching-of-author-as-fantasy-prize-emblem |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512201817/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/11/hp-lovecraft-biographer-rages-against-ditching-of-author-as-fantasy-prize-emblem |archive-date=May 12, 2021 |eissn=0261-3077}}</ref>

== Notable publications== {{BLP sources section|date=July 2021}}

===Books=== *''Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography'' (1993) (co-writer: Darrell Schweitzer) *''H. P. Lovecraft: A Life'' (1996) *''Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography'' (Arkham House, 1999) {{ISBN|9780870541766}} *''I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft'' (2010) *''Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction'' (2012) *''Lord Dunsany: A Comprehensive Bibliography'' (2013)

===Edited volumes=== *''Miscellaneous Writings'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham House, 1995). *''Documents of American Prejudice: An Anthology of Writings on Race from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke'' (Basic Books, 1999). *''The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 1, 1999). *''Atheism: A Reader'' (Prometheus Books, 2000). *''The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 2, 2001). *''Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic'' (Fedogan & Bremer, 2002).<ref>Briefly reviewed in the May 2015 issue of ''Asimov's Science Fiction'', pp.107–111</ref> *''The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories'' by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 3, 2005). *''The Short Fiction of Ambrose Bierce - Comprehensive Edition in 3 Volumes,'' edited with Lawrence I. Berkove & David E. Schultz (2006). *''The Ghost in the Corner and Other Stories'' by Lord Dunsany, edited with Martin Andersson (Hippocampus Press, 2017).

==Awards== {{More citations needed|date=May 2025}}

=== Literary awards === {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Year !! Title !! Award !! Category !! Result !! Ref. |- !1990 | rowspan="2" | ''The Weird Tale'' || Bram Stoker Award || Non-Fiction || {{nom}} || |- ! rowspan="2" | 1991 | World Fantasy Award || Special Award – Professional || {{nom}} || |- | ''John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study'' || Anthony Awards || Critical Work || {{nom}} || |- !1996 | rowspan="2" | ''H. P. Lovecraft: A Life'' || Bram Stoker Award || Non-Fiction || {{won}} || |- ! rowspan="2" | 1997 | British Fantasy Award || Small Press || {{won}} || |- | ''Lord Dunsany'' || Mythopoeic Awards || Myth and Fantasy Studies || {{sho}} || |- !1999 | rowspan="2" | ''Sixty Years of Arkham House'' || International Horror Guild Award || Non-Fiction || {{nom}} || |- !2000 | Locus Award || Non-Fiction || {{won}} || |- ! rowspan="2" |2006 | ''Supernatural Literature of the World'' || World Fantasy Award || Special Award – Professional || {{nom}} || |- | ''Icons of Horror and the Supernatural'' || International Horror Guild Award || Non-Fiction || {{won}} || |- ! rowspan="2" |2007 | ''American Supernatural Tales'' || International Horror Guild Award || Anthology || {{nom}} || |- | ''Warnings to the Curious'' || International Horror Guild Award || Non-Fiction || {{nom}} || |- !2010 | ''I Am Providence'' || Black Quill Award || Dark Genre Book of Non-Fiction || {{nom}} || |- !2011 | ''Black Wings of Cthulhu'' || World Fantasy Award || Anthology || {{nom}} || |- !2012 | ''Black Wings of Cthulhu 2'' || Shirley Jackson Award || Anthology || {{nom}} || |- ! rowspan="2" | 2013 | rowspan="2" | ''Unutterable Horror Vol 1 and 2'' || World Fantasy Award || Special Award – Nonprofessional || {{won}} || |- | World Fantasy Award || Special Award – Nonprofessional || {{won}} || |- !2014 | ''Lovecraft and a World in Transition'' || Bram Stoker Award || Non-Fiction || {{nom}} || |- !2015 | rowspan="2" | ''Black Wings of Cthulhu 4'' || Shirley Jackson Award || Anthology || {{nom}} || |- !2016 | World Fantasy Award || Anthology || {{nom}} || |- !2022 | ''Ramsey Campbell: Master of Weird Fiction'' || Locus Recommended Reading || Non-Fiction || {{won}} || |}

=== Honors === * {{awards|award= International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts |year=2003 |title= |role= |name=IAFA Distinguished Critic Award [http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/iafa/award-winners.htm#scholarship]}} * {{awards|award=World Fantasy Award |year=2005 |title= |role= |name=Special Award for Professional Scholarship [http://www.sfwa.org/News/05wfcwin.htm]}} ==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{commons-inline|Sunand Tryambak Joshi}} *{{ISFDB name}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshi, S. T.}} Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:American literary critics Category:American male biographers Category:American book editors Category:American atheists Category:Brown University alumni Category:American people of Marathi descent Category:American male writers of Indian descent Category:H. P. Lovecraft scholars Category:Indian emigrants to the United States Category:American science fiction critics Category:American science fiction editors Category:World Fantasy Award–winning writers Category:Writers from Pune Category:Cthulhu Mythos writers Category:American satirists Category:American weird fiction writers Category:Weird fiction publishers Category:American critics of religions Category:20th-century American male writers Category:21st-century American male writers Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:Writers from Seattle Category:People from Muncie, Indiana