Episode 017: John Tibbetts' Interview with Jack Williamson

AboutSF AUDIO

Episode 017 of the AboutSF podcast is a recording of an interview John C. Tibbetts conducted with Science Fiction and Fantasy writer Jack Williamson. If you have not been following the podcasts, John Tibbetts, associate professor in the department of Film and Media Studies at the University of Kansas, provided donations of audio interviews with luminaries in the fields of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Ray Bradbury, Frederick Pohl and Stephen King, among others, to the J. Wayne and Elsie M. Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction in Lawrence, KS. The interviews, gathered during the course of a lifetime of reading, collecting, and writing about Science Fiction, include conversations with Frederick Pohl, Poul Anderson, T.E.D. Klein, L. Sprague De Camp, and many more. Jack Williamson was the second author to receive the SFWA Grand Master award, and has been working in the field since 1928. He was an inspiration for several authors, including Isaac Asimov. Williamson is known for his pulp Legion of Space series, as well as collaborations with Frederick Pohl such as the Starchild series, but his most well-known work may be his series about intelligent robots who seek to control humanity, The Humanoids. After an illustrious career, Williamson was producing great work even into his 90s, winning both the Hugo and Nebula awards for his 2000 novella, "The Ultimate Earth." In this podcast, Williamson reflects on the differences between the science fiction and fantasy genres, the various trends in speculative fiction, and his career overall.