Malcolm Edwards

For the footballer, see Malcolm Edwards (footballer).

Edwards on a panel discussing The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction at the 72nd Worldcon in 2014

Malcolm John Edwards (born 3 December 1949) is a British editor and critic in the science fiction field.^[1] An alumnus of The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, he received his degree from the University of Cambridge.^[2] He was Deputy CEO at the Orion Publishing Group^[3] up until 2015, when he stepped down to become the chairman of science fiction publishing house Gollancz.^[4] Edwards lives in London with his wife, the CEO of a public relations company.

Edwards has edited a number of publications^[5] including: Vector, the critical journal of the British Science Fiction Association, (from 1972 to 1974), and the science fiction anthology Constellations (Gollancz, 1980). He served as science fiction editor for Victor Gollancz Ltd, which later led to him launching the SF Masterworks series at Orion in 1999.

Edwards was at one time highly active in science fiction fandom. When he first began contributing to British science fiction fanzines, he was initially confused with "Malcolm Edwards", a pseudonym used several years earlier by Peter Weston.^[6] He was Director of the Science Fiction Foundation for much of the two decades it was at the North East London Polytechnic. He also served as initial Chairman of the 45th World Science Fiction Convention. He was a Guest of Honour at Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention, from 14 to 18 August 2014.

Career

• 1976–1989 Gollancz, started as staff copy-editor, ended as Publishing Director
• 1989–1991 Grafton, Publishing Director
• 1991–1997 HarperCollins Trade Division, Publishing Director, then Deputy Managing Director
• 1998–2019 Orion Books, first as Managing Director of Orion Books, then Deputy Chief Executive and Group Publisher since September 2003, and as Chair of Gollancz from 2009
• 2019–now Wellbeck Publishing Group, as Publisher of André Deutsch

As editor, Malcolm Edwards has worked with J. G. Ballard (he edited Empire of the Sun), Tom Clancy, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, William Gibson,^[7] Robert Ludlum, James Patterson, Robert Holdstock, Terry Pratchett and many others.^[8]

Awards

• 1996 British Book Awards: Imprint & Editor of the Year^[9]
• 1983 BSFA Awards: Best Short Fiction (After Images)^[10]
• 2019 Alfie Awards: For Editing

References

1. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction page 371
2. 2005 Locus interview with Malcolm Edwards
3. "Orion Announces New Role For Edwards And New MD For Orion Books (April 25th, 2005)". Archived from the original on 1 May 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2007.
4. "Malcolm Edwards to step down at Orion | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
5. Malcolm Edwards at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
6. a 1986 appreciation of Malcolm Edwards by David Langford
7. William Gibson
8. MIPCOM – International marketplace for entertainment content^{[permanent dead link‍]}
9. British Book Awards page. Archived 2007-02-07 at the Wayback Machine
10. "BSFA Awards: Past Awards". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.

External links

• Malcolm Edwards at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Malcolm Edwards at Library of Congress