Imagination Unleashed

What started as a creative hobby just a few years ago has become an international award-winning endeavor for McIntosh, winner of a Hugo Award – science fiction’s equivalent of the Oscars.

The momentum of McIntosh’s popularity has been building since last May, when he received a Reader’s Award for his work ‘Bridesicle’ from Asimov’s Science Fiction for best short story. Following that honor, he was named a finalist for the Nebula Award, which is a prelude to the Hugo.

The Hugo Awards are reader-driven, with five writers eligible for nomination per World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) member in 15 categories. The final ballots list the top five nominees, which are then voted on by several thousand members. The awards are named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of Amazing Stories, a science fiction magazine that he launched in 1926, which introduced the popular genre to the public.

The Hugos are awarded annually at the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), a festive weeklong gathering where costumed members participate in masquerade balls, learn to speak Klingon, and attend readings by authors. “It is very exciting and welcoming, and the members are warm and clannish,” said McIntosh.

He had not even planned to attend the awards ceremony, but at the urging of his family, traveled on a 35-hour, one-way flight to Melbourne, Australia. To his surprise, when he arrived, he discovered that he was the only nominated short story writer in attendance at the ceremony. When the master of ceremonies announced his name, McIntosh was astounded. “I was stunned! I thought, ‘Nobody knows me. I’m from Statesboro, Georgia, and I’ve only published 40 stories,'” he said.

“The writers on this list are established – for example, Michael Resnick has been nominated 25 times and won the award five times. This award is like the Pulitzer Prize of science fiction – it’s what every writer dreams of,” said McIntosh.

The futuristic tale, initially published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, successfully merges the worlds of psychology and science fiction, as well as McIntosh’s research on relationships.

“Bridesicle,” details the story of Mira, who is one of the thousands of cryogenically frozen occupants of a dating center. The deceased are briefly revived by male visitors for short conversational dates to determine if they can find a compatible mate. Over a span of more than a hundred years, Mira is revived by several different dates before she is permanently brought back to life.

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“For me, this story deals with the implications of immortality. What would happen if we lived forever?” – Will McIntosh

Long before he entertained the idea of writing science fiction, McIntosh earned his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia and joined Georgia Southern’s faculty in 1990. For the past four years, he has coordinated the University’s Master of Science in psychology program, and published more than 30 journal articles, with research focusing on happiness and goals, Internet dating and relationships, and the psychological aspects of film and television. In 2002, McIntosh received the Award of Distinction in Teaching from the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS).

Always an avid science fiction reader, McIntosh’s interest in writing in the genre began when he started swapping story ideas with a fellow professor. “We started e-mailing ideas back and forth to each other, and on a lark, I decided to try and write a story and get it published. It was rejected, but I wanted to write more,” he said, refusing to be discouraged.

The now married father of 2-year-old twins was single then, and with time to spare he adopted a disciplined writing regimen. “I started writing every evening from 7 p.m. to midnight,” he revealed. Twenty stories and 88 rejections later, his first story was finally published, and McIntosh really became serious about his newfound craft.

“I decided to attend a six-week science fiction writing workshop at Michigan State, and each week a well-known author spoke to us,” he said.

McIntosh said that during the workshop, students were given the opportunity to write stories, which were subsequently critiqued by the teacher and his peers. “All of the students were able to meet individually with each author for one hour to talk about our work. The professional feedback was so valuable. I wrote seven stories while I was there, and eventually published all of them,” he said, feeling that this was the defining moment when his career began to soar.

In addition to Asimov’s Science Fiction, over the years, McIntosh’s works have been reprinted in several foreign languages, and also been published in other international magazines such as Interzone, Science Fiction: Best of the Year 2008 and Strange Horizons.

With his success, McIntosh has signed with a literary agent, and his first novel, Soft Apocalypse is set for publication this spring. This time, the setting is a little closer to home, in Savannah, and it is based upon a short story written by McIntosh that was nominated for British science fiction awards. “This story is about a homeless man in his ’20s, looking for love during a 10-year time span when civilization and the government are collapsing,” he said.

After juggling a successful career at the University with family life, fans will be excited to know that McIntosh continually has story ideas in the pipeline, and he truly enjoys writing.

–Mary Beth Spence