View source for S. T. Joshi



{{BLP primary sources|date=July 2021}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = S. T. Joshi
| image            = S._T._Joshi_(2002_promotional_photo).jpg
| caption          = S. T. 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]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]])
}}

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

==Career==
His [[literary criticism]] focuses upon the [[worldview]]s of authors. His ''The Weird Tale'' examines [[horror fiction|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 people|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|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 University|Yale]] and [[Harvard University|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 (Lovecraft)|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 (magazine)|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}}

{{World Fantasy Special Award Professional}}
{{World Fantasy Special Award Non-professional}}


{{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]]

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=S. T. Joshi|access_date=2026-03-05}}