Ritch Calvin

Ritch Calvin (he/him) was born and raised in a small farming town in northwest Ohio. Don't let the picture books fool you. It wasn't all that bucolic. Science fiction was a way out. After he had exhausted the entire SF collection at the local library, he discovered (his mother was a librarian) the wonders of interlibrary loan. Although he spent many years working in a local factory, he also co-owned and ran a bookstore. While listening to a shortwave radio in that bookstore, he heard an interview with Carlos Fuentes, and that opened up a whole other world.

He obtained a BA and MA in English from Bowling Green State University and a PhD in Comparative Literature from SUNY Stony Brook. He is now an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

He served on the Executive Committee of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) for six years (two as VP, two as President, and two as Past President). He was also the media reviews editor for the SFRA Review for six years. He was the Conference Director for the SFRA's 2015 annual conference (Vandana Singh, Alexis Lothian, and M. Asli Dukan were the Guests of Honor).

He has published essays in Extrapolation, Femspec, Science Fiction Film and Television, Science Fiction Studies, New York Review of Science Fiction, and SFRA Review. His bibliography of the works of Octavia E. Butler appeared in Utopian Studies in 2008. His first edited collection, on Gilmore Girls, appeared in 2007. In 2014, he edited (with Doug Davis, Karen Hellekson, and Craig Jacobsen) a volume of essays entitled SF 101: An Introduction to Teaching and Studying Science Fiction. In 2016, he published Feminist Epistemology and Feminist Science Fiction: Four Modes (Palgrave). He is currently working on book on short science fiction film (with Paweł Frelik) and a book on C. J. Cherryh.

He was a juror for the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award and for the 2018 James Tiptree Award (Otherwise).

He lives on Long Island.