Orson Scott Card (born August 24 1951) is a prolific and best-selling author of numerous genres. His initial launch in the publishing industry was with science fiction (Hot Sleep and Capitol) and later fantasy (Songmaster). He became much more widely known with the publication of the seminal Ender's Game in 1985, for which he was awarded both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award (a feat he repeated with the sequel Speaker for the Dead the next year, being the first ever to win both awards twice in a row). However, he has not limited himself to those genres. Stories of horror and suspense such as Lost Boys and Treasure Box demonstrate his versatility.
His writing is dominated by detailed characterization and moral issues. As Card says, "We care about moral issues, nobility, decency, happiness, goodness—the issues that matter in the real world, but which can only be addressed, in their purity, in fiction."
Some of his novels, for example Stone Tables, a novel about the life of Biblical Moses, have explicit religious themes. In his other writings, the influence of his Mormon beliefs is less obvious.
Card was born in Richland, Washington and raised in Utah. He lives now in Greensboro, North Carolina with his wife Kristine. They have four children: Geoffrey (a published author in his own right), Emily, Zina Margaret, and Erin Louisa. A fifth child, Charlie Ben, died at the age of 17. A victim of severe cerebral palsy, he inspired Card's story Lost Boys and the fannish Charlie Card Fund that raised money for CP research.
Quotations
Bibliography (incomplete)
Pre-Ender's Game
The Ender Series
The Shadow series
Tales of Alvin Maker
The Homecoming Saga
The "Women of Genesis" Trilogy
Post-Ender's Game, others
Books on writing
External Links