James Van Pelt writes and teaches in western Colorado. During the school year he teaches English at both Fruita Monument High School and Mesa State College.His fiction has appeared in several publications, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales. His non-fiction work has appeared in Tangent magazine.

In 1999 James was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Several of his stories have received Nebula and Stoker recommendations including two pieces that made the preliminary Nebula ballot.

His stories have been listed on the honorable mention lists in both Datlow and Windlings The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and Dozois' The Year's Best Science Fiction.

His first collection, Strangers and Beggars, will be available from Fairwood Press this summer.

He has a science fiction novel that has cruised much of the English speaking publishing world without finding a home. Currently he is working on a new novel that he hopes to complete some time soon.

Most importantly to him, his wife Tammy, and three children, Dylan, Samuel and Joshua, think he tells a pretty good bed-time story.

Scott Nicholson at The Haunted Computer web site asked James what his long term writing goals were. He said,"I feel a little like that guy in the old Tales From the Crypt comic who was trying to blow the ultimate jazz riff on his saxophone. He kept trying and trying and trying, until one day he finally did it. I don't remember what happened to him, but it was cosmic. I'm like that with my writing. I'm trying to write the ultimate string of sentences that will result in something cosmic. I know, it's an unreachable goal, but maybe along the way I'll write some decent riffs."

Visit his home page at http://www.sff.net/people/james.van.pelt.