Bob Weinberg sold his first short story when he was a junior in college in 1967 and hasn't stopped writing since.  In a career that has spanned more than thirty years, he has worked as a freelance newspaper journalist; contributed hundreds of articles for books and magazines on topics ranging from mathematics to collecting art; edited over a hundred anthologies; and authored twenty-five books and numerous short stories.

Born in New Jersey in 1946, he received his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1968.  In 1970, he was awarded his Master of Science degree with Honors in mathematics from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck.  He taught math at Illinois Institute of Technology from 1970-1973 while working on his Ph.D.  He never completed his degree, instead leaving college to get married and start a successful bookstore business.  After writing part-time for over thirty years, he sold his book business in 1997 to concentrate on writing full time.

A prolific writer, he has written in the horror, science fiction, humorous fantasy, and suspense genres.  Along with his fifteen novels, he is the author of over thirty short stories.  Some of his more popular short fiction includes The Skeptic in Dark Destiny II from White Wolf; The Apocalypse Quatrain in the Secret Prophecies of Nostradamus from Daw Books; and The Midnight El in Return to the Twilight Zone from Daw.  His short stories, Endure the Night, The Kwik-Mart Vampire, and Ro Erg have all been optioned for television.  A collection of his short stories, Dial Your Dreams and Other Nightmares was published in summer 2001 by DarkTales Press.  His work has been translated into fourteen languages including French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Hungarian.

Well known for his non-fiction, he has been nominated six times for the prestigious World Fantasy Award for his contributions to the field of fantastic literature.  He won the award in 1978 for The Weird Tales Story, and again, in 1989 for his huge reference volume, A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction Artists.

His study of western writer, Louis L'Amour, The Louis L'Amour Companion, was a bestseller in trade paperback and in mass market formats.  It is in its sixth printing for Bantam Books and is the only place where fans can find L'Amour's first published poem and his first published short story.

An authority on genre fiction, Bob Weinberg has edited over a hundred books in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, young adult, and western fields.  He has written columns on all these branches of fiction and is a well-known lecturer at conventions and seminars.  He has acted as consultant on genre fiction for a number of paperback publishers and is widely regarded as one of the leading experts on horror and dark fantasy fiction in the world.  His personal library of genre related material consists of over 25,000 items and is considered one of the finest collections of such literature ever assembled.

As an editor, he has compiled collections of stories by such diverse authors as Cornell Woolrich, Ray Bradbury, Louis L'Amour, Poul Anderson, Hank Searls, Carroll John Daly, and many others.  Some of his most recent anthologies include 100 Tiny Little Terrors, Rivals of Dracula, Virtuous Vampires, all from Barnes & Noble, and Between Time and Terror from ROC Books.  He won a Bram Stoker Award, given by the Horror Writers Association, for co-editing Horrors: 365 Scary Stories, the best anthology of 1998.

Along with his writing and editing, Weinberg taught a course in "Writing Thriller Fiction" for Columbia College of Chicago for three years.  From 1976 through 1996, he served as Chairman of the Chicago Comicon, the 2nd largest Comic Book Convention held in the United States.  He also served two terms as Vice-President of the Horror Writers of America.  Over the past several years, he's been involved with the TV and movie industry, acting as a consultant for numerous movie and Cable TV production companies.

Related items: A discussion with Robert Weinberg.