Jay Lake
Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake Jr. (June 6, 1964 – June 1, 2014) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest.
Jay Lake

Taken at Worldcon 2004 by Flickr user Mcurry. [1] · CC BY 2.0
- Name
- Jay Lake
- Birth Name
- Joseph Edward Lake, Jr.
- Born
- 6 June 1964
- Birthplace
- Taiwan
- Died
- 1 June 2014
- Place of death
- Portland, Oregon, U.S.
- Occupation
- Writer, product manager
- Awards
- Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2004)
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- literary activity · science fiction · computer programming · product management
- Education
- University of Texas at Austin
- Honours
- Astounding Award for Best New Writer · Locus Award for Best Collection
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Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake Jr. (June 6, 1964 – June 1, 2014) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest.
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Authority files
wikidata · Q720669 · wikipedia · Jay Lake
In this article
Biography
Biography
In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lived in Portland, Oregon, and worked as a product manager for a voice services company. Lake's writings appeared in numerous publications, including Postscripts, Realms of Fantasy, Interzone, Strange Horizons, Asimov's Science Fiction, Nemonymous, and the Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. He was an editor for the "Polyphony" anthology series from Wheatland Press, and was also a contributor to The Internet Review of Science Fiction.
Jay Lake studied at University of Texas at Austin. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is literary activity, science fiction and computer programming. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are science fiction. Distinctions recorded are Astounding Award for Best New Writer and Locus Award for Best Collection.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Jay Lake • Birth Name — Joseph Edward Lake, Jr. • Born — 6 June 1964 • Birthplace — Taiwan • Died — 1 June 2014 • Place of death — Portland, Oregon, U.S. • Occupation — Writer, product manager • Period — Early 21st century • Genre — Science fiction, fantasy • Awards — Campbell Award for Best New Writer (2004) • Website — http: www.jlake.com/
Personal life
Personal life
Lake was born in Taipei, Taiwan; he was the eldest of three children born to Joseph Edward Lake (a U.S. foreign service officer serving in Taiwan at the time). As a child he lived in Nigeria; Dahomey (now called Benin); Canada; Washington, D.C.; and returned to Taiwan for a number of years when his father was posted there a second time. He attended high school at Choate Rosemary Hall (in Connecticut) and later graduated from the University of Texas in 1986. Lake publicly revealed his advanced case of colon cancer. He was diagnosed in April 2008, and it then "progressed from a single tumor to metastatic disease affecting the lung and liver, recurring after multiple surgeries and chemotherapy courses." He used crowd funding through YouCaring to pay for whole genome sequencing, towards the "small possibility that the results of such a test...may suggest a treatment path." Lake died of the illness on June 1, 2014, just five days before his 50th birthday. Lake is the subject of a documentary called Lakeside – A Year With Jay Lake by Waterloo Productions. The film, which follows Lake's fight against cancer, had a special work-in-progress screening August 30, 2013, at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio. As of 2014 05, it is in post-production and is scheduled to premier at Sasquan in Spokane Washington during the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention on 21, 2015. His posthumously published collection Last Plane to Heaven was honored with the 2015 Endeavour Award.
The City Imperishable
The City Imperishable
• Trial of Flowers (2006) Night Shade Books • Madness of Flowers (2009) Night Shade Books • Reign of Flowers (unpublished) In addition to these three novels there are at least two more stories set in the City Imperishable: • "The Soul Bottles" from the anthology Leviathan 4: Cities (ed. by Forrest Aguirre, Night Shade Books, Nov. 2004) is the first published story of The City Imperishable. • "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable" (2008) in Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (ed. Ekaterina Sedia)
Mainspring universe
Mainspring universe
• Mainspring (June 2007) Tor Books • Escapement (June 2008) Tor Books • Pinion (March 2010) Tor Books In addition to these three novels there are at least two more novellas set in the Mainspring Universe: • "Chain of Fools" (Subterranean, Oct 2008) and • "Chain of Stars" (Subterranean, Oct 2009), loose sequel to "Chain of Fools"
Green universe
Green universe
• Green (June 2009) Tor Books • Endurance (November 2011) • Kalimpura (January 2013) In addition to these three novels there are at least two more stories set in the world of Green: • "A Water Matter" (Tor.com, 2008) • "The Passion of Mother Vajpai" (with Shannon Page) in Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy 2 (ed. by William Schafer, 2011)
Sunspin Universe
Sunspin Universe
• Calamity of So Long a Life (unpublished) • Their Currents Turn Awry (unpublished) • The Whips and Scorns of Time (unpublished) • All Our Sins Remembered (unpublished) • "To Raise a Mutiny Betwixt Ourselves" (The New Space Opera 2, 2009, Harper Voyager) • "Torquing Vacuum" (Clarkesworld Magazine, Feb 2010) • "Permanent Fatal Errors" (Is Anybody Out There?, June 2010, DAW Books) • "To This Their Late Escape" (The Sky That Wraps, 2010, Subterranean Press) • "A Long Walk Home" (Subterranean Press, Winter 2011) • "The Weight of History, the Lightness of the Future" (Spring 2012, Subterranean Press)
Other novels
Other novels
• Rocket Science (2005) Fairwood Press • Death of a Starship (2009) MonkeyBrain Books (Sunspin Universe) • The Specific Gravity of Grief (novella) (2010) Fairwood Press • The Baby Killers (novella) (2010) PS Publishing • Original Destiny, Manifest Sin (forthcoming)
Other works
Other works
METAtropolis: The Wings We Dare Aspire, with Ken Scholes, WordFire Press (May 2014) (978–1614751564)
Edited works
Edited works
• Polyphony • Polyphony 1 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (July 2002) • Polyphony 2 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (April 2003) • Polyphony 3 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (2003) • Polyphony 4 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (2004) • Polyphony 5 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (2005) • Polyphony 6 (with Deborah Layne), Wheatland Press (December 2006) • All-Star Zeppelin Adventure Stories (with David Moles), Wheatland Press/All-Star Stories (2004) • TEL: Stories, Wheatland Press (2005) • Spicy Slipstream Stories (with Nick Mamatas), Lethe Press (2008) • The Exquisite Corpuscle (with Frank Wu), Fairwood Press (2008) • Other Earths (with Nick Gevers), DAW Books (April 2009) • Footprints (with Eric T. Reynolds), Hadley Rille Books (July 2009) • Down In The Ship Mines (2012) in SQ Mag, Edition 4 (ed. Sophie Yorkston)
Short fiction
Short fiction
• Title — Year — First published in — Reprinted in • The stars do not lie — 2012 — Asimov's Science Fiction 36/10&11 (Oct/Nov 2012) • Rock of Ages — 2013 — METAropolis: Green Space (Audible) — The Year's Best Science Fiction, Thirty-First Annual Collection • Permanent Fatal Errors — 2018 — The Final Frontier (Collection, Neil Clarke, Ed.) — Also published as an audiobook (date unknown
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1964
Jay Lake born at Taiwan.
2014
Jay Lake died at Portland.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Taiwan.
Birth place
Portland.
Death place
Collections
• Greetings From Lake Wu, Wheatland Press (2003) • Greetings from Lake Wu; Signed, numbered, luxury edition, Traife Buffet (2006) • Green Grow the Rushes-Oh, Fairwood Press (2003) • American Sorrows, Wheatland Press (2004) • Dogs in the Moonlight, Prime Books (2004) • The River Knows Its Own, Wheatland Press (2007) • The Sky That Wraps, Subterranean Press (2010) • Last Plane to Heaven: The Final Collection, Tor Books (2014)
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Jay Lake: Feathers and Tails. Locus. June 2006.
- 2.Pepitone, Julianne. PayPal: 'Aggressive changes' coming to frozen funds policy. CNNMoney.com. January 21, 2013.
- 3.Kuehner, Michael. Raising Money Through Crowdfunding? Don't Forget to Include It on Your Taxes. The Penny Hoarder. Taylor Media. April 9, 2014.
- 4.Locus Online staff. Swell of Support for Jay Lake. Locus Online. Locus. January 10, 2013.
- 5.Owens, Simon. The legacy of Jay Lake, the novelist who blogged his own death. The Daily Dot. DailyDot.com. June 6, 2014.
- 6.Scalzi, John. A Fundraiser for Jay Lake — With Extra Added Whimsy. Whatever. WordPress. January 10, 2013.
- 7.Joseph E. Lake, Jr. [cancer] The end has come. June 1, 2014.
- 8.Waterloo Productions. Lakeside advanced screening exclusive to LoneStarCon3.
- 9.LoneStarCon 3, The 71st World Science Fiction Convention. Press Release #29 LONESTARCON 3 TO FEATURE AUTHOR JAY LAKE WITH FILM PREMIERE AND SPECIAL EXHIBIT. August 7, 2013.
- 10.IMDb.com. Lakeside (2014). September 9, 2013.
- 11.Locus Online News » Lake Wins 2015 Endeavor Award. www.locusmag.com. 2015-11-24.
- 12.Night Shade Books. Flowers.
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q720669: Jay LakeWikimedia Foundation
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Jay Lake is recorded as having received Astounding Award for Best New Writer and Locus Award for Best Collection.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 15 August 2026.
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