Nan Gerding
(???? -- )
Writer, poet, and fanzine editor.
Beginning with the onset of the 1950s she began working on fanzines. Her first fanzine was Starlanes, subtitled The International Quarterly of Science Fiction Poetry. published with Orma McCormick. The first issue appeared in 1951 and the publication ran for a decade, ending in 1961. Starlanes was dedicated to SF and weird fantasy poetry. Writers who appeared in the fanzine included Joseph Payne Brennan, Philip José Farmer, and Edith Ogutsch.
Gerding released a series of fanzines whose titles played with variations of her name. The first issue of Nandu appeared in December 1952. At least 29 issues were published, the 29th coming out in January 1965. She also published Nandidn't. Two issues of Nangel followed this series; the first in February 1958, and the second in May 1959. That same year she published Nantz. With Lynn Hickman, she published Ob for OMPA.
In 1954 she edited the first issue of Spectator, which was then turned over to other editors. In the summer of the same year, she and Wrai Ballard published DYAD.
The Chigger Patch of Fandom is one of Gerding's best known fanzines, edited with Bob Farnham and Ed Cox. It was also published in the 1950s and included contributions from Robert Bloch, Orma McCormick, and many others.
Gerding also served as co-editor (with Honey Wood) of The National Fantasy Fan in 1954.
The 1951 The National Fantasy Fan Federation fan poll awarded Gerding Best New Fan, and ranked her second in the Best Overall Fan category.
Readers of Starlanes voted her poem "Smoke Vistas" the best poem in the Summer, 1952 issue.
Gerding continued contributing to fanzines into the 1960s. Her photo appears on page 40 of A Wealth of Fable, by Harry Warner, Jr.
| Person | ????— |
| This is a biography page. Please extend it by adding more information about the person, such as fanzines and apazines published, awards, clubs, conventions worked on, GoHships, impact on fandom, external links, anecdotes, etc. See Standards for People and The Naming of Names. |
