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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2003)
(lily 4. 2003 • |M l M tf<3g he writer’s craft requires years of appren ticeship—of learning to put into words what the imagination creates. Every expe rience, every new idea, sets itself some where in the mental computer—and all are fuel for the fire. For David D. Levine, the many trips taken to Milwaukee bookstores with his science fiction-loving father, a professor of computer science at University of Wisconsin, opened dtxirs early to a mind ripe to see possibilities far beyond the mundane. A software engineer in the world of necessi ty, Levines persona in the science fiction genre strays nicely into fantasy. In the past two years his stories have begun to gain more attention with editors and readers, and he has been nom inated for and won some fairly prestigious awards. The Portlander is touted as one of the new writers to watch for, as if he just emerged from the slush pile. For him, though, this has been no sudden hurst onto the scene hut a carefully nurtured process. “This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” he says. “I’ve been focusing a lot of my love and attention on it. And the effort I’ve put into it seems to finally he bearing fruit.” Hard science and combat may pepper Levine’s short stories, hut a tenderness and spir itually significant components emerge as well. His characters’ sexual identities run the known and unknown continuum of possibilities. Take “Nucleon," the short story that won the Irish James White Literary Award. “I know that the main character is gay,” Levine notes. “But you could easily read the story and not realize that.” The piece hinges around an artist who T eatingout eatingout Nucleon family Portland sci-fi w rite r ’s characters go ev e r y w hich w ay by P a t r ic ia L. M a c A o d h a makes “junklets” from things found in a junkyard and the elderly owner he befriends. “That story,” Levine says, “came out bigger than me.” It was not his first published effort but is the one that, in many ways, put him on the map with sci-fi fans. Since then, he has won other honors and received a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. The voting takes place later this summer at the annual WorldCon—the World Science Fiction Society’s convention—in Toronto. L evine, who is bisexual, acknowledges that he initial ly would just assume that “all „. , , i . I, Check out www. bentopress.com to find David D. Levine’s short my characters are bisexual, hut some of them don’t know it Paws,” about “a man coming to terms with his yet." Now he will admit some really are “pretty father’s decision to turn himself into a dog, is exclusively gay or straight.” Then he goes on my take on society’s reaction to transsexuality.” into all kinds of possibilities and combinations. Levine wanted to wait until he had market In “The Tale of the Golden Eagle," for recognition before writing a novel. That btxik instance, a man falls in love with a robot. In is now in progress, and “all the characters have “Gojo,” the main character “is an alien from a some kind of alternative sexuality. One is a species that, like a salmon, has sex only once bisexual-identified polyamorous woman; anoth and then dies,” while “I Hold My Father’s eatingout eatingout eatingout eatingout er is a gay-identified man who, to his surprise, • falls in love with the woman; and the third is a female alien whose kink is gay sex with male humans.” The experiences of Levine’s characters have come close to some of his own realities, but he still hasn’t been able to effectively use his coming-out experience. "That story still needs to be written,” he says, “and I mean to return to it someday when I think I’ve matured more as a writer." Need for work drove Levine into technical writing, which he did for 15 years and which, he says, stifled his abil ity to write creatively. During that time he worked with Oregon Science Fiction Conventions, which produces the annu al OryCon— Portland’s science fiction convention—and sometimes the larger WesterCon. Through his membership in a local science fiction organization, he met his partner, Kate Yule, and together they put out their own ’zine, Bento, and attend about eight conventions a year. Levine often reads at the cons, with a style that recalls his training in the the ater. He regularly draws overflow audi ences, even without the promise of free fiction chocolate to attendees. Architect of imagination and voyager into new worlds of ideas, Levine is well on his way to making the writer’s craft a full-time job. He is very much in the vanguard of ever new and challenging changes in the science fiction and fantasy genre. JH P atricia L. M a c A o d h a is a Portland free-lance writer. E-mail her at patmacM@juno.com. eatingout eatingout Pizza, Salad, Sandwiches, and Oregon Microbrews sold here Restaurant & Lounge Free Delivery (60th-Rivcr, Glisan-Woodsfock) Visit us at www .starkys.com P iti 503 . 230.7980 U a J. 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