Rick Wilber is the son of a former Red Sox catcher and so, no surprise, often has elements of baseball in his stories. Coode Street Station called him "science fiction's dean of baseball stories." He is the father of an adult son with Down syndrome son and frequently has characters with Down Syndrome in his stories. A few novels, a memoir, three collections, several college textbooks on writing, More than one-hundred works of short fiction, poetry or essays. He's been Sidewise Award winner and has been a finalist several other times. He's been an Asimov's Readers' Award winner for the novelette "The Hind," which he co-authored with Kevin J. Anderson. That story also won the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Writing. He is an visiting assistant professor in the Graduate Program in Creative Writing-Genre Fiction at Western Colorado University where he is also thesis coordinator. He is the director, co-founder and co-judge (with Sheila Williams) of the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy, now accepting submissions for its 30th anniversary awards.