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Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works
Science-fiction & fantasy literature: a critical list with discussions.
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This is a brief discussion of William Kotzwinkle and, of course, of some speculative-fiction books by Kotzwinkle.
This discussion and list does not necessarily include every book by Kotzwinkle: it includes only those books that I both know and like. Just as with the author list itself, omission of a particular item may mean I didn’t think highly enough of the omitted item, or it may simply mean that I have not yet sufficient familiarity with it. (In a very few cases, I have listed some books merely on the strength of my opinion of the author: all such books are clearly marked below, as throughout these lists, with a hash mark (#) before the title so you know what’s what.)
I don’t pretend that this discussion is a deep analysis. My intent is no more than to give you a rough idea of what kinds of tales Kotzwinkle tells, how those tales are usually told, and what makes them and Kotzwinkle worthy; in sum, to help you rank William Kotzwinkle (and the works by Kotzwinkle listed here) on your personal literary “to do” list.
A Few Words About William Kotzwinkle
Regrettably, I have not yet had an opportunity to write an essay on this author, but the “Other Resources” section below will lead you to some information about the “Notable Books” listed farther down this page.
Kotzwinkle is remarkably little known—I once saw a forum posting that assumed the name to be a comic pseudonym—considering that he was the scriptwriter for E.T., has won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (Doctor Rat in 1977) and the National Magazine Award for fiction (twice), and has authored something like four dozen books. Part of the problem may be that many of his books are children’s books, and not of a sort likely to seem like literature to many adults (his leading series stars “Walter, the farting dog”), while not a few others are novelizations of screenplays.
He is about as well-represented on the web as he is well-known, which is to say not much. There is a dedicated site, kotzwinkle.com, which is actually a blog (and which is mis-configured so that it often throws the notorius “no MySQL extension” error, so that I cannot read the blog).
Another major source is Kotzwinkle, William, his entry at the ever-helpful Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Past that, there are:
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