Richard Bleiler has been named the winner of the 2023 Munsey Award. Nominated by the general pulp community, Richard was selected by previous winners of the Lamont, Munsey, and Rusty Awards.
The Munsey is a fine art print created by David Saunders and published by Dan Zimmer of The Illustrated Press. It is presented annually to an individual or organization that has bettered the pulp community. The award was presented by Walker Martin, standing in for last year’s Munsey winner, Rick Lai.
Our 2023 Munsey Award winner, Richard Bleiler, is a bibliographer and researcher in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror, crime, and adventure fiction. In 2002, he was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction for the second edition of Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror. With his father, Everett Bleiler, Richard compiled Science Fiction: The Early Years and Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years, both published by Kent State University Press. His other work includes The Index to Adventure Magazine, The Annotated Index to The Thrill Book, the second edition of Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day, and Reference and Research Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. Richard’s essay, “Forgotten Giant: A Brief History of Adventure Magazine,” originally published in Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy, is considered the finest overview of the classic pulp magazine. He has also written essays on early science fiction, fantasy, and mystery authors for The Dictionary of Literary Biography and other reference works, as well as articles on the writings of Frank Belknap Long and Clark Ashton Smith for Gary Hoppenstand’s Pulp Fiction of the 20s and 30s. Richard is the Collections Librarian at the University of Connecticut.
Congratulations to Richard for this most-deserved award.
Others nominated for our 2023 award included John Betancourt, Gene Christie, John DeWalt, Henry G. Franke III, Chris Kalb, William Patrick Maynard, Gary Phillips, Sheila Vanderbeek, Chuck Welch, Howard Wright, and Dan Zimmer.
Nominations are now being accepted for our 2024 Munsey Award. To make a nomination for this prestigious award, please send a short paragraph or two explaining your reasons for the nomination to PulpFest marketing and programming director Mike Chomko. You can reach Mike at mike@pulpfest.com or via regular mail at 2217 W. Fairview Street, Allentown, PA 18104-6542.
Previous winners of the Lamont, Munsey, or Rusty Award are not eligible for the award. Click here for a list of our previous winners.
The deadline for nominations is June 8, 2024. Please click here for additional details. Thanks for your help.
The Munsey Award was created in 2009 by artist David Saunders, the son of legendary illustrator Norman Saunders. Dan Zimmer of The Illustrated Press produced a limited signed and numbered edition of the award. The PulpFest Organizing Committee is indebted to both David and Dan for their generous support of our community.
