# S. T. Joshi

Sunand Tryambak Joshi (born June 22, 1958) is an American literary critic whose work has largely focused on weird and fantastic fiction, especially the life and work of H. P. Lovecraft and associated writers.

## Career

His literary criticism focuses upon the worldviews of authors. His The Weird Tale examines horror and fantasy writing by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Lord Dunsany, M. R. James, Ambrose Bierce, and Lovecraft.

## Personal life

S. T. Joshi was born on June 22, 1958, in Pune, India, to Tryambak M. Joshi and Padmini T. Joshi. When he was four, his family moved to the United States and settled in Indiana. He discovered the work of Lovecraft at age 13 in a public library in Muncie, Indiana. He also read L. Sprague de Camp's biography of Lovecraft, Lovecraft: A Biography, on publication in 1975, and began thereafter to devote himself to Lovecraft. This devotion led him to decline offers from Yale and Harvard so that he could attend Brown University, which is located in Providence, Rhode Island where Lovecraft had lived. He is an atheist.
He lives in Seattle, Washington. Joshi married Leslie Gary Boba on September 1, 2001. They divorced in December 2010.
In August 2014, Joshi opposed the decision to retire and replace Gahan Wilson's bust of Lovecraft as the World Fantasy Award statuette in light of a campaign highlighting Lovecraft's history of racism; Joshi returned his World Fantasy Awards in protest.

## Notable publications
### Books

* Lord Dunsany: A Bibliography (1993) (co-writer: Darrell Schweitzer)
* H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996)
* Sixty Years of Arkham House: A History and Bibliography (Arkham House, 1999) ISBN 9780870541766
* I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft (2010)
* Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012)
* Lord Dunsany: A Comprehensive Bibliography (2013)

### Edited volumes

* Miscellaneous Writings by H. P. Lovecraft (Arkham House, 1995).
* Documents of American Prejudice: An Anthology of Writings on Race from Thomas Jefferson to David Duke (Basic Books, 1999).
* The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 1, 1999).
* Atheism: A Reader (Prometheus Books, 2000).
* The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 2, 2001).
* The Dreams in the Witch House and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft (Penguin Classics No. 3, 2005).
* Searchers after horror. Fedogan & Bremer.
"The Ghost in the Corner" by Lord Dunsany, edited by S. T. Joshi and Martin Andersson Hippocampus Press 2017

## Awards

* Horror Writers Association – Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction 1996 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
* British Fantasy Society – British Fantasy Award for Best Small-Press Publication 1997 H. P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press) – Author
* International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts – IAFA Distinguished Critic Award 2003
* World Fantasy Award – Special Award for Professional Scholarship 2005
* International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction 2005 Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press) – Co-editor
* International Horror Guild – Outstanding Achievement in Horror & Dark Fantasy for Nonfiction 2006 Icons of Horror and the Supernatural (Greenwood Press) – Editor
* World Fantasy Award – Special Award Non-Professional 2013 Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction, Volumes 1 & 2 (PS Publishing) – Author
* S. T. Joshi Endowed Research Fellowship 2013