Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced February 9, 1999 that Philip Klass, who writes under the pseudonym William Tenn, has been selected as SFWA's 1999 Author Emeritus.

SFWA inaugurated the Author Emeritus program in 1995 as a way to recognize and appreciate senior writers in the genres of science fiction and fantasy who have made significant contributions to our field but who are no longer active or whose excellent work may no longer be as widely known as it once was. SFWA also awards a Grand Master, bestowed only on those whose body of work has had a profound and extraordinary impact on the field.

Each Author Emeritus receives an all-expense paid trip to the Nebula Awards, and is made a lifetime member of the organization. Previous Authors Emeriti include Emil Petaja (1995), Wilson "Bob" Tucker (1996), Judith Merril (1997) and Nelson Slade Bond (1998). During the Nebula Awards ceremony, it has become traditional for the Author Emeritus to hand out the first Nebula Award of the evening, the award for Best Short Story. The Nebula Awards ceremony will occur this year in Pittsburgh on May 1st.

Writing under the name William Tenn, Philip Klass published his first story in 1946, in Astounding Science Fiction, then the premier magazine of the field. He wrote many short stories, often for Galaxy magazine, throughout the late 40s and early 50s. Among his best-known stories is the chilling "Down Among the Dead Men" (1954), dealing with the use of reanimated corpses as front-line troops in a savage interstellar war. Tenn's sole full-length novel, Of Men and Monsters, serialized in Galaxy in 1963 and published in book form in 1968, deals with an alien-occupied Earth in which humans live, mouse-like, in the walls of the aliens' dwellings.

Tenn has been known throughout his career for mordantly satirical work, yet his non-comedic work, too, is of the finest quill. Despite the high merits of his oeuvre, Tenn has never been honored with one of the field's major awards, and SFWA is gratified to recognize his work by naming him Author Emeritus.

-- press release by Greg Costikyan, SFWA Publicity Committee