 The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) are reporting the death of one of their own: Paul O(sborne) Williams, from an aortic dissection, on 2 June 2009. Born in 1935, he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new sf author in 1983.
Williams was the author of nine science fiction novels, including the seven-volume Pelbar Cycle (set in post-apocalyptic Illinois), the two Gorboduc books, and several volumes of haiku, senryu, and tanka. He coined the word "tontoism" to refer to haiku with missing articles ("the", "a", or "an").
He earned a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a former president of the Haiku Society of America and a professor emeritus of English at Principia College.
The Haiku Foundation has this obituary of Williams, along with a brief sampling of his haikus (and they provide the photo of Williams).
The books in Williams's Pelbar Cycle are:
The Breaking of Northwall (1981)
The Ends of the Circle (1981)
The Dome in the Forest (1981)
The Fall of the Shell (1982)
An Ambush of Shadows (1983)
Song of the Axe (1984)
The Sword of Forbearance (1985).
Williams's other science fiction novels were The Gifts of the Gorboduc Vandal (1989) and The Man from Far Cloud (2004).
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