Benjamin Rosenbaum
Benjamin Rosenbaum | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 23, 1969 Long Island, New York, US[1] |
Benjamin Rosenbaum (born August 23, 1969) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction writer, game designer, and computer programmer. His stories and novels have been finalists for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the BSFA Award, the World Fantasy Award,[2] and the Otherwise Award.[3] His tabletop role-playing game Dream Apart, together with Avery Alder's Dream Askew, was a finalist for the 2019 ENNIE Awards for Best Game, Best Setting, and Product of the Year.[4] His Jewish historical fantasy interactive novel The Ghost and the Golem, published by Choice of Games[5], was a finalist for the 2024 Nebula Award for Best Game Writing[6] and longlisted for the 2025 Otherwise Award[7].
Career
[edit]Originally born in Long Island, New York[8] and raised in Arlington, Virginia,[9] Rosenbaum received degrees in computer science and religious studies from Brown University.
His past software development positions include designing software for the National Science Foundation, designing software for the D.C. city government, and being one of the founders of Digital Addiction (which created the online game Sanctum).
His first professionally published story appeared in 2001. His work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov's Science Fiction, Harper's Magazine, Nature, and McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. It has also appeared on the websites Strange Horizons and Infinite Matrix, and in various year's best anthologies. The Ant King and Other Stories, a collection of Rosenbaum's short fiction, was published by Small Beer Press.
His first novel was published by Piper Verlag in German under the title Die Auflösung in May 2018.[10] The English version, edited by Liz Gorinsky, was released June 8, 2021 by Erewhon Books as The Unraveling.[11][12] It was Honor Listed for the 2021 Otherwise Award.[13]
His 2018 Jewish historical fantasy game[14] Dream Apart, inspired by and eventually published alongside Avery Alder's Dream Askew, co-created the Belonging Outside Belonging system, inspiring games such as Wanderhome[15] and Balikbayan.[16]
Personal life
[edit]Rosenbaum formerly lived in Washington, D.C. with his wife Esther and children Aviva and Noah.[17] He currently lives near Basel, Switzerland.[18]
Selected stories
[edit]- "True Names" (2008) (online), collaboration with Cory Doctorow, was nominated for a Hugo Award.
- "Anthroptic" (2007) (online) collaboration with visual artist Ethan Ham
- "A Siege of Cranes" (2006) (online) was nominated for a World Fantasy Award.
- "Embracing-the-New" (2004) (online) was nominated for Nebula Award for Best Short Story.
- "Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes', by Benjamin Rosenbaum" (2004) (online) was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
- "Start the Clock" (2004) (online), was written for the book project Exquisite Corpuscle, where each contributor produced something inspired by the previous contributor's piece (they weren't shown the preceding pieces). It was nominated for a Theodore Sturgeon Award.
- "The House Beyond Your Sky" (2006) (online) was nominated for a BSFA Award and a Hugo Award.
He released all seven stories under Creative Commons licenses, in the latter three cases allowing others to modify the work.
References
[edit]- ↑ "Summary Bibliography: Benjamin Rosenbaum". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
- ↑ "God's really weird", Locus, October 2005.
- ↑ "Ryka Aoki and Rivers Solomon win 2021 Otherwise Award! Honor List announced". 17 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ↑ "2019 Nominees and Winners - ENNIE Awards". Retrieved 2024-06-04.
- ↑ "The Ghost and the Golem". Retrieved 2026-03-29.
- ↑ "The Ghost and the Golem - Nebula Awards". Retrieved 2026-02-15.
- ↑ "Announcing the 2025 Otherwise Award winner!". Retrieved 2026-03-29.
- ↑ "Summary Bibliography: Benjamin Rosenbaum". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
- ↑ "The Unraveling". The Unraveling. Retrieved 25 August 2025.
- ↑ "Die Auflösung (in German)". Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ↑ "The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum". Retrieved 2021-04-22.
- ↑ The Unraveling (Amazon page, containing release date). ISBN 164566001X.
- ↑ "Ryka Aoki and Rivers Solomon win 2021 Otherwise Award! Honor List announced". 17 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-03.
- ↑ "Dream Apart Is the Jewish RPG You've Been Waiting For". tabletmag.com. Tablet. 11 June 2018. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
- ↑ "Wanderhome is a Redwall-inspired RPG that arms players with dialogue, not daggers". Polygon. 16 April 2021.
- ↑ Carter, Chase (9 December 2020). "Cyberpunk by Asian Creators game jam spotlights neon-and-chrome tabletop RPGS without the racism". Dicebreaker.
- ↑ "Learning Objects - Our Staff". Archived from the original on 2014-12-10. Retrieved 2014-12-12.
- ↑ "Über Benjamin Rosenbaum (at Piper Verlag, in German)". Retrieved 2018-03-18.
External links
[edit]- Benjamin Rosenbaum's Page, the author's official site. Includes his blog, bibliography, and the texts of a number of his stories.
- Interview excerpt from the October 2005 issue of Locus magazine.
- Benjamin Rosenbaum at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1969 births
- American fantasy writers
- American science fiction writers
- American male short story writers
- Magical realism writers
- American postmodern writers
- Living people
- Brown University alumni
- Jewish American short story writers
- Jewish American novelists
- American male novelists
- Creative Commons-licensed authors
- American expatriates in Switzerland
- 21st-century American Jews
- Writers from Arlington County, Virginia
- Writers from New York City
- Jews from New York City
- Jews from Virginia
- American computer programmers