Orson Scott Card

Card (right) signing autographs at New York Comic Con in 2008

Orson Scott Card was born on August 24, 1951, in Richland, Washington.[2] He is the son of Peggy Jane (née Park) and Willard Richards Card, and is the third of six children and the older brother of composer and arranger Arlen Card.[3] Card's family has Mormon pioneer heritage; Brigham Young, one of his great-great-grandfathers, was the second president of the LDS Church and led the Mormon pioneers west to Salt Lake City, where they settled. Charles Ora Card, who founded the first Mormon settlement in Canada, was Card's great-grandfather from his paternal line who married Brigham Young's daughter Zina P. Young Card. Their daughter Zina Young Card Brown married Hugh B. Brown, who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency of the LDS Church.[4]

When Card was one month old, his family moved to San Mateo, California, so Willard Card could begin a sign-painting business. When he was three years old, the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, so his father could finish his bachelor's degree. The family moved to Santa Clara, California, when Card was six; they stayed there for seven years while his father completed his master's degree and worked as a professor at San Jose State College. In school, Card took classes for gifted students but he was more interested in studying music—he played clarinet and French horn. Card read texts that included historical novels by Elswyth Thane and Mark Twain. He credits Tunesmith by Lloyd Biggle Jr. as having a large effect on his life.[5] At age ten, Card wrote his first story, which was about an intelligent child who is assaulted by bullies and sustains brain damage. Card submitted the story to two magazines but it was not published, though Ender's confrontation with Stilson in Ender's Game is based on this story.[6]

In 1964, Card and his family moved to Mesa, Arizona, where he participated in mock debates in junior high school. In 1967, the family moved to Orem, Utah, where his father worked at Brigham Young University (BYU). Card attended BYU's laboratory school, where he took both high school and early college-level classes. At first he intended to major in anthropology but after becoming increasingly more interested in theater, he began script-writing, writing ten original plays and rewriting other students' plays. Most of his plays were based on Mormon history and scriptures; one was science fiction. Card said script-writing developed his writing skills because he could tell when an audience was interested in his scripts by their body language.[6] During his studies as a theater major, he began doctoring scripts, adapting fiction for reader's theater production, and writing one-act and full-length plays, several of which were produced by faculty directors at BYU.[7] Charles W. Whitman, Card's play-writing professor, encouraged his students to write plays with LDS themes.[8] Card studied poetry with Clinton F. Larson at BYU.[9] He also wrote short stories, which were later published together in The Worthing Saga.[10]

Card served in Brazil as a missionary for the LDS Church, beginning in 1971 before he completed his bachelor's degree at BYU.[11][12] Influences from Portuguese and Brazilian Catholicism are evident in his Shadow and Speaker novels. While on his mission, he wrote a play called Stone Tables.[12] He returned from his mission in 1973 and graduated from BYU in 1975, receiving a bachelor's degree with distinction in theater.[13][12] After graduation, he started the Utah Valley Repertory Theatre Company, which for two summers produced plays at "the Castle", a Depression-era outdoor amphitheater.[14] After going into debt with the community theatre's expenses,[15]Card took part-time employment as a proofreader at BYU Press, moving on to full-time employment as a copy editor.[16] In 1981, Card completed his master's degree in English at the University of Utah where he studied with François Camoin, Norman Council, and David Kranes. He began a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame but dropped out to pursue his more lucrative writing projects. At the University of Notre Dame, he was inspired by Professor Ed Vasta's love for his students and teaching.[17][8]

In 1977, Card married Kristine Allen,[18] who is the daughter of Mormon historian James B. Allen.[8] Card and Allen had five children; their son Charles had cerebral palsy and died aged 17; their daughter Erin died the day she was born.[19][20] Card and his wife live in Greensboro, North Carolina; their daughter Emily, along with two other writers, adapted Card's short stories Clap Hands and Sing, Lifeloop, and A Sepulchre of Songs for the stage in Posing as People.[21] Card often played Civilization II; in 2007, he had to stop playing it to focus on writing.[22] Card suffered a mild stroke on January 1, 2011, and was briefly hospitalized. He expected to make a full recovery despite minor impairment.[23][24]

In 1976 Card became an assistant editor at the LDS Church's magazine Ensign and moved to Salt Lake City.[25] While working at Ensign, Card published his first piece of fiction,[26] a short story called Gert Fram, which appeared in the July 1977 issue of Ensign under the pseudonym Byron Walley.[27]^:157 Between 1978 and 1988, Card wrote over 300 half-hour audioplays on LDS Church history, the New Testament, and other subjects for Living Scriptures in Ogden, Utah.[28]

Card started writing science fiction short stories because he felt he could sell short stories in that genre more easily than others.[29] His first short story The Tinker was initially rejected by Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Ben Bova, the editor of Analog, rejected a rewrite of the story but asked Card to submit a science fiction piece.[30] In response, Card wrote the short story Ender's Game, which Ben Bova published in the August 1977 issue of Analog.[31] Card left The Ensign in 1977 and began his career as a freelance writer in 1978.[32][1]^:122 Ben Bova continued to work with Card to publish his stories and his wife Barbara Bova became Card's literary agent, a development that drew criticism of a possible conflict of interest.[33] Nine of Card's science fiction stories, including Malpractice, Kingsmeat, and Happy Head, were published in 1978.[34]

Card modeled Mikal's Songbird on Ender's Game, both of which include a child with special talents who goes through emotional turmoil when adults seek to exploit his ability.[35] Mikal's Songbird was a Nebula Award finalist in 1978 and a Hugo finalist in 1979—both in the "novelette" category.[36][37] Card won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978 for his stories published that year; the award helped Card's stories sell internationally.[38] Unaccompanied Sonata was published in 1979 issue of Omni and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards for a short story.[39][40] Eighteen Card stories were published in 1979.[41]

Card's first published book, "Listen, Mom and Dad...": Young Adults Look Back on Their Upbringing (1977) is about child-rearing. He received advances for the manuscripts of Hot Sleep and A Planet Called Treason, which were published in 1979.[42][43] Card later called his first two novels "amateurish" and rewrote both of them later.[44] A publisher offered to buy a novelization of Mikal's Songbird, which Card accepted; the finished novel is titled Songmaster (1980).[45] Card edited fantasy anthologies Dragons of Light (1980) and Dragons of Darkness (1981), and collected his own short stories in Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1981). In the early 1980s, Card focused on writing longer works, only publishing ten short stories between 1980 and 1985. He published a few non-fiction works that were aimed at an LDS audience; these include a satirical dictionary called Saintspeak, which resulted in him being temporarily banned from publishing in church magazines.[46] Card wrote the fantasy-epic Hart's Hope (1983) and a historical novel, A Woman of Destiny (1984), which was later republished as Saints and won the 1985 award from the Association for Mormon Letters for best novel.[41] He rewrote the narrative of Hot Sleep and published it as The Worthing Chronicle (1983), which replaced Hot Sleep and the short-story collection set in the same universe, Capitol (1979).[17] The recession of the early 1980s made it difficult to get contracts for new books so Card returned to full-time employment as the book editor of Compute! magazine that was based in Greensboro, North Carolina, for nine months in 1983.[47] In October of that year, Tom Doherty offered a contract for Card's proposed Alvin Maker series, which allowed him to return to creative writing full-time.[48]

Card's 1977 novella Ender's Game is about a young boy who undergoes military training for space war. Ender believes he is controlling simulated spaceships but is actually controlling real spaceships. Card expanded the story into a novel with the same title and told the backstory of the adult Ender in Speaker for the Dead. In contrast to the fast-paced Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead is about honesty and maturity.[49] Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the only author (as of 2019) to win both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years.[50][51] According to Card, some members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) resented his receiving of the Nebula award while editing the Nebula Awards Report. Subsequently, Card left the SFWA.[52]

Card continued the series with Xenocide (1991) and Children of the Mind (1996), which focus on Jane, an artificial intelligence that develops self-awareness. These books were considered inferior to their predecessors and were, according to science fiction critic Gary Westfahl, "overly prolonged".[53][51] Card later wrote a spin-off "shadow" series that is told from the point of view of other characters; these novels are Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant and Shadows in Flight, the latter serving as a bridge to a planned final book Shadows Alive, which will also be a sequel to Children of the Mind.[54] Westfahl praised the Shadow series, stating they were "executed with panache and skill".[51] Card wrote other spin-offs: a series of shorter stories, First Meetings in the Enderverse, and novels A War of Gifts,[55] and Ender in Exile.[56]^:197[57] Aaron Johnston and Card conceptualized the stories that make up the prequel to Ender's Game, realizing many of them would work best in novel format but first publishing the comics through Marvel. The Burning Earth and Silent Strike comic series were published in 2011 and 2012.[58][59][60] Card and Johnston co-wrote the novels in the series between 2012 and 2019; these are Earth Unaware, Earth Afire, Earth Awakens, The Swarm, and The Hive. Children of the Fleet is the first novel in a new sequel series, called Fleet School.[61][62][60]

Between Speaker for the Dead and Xenocide, Card wrote twelve other books, including the short story collections Cardography (1987), The Folk of the Fringe (1989), and the omnibus Maps in a Mirror (1990). He wrote the first three books in The Tales of Alvin Maker series, a fantasy retelling of the Joseph Smith story:[63] Seventh Son, Red Prophet, and Prentice Alvin.[64] He also wrote Wyrms (1987), a novel about colonizing a planet, and revised A Planet Called Treason, which was published as Treason.[64] He also novelized James Cameron's film The Abyss.[65][66]

The novella Eye for Eye was republished with another novella by Tor and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1988.[67][68] Between 1987 and 1989, Card edited and published a short science fiction review magazine called Short Form.[46][69] He also wrote Characters & Viewpoint (1988) and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (1990).[64] Card also offered advice about writing in an interview in Leading Edge #23 in 1991.[70] He wrote the script for an updated Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1988.[71]

The Homecoming Saga is a science-fiction adaptation of The Book of Mormon.[72] The series' volumes; The Memory of Earth, The Call of Earth, The Ships of Earth, Earthfall, and Earthborn were published between 1992 and 1995.[73] Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) examines time travel and Christopher Columbus.[74]^:362 Card collaborated with Star Wars artist Doug Chiang on Robota[75] and with Kathryn H. Kidd on Lovelock.[76] Lost Boys (1992) is a horror story with a semi-autobiographical background.[77] Treasure Box (1996) and Homebody (1998) represent Card's foray in horror. Enchantment (1999) is a fantasy novel based on the Russian version of Sleeping Beauty.[78][79]

Card's The Women of Genesis series explores the lives of the women in the Bible and includes Sarah (2000), Rebekah (2002), and Rachel and Leah (2004).[80] Card wrote three novellas in the 2000s; Space Boy (2007) is a children's story, Hamlet's Father (2008) is a retelling of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Stonefather (2008) is the first story set in the Mithermages universe.[81][82][83] Card wrote two young-adult fantasy trilogies in the 2010s. Mithermages is about a teenager growing up on a magical estate in rural Virginia; it includes The Lost Gate (2011), The Gate Thief (2013), and Gatefather (2015).[61][84] The Pathfinder trilogy consists of Pathfinder (2010), Ruins (2012), and Visitors (2014), and follows a young man who can change the past.[85][61] Card has also written several urban fantasies, including Magic Street (2005) and Lost and Found (2019), both of which are about teenagers with special powers.[86][87]

Card wrote the Christmas novel Zanna's Gift (2004), which was originally published under a pseudonym.[88] A Town Divided by Christmas and a "Hallmark Christmas movie in prose" were published in 2018.[89] Invasive Procedures (2007), a medical thriller co-written with Aaron Johnston, is based on a screenplay Johnston wrote, which is based on Card's novel Malpractice.[90]

In the 1990s, Card contributed dialogue to the point-and-click adventure video games The Secret of Monkey Island, The Dig, and NeoHunter, an early first-person shooter.[22][91] Card and Cameron Dayton wrote the dialogue and screenplay for the video game Advent Rising.[92][93] Card collaborated on the video game Shadow Complex, which is a prequel to the events in his novels Empire and Hidden Empire, which are about a near-future civil war in the United States[94][95] that occurs after civilians resist a left-wing coup in the White House.[51]

Card has written scripts for the two-volume comic-book series Ultimate Iron Man.[96] Card collaborated with his daughters Emily and Zina on the graphic novel Laddertop.[97][98] Card also collaborated with Aaron Johnston to write a series of six Dragon Age comics.[99]

In 2008, Card announced Ender's Game would be made into a movie. He insisted on retaining some creative control, which delayed the project.[100][101] The film was made several years later, and released in 2013, with Asa Butterfield in the title role and Gavin Hood directing.[102][103] Card served as co-producer for the film; although he is credited as a writer, his scripts were not used but they served as concept templates for the screenplay.[104][105] In 2017, he wrote, produced, and co-created a television series called Extinct for BYU TV that ran for one season before it was canceled.[106][107]

During his childhood, Card read widely. His favorite book was Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper and he read his family's World Book Encyclopedia in its entirety. At age ten, he read science fiction short stories, including Poul Anderson's "Call Me Joe" and Lloyd Biggle Jr.'s lesser-known novel "Tunesmith".[5][108] He also read works by Andre Norton[33] and science-fiction anthologies edited by Groff Conklin. Card read children's classics and popular novels, ranging from the Nancy Drew series to Little Women, and the war histories Army of the Potomac and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.[109] He also read The Bounty Trilogy.[33] The Chronicles of Narnia was a significant influence on Card, who dedicated A Planet Called Treason to "Dale and Maria who made me read the Chronicles of Narnia".[110] As a college student, Card read more science fiction including works by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and J.R.R. Tolkien. After his missionary work ended, he read works by Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, Arthur C. Clark, Robert A. Heinlein, and Larry Niven, all of whom he considers influenced him.[111]

Card was also influenced by literary classics by authors including Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Donne, Alexander Pope, A. E. Housman, Jane Austen, Margaret Mitchell, and Conrad Richter.[111][112][113] He also read works by Ayn Rand, John Hersey, James Clavell, Gore Vidal, Mary Renault, and William Goldman.[33] Spenser's poetry inspired the original "Prentic Alvin and the No-Good Plow" which won the Utah Fine Arts competition.[114][115] Card stated his writing improved after teaching writing workshops with Jay Wentworth and from Algis Budrys's workshops at Writers of the Future.[8]

Card's membership of the LDS Church has been an important influence on his writing, though he initially tried to keep his religious beliefs separate from his fiction.[116] [117] Reid stated Card's religious background is evident in his frequent messiah protagonists and the "moral seriousness" in his works.[118][119] Card's science-fiction books do not reference the LDS religion directly but "offer careful readers insights that are compelling and moving in their religious intensity".[120] Non-LDS readers of A Planet Called Treason did not remark on religious themes, however, LDS reviewer Sandy Straubhaar disliked the novel's explicit violence and sex, and stated LDS connections were "gratuitous".[120] Dick Butler criticized A Planet Called Treason for its lack of Gospel themes and ideas, and two other LDS reviewers defended Card.[121] According to Collings, knowledge of Mormon theology is vital to completely understanding Card's works, stating the life stages of the "piggies" in Speaker for the Dead correspond to phases of life in the LDS's plan of salvation.[122] Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead deal with religious themes common in LDS theology but without many surface references to the religion.[123] The Alvin Maker series does not try to explain Mormon history but uses it to examine his characters' relationships with God.[124]

Card's Homecoming Saga is a dramatization of Book of Mormon. Eugene England called the first five novels "good literature". Card received criticism from members of the LDS church for "plagiarizing" the Book of Mormon and using it irreverently. He defended his choices and said speculative fiction is the genre best suited to exploring theological and moral issues.[125] While women are not prominent in the Book of Mormon, Card makes them prominent in his retelling.[126] One non-LDS critic described the saga as "readable" but lacking in new ideas.[127] Unaware of its relation to the Book of Mormon, another critic said it is similar to the Bible.[128]

Because Card began his writing career in screenplays, his early work is accessible, fast-paced, and has good characters but is stylistically unremarkable. His tone has been described as emotionless or conversely, as nonjudgmental, leaving readers to come to their own conclusions about how to feel about a story.[129] Though Card was initially classified as a hard science fiction writer for publishing in Analog,[130] his science fiction focuses more on his characters than on the details of future technology.[129] One critic said Card is poor at characterization, stating the characters Peter and Valentine in Ender's Game are "totally unbelievable".[131] Many of Card's early stories are unusually original.[132] The graphic violence in his early fiction was controversial; frequent appearances of naked men and boys have raised "questions about homoerotic imagery" according to Westfahl.[133] Collings, a critic who acknowledges his "unabashed appreciation" of Card,[134] states the early stories are "essential steps in the development of Card's fiction".[135] Card uses a technique common in pulp fiction when he refers to characters by a quirk of their appearance or personality.[51] Card's fantasy stories also use tropes that are common to fantasy.[136]

Card cites the Book of Mormon as an important influence on his writing; his habit of beginning sentences with conjunctions comes from the book.[137] Literary devices in Hot Sleep parallel those of the Book of Mormon.[138] Collings said Hot Sleep's mimicry of Book of Mormon language makes it an "inherently" Mormon novel. Card combined several Worthing stories and revised Hot Sleep to create The Worthing Chronicle, which does not mirror the language of the Book of Mormon as much as Hot Sleep does.[139]

Card describes himself as a political liberal[162] and a moral conservative.[163] Card's ideals concerning society and foundational themes within his fiction are described as communitarian.[162][164][165] In 2000, Card said he believed government has a duty to protect citizens from capitalism.[166]

Card is a vocal supporter of the U.S.'s War on Terror;[167][168] according to Salon, he is close to neoconservative on foreign policy issues.[169] Card became a member of the U.S. Democratic Party in 1976 and decided he was a Moynihan Democrat. As of 2011, he continued to call himself a Democrat.[170] Card supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008[171] and supported Newt Gingrich in 2012.[172]

In an August 2013 essay Card presented as an experiment in fiction-writing called "The Game of Unlikely Events",[173] Card described an alternative future in which President Barack Obama ruled as a "Hitler- or Stalin-style dictator" with his own national police force of young unemployed men; Obama and his wife Michelle would have amended the U.S. Constitution to allow presidents to remain in power for life, as in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and Hitler's Germany.[174][175] Card's essay drew extensive criticism, especially for its allusions to Obama's race and its reference to "urban gangs".[176][177][178]

Card has publicly declared his support of laws against homosexual activity and same-sex marriage.[169][179] Card's 1990 essay "A Changed Man: The Hypocrites of Homosexuality" was first published in Sunstone and republished in his collection of non-fiction essays, A Storyteller in Zion.[180] In the essay, he wrote in favor of laws against homosexual behavior to discourage the acceptance of homosexual people. He said laws against homosexual acts would encourage communities to trust the government to support traditional "marriage and family relationships."[181] In May 2013, Card wrote that since 2003, when the US Supreme Court had ruled those laws unconstitutional, he has "no interest in criminalizing homosexual acts".[182] Responding to public criticism of the 1990 essay, Card stated since he received criticism for being both homophobic and for "being too supportive of homosexuality", he considered himself as taking a middle way "which condemns the sin but loves the sinner".[183]

Card has stated there is no need to legalize same-sex marriage.[184] In a 2008 opinion piece in the Deseret News he wrote relationships between same-sex couples would always be different from those between opposite-sex couples.[183] In 2012, Card supported North Carolina Amendment 1, a ballot measure to outlaw same-sex marriage in North Carolina, saying the legalization of gay marriage was a slippery slope upon which the political left would make it "illegal to teach traditional values in the schools".[185] In 2009, Card joined the board of directors of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that campaigns against same-sex marriage.[169] Card resigned from the board in mid-2013.[186] In July 2013, one week after the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in two cases that were widely interpreted as favoring recognition of same-sex marriages, Card published in Entertainment Weekly a statement saying the same-sex marriage issue is moot because of the Supreme Court's decision on DOMA.[187]

Card has also said paraphilia and homosexuality are linked. In 2004, he said it is a "myth that homosexuals are 'born that way' ", saying "if there is a genetic component to homosexuality, an entire range of environmental influences are also involved". He also said "the dark secret of homosexual society" is how often people "entered into that world through disturbing seduction or rape or molestation or abuse".[186][169][184] Card's 2008 novella Hamlet's Father re-imagines the backstory of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the novella, Hamlet's friends were sexually abused as children by his pedophilic father and subsequently identify as homosexual adults. The novella prompted public outcry and its publishers were inundated with complaints.[188][189] Trade journal Publishers Weekly criticized Card's work, stating its main purpose was to attempt to link homosexuality with pedophilia.[190] Card said he did not link homosexuality with pedophilia, stating King Hamlet is a pedophile rather than a homosexual.[189]

Card's views have had professional repercussions. In 2013, he was selected as a guest author for DC Comics's new Adventures of Superman comic book series,[191] but controversy over his views on homosexuality led illustrator Chris Sprouse to leave the project. An online petition to drop the story received over 16,000 signatures and DC Comics put Card's story on hold indefinitely.[192][193] A few months later, an LGBT non-profit organization[194] Geeks OUT proposed a boycott of the movie adaptation of Ender's Game, calling Card's views "anti-gay"[195][196] and causing the movie studio Lionsgate to publicly distance itself from Card's opinions.[197] The boycott received criticism because it targeted the behavior of an individual rather than that of a company.[198]