Jeffrey Ford (born November 8, 1955 in West Islip, New York) is an American writer in the Fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including Fantasy, Science Fiction and Mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales. He is a graduate of the Binghamton University, where he studied with the novelist John Gardner.
He lives in southern New Jersey and teaches writing and literature at Brookdale Community College in Monmouth County. He has also taught at the summer Clarion Workshop for science fiction and fantasy writers in Michigan. He has contributed stories, essays and interviews to various magazines and e-magazines including MSS, Puerto Del Sol, Northwest Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Argosy, Event Horizon, Infinity Plus, Black Gate and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
He published his first story, "The Casket", in Gardner's literary magazine MSS in 1981 and his first full-length novel, Vanitas, in 1988.
His stories and novels have been nominated multiple times for the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the International Horror Guild Award, the Fountain Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award.
The Physiognomy (World Fantasy Award)
The Fantasy Writer's Assistant (World Fantasy Award)
"Creation" (World Fantasy Award)
"Botch Town" (2007) (World Fantasy Award)
"The Empire of Ice Cream" (2004) (Nebula Award for Best Novellette)
"Exo-Skeleton Town" (2005) (Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for best translated story)
"The Annals of Eelin-Ok" (2005) ( The Fountain Award for excellence in the short story)
The Girl in the Glass (2005) (Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original)