Meet Organizing Board Member: Gary Phillips

Gary was previously a judge for the Omega Sci-Fi Awards and agreed to return as an Organizing Board member for the 2020-2021 season. He works with our other Organizing Board members to recruit judges, conduct outreach, and evaluate Roswell Award and Tomorrow Prize submissions in our second round of judging. Gary’s favorite part of being a Board member is, “being exposed to new voices… new takes on old plots and fresh ideas.”

Gary Phillips was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles (different from Historic South Central LA) and has been a community activist for issues such as police brutality, public safety, and the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He was also a union representative, worked as an outreach director for the Liberty Hill Foundation to fund underserved communities, and as a statewide political director of a political action committee.

In addition to the work he has done to support his community, Gary is also a full-time critically acclaimed writer of 18 novels, 9 comics, and 50 short stories. He writes novels, novellas, graphic novels, short stories, and occasionally television in the sci-fi, horror, and pulp noir genres. Gary has also written on politics and pop culture for the Los Angeles Times, LA Watts Times, Rap Pages, the San Francisco Examiner, and Black Scholar and has edited anthologies such as “Orange County Noir.”

“My passion is devising narratives to bridge entertainment and advance political and social change.”

His first published mystery novel was Violent Spring, set during the aftermath of ‘92 civil unrest, which is inspired by some of his experiences as a community organizer. Some of his sci-fi short stories have included “Grag’s Last Escape” as well as “53 Buick,” a Twilight Zone-esque story.

Gary’s latest and proudest retro-pulp novel is Matthew Henson and the Ice Temple of Harlem, a re-imagining of North Pole explorer Matthew Henson that is set during the Harlem Renaissance. The book also features some sci-fi elements. “Nikola Tesla shows up along with his fabled Death Ray which plays a part in the plot,” he explains.

Gary says the novel, “ranges from gangsters to the fantastic but answers the question, ‘How do you portray these characters—especially a black pulp character — at a time when Jim Crow and very overt racism existed?” Gary enjoys raising such social questions in his writing. “My passion is devising narratives to bridge entertainment and advance political and social change,” he says.

Gary’s top sci-fi recommendations are two Marvel comic book series: 2001, A Space Odyssey and The Eternals by Jack Kirby, who also co-created Captain America, The Fantastic Four, and X-Men. “The narrative was jagged and disjointed in these stories, but dynamic nonetheless as was [Kirby’s] hallmark. …Read them for their high strangeness.”

Gary encourages Roswell Award and Tomorrow Prize participants to stick with their love of writing, no matter the outcome of the competitions. “I’m not a formally trained writer. I didn’t study writing in college, though I have taught in an MFA program. …I remember to this day being devastated when I failed one of my English classes in high school. While I was disheartened, I didn’t lose my love of storytelling.”

“Tell the story you want to tell. Get inside the skin of your characters and see the world as they see it. Know what they want, what makes them tick, and that will go a long way in guiding you along the path of a story.”