In 1968, Frenkel founded The Science Fiction Forum at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, a student-run organization which continues to operate a large lending library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books. He was the publisher of Bluejay Books, an independent trade publisher of the mid-1980s. Bluejay Books published Gardner Dozois's The Year's Best Science Fiction for three years.[3] He also was the packager of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror series edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (for sixteen years) and then Ellen Datlow and Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for five years).
In July 2013, Frenkel left Tor after two complaints about sexual harassment at WisCon, a feministscience fiction convention where he had been a regular attendee and presenter, and (in 1994) a Guest of Honor.[4] Frenkel was subsequently permanently banned from attending the convention, with science fiction editor Michi Trota describing Frenkel as "someone who has been an industry missing stair for decades."[5][6] However, in 2017, he was on the convention committee of Odyssey Con, a different science fiction convention also held in Madison, and scheduled as a presenter, prompting several authors (one of whom claimed to have had unpleasant experiences with Frenkel in the past)[7] to withdraw from the convention.[8]
