Silver was born in Hinsdale, Illinois. He is a longtime contributing editor to SF Site and wrote that site's news page from its inception in 2002 until it closed in 2014.
Silver published his first short story, "Les Lettres de Paston", in the final issue of Helix SF.[5] Silver had earlier written a column on alternate history for the magazine. He has continued to publish short stories since, as well as some poetry.
Collections
In 2009 and 2010, he edited the two volume Selected Stories of Lester del Rey for NESFA Press. The first volume is entitled War and Space and appeared in August, 2009.[6] The second volume, Robots and Magic was published in February 2010.[7]
In 1995, he founded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and has served as a judge ever since.[10] He was on the short story jury for the Nebula Award in 2002,[11] and on the novel jury for the Nebula Award in 2003,[12] 2006,[13] and chaired the novel jury in 2008.[14] In 2005, Silver was one of the co-ordinators of the Nebula weekend in Chicago.[15] In 2008, he was appointed SFWA Event Coordinator and has helped run the Nebula Award Weekends in that capacity from 2009 to 2021.[16]
Fanzines
Silver is known as an on-line reviewer and has written several articles for science fiction fanzines, as well as publishing his own annual fanzine Argentus, which was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fanzine in 2008, 2009, and 2010,[2] and won the Chronic Rift Roundtable Award for Best Fanzine in 2009[17] and the monthly APA-zine Plata. He has guest edited five issues of Journey Planet.
Conventions
In addition to his writing and editing activities, Silver is involved in running science fiction conventions. He has chaired Windycon three times,[18] founded Midfan and chaired the first Midwest Construction, and ran programming for Chicon 2000,[19] the Worldcon. From 1998 through 2006 and again from 2008, he sat on the board of directors for ISFiC. He served as a vice chair for Chicon 7 in 2012.
Personal background
In 2000, Silver appeared on Jeopardy![20] winning two days and coming in second on his third day. He won $15,000.[21]
^ abKelly, Mark R. (2009). "Hugo Nominees List". Locus Index to SF Awards. Locus. Archived from the original on September 20, 2011. Retrieved March 21, 2009.