Orson Scott Card was born on August 24, 1951, and is an American writer best known for his science fiction books. As of 2024, he is the only person to have won both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in one year, for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its follow-up book Speaker for the Dead (1986). A movie version of Ender's Game, which Card helped produce, was released in 2013. He also wrote the Tales of Alvin Maker series, which won a Locus Fantasy Award. His stories often include characters with special abilities who face difficult decisions with serious consequences. In addition to fiction, Card has written articles about politics, religion, and society. His public views on homosexuality have caused debate and criticism.
Card is a great-great-grandchild of Brigham Young. He was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While studying at Brigham Young University, his plays were performed on stage. He worked as a missionary in Brazil for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and led a community theater for two summers. Between 1978 and 1979, he published 27 short stories and won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and began writing novels in science fiction, fantasy, nonfiction, and historical fiction in 1979. He has written over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University. He has written two books about creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has also helped train many successful writers through his "literary boot camps."
Life
Orson Scott Card was born on August 24, 1951, in Richland, Washington. He was born to Peggy Jane (née Park) and Willard Richards Card. He is the third of six children and the older brother of Arlen Card, a composer and arranger. His family has a history of being part of the Mormon community. His ancestors include Brigham Young, Charles Ora Card, Zina P. Young Card, Zina Young Card Brown, and Hugh B. Brown.
When Card was one month old, his family moved to San Mateo, California, so his father could start a sign-painting business. At age three, the family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, so his father could finish his bachelor’s degree. When Card was six, the family moved to Santa Clara, California, where they stayed 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 preferred studying music. He played the clarinet and French horn. He read many books, including historical fiction, nonfiction, and literary classics. At age ten, he wrote his first story about an intelligent child who is attacked by bullies and gets hurt in the brain. The scene in Ender’s Game where Ender confronts Stilson was inspired by this story.
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 high school and early college-level classes and graduated in one year. When he began college, he planned to study archaeology, but he became more interested in theater. He started writing plays, creating ten original plays and rewriting others. Most of his plays were based on Mormon history and scriptures; one was science fiction. By observing an audience’s body language, he could tell if they were interested in his scripts. While studying theater, he edited scripts, adapted fiction for reader’s theater, and wrote one-act and full-length plays. Some of his plays were produced by faculty directors at BYU. His play-writing professor, Charles W. Whitman, encouraged students to write plays with LDS themes. Card also studied poetry with Clinton F. Larson at BYU and wrote short stories, which were later published in The Worthing Saga.
Before graduating from BYU, Card served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Brazil starting in 1971. During his mission, he wrote a play called Stone Tables. He returned from his mission in 1973 and graduated from BYU in 1975, earning a bachelor’s degree with distinction in theater. After graduation, he started the Utah Valley Repertory Theatre Company, which produced plays for two summers at “the Castle,” a Depression-era outdoor amphitheater. After going into debt from the theater’s expenses, Card worked part-time as a proofreader at BYU Press and later became a full-time copy editor. In 1981, he completed his master’s degree in English at the University of Utah, where he studied with François Camoin and Norman Council. He began a doctoral program at the University of Notre Dame but left to focus on his writing career.
In 1977, Card married Kristine Allen, the daughter of Mormon historian James B. Allen. They met when Kristine was in the chorus of a roadshow Card directed before his mission. They began dating after his mission, and Card was impressed by her intellectual abilities.
During their marriage, they had five children. Their son Charles had cerebral palsy and died at age 17. Their daughter Erin died the day she was born. Card’s short story Lost Boys is based on his life but changes some details, including the death of a fictional child. One of his workshop readers, Karen Fowler, said Card pretended to experience the grief of a parent who lost a child. Card later realized the story reflected his own grief and struggle with accepting Charles’s disability. He rarely discusses Charles and Erin because his grief has not lessened over time.
Card and his wife currently 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. In 2011, Card suffered a mild stroke on January 1 but made a full recovery.
Works
In 1976, Card became an assistant editor for the Ensign magazine produced by the LDS Church and moved to Salt Lake City. While working at Ensign, Card published his first piece of fiction, a short story called Gert Fram, which appeared in the July 1977 issue of Ensign under the pseudonym Byron Walley. 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.
Card started writing science fiction short stories because he felt he could sell short stories in that genre more easily than others. 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. In response, Card wrote the short story Ender's Game, which Ben Bova published in the August 1977 issue of Analog. Card left Ensign in 1977 and began his career as a freelance writer in 1978. Ben Bova continued to work with Card to publish his stories, and Bova's wife, Barbara Bova, became Card's literary agent, a development that drew criticism for a possible conflict of interest. Nine of Card's science fiction stories, including Malpractice, Kingsmeat, and Happy Head, were published in 1978.
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. Mikal's Songbird was a Nebula Award finalist in 1978 and a Hugo finalist in 1979—both in the "novelette" category. 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. Unaccompanied Sonata was published in the 1979 issue of Omni and was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards for a short story. Eighteen Card stories were published in 1979.
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. Card later called his first two novels "amateurish" and rewrote both of them later. A publisher offered to buy a novelization of Mikal's Songbird, which Card accepted; the finished novel is titled Songmaster (1980). 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. 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. 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). 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 based in Greensboro, North Carolina, for nine months in 1983. 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.
Card's 1977 novella Ender's Game is about a young boy who undergoes military training for space war. 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. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead were both awarded the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the first author to win both of science fiction's top prizes in consecutive years. 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. Card attended many science fiction conventions in the late 1980s. He held several "Secular Humanist Revival Meetings" at the conventions, satirizing Evangelical revival meetings.
Card continued to write short stories and columns and published two short story collections: Cardography (1987) and The Folk of the Fringe (1989). The novella Eye for Eye was republished with another novella by Tor and won the Hugo Award for best novella in 1988. Between 1987 and 1989, Card edited and published a short science fiction review magazine
Influences and style
During his childhood, Card read many books. He read children's classics and popular novels. His favorite book was The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, and he read all of his family's World Book Encyclopedia. He also read science fiction stories from anthologies and novels. He says Tunesmith by Lloyd Biggle Jr. had a big impact on his life. Card often mentions works by Robert A. Heinlein and J. R. R. Tolkien as sources of inspiration. He credits C. S. Lewis's books, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, as influences that shaped his life and career. In 2014, Card said Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury were conscious influences on his writing, along with Early Modern English from the King James Version of the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. As a college student, Card read classic literature, science fiction, and fantasy. Poetry by Spenser inspired the original Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow. Influences from Portuguese and Brazilian Catholicism, which Card learned about during his LDS mission to Brazil, appear in his Shadow and Speaker novels. Card said his writing improved after teaching writing workshops with Jay Wentworth and from Algis Budrys's workshops at Writers of the Future.
Card's membership in the LDS Church has influenced his writing, though he tried to keep his religious beliefs separate from his fiction. Susanne Reid, a science fiction scholar, said Card's religious background is visible in his frequent messiah protagonists and the "moral seriousness" in his works. His science-fiction books do not reference the LDS religion directly but "offer careful readers insights that are compelling and moving in their religious intensity." Non-LDS readers of A Planet Called Treason did not notice religious themes, but LDS reviewer Sandy Straubhaar disliked the novel's explicit violence and sex and said LDS connections were "gratuitous." Dick Butler criticized A Planet Called Treason for its lack of Gospel themes, while two other LDS reviewers defended Card. Michael Collings, a critic who admires Card's work, said knowledge of Mormon theology is important to fully understand Card's works, noting that the life stages of the "piggies" in Speaker for the Dead match phases of life in the LDS plan of salvation. In an article in Sunstone, Christopher C. Smith also noticed this parallel, stating the "piggies" procreate "more or less eternally" in their final stage. Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead explore religious themes common in LDS theology without many direct references to the religion. The Alvin Maker series does not explain Mormon history but uses it to examine characters' relationships with God. Card said his church membership influences his communitarian values, especially making personal sacrifices for the good of a community. This theme appears in his work.
Card's Homecoming Saga is a dramatization of the Book of Mormon. Eugene England called the first five novels "good literature." Card received criticism from LDS members for "plagiarizing" the Book of Mormon and using it irreverently. He defended his choices, saying speculative fiction is best for exploring theological and moral issues. In the Homecoming Saga, Card imagines backstories and explanations for "anomalies" in the Book of Mormon, making the fictional work function as a work of Mormon apologetics. While women are not prominent in the Book of Mormon, Card makes them prominent in his retelling. One non-LDS critic said the saga is "readable" but lacks new ideas. Another critic, unaware of its connection to the Book of Mormon, said it is similar to the Bible.
Because Card began his writing career in screenplays, his early work is considered accessible and fast-paced with good characters but stylistically unremarkable. Richard Bleiler, a biographer, said some critics described his tone as emotionless or nonjudgmental, leaving readers to form their own conclusions about a story. Though Card was initially classified as a hard science fiction writer for publishing in Analog, his science fiction focuses more on characters than on future technology. One critic said Card is poor at characterization, calling Peter and Valentine in Ender's Game "totally unbelievable." While some of Card's early stories were formulaic, Westfahl praised many as showing "conspicuous originality." The graphic violence in his early fiction was controversial; frequent appearances of naked men and boys raised "questions about homoerotic imagery," according to Westfahl. Collings said the early stories are "essential steps in the development of Card's fiction." Card uses a technique common in pulp fiction when he refers to characters by a quirk of their appearance or personality. His fantasy stories also use tropes common to fantasy.
Card cites the Book of Mormon as an important influence on his writing; his habit of beginning sentences with conjunctions comes from the book. Literary devices in Hot Sleep parallel those of the Book of Mormon. 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.
Themes in his works
One theme in Card's stories is a very smart child who feels alone but has special abilities that help their community. These characters often grow through challenges and hard work. Many of Card's main characters are young people who think deeply about their actions. It is unusual in Card's work for children and adults to work together. His characters feel real and must take on responsibilities, sometimes even making difficult choices that involve giving up something important for the good of their society. These choices are hard because no option is clearly better. The characters have special abilities that can be both helpful and hard to manage. These characters often feel closer to adults than to other children and, as they grow older, may help other smart young people. Alvin Maker is an example of this pattern; his magical powers help him save his people.
According to Collings, Card's main characters are often lonely and act as important leaders who make tough decisions. Problems in families and communities happen when people are not accepted or when groups do not work together. Sometimes, groups try to harm each other, but understanding can help end the conflict. The main characters often make choices that save people. In The Porcelain Salamander, a girl is helped by a magical salamander, which gives her the ability to move but also makes her take on some traits of the salamander. In Kingsmeat, a character named the Shepherd removes parts of humans to save them from being eaten by aliens. This act is compared to the pain of repentance. Collings said part of this story could be a summary of Card's work: a character must decide whether to become a hero, a prophet, or a martyr, like Ender Wiggin.
The original story Ender's Game is similar to Heinlein's books because it follows a young person with special talents who is guided by a strict teacher. The story raises questions about war, how the body and mind work, and the ethics of studying other cultures. Though Card called Happy Head (1978) embarrassing, it predicted ideas found in cyberpunk stories, such as a judge who can experience memories of others. Both A Thousand Deaths (1978) and Unaccompanied Sonata (1979) have characters who fight against unfair societies.
In a 2013 essay titled "Unlikely Events," Card imagined a future where President Barack Obama ruled as a dictator with a special police force. He also imagined Obama and his wife changing the U.S. Constitution to allow presidents to stay in power forever, like in some other countries. Card suggested Obama's success was because he was a Black man who spoke like a white person. This essay was criticized for linking Obama's race to his leadership and for mentioning urban gangs. A journalist later highlighted the essay in a list about racism.
Empire (2006) is a book about a war between groups with different political views in the United States. It was shortlisted for the Prometheus Award, which honors libertarian ideas. A review said the book's political messages overshadowed the story and characters. Another review noted Card's conservative ideas influenced the book. A writer criticized Card for pretending to be neutral while supporting conservative views. In an interview, Card said he writes without a specific political goal.
In Card's stories, some characters who are homosexual appear in situations that critics say have negative messages about homosexuality. In Songmaster, a man falls in love with a 15-year-old boy in a society that accepts such relationships. Their relationship has unsettling effects on the boy. Card said he did not mean to show homosexual relationships as beautiful. In the Homecoming Saga, a character named Zdorab is gay but marries and has children for the good of society. He remains gay but chooses to have children. A writer defended Zdorab, saying Card did not show homosexuality as something that can be changed. However, Card also wrote about a character who chooses to hide his homosexuality.
In Card's 2008 novella Hamlet's Father, the story reimagines Shakespeare's Hamlet. In this version, Hamlet's friends were sexually abused as children by his father, who is a pedophile. The novella caused controversy, and its publishers received many complaints. A review said the book tried to connect homosexuality with pedophilia. Card responded that his book did not link the two, explaining that his character was a pedophile who was not attracted to adults.
Personal views
Card joined the U.S. Democratic Party in 1976 and has called himself a Moynihan or Blue Dog Democrat, including in 2020. He supported Republican presidential candidate John McCain in 2008 and Newt Gingrich in 2012. In 2016, he used the phrase "hold your nose, vote Trump" and voted for Donald Trump. According to Salon, Card's views are similar to neoconservative ideas, and he has described himself as a moral conservative. He supported the U.S. war on terror. In a 2020 interview with Ben Shapiro, Card said he is not a conservative because his beliefs differ from typical conservative ideas, such as supporting liberal immigration laws, gun control, and ending the death penalty. In 2000, he said he believed government should protect people from the negative effects of capitalism.
Card has supported laws that prohibit homosexual activity and same-sex marriage. His 1990 essay, "A Changed Man: The Hypocrites of Homosexuality," was first published in Sunstone and later included in his book A Storyteller in Zion. In the essay, he argued that laws against homosexual behavior should not be enforced without reason but should be used to send a message to those who openly break societal rules. However, in an introduction to a later reprint of the essay, he said he no longer supports criminalizing homosexual acts since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional in 2003. In a 2004 column, he questioned whether homosexuality is entirely genetic, suggesting that environmental factors, such as abuse, might also play a role.
Card believed same-sex marriage should not be legalized and opposed efforts to do so. In 2008, he wrote in the Deseret News (a newspaper linked to the LDS Church) that same-sex relationships are different from opposite-sex relationships and warned that legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to heterosexual married people opposing the government. In 2012, he supported North Carolina Amendment 1, a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, claiming it would lead to the left banning traditional values in schools. In 2009, he joined the board of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that opposes same-sex marriage, and left the board in 2013. In July 2013, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, he said the issue was no longer relevant due to the court's decisions.
Card's views caused professional consequences. In 2013, he was chosen as a guest author for DC Comics' Adventures of Superman comic series, but controversy over his views on homosexuality led illustrator Chris Sprouse to leave the project. An online petition to cancel the story received over 16,000 signatures, and DC Comics paused the project indefinitely. Later that year, an LGBT group called Geeks OUT proposed a boycott of the movie Ender's Game, criticizing Card's views as "anti-gay," which caused the movie studio Lionsgate to distance itself from his opinions.
Awards and legacy
In 1992, Card received the Edward E. Smith Memorial Award. In 2008, he was honored with the ALA Margaret Edwards Award, which celebrates one writer and their body of work for "important and long-lasting contributions to young adult literature." This award was given for his writing for teenagers, and a group of librarians who work with young adults selected his work. Card mentioned he was unsure if his work was appropriate for the award because it was not marketed as "young adult." In the same year, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Mormon Writers at the Whitney Awards. In 2002, the book Shadow of the Hegemon was listed as one of the ALA Best Books for Young Adults.
The Harold B. Lee Library has collected the Orson Scott Card papers, which include his writings, notes, and letters. This collection was officially opened in 2007. Authors such as Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have stated that Card's work greatly influenced their writing. Additionally, Card's work inspired Lindsay Ellis's novel Axiom's End.
Other activities
Since 1994, Card has worked as a judge for Writers of the Future, a contest for science fiction and fantasy stories written by amateur authors. In late 2005, Card started Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show, an online magazine that publishes fantasy and science fiction stories. In 2005, Card was given a permanent position as "distinguished professor" at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Virginia, a small college that focuses on liberal arts. Card has been a member of the boards of several groups, including public television station UNC-TV (2013–present) and the National Organization for Marriage (2009–2013).
Card taught a class on writing novels at Pepperdine University, which was supported by Michael Collings. Later, Card created his own writing courses called "Uncle Orson's Writing Course" and "literary boot camp." Writers such as Eric James Stone, Jamie Ford, Brian McClellan, Mette Ivie Harrison, and John Brown have taken part in Card's literary boot camp. Luc Reid, who started the Codex Writers Group, also attended one of these writing camps. Card has been a Special Guest, Literary Guest of Honor, or Keynote Speaker at the Life, the Universe, & Everything professional science fiction and fantasy arts symposium at least six times: in 1983, 1986, 1987, 1997, 2008, and 2014.