Leah Zeldes Smith

(???? –)

Mike Glicksohn and Leah Zeldes, ca. 1979. Photo by George R. R. Martin.

Leah Zeldes Smith (pronounced LAY-uh ZEL-dəs), a longtime fan based in Chicago and Milwaukee, has been a fanzine fan, club fan and con fan. She leans strongly toward the faanish end of the microcosm.

She entered fandom in 1973 as a teenager in Detroit, where she belonged to the W3F, and went to school in Ann Arbor, where she was active in the Stilyagi Air Corps. Upon moving to Chicago in 1985, she became a regular at Thursday. She served on the board of directors of the N3F, SFOHA, AASFA and FEN. Her first convention was Torcon 2, the ’73 Worldcon.

As SF writer Leah A. Zeldes, she is the author of a handful of short stories, published in anthologies.

From the 1970s through the ’80s, she was an avid letterhack and apahack, and occasional poet and fanartist, as well as a frequent congoer. Apae included APA-50, MiSHAP (OE and co-founder), AZAPA, RAPS, ApaCorps, FLAP, ANZAPA, The Secret Garden, FHAPA and Milwapa.

In the 1990s, she edited STET, a thrice Hugo-nominated fanzine, mimeographed by her husband, Dick Smith. She has produced a variety of other zines, including several clubzines, numerous convention progress reports and program books, innumerable apazines and, with Larry Tucker, the perzine Insufficient Funds. She also contributed extensively to the later issues of Uncle Dick's and edited the fanthology Contact! She first earned her faned cred in her teens with Imp and as editor of the Omekronicle, the clubzine of the Oak Park High School Science Fiction Club.

Leah Zeldes and Larry Tucker, ca. 1977.

She has been involved in running numerous conventions, including Wondaycon, AutoClave (co-founder and chairman), ConFusion, AutoFusion, Ditto and several Chicons and other Worldcons, as well as Detcon1. She co-chaired Operacon in March 2015 and published Flavor Forecast as a progress report for it. She is one of the Ditto Masters. She made endless pots of chili as a bidder for The First Occasional LoneStarCon Science Fiction Convention and Chili Cook-off and became a member of FACT.

A fanhistorian, she attended the first FanHistoriCon and became a charter member of the Timebinders. She co-chaired FanHistoriCons 3 and 11. Much of her fannish lexicon written for STET 9 has been incorporated into Fancyclopedia 3, including many post-Eney terms.

In 1993, she and her husband, Dick Smith, won the Down Under Fan Fund, and traveled as delegates to the Australian National Science Fiction Convention in Perth as well as visiting fans across Australia. Subsequently, they were the North American agents for the Australia in 1999 Worldcon bid.

She met Dick at a con neither of them can remember. After several years of a long-distance relationship, involving much correspondence, hideous long-distance phone bills, lots of bus, train and car travel — including one wreck — they married in 1985.

In mundane life, she was a journalist — becoming managing editor for a chain of Chicago newspapers — and a freelance reporter and professional blogger, particularly covering Chicago's food and live entertainment scenes. She credits early fanwriting practice as helping her attain her professional writing skills. She was also the blogmaster behind Frederik Pohl's "The Way the Future Blogs." An avid and eclectic reader, she has written hundreds of reviews of old, out-of-copyright books of all genres.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Dreamtree [for Apa-50, 1974–76]
• Dick & Leah's Skiffy Calendar [late 1990s]
• DUFFacto [with Dick Smith, 1993–95]
• Faans II [1988]
• Imp [1977]
• Insufficient Funds [with Larry Tucker]
• Killer Queen [for MiSHAP]
• LAZiness
• Omekronicle
• Postal Pointers [with Dick Smith]
• Smithereens [with Dick Smith for FLAP]
• Spirits in the Night
• Spirits of Things Past (including Contact!)
• STET [1990–2000]
• TANSTAAFL [1981]
• Truthtree [for Apa-50, 1981]
• Uncle Dick's [with Dick Smith, early ’80s]
• Unsettled [with Dick Smith for MilwAPA, since 2011]
• Wordsmiths [with Dick Smith for Anzapa, 1992–95]
• Worm Cravings [for Apa-50, 1983–85]

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1977 -- Appointed Herbangelist High Priestess of the Midwest
• 1982 -- Toastmaster at Inconspicuous (she baked breads and brought a toaster oven)
• 1983 -- Hoagie Award
• 1987 -- Corflu 4
• 1993 -- DUFF winner (with Dick Smith), Best Fanzine Hugo nominee for STET (with Dick Smith)
• 1994 -- ConFusion XX, Best Fanzine Hugo nominee for STET (with Dick Smith)
• 1995 -- ArmadilloCon 17 (with Dick Smith), Windycon 22 (with Dick Smith)
• 1998 -- First Contact 5 (with Dick Smith)
• 2000 -- ConQuesT 31 (with Dick Smith)
• 2001 -- Best Fanzine Hugo nominee for STET (with Dick Smith)

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