Leslie Fish

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A Phoenix-area fan, Trekker, and filker who wrote her first filk, "Fellowship Going South" in 1963. She is also...responsible... for "Banned from Argo". Some of her work has been collected by Beth Friedman in The Incomplete Leslie Fish.

Leslie was prominent in early Star Trek fandom as a writer of fanfic and as an artist. Her gen Trek novel "The Weight", which she both wrote and illustrated, was serialized in the zine Warped Space from 1976 through 1979. Her story "Shelter" (Warped Space #20, October 1976) was one of the earliest K/S slash stories.

In the late 1970s, Leslie and her band The Dehorn Crew recorded the first commercially available filk recordings ever: "Folk Songs for Folk Who Ain't Ever Been Yet" (1976), and "Solar Sailors" (1977). These vinyl LPs were re-released decades later as an audio CD.

In 1995, Leslie was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame. Her FHOF citation describes her song "Hope Eyrie" as "the single best known and best loved space filksong," "widely considered the filkers' anthem," and affectionately calls her song "Banned From Argo" "the most notorious Star Trek song written by anyone".

Awards, Honors and GoHships: Pegasus Awards:

• 1984 - Best Original Filk Song, "Hope Eyrie"
• 1986 - Best Female Filker
• 1986 - Best Original Filk Song, "Witnesses' Waltz"
• 1987 - Best Writer/Composer
• 1989 - Best Fantasy Song, "Wind's Four Quarters" (with lyricist Mercedes Lackey)
• 1999 - Best Hero Song, "A Toast for Unknown Heroes"
• 2002 - Best Song That Tells a Story, "Horsetamer's Daughter"
• 2003 - Best Classic Filk Song, "Banned From Argo"
• 2005 - Best Sword and Sorcery Song, "Threes" (with lyricist Mercedes Lackey)
• 2005 - Best Space Opera Song, "Signy Mallory" (with lyricist Mercedes Lackey)

• 1985 -- MileHiCon 17
• 1986 -- Balticon 20
• 1987 -- Westercon 40, Tropicon VI
• 1988 -- OKon 11
• 1989 -- Contabile
• 1992 -- Silvercon 1
• 1993 -- Balticon 27
• 1994 -- CorsairCon 4, Artcon V
• 1995 -- Filk Hall of Fame
• 1996 -- Conterpoint Too!, OVFF 12
• 1999 -- FilkContinental 1999
• 2001 -- Minicon 36
• 2003 -- Albacon 2003
• 2004 -- CopperCon 24
• 2005 -- FenCon II
• 2007 -- MidSouthCon 25
• 2011 -- Marcon 46
• 2013 -- Lunacon 2013, LoneStarCon III
• 2014 -- CopperCon 34

Noteworthy Songs

Banned from Argo

“Banned from Argo,” also known from its initials, BFA, is a Star Trek parody filk song. Without naming names, it mocks the characters of the original series. It became so popular that Fish now usually refuses to sing it, and it is also the done thing for real filkers to express disdain for it.

Fish originally wrote the song for her 1977 LP album Solar Sailors. The album needed one more song to fill out both sides adequately, so she wrote it to complete the album. Leslie has also written a fanfic novel which expands on the song.

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Person

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