George R.R. Martin calls sci-fi giant Gardner Dozois “a very slow writer”

George R.R. Martin discusses the amazing Gardner Dozois, a science fiction writer and editor who enormously impacted the genre. He shares some great insights into Gardner Dozois’s writing style, his struggles with productivity, and how he eventually found success as an editor.

George R.R. Martin jokes about Gardner Dozois.

George R.R. Martin, the mastermind behind the Game of Thrones series, has been working on his long-awaited book, The Winds of Winter, for 13 years. While fans eagerly await its release, he takes a moment to reflect on the writing pace of his colleague, Gardner Dozois. In a humorous twist, GRRM teases Dozois for being a slow writer despite his infamous delay in completing The Winds of Winter. So, it’s ironic that GRRM is calling someone else slow when he’s not precisely speedily producing content himself. GRRM, in an interview with Winter is Coming, said,

“Well, it depends on what you mean by Gardner’s work. I mean, Gardner was a fine writer, and he broke in around the same time I did, a couple years before. But he was a very slow writer. He was not a prolific writer, by any means.”

The Winds of Winter cover

Gardner Dozois, the Master Editor

While Dozois was a skilled writer, his true legacy lies in his work as an editor. He started the Hugo Losers Club because he kept getting nominated as Hugo Award nominee but never won. He even joked that he’d lost more Hugos than anyone else. But karma has a way of turning things around, and eventually, he started taking home those coveted Hugo Awards.

 “He was often nominated [for Hugos], that’s why he founded the Hugo Losers Club because he was often nominated in the early days and would always lose. And he made a joke of it that he had lost more Hugos than anybody, which ultimately came around and hit him because then he started winning.”

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