Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Jessica Reisman Collection
Date(s)
- 1984-2024, undated (Creation)
Extent
1 box
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jessica Wynne Reisman was born in Philadelphia, PA, but has also lived in Florida, Southern California, and Maine, before moving to Austin, TX. She was graduated from the University of Texas-Austin with an M.A. in 1992. Reisman began publishing stories professionally in 1998, with "Rain Brujah", published in the anthology Horrors! 365 Scary Stories: Get Your Daily Dose of Terror (1998). She has been published in a number of venues, including Realms of Fantasy, The Third Alternative, Sci Fiction, Interzone, The Red Penny Papers, and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Her story "Bourbon, Sugar, Grace" was published as an e-chapbook by Tor in 2017.
Reisman's stories have also appeared (or been republished) in many anthologies, including Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E.Howard (2006), Otherwordly Maine (2008), Passing for Human (2009), Rayguns Over Texas (2013), and Other Covenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People (2022). Many of her stories were collected in the 2019 collection The Arcana of Maps and Other Stories, from Fairwood Press. In addition to this body of work, Reisman has written two novels: the first was The Z Radiant (2004), set on a planet that can only be accessed periodically through wormholes and thus produces a cargo cult mentality among the inhabitants. In 2017 Reisman published the far future space opera Substrate Phantoms, a troubling and expansive story of potential first contact aboard a distant space station and the dangers and psychological effects it produces. The novel received glowing reviews.
After a long residence in the Austin area, where she was a prominent member of the local writing and con scene, Reisman moved in late 2023 back to Southern California, where she currently resides.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection contains materials relating to the life and career of Texas-based science fiction and fantasy writer Jessica Reisman. Materials include typescript drafts for many of her published and unpublished stories, as well as drafts and notes from stories written before her professional career began. Other items in the collection include spec scripts and screenplays written by Reisman, academic writing from her undergraduate days, and assorted other materials.
System of arrangement
The collection is divided into two sub-series: Manuscripts, and Other Materials.
Within the Manuscripts sub-series, materials are first arranged with published stories by date of publication, and thereafter alphabetically by title of story of subject of folder. Other Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject of folder.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
These materials are stored offsite and require additional time for retrieval.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
The collection was donated by Jessica Reisman in January 2024. (2024_0009).