Howard Waldrop – a mainstay of Austin's literary scene, a leviathan of sci-fi short stories, one of the very first writers for the Austin Chronicle, and a beloved mentor to many in the city and the wider literary sci-fi scene – has died.

His death, on Jan. 14 after a stroke, was confirmed by his longtime writing partner Lawrence Person. He was 77.

Born in 1946 in Houston, Mississippi, Waldrop may not have been born in Texas but he got here as fast as possible. His family moved to Weatherford when he was four, and then he moved to Austin and remained here (bar a few years in Washington). Here he perfected his mastery of the short story and perfected his style: incisive, thoughtful, often acerbic yet compassionate, usually humorous, and unabashedly Southern. His work evoked both the wryness of his Austin precursor, O. Henry, and the genre mashup of his friend and contemporary, Joe Lansdale, while remaining unique and instantly recognizable.

While he published longer works, including the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated novel Them Bones, he was best known for his short stories, most especially "The Ugly Chickens," which won both the Nebula Award for best novelette and the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction.

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