William F. Nolan (born March 6, 1928 in Kansas City, MO) writes mostly in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Though best known for coauthoring the acclaimed dystopian science fiction novel Logan’s Run with George Clayton Johnson, Nolan is the author of more than 2000 pieces (fiction, nonfiction, articles, and books), and has edited twenty-six anthologies in his fifty-plus year career.

In addition to multiple anthology appearances and magazine contributions, Nolan has had several major works come out in the past few years. Hippocampus Press produced Nolan’s selected nonfiction writings about his late friend, the legendary Ray Bradbury, in Nolan on Bradbury: Sixty Years of Writing about the Master of Science Fiction (edited by the esteemed scholar, critic, and anthologist S. T. Joshi). The venerable publisher Arkham House was to release a new gathering of unpublished Nolan stories for 2013 entitled Like a Dead Man Walking and Other Shadow Tales, however, due to its dissolution, the collection was ultimately issued by Centipede Press in 2014. Adept at poetry and screenwriting as well as fiction (with more than twenty produced scripts to his credit), he was co-writer (with filmmaker Dan Curtis) of the screenplay for the 1976 horror classic Burnt Offerings, and co-wrote Trilogy of Terror with another departed friend, the outstanding author and screenwriter Richard Matheson, both for Dan Curtis Productions.

In January, 2010 a comic book series based on Logan’s Run (Logan’s Run: Last Day) debuted from Washington-based publisher Bluewater Productions; later, the outfit produced spin-offs of Last Day called Rebirth, Aftermath, Solo (scripted by Nolan collaborator Jason V Brock) and another serial based on Nolan’s horror works (in a five issue mini-series co-scripted by Nolan and Brock) called Tales from William F. Nolan’s Dark Universe.

An artist, worked at Hallmark Cards, Inc. and in comic books before becoming an author. In the 1950s, Nolan was an integral part of the writing ensemble known as “The Group,” (documented in the JaSunni Productions films Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man, and The AckerMonster Chronicles!, both of which feature extensive interviews with Nolan). The Group (also called “The Southern California Writing School” by former Los Angeles Times critic Robert Kirsch) included numerous veteran and soon-to-be well-known genre writers, such as Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, John Tomerlin, Matheson, and Johnson, many of whom wrote for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Nolan is also considered a leading expert on Dashiell Hammett and pulps such as Black Mask and Western Story, and is the world authority on the works of prolific scribe Max Brand.

Of his numerous awards, there are a few of which he is most proud: being voted a Living Legend in Dark Fantasy by the International Horror Guild in 2002; twice winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America; being awarded the honorary title of Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. in 2006; receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association in 2010; and as recipient of the 2013 World Fantasy Convention Award along with Brian W. Aldiss. Nolan won another Bram Stoker Award—for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction—in May 2014 for his book about Bradbury, Nolan on Bradbury.