20th-century American short story writers

William Edward Brandon (September 21, 1914 – April 11, 2002) was an American writer and historian best known for his work about Native Americans and the American West.

Ann Head (née Anne Wales Christensen) (1915 – 1968) was an American fiction writer whose work was regularly published in magazines including Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Ladies Home Journal, and others during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
She wrote at least nine novels and two serial novels that were published in magazines, four of which were also published as books, and at least 21 published short stories. Her most famous work, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, a novel about a teen pregnancy, was made into a TV movie and stayed in print for four decades.She was a mentor to novelist Pat Conroy after teaching him when he was a senior in high school.

T. J. Bass, real name Thomas J. Bassler, MD (July 7, 1932 – December 13, 2011) was an American science fiction author and physician, having graduated from the University of Iowa in 1959. Bassler is also known for his controversial claim that nonsmokers who are able to complete a marathon in under four hours can eat whatever they wish and never suffer a fatal heart attack.John Robbins has noted that Jim Fixx approvingly quoted Bassler in his best-selling book, The Complete Book of Running. Fixx died from heart failure at 52 while running.Two of Bass' novels, Half Past Human (1971) and The Godwhale (1974), were nominated for the Nebula Award. In both his books the Hive was a three trillion population of 'nebishes' - humans who had four toes and all aggressiveness bred out of them.

Alan Edward Nourse (; August 11, 1928 – July 19, 1992) was an American science fiction writer and physician. He wrote both juvenile and adult science fiction, as well as nonfiction works about medicine and science. His SF works sometimes focused on medicine and/or psionics.
His most notable pen name was Doctor X. He used this pseudonym when writing for a medical column in a science fiction magazine, allowing him to combine his expertise in medicine with his passion for science fiction.

Alexander Moore Phillips (1907–1991) was an American short story writer and novelist. He also worked as a topographical draftsman for a title insurance company. Phillips served in the U. S. Army from April, 1942 spending time in Egypt and Palestine. His short stories appeared in pulp magazines including Amazing Stories, Wonder Stories and Unknown,. His novel, The Mislaid Charm, was published by Prime Press in 1947. He served as president of the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society.

Richard Sharpe Shaver (October 8, 1907 – November 5, 1975) was an American writer and artist who achieved notoriety in the years following World War II as the author of controversial stories that were printed in science fiction magazines (primarily Amazing Stories). In Shaver's story, he claimed that he had had personal experience of a sinister ancient civilization that harbored fantastic technology in caverns under the earth. The controversy stemmed from the claim by Shaver, and his editor and publisher Ray Palmer, that Shaver's writings, while presented in the guise of fiction, were fundamentally true. Shaver's stories were promoted by Ray Palmer as "The Shaver Mystery".
During the last decades of his life, Shaver devoted himself to "rock books"—stones that he believed had been created by the advanced ancient races and embedded with legible pictures and texts. He produced paintings allegedly based on the rocks' images and photographed the rock books extensively, as well as writing about them. Posthumously, Shaver has gained a reputation as an artist and his paintings and photos have been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere.

Nancy Farmer (born 1941) is an American writer of children's and young adult books and science fiction. She has written three Newbery Honor Books and won the U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The House of the Scorpion, published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 2002.

Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (June 20, 1910 – October 29, 2003) was an American science fiction fan, publisher and writer, secular and religious publisher, and minister.

Robert Stratton "Buck" Coulson (May 12, 1928 – February 19, 1999) was an American science fiction writer, well-known fan, filk songwriter, fanzine editor and bookseller from Indiana.

Gerald "Jerry" Neal Williamson (April 17, 1932 – December 8, 2005) was an American horror writer and editor known under the name J. N. Williamson. Born in Indianapolis, Indiana he graduated from Shortridge High School. He studied journalism at Butler University. He published his first novel in 1979 and went on to publish more than 40 novels and 150 short stories. In 2003 he received a lifetime achievement award from the Horror Writers of America. He edited the critically acclaimed How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987) which covered the themes of such writing and cited the works of such writers as Robert Bloch, Lee Prosser, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft, August Derleth, William F. Nolan, and Stephen King. Many important writers in the genre contributed to the book. Williamson edited the popular anthology series, Masques. Some of his novels include The Ritual (1979), Playmates (1982), Noonspell (1991), The Haunt (1999), among others.
In 1946, Williamson founded The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis, a Sherlock Holmes scion society of the Baker Street Irregulars.
Williamson recalled in a 2003 interview that his first work of fiction was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche called "The Terrible Death of Crosby, The Banker".