Don Sakers

Don Sakers , science fiction fan, writer, editor, blogger, and reviewer, passed away of a sudden heart attack.

He was born June 16, 1958, in Yokosuka, Japan, to Naomi Coates and James E. Sakers, Jr. He died May 17, 2021 in Maryland. He was 62.

Launched the same month as Sputnik One, it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs.

As a writer and editor, he explored the thoughts of sapient trees ( The Leaves of October ), brought ghosts to life ( Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three , Baen 1989), and beat the "Cold Equations" scenario ("The Cold Solution," Analog 7/91, voted best short story of the year.)

​Since 2009 Don had been book reviewer for Analog Science Fiction & Fact , where he wrote the "Reference Library" column in every issue.

Don lived at Meerkat Meade in suburban Baltimore with his husband, costumer Thomas Atkinson. Having recently retired from 42 years with the Anne Arundel County Public Library, he was hard at work becoming a starving writer.

He is survived by his husband, Thomas G. Atkinson; his brother, David Sakers and sister-in-law Yvonne Sakers, niece Emily Sakers, and nephew Michael Sakers.