Margaret Wander Bonanno

Margaret Wander Bonanno (February 7, 1950 – April 6, 2021) was an American science fiction writer, ghost writer, and small press publisher. She wrote seven Star Trek novels, science fiction novels (including The Others series and the Preternatural series), a collaborative novel with Nichelle Nichols, a biography, and other works.

Biography

Bonanno was born in Brooklyn, New York. Her first novel, the feminist A Certain Slant of Light, was published by Seaview Books in 1979.

After two well-received Star Trek novels, Dwellers in the Crucible (1985) and Strangers from the Sky (1985), Bonanno's next novel, ultimately titled Probe, was the victim of changes in the franchise. With the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), Paramount took a closer role in supervising the books, disallowing story elements that were said to conflict with Gene Roddenberry's idea of Star Trek. Instead of being rejected, Probe was heavily edited and ultimately mostly written by Gene DeWeese. Bonanno said that Probe contained only "seven percent" of her original material.

Bonanno's public disavowal of the book included her sharing her original manuscript Music of the Spheres at Star Trek conventions. This led to Bonanno being blacklisted from the Star Trek publishing universe for over 11 years; in 2003 she returned with Catalyst of Sorrows, part of the Star Trek: The Lost Era series.

Bonanno was a member of TrekNation and posted regularly on the Trek BBS.

Her novel Preternatural was a 1997 New York Times Notable Book. Preternatural3, a sequel, was a 2002 New York Times Notable Book.

Bonanno, who had lived in the Los Angeles area, died on April 6, 2021, aged 71.