Walt Willis

Who was Walt Willis?

Walter Alexander Willis was a well-known Irish science fiction fan, resident in Belfast.

Willis was awarded a 1958 Hugo Award as "Outstanding Actifan", which replaced the Best Fanzine category that year. He was nominated for a best fan writer Hugo in 1969 and two retro-Hugos in the same category. In 1959 and 1957 he was nominated in the fanzine category for Hyphen, and he received fanzine retro-Hugo nominations in 2004 for Slant and Hyphen. He shared a retro-Hugo for Slant with that fanzine's art editor James White.

His best known single work is The Enchanted Duplicator, co-written with Bob Shaw, an allegory of a fan's quest to produce the perfect fanzine. This appeared to be closely modeled on The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.

Along with White, Shaw, George Charters, Ian McAulay, and John Berry, Willis represented the influential Irish Fandom, also known as the Wheels of IF. Willis, White and Shaw were also referred to as the Belfast Triangle.