Wolfe was born on March 24, 1946, in Sedalia, Missouri. He moved to Carrollton, Missouri, at age 12, and to Springfield, at 14, where he finished high school. He began attending Southwest Missouri State College (now University), transferred to
University of Kansas, where he earned a B.A. in English in 1968, and worked for his honors thesis under Professor
James Gunn.
From there, he transferred to
University of Chicago, where Wolfe earned a Ph.D. in English, in 1971.
He was married to Ellen "Dede" Weil, a teacher and
community service activist, in 1996. They held another wedding celebration at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in a pool-side party, attended by many of their friends and colleagues, in March, 1997. Wolfe and Weil were happily married until her death in 2000. Before her death they collaborated on a book about
Harlan Ellison, and often attended the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, in Florida.[3]
He has had a monthly review column in Locus since December, 1991[4] and has written for
Salon and other sites. He collaborates with editor
Jonathan Strahan on The Coode Street Podcast,[5] a "discussion and digression on science fiction and fantasy" that was launched in May 2010, and is syndicated at Tor.com.
In 2016, he taught the course How Great Science Fiction Works for
The Great Courses.[6]
Honors
1979 –
Eaton Award from the Eaton Conference on Science Fiction for The Known and the Unknown: the Iconography of Science Fiction
Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship (Greenwood Press, 1986) – described as a "landmark" work and "an indispensable guide to the sometimes peculiar terminology that has developed both in critical discourse and in popular discussions of fantasy and science fiction" by scholar
David Sandner.[10]