A native of Chicago, Resnick attended the University of Chicago from 1959 to 1961 where he met his future wife, Carol. The couple were married 1961. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Resnick wrote more than 200 "adult" novels under pseudonyms, edited seven tabloid newspapers, and edited a trio of men's magazines. He also produced a weekly column on horse racing for more than a decade, and for eleven years wrote a monthly column on purebred collies, which he and his wife bred and exhibited. His wife Carol is also a writer, as is his daughter, Laura Resnick, who is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy author. Resnick's papers, consisting of at least 125 boxes, are in the Special Collections Library of the University of South Florida in Tampa. He will be the Guest of Honor at Chicon 7, the 2012 Worldcon to be held in Chicago.

Two notable trends run through the majority of Resnick's science fiction work. The first is his love of fable and legend. Many of his stories chronicle larger-than-life characters with colorful names like "The Widowmaker", "Lucifer Jones", "The Forever Kid", and "Catastrophe Baker" and the legendary adventures they pursue. Resnick is also interested in the formation of history and legend, and sometimes includes bards as characters. The book The Outpost deals most with these themes, as it includes a story told from multiple perspectives and a bard who openly intends to exaggerate and edit his accounts to make them more interesting. Resnick's books in this vein bear some resemblance to Westerns, but are clearly science fiction.The other main subject of Resnick's work is Africa - African history, African culture, colonialism and its aftermath, and traditionalism. He has visited Africa often, and draws on this experience. Some of his science fiction stories are allegories of African history and politics. Other stories are actually set in Africa or have African characters.

Resnick's style is known for the inclusion of humor; he has probably sold more humorous stories than any science fiction author except Robert Sheckley, and even his most grim and serious stories have frequent unexpected bursts of humor in them.Resnick enjoys collaborating, especially on short stories. Through 2009 he has collaborated with 41 different writers on short fiction, one on screenplays, and three on novels.He is also a long-time participant in science fiction fandom. Resnick has been the Guest of Honor at some 38 science fiction conventions, and Toastmaster at a dozen others.Since 1988 Resnick has edited over 40 anthologies. He has also sold screenplays based on his novels to Miramax and Capella, and often has multiple properties under option to Hollywood studios.

His work has been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, Romanian, Finnish, Castilian, Portugene, Slovakian, Chinese, Catalan, Danish, and Croatian.

Resnick has 5 Hugo Awards and has won numerous other awards from places as diverse as France, Japan, Spain, Croatia and Poland. As of 2009, he is first on the Locus list of all-time award winners, living or dead, for short fiction, and 4th on the Locus list of science fiction's all-time top award winners in all fiction categories.

Selected awards

His 1995 Hugo Award-winning novella "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" also scooped the S.F. Chronicle Poll Award for the same, the corresponding 1994 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 1995 HOMer Award for Best Novella. Between 1991 and 2001, he won a further nine HOMer Awards (bringing his total to 10, from a staggering 24 nominations), placing him at the head of HOMer Award winners, ahead of Robert J. Sawyer on nine wins and just 12 nominations.

His 1998 and 2005 Hugo Award-winning stories - "The 43 Antarean Dynasties" and "Travels with My Cats" also garnered him Asimov's Readers Poll Awards, of which he has won a total of five (from 20 nominations), placing him joint-second with poet Bruce Boston behind artist Bob Eggleton. He has won a total of six (including that mentioned above) S.F. Chronicle Poll Awards, one Locus Award (from 30 nominations, winning in 1996 with "When the Old Gods Die"), a Golden Pagoda Award, two American Dog Writers Awards and an Alexander Award. His 34 Hugo nominations through 2010 are the all-time record for a writer.

In 1995, he was awarded the Skylark (or "Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction") for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction.

International Awards

"Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" has also won awards in Spain (Ignotus Award), France (Prix Ozone Award) and Croatia (Futura Poll), contributing to a total of three Ignotus Awards and two Prix Ozone Awards. He was awarded the Spanish El Melocoton Mecanico Award for "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and the Xatafi-Cyberdark Award for "For I Have Touched the Sky", in addition to a Tour Eiffel Award in France for The Dark Lady.

In Japan, he won the Seuin-sho Award for Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia, and the Hayakawa Award for "For I Have Touched the Sky". In Poland, "Kirinyaga" won the Nowa Fantastyka Poll Award, while "For I Have Touched the Sky" won the Sfinks Award. (Resnick won another Sfinks Award for "When the Old Gods Die".)

Complete List of Hugo Nominations

Resnick has been nominated for 34 Hugo Awards -- a record for writers -- and won five times. Except for 1999 and 2003, he has received at least one nomination every year to date since 1989. A complete list of his nominations (and wins) is:

• 1989 - "Kirinyaga" (winner)
• 1990 - "For I Have Touched the Sky"
• 1991 - "The Manamouki" (winner) & "Bully!"
• 1992 - "Winter Solstice" & "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals"
• 1993 - "The Lotus and the Spear"
• 1994 - "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" & Best Editor
• 1995 - "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge" (winner) & "Barnaby in Exile" & "A Little Knowledge" & Best Editor
• 1996 - "When the Old Gods Die" & "Bibi" (with Susan Shwartz)
• 1997 - "The Land of Nod"
• 1998 - "The 43 Antarean Dynasties" (winner)
• 2000 - "Hothouse Flowers" & "Hunting the Snark"
• 2001 - "The Elephants on Neptune" & "Redchapel" & Putting It Together
• 2002 - "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" & I Have This Nifty Idea...
• 2004 - "Robots Don't Cry"
• 2005 - "Travels with My Cats" (winner) & "A Princess of Earth"
• 2006 - "Down Memory Lane"
• 2007 - "All the Things You Are" & Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches
• 2008 - "Distant Replay"
• 2009 - "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" & "Article of Faith"
• 2010 - "The Bride of Frankenstein"

Novels

• The Goddess of Ganymede (1967)
• Pursuit on Ganymede (1968)
• Redbeard (1969)
• Battlestar Galactica #5: Galactica Discovers Earth (with Glen Larson) (1980)
• The Soul Eater (1981)
• Birthright: The Book of Man (1982)
• Walpurgis III (1982)
• Sideshow (1982)
• The Three-Legged Hootch Dancer (1983)
• The Wild Alien Tamer (1983)
• The Best Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gunslinger in the Whole Damned Galaxy (1983)
• The Branch (1984)
• Eros Ascending (1984)
• Eros at Zenith (1984)
• Eros Descending (1985)
• Adventures (1985)
• Eros at Nadir (1986)
• Santiago (1986)
• Stalking the Unicorn (1987)
• The Dark Lady (1987)
• Ivory (1988)
• Paradise (1989)
• Second Contact (1990)
• The Red Tape War (with Jack Chalker & George Alec Effinger) (1991)
• Soothsayer (1991)
• Oracle (1992)
• Lucifer Jones (1992)
• Purgatory (1992)
• Exploits (1993)
• Prophet (1993)
• Inferno (1993)
• A Miracle of Rare Design (1994)
• Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge (1994)
• Encounters (1994)
• Dog in the Manger (mystery) (1995)
• The Widowmaker (1996)
• The Widowmaker Reborn (1997)
• The Widowmaker Unleashed (1998)
• Kirinyaga (1998)
• A Hunger in the Soul (1998)
• The Outpost (2001)
• The Return of Santiago (2003)
• Lara Croft: The Amulet of Power (2003)
• Lady With an Alien (2005)
• A Gathering of Widowmakers (2005)
• Dragon America (2005)
• Starship: Mutiny (2005)
• A Club in Montmartre (2006)
• Starship: Pirate (2006)
• World Behind the Door (2007)
• Starship: Mercenary (2007)
• Stalking the Vampire (2008)
• Kilimanjaro (2008)
• Starship: Rebel (2008)
• Hazards (2009)
• Stalking the Dragon (2009)
• Shaka II (2009)
• Starship: Flagship (2009)
• The Buntline Special (2010)
• The Gods of Sagittarius (with Eric Flint) (2011)
• The Cassandra Project (with Jack McDevitt) (2012)
• The Doctor and the Kid (2011)

Collections

• Unauthorized Autobiographies (1984)
• Through Darkest Resnick With Gun and Camera (1990)
• Stalking the Wild Resnick (1991)
• Pink Elephants and Hairy Toads (1991)
• The Alien Heart (1991)
• Will the Last Person to Leave the Planet Please Shut Off the Sun? (1992)
• A Safari of the Mind (1995)
• Solo Flights Through Shared Worlds (1996)
• An Alien Land (1998)
• Magic Feathers: The Mike and Nick Show (with Nick DiChario) (2000)
• In Space No One Can Hear You Laugh
• Hunting the Snark and Other Stories (2002)
• With a Little Help From My Friends (2002)
• New Dreams for Old (2006)
• The Other Teddy Roosevelts (2008)
• Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks (2009)
• Blasphemy (2010)
• Gone Fission (2011)
• Masters of the Galaxy (2011)

Anthologies edited

• Shaggy B.E.M. Stories (1988)
• Alternate Presidents (1992)
• Alternate Kennedys (1992)
• Inside the Funhouse (1992)
• Aladdin: Master of the Lamp (with Martin H. Greenberg) (1992)
• Whatdunnits (1992)
• More Whatdunnits (1993)
• Alternate Warriors (1993)
• Future Earths: Under African Skies (with Gardner Dozois) (1993)
• Future Earths: Under South American Suns (with Gardner Dozois) (1993)
• Christmas Ghosts (1993)
• Dinosaur Fantastic (with Martin H. Greenberg) (1993)
• By Any Other Fame (1994)
• Deals With the Devil (with Loren D. Estleman) (1994)
• Alternate Outlaws (1994)
• Alternate Worldcons (1994)
• Witch Fantastic (1995)
• Sherlock Holmes in Orbit (1995)
• Again, Alternate Worldcons (1996)
• Girls for the Slime God (1997)
• Alternate Tyrants (1997)
• Alternate Skiffy (1997)
• Return of the Dinosaurs (1997)
• Women Writing Science Fiction as Men (2003)
• Men Writing Science Fiction as Women (2003)
• Stars (with Janis Ian) (2003)
• New Voices in Science Fiction (2003)
• I, Alien (2005)
• Down These Dark Spaceways (2005)
• This is My Funniest (2006)
• Space Cadets (2006)
• The Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches (with Joe Siclari) (2006)
• Alien Crimes (2007)
• Nebula Awards Showcase, 2007 (2007)
• This is My Funniest 2 (2007)
• History Revisited (with J. David Markham) (2008)
• The Dragon Done It (with Eric Flint) (2008)
• The Best of Jim Baen's Universe #2 (with Eric Flint) (2008)
• When Diplomacy Fails (with Eric Flint) (2008)

Non-fiction books

• Putting It Together (2000)
• I Have This Nifty Idea (2001)
• Once a Fan... (2002)
• The Science Fiction Professional (2002)
• Resnick at Large (2003)
• ...Always a Fan (2009)
• The Business of Science Fiction (with Barry Malzberg) (2010)
• Resnick Abroad (2012)

Short fiction

• “The Last Dog”
• “Blue”
• “Beachcomber”
• “Watching Marcia”
• “The Olympians”
• “Me and My Shadow”
• “The Fallen Angel”
• “God and Mr. Slatterman”
• “The Inn of the Hairy Toad”
• “Stalking the Unicorn with Gun and Camera”
• “The Toymaker and the General”
• “King of the Blue Planet”
• “Kirinyaga”
• “His Award-Winning Science Fiction Story”
• “Beibermann’s Soul”
• “Death is an Acquired Trait”
• “The Crack in the Cosmic Egg”
• “Inquiry Into the Auction of the U.S.A.”
• “For I Have Touched the Sky”
• “Slice of Life”
• “Balance”
• “Bwana”
• “Neutral Ground”
• “How I Wrote the New Testament, Brought Forth the Renaissance, and Birdied the 17th Hole at Pebble Beach"
• “Was It Good For You, Too?”
• “The Manamouki”
• “One Perfect Morning, With Jackals”
• “Frankie the Spook”
• “Posttime in Pink”
• “Museum Piece”
• “Origins”
• “The Nine Lives of Isaac Intrepid” (with Lou Tabakow)
• “Pawns”
• “Bully!”
• “Excerpt from the Diary of Dr. Morris Finkelstein”
• “Song of a Dry River”
• “Winter Solstice”
• “A Little Night Music”
• “Monsters of the Midway”
• “The Bull Moose at Bay”
• “Mrs. Hood Unloads”
• “Over There”
• “Revolt of the Sugar Plum Fairies”
• “Classified”
• “Malish”
• “Trading Up” (with Barbara Delaplace)
• “Will the Last Person to Leave the Planet Please Shut off the Sun?”
• “Editor Meacham and the Fate Worse Than Death”
• “The Light That Blinds, the Claws That Catch”
• “The Lotus and the Spear”
• “The Pale Thin God”
• “Lady in Waiting”
• “The B Team”
• “Every Man a God” (with Barry N. Malzberg)
• “The Trials and Tribulations of Myron Blumberg, Dragon”
• “The Blue-Nosed Reindeer”
• “Mwalimu in the Squared Circle”
• “Ghosts” (with Barry N. Malzberg)
• “Stop Press”
• “Stanley the Eighteen-Percenter”
• “Genesis: The Rejected Canon”
• “The Summer of my Discontent”
• “Super Acorns” (with Lawrence Schimel)
• “The Tarnished Diamond”
• “Birdie” (with Nick DiChario)
• “Barnaby in Exile”
• “A Little Knowledge”
• “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge”
• “Alien Radio” (with Nick DiChario)
• “Pleasantly Pink” (with Nick DiChario)
• “The Adventure of the Pearly Gates”
• “Working Stiff” (with Nick DiChario)
• “My Girl”
• “The Kemosabee”
• “Metamorphosis”
• “The Most Beautiful Girl Alive” (with Nick DiChario)
• “Squonking” (with Nick DiChario)
• “The Sweet, Sad Love Song of Fred and Wilma” (with Nick DiChario)
• “The Shiksa” (with Lawrence Schimel)
• “How Jerry Phipps Won His Hugo”
• “disILLUSIONS” (with Lawrence Schimel)
• “When the Old Gods Die”
• “The Land of Nod”
• “Darker Than You Wrote”
• “Merdinus” (with Linda Dunn)
• “Heart of Stone” (with Lyn Nichols)
• “Mrs. Vamberry Takes a Trip”
• “Bibi” (with Susan Shwartz)
• “The Joy of Hats” (with Nick DiChario)
• “The Starving Children of Mars” (with Louise Rowder)
• “The Roosevelt Dispatches”
• “Card Shark”
• “The Gefilte Fish Girl”
• “My Brother’s Keeper” (with Jack Nimbersheim)
• “A Limerick History of Science Fiction”
• “Of Flame and Air” (with Josepha Sherman)
• “The Arrows of Godly Passion” (with Nick DiChario)
• “Sagittarius Rising” (with Ann Marston)
• “The Fighting 35th Last Stand at the Delores Proud Apple School for the Blind” (with Nick DiChario)
• “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” (with Nick DiChario)
• “The 43 Antarrean Dynasties”
• “Stan” (with Ron Collins)
• “Me and Galahad” (with Adrienne Gormley)
• “Interview with the Almighty”
• “A Buzzard Named Rabinowitz”
• “Hothouse Flowers”
• “Why Martians are Attracted to Big-Breasted Women”
• “Hunting the Snark”
• “Full Circle” (with Kristine Kathryn Rusch)
• “Boot Hill” (with Catherine Asaro)
• “The Elephants on Neptune”
• “Redchapel”
• “Even Butterflies Can Sting”
• “Ocean’s Eleven” (with Tom Gerencer)
• “Nicobar Lane: The Soul Eater’s Story”
• “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”
• “Like Father, Like Son” (with B.J. Galler-Smith)
• “Like Small Feet Following” (with Robyn Herrington)
• “The Chinese Sandman”
• “Flower Children of Mars” (with M. Shayne Bell)
• “The Shackles of Freedom” (with Tobias S. Buckell)
• “The Demons of Jupiter’s Moons” (with Dean Wesley Smith)
• “Approaching Sixty” (with Barry Malzberg)
• “Water-Skiing Down the Styx” (with Janis Ian)
• “The Amorous Broom”
• “Reflections in Black Granite” (with Michael A. Burstein)
• “Dobchek: Lost in the Funhouse” (with Kay Kenyon)
• “Robots Don’t Cry”
• “The Burning Spear at Twilight”
• “Here’s Looking at You, Kid”
• “Unsafe at Any Speed”
• “Society’s Goy”
• “Swimming Upstream in the Wells of the Desert” (with Susan B. Matthews)
• “Travels With My Cats”
• “Me”
• “El Presidente”
• “Game Face” (with Robert Sheckley)
• “Keepsakes”
• “The Boy Who Cried ‘Dragon!’”
• “The Island of Annoyed Souls”
• “A Princess of Earth”
• “Cobbling Together a Solution”
• “Down Memory Lane”
• “Guardian Angel”
• “The One That Got Away”
• “A Muse with Burning Eyes” (with B. D. Faw)
• “Before the Beginning” (with Harry Turtledove)
• “Nowhere in Particular”
• “The God Biz”
• “The Hermit of thje Skies” (with Paul Crilley)
• “Two Hunters in Manhattan”
• “Prevenge” (with Kevin J. Anderson)
• “Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations”
• “Harry, Larry, Barry & Frankie”
• “Occupational Hazard”
• “Great Unreported Breakthroughs #163”
• “A Small Skirmish in the Culture War” (with James Patrick Kelly)
• “Solomon’s Choice” (with Nancy Kress)
• “Distant Replay”
• “Jellyfish” (with David Gerrold)
• “All the Things You Are”
• “The Big Guy”
• “Visitor’s Night at Joey Chicago’s”
• “Chartreuse Mansions”
• “A Locked-Planet Mystery”
• “The Long and Short of It”
• “Shell Game”
• “Honorable Enemies”
• “Monuments in Flesh and Stone”
• “The Lost Continent of Moo”
• “Alastair Baffle’s Emporium of Wonders”
• “Carnival Knowledge”
• “Sluggo”
• “The Last Actor” (with Linda Donahue)
• “Merry Bunta!”
• “The Hex is In”
• “A Jaguar Never Changes Its Stripes”
• “A Better Mousetrap”
• “Christmas Eve at Harvey Wallbanger’s”
• “A Very Special Girl”
• “A Most Unusual Greyhound”
• “Not Quite Alone in the Dream Quarter” (with Pat Cadigan)
• “Snatch as Snatch Can”
• “Kilimanjaro”
• “Best in Show”
• “Connoisseurs”
• “Spring Training”
• “Inescapable”
• “A Four-Sided Triangle”
• “The Forgotten Kingdom”
• “Mother Scorpion’s House of Fallen Flowers”
• “Idle Roomer” (with Lezli Robyn)
• “The Paternal Flame”
• “Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz”
• “Article of Faith”
• “A Very Formal Affair”
• “Soulmates” (with Lezli Robyn)
• “If the Frame Fits”
• “Benchwarmer” (with Lezli Robyn)
• “Shame” (with Lezli Robyn)
• “Shaka II”
• “On Safari”
• “The Bride of Frankenstein”
• “Heads and Tails in Paradise”
• “Harboring Pearls”
• “The Blimp and Sixpence”
• “Report from the Field” (with Lezli Robyn)
• "The Foundling"
• "Weekdays"
• "The Close Shave" (with Lezli Robyn)
• "Royal Bloodlines"
• "Observation Post"
• "The Incarceration of Captain Nebula"
• "King and Mrs. Kong"
• "El and Al vs. Himmler's Horrendous Horde from Hell"
• "Six Blind Men and an Alien"
• "A Weighty Affair"
• "Dark Doings at the Field Museum of Natural Mystery"
• "The Second Civil War"
• "Bad News From the Vatican"
• "Incident on the Low Seas"
• "The Homecoming"