Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known as "Gay", in 1965. He received a bachelor of science degree in astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1967. That same year he was drafted into the Army and served as a combat engineer in Vietnam. He was wounded in combat and his wartime experience was the inspiration for War Year, his first novel. In 1975, he received a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He currently resides in Gainesville, Florida and Cambridge, Massachusetts and teaches writing at MIT. In addition to being an award-winning writer, Haldeman is a painter. In 2009, and 2010, he has been hospitalized for pancreatitis.

Haldeman's most famous novel is The Forever War (1975), inspired by his Vietnam experiences, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He later turned it into a series. Haldeman also wrote two of the earliest original novels based on the 1960s Star Trek TV series universe, Planet of Judgment (August 1977) and World Without End (February 1979). In October 2008 it was announced that Ridley Scott will direct a feature film based on The Forever War for Fox.

Haldeman has written at least one produced Hollywood movie script. The film, a low-budget science fiction film called Robot Jox, was released in 1990. He was not entirely happy with the product, saying "to me it’s as if I’d had a child who started out well and then sustained brain damage".

He is a lifetime member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), and past-president.

Haldeman is the brother of Jack C. Haldeman II (1941-2002), also a science-fiction author whose work included an original Star Trek novel (Perry's Planet, February 1980).

Hugo Award

• The Forever War (1976) - Novel
• Tricentennial (1977) - Short Story
• The Hemingway Hoax (1991) - Novella
• "None So Blind" (1995) - Short Story
• Forever Peace (1998) - Novel

John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

• Forever Peace (1998)

Nebula Award

• The Forever War (1975) - Novel
• The Hemingway Hoax (1990) - Novella
• "Graves" (1993) - Short Story
• Forever Peace (1998) - Novel
• Camouflage (2004) - Novel

Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award

Lifetime achievement, 2010, awarded at the Nebula Awards Ceremony

Locus Award

• The Forever War (1976) - SF Novel

Rhysling Award

• "Saul's Death" (1984) - Long Poem
• "Eighteen Years Old, October Eleventh" (1991) - Short Poem
• "January Fires" (2001) - Long Poem

World Fantasy Award

• "Graves" (1993) - Short Fiction

James Tiptree, Jr. Award

• "Camouflage" (2004)

Literary works

• War Year (1972) - Vietnam War novel, hardcover and paperback endings differ
• Attar's Revenge (1975) - written under the pseudonym Robert Graham
• War of Nerves (1975) - written under the pseudonym Robert Graham
• The Forever War (1975) - Nebula Award winner, 1975; Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1976
• Mindbridge (1976) - Hugo and Locus SF nominee, 1977
• Study War No More (1977) - a collection of short stories by various science fiction authors, edited by Joe Haldeman and featuring two stories by him
• Planet of Judgment (1977) - a Star Trek novel
• All My Sins Remembered (1977)
• Infinite Dreams (1978) - short story collection
• World Without End (1979) - a Star Trek novel
• Worlds (1981) - first volume in "Worlds" trilogy
• There is No Darkness (1983) - cowritten with Jack C. Haldeman II
• Worlds Apart (1983) - second volume in the "Worlds" trilogy
• Dealing in Futures (1985) - short story collection
• Seasons (novella, 1985) - published in Alien Stars, Elizabeth Mitchell, ed.
• Tool of the Trade (1987)
• Buying Time (1989) - published in the UK as The Long Habit of Living
• The Hemingway Hoax (1990)
• Worlds Enough and Time (1992) - third volume in "Worlds" trilogy
• Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds (1993) - collection of short stories, essays and poetry.
• 1968 (1995)
• None So Blind (1996) - short story collection
• Forever Peace (1997) - Hugo, Nebula and Campbell Awards winner, Locus SF Award nominee, 1998
• Saul's Death and Other Poems (1997) - poetry chapbook
• Forever Free (1999)
• The Coming (2000) - Locus SF nominee, 2001
• Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century (2001) - as editor
• Guardian (2002)
• Camouflage (2004) - Nebula Award winner, 2005
• Old Twentieth (2005)
• War Stories (2006) - short story collection
• A Separate War and Other Stories (2006) - short story collection (title story directly linked to The Forever War)
• The Accidental Time Machine (2007) - Nebula Award nominee, 2007; Locus SF Award nominee, 2008
• Marsbound (2008) - (also serialized in Analog Science Fiction and Fact) - Locus SF Award nominee, 2009
• Starbound (2010)

Comic works

• The Forever War drawn by Mark van Oppen (better known as Marvano) (original edition La Guerre éternelle (1988-1989))
• Forever Free drawn by Mark van Oppen (better known as Marvano) (original edition Libre à jamais (2002))
• Dallas Barr drawn by Mark van Oppen (better known as Marvano) based on Buying Time (1996-2005)

Interviews

• Authors@ Google: Joe Haldeman as part of the Authors@Google series (2007)
• Interview conducted by Roger Deforest (2006)
• The Craft of Science Fiction hosted by MIT Communications Forum (2006)

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