Phyllis Eisenstein

Phyllis Eisenstein (nee Kleinstein) of Chicago, age 74, passed away on Dec. 7, 2020, after a year-long struggle with serious neurological problems.

Phyllis was a notable, award-winning writer in the field of fantastic literature, author of 6 published novels and some 50 short stories. Alex, her beloved and loving husband of 53 years, was her writing partner on many of the shorter literary works. For fifteen years she was the Managing Copy-editor at Leo Burnett Agency, and worked at the Publicis Agency for several years prior to joining Burnett.

Phyllis taught fiction writing at Columbia College Chicago for nearly twenty years, where she received the Excellence in Teaching award, and was greatly admired by her many students for her literary acumen and lively teaching technique. She won the Balrog Award for Best Fantasy Book of 1978 for her first novel, "Born to Exile," published by Arkham House Books, a leading specialty press in the fantasy genre. Her shorter stories, also, have been nominated several times for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the two oldest and best-known awards for science fiction. Phyllis graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Anthropology. Earlier she majored in Psychology, another of her lifelong interests, at the University of Chicago.

Daughter of the late Irving and Sylvia Kleinstein, Phyllis is survived by her husband and best friend Alex, devoted brother Mervyn Kleinstein and his wife Anita, loving in-laws Trudy Schwartz, Anita Eisenstein, and Dale Sulak. She was a fond aunt to Howard, Scott, and Sheryl.

Phyllis was a talented, resourceful, very creative person, with a kind and generous spirit, who will be deeply missed by her family and her friends...and especially by her thousands of devoted readers, who have enjoyed her literate, intelligent, believable stories, which ever have explored a wide range of speculative, futuristic, and fabulous worlds.