Cady worked as a Coast Guardsman, truck driver, auctioneer, warehouseman, and landscaper before he got his chance to do what he really wanted: write. He started writing using a manual typewriter in the cab of his truck. One of his first pieces won Atlantic Monthly’s Atlantic First Award, and he was on his way.
Cady went on to receive numerous other awards, including the Nebula (for The Night We Buried Road Dog *), the Phillip K. Dick Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, the Iowa Prize for Short Fiction, and other prizes. He also taught writing, mostly at the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., where he says he spent “13 happy years.” He died January 14 from bladder cancer at a hospital near his home in Port Townsend, Wash. He was 71.