Joan Marie Verba is a long-time fan of Star Trek. Introduced to the show as a young teen in 1966 and the fandom a couple years later in 1969, she has been an active part of Star Trek fandom almost since the beginning. Over the years she has contributed to many Star Trek letterzines and edited and published Treklink, Salutatorian, and Multi-Species Medicine, as well as her own fixit fan novels, Descent into Darkness and The Genesis Aftermath. She has been described as a veteran fan and was instrumental in welcoming many neofans to Star Trek both on a personal level and as someone involved in the Star Trek Welcommittee since its inception in 1972.

Verba is perhaps most well known for publishing Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan & Zine History, 1967-1987. In it, she describes Star Trek fan history in great detail, including discussing the SF fan vs Star Trek fan divide. Many of her drafts and notes are found within this collection.

A lifelong resident of the Minneapolis/St Paul area, this collection contains most of the 400 issues of the Minnesota Science Fiction Society zine, Minneapa, as well as Stipple-Apa, Tales of the Unanticipated, and others.

Although her intense allergies made it difficult for her to travel, Verba attended many fan conventions, both in the Minneapolis area and further afield. She was co-chair of BlooMN’Con and a guest at Brit Con, and when she could not attend conventions, she would often request that the corresponding pamphlets and programs be sent to her.

While Verba’s involvement in fandom was centered upon Star Trek, she also had an interest in Man from U.N.C.L.E., general science fiction and fantasy, Christian SFF, Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds, and Tolkien. Verba was part of the Mythopoeic Society, which celebrated the worlds of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and attended MythCon many times. She was also attached to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover fandom, which had a unique approach to fan involvement. The author encouraged fans to “play” in the world of Darkover and would publish the results in official anthologies, thus supporting and launching many new writers’ careers, including Verba’s. Verba had three short stories published in anthologies: “This One Time” (1985), “Mind Eater” (1990), and “Invitation to Chaos” (1991). Through her involvement in the Thunderbird fandom, she had six official novelizations published. In her collection can be found many zines and articles about publishing, writing, and editing, both within and without the context of fandom. Verba, who received a bachelor of physics from the University of Minnesota and attended Indiana University to study astronomy, is also the author of several non-fiction science books. She is also a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.