He was also a managing editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction from 1988 to 1993, for which he was nominated for the Hugo Award a number of times.

In 2015, Van Gelder stepped down as editor of Fantasy & Science Fiction in favor of Charles Coleman Finlay, but remains publisher of the magazine.

After graduating from Princeton University (where he edited a science fiction magazine called Infinity), Van Gelder started working as an editorial assistant at St. Martin's Press in 1988, later rising to full editor.

During his tenure, F&SF became the second longest-running science fiction magazine, surpassing Amazing Stories in total number of issues published.

In 2011, OR Books released an anthology edited by Van Gelder, Welcome to the Greenhouse: Science Fiction on Climate Change, with an introduction by journalist Elizabeth Kolbert.