Kim Stanley Robinson
Bestselling & Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer, Ecologist
Kim Stanley Robinson was born in Waukegan, Illinois, but moved to Orange County, California, when he was two. As a child he loved to play in the orange groves stretching out for miles around his home, so when suburban sprawl began to encroach and the groves were torn out and paved over, the rapid change of modern life hit close to home. It was not until college in 1971 that he would stumble upon new wave science fiction and find in it an expression of that very sense of rapid change that had made such an impression upon him growing up, at which point he knew almost immediately that he would be committed to science fiction from then on.
Robinson’s work has received 11 major awards from the science fiction field, and has been translated into 23 languages. He was one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment" in 2008. He has worked with the U.S. National Science Foundation, and was part of their Antarctic Artists and Writers program in 1995. He was part of the Sequoia Parks Foundation's artist program in 2008. His articles and stories published in Nature, The New York Times, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, New Scientist, and Wired. He was also the Guest of Honor at the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, Melbourne, 2010.
Robinson has lectured at over 100 institutions; lecturing affiliations with University of California, Davis’s Science and Technology Studies program; University of California, San Diego’s Muir College, Sixth College, and Environment and Sustainability Institute; Georgia Institute of Technology’s Science, Culture and Technology program; the Planetary Society; the Mars Institute; the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop Foundation; the Sequoia Parks Foundation.
Robinson enrolled at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) in 1970 and received his B.A. in Literature in 1974. During that time he developed the idea to write a trio of books exploring three different alternative future histories in which southern California had gone down different paths, what became the Orange County Trilogy.
After briefly leaving California to receive an M.A. in English at Boston University in 1975, Robinson returned to UCSD to complete his Ph.D. Though science fiction was something of a "literary ghetto culture" in the academic world, Robinson could not have had a more sympathetic advisor in Fredric Jameson, who suggested that Robinson do his thesis on the works of Philip K. Dick. Robinson agreed to the idea and finished his Ph.D. in 1982, a revised version of which was published in 1984 as The Novels Of Philip K. Dick.
Upon completing his Ph.D. he returned to Davis. He taught freshman composition among other courses at UC Davis, another autobiographical tidbit that would be bestowed upon his fictional alter-ego Jim in 1988's The Gold Coast. Then a few years later, after publishing his first few novels, his wife's post-doctoral work in environmental toxicology took the couple to Switzerland, where they lived for two years, and at which point he began to write full time. Her work also took them to Washington, D.C. Finally, in 1991 they moved back to Davis to buy a house in Village Homes -- a planned community that shares many things in common with the community depicted in his 1990 novel Pacific Edge -- where their second son was born. Robinson is still the stay-at-home parent, giving him plenty of time to write, while his wife continues to work full time as a chemist.
Interested in booking Kim Stanley Robinson to speak at your next event?
Robinson’s work has received 11 major awards from the science fiction field, and has been translated into 23 languages. He was one of Time magazine's "Heroes of the Environment" in 2008. He has worked with the U.S. National Science Foundation, and was part of their Antarctic Artists and Writers program in 1995. He was part of the Sequoia Parks Foundation's artist program in 2008. His articles and stories published in Nature, The New York Times, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The Washington Post, New Scientist, and Wired. He was also the Guest of Honor at the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, Melbourne, 2010.
Robinson has lectured at over 100 institutions; lecturing affiliations with University of California, Davis’s Science and Technology Studies program; University of California, San Diego’s Muir College, Sixth College, and Environment and Sustainability Institute; Georgia Institute of Technology’s Science, Culture and Technology program; the Planetary Society; the Mars Institute; the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop Foundation; the Sequoia Parks Foundation.
Robinson enrolled at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD) in 1970 and received his B.A. in Literature in 1974. During that time he developed the idea to write a trio of books exploring three different alternative future histories in which southern California had gone down different paths, what became the Orange County Trilogy.
After briefly leaving California to receive an M.A. in English at Boston University in 1975, Robinson returned to UCSD to complete his Ph.D. Though science fiction was something of a "literary ghetto culture" in the academic world, Robinson could not have had a more sympathetic advisor in Fredric Jameson, who suggested that Robinson do his thesis on the works of Philip K. Dick. Robinson agreed to the idea and finished his Ph.D. in 1982, a revised version of which was published in 1984 as The Novels Of Philip K. Dick.
Upon completing his Ph.D. he returned to Davis. He taught freshman composition among other courses at UC Davis, another autobiographical tidbit that would be bestowed upon his fictional alter-ego Jim in 1988's The Gold Coast. Then a few years later, after publishing his first few novels, his wife's post-doctoral work in environmental toxicology took the couple to Switzerland, where they lived for two years, and at which point he began to write full time. Her work also took them to Washington, D.C. Finally, in 1991 they moved back to Davis to buy a house in Village Homes -- a planned community that shares many things in common with the community depicted in his 1990 novel Pacific Edge -- where their second son was born. Robinson is still the stay-at-home parent, giving him plenty of time to write, while his wife continues to work full time as a chemist.
Interested in booking Kim Stanley Robinson to speak at your next event?
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