Robert J. Sawyer

Science Fiction Writer Robert J. Sawyer is one of only seven writers ever to win all three of the science-fiction field’s top awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo (which he won in 2003 for Hominids), the Nebula (which he won in 1996 for The Terminal Experiment), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won in 2006 for Mindscan). His other novels include Starplex, Frameshift, Factoring Humanity, Calculating God, Humans, and Rollback, all of which were Hugo finalists; in total he’s authored 20 novels. His latest is Wake, first of his WWW trilogy; the second volume, Watch, comes out in April 2010. The ABC TV series FlashForward is based on his Aurora Award-winning novel of the same name, and he serves as consultant on the TV series.

Rob has been called “the dean of Canadian science fiction” (by The Ottawa Citizen) and “just about the best science fiction writer out there” (by the Denver Rocky Mountain News). SF Site says he has “undoubtedly cemented his reputation as one of the foremost science fiction writers of our generation,” and The New York Review of Science Fiction calls him “a gentle giant of a writer.”

In 2008, Rob won China’s Galaxy Award, that country’s top honor in SF, for “Most Popular Foreign Author.” He’s won Japan’s top SF award, the Seiun, for best foreign novel three times, and Spain’s 6,000-euro Premio UPC de Ciencia Ficción an unprecedented three times as well. In addition, he’s won Analog’s Analytical Laboratory Award, the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award, and Science Fiction Chronicle’s Reader Award, all for best short story of the year.

Rob frequently gives keynote addresses on futurism topics for such clients as the Federation of State Medical Boards, Sanofi-Aventis, CA (Computer Associates), and the Canadian Public Relations Society. He has made over 500 radio and TV appearances (including NPR’s Science Friday and CNBC’s Rivera Live with Geraldo Rivera). He’s taught writing at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, the Banff Centre, and the Odyssey Workshop, and been writer-in-residence at The Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy and at the Canadian Light Source, Canada’s national synchrotron. Rob is the science-fiction editor for Canadian publisher Fitzhenry & Whiteside (with his own eponymous imprint, Robert J. Sawyer Books). Quill & Quire, the Canadian publishing trade journal, recently named him one of “the 30 most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing.”

He was the first science fiction author to have a website, was a pioneer of giving away fiction online (doing so since 1995), had a blog even before the word “blog” existed, tweets as RobertJSawyer, and is active on Facebook, But he’s even more fun in the flesh, so come up and say hello.