Ken Liu

Ken Liu (born 1976) is an American science-fiction and fantasy writer, poet, lawyer, and computer programmer. His short stories have appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and other venues, including multiple "Year's Best" anthologies edited by Dozois, Strahan, Hartwell, Horton, Guran, and others. He is also a translator of science fiction and literary stories from Chinese into English.

His short story "The Paper Menagerie" is the first work of fiction, of any length, to have swept the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. His short story, "Mono no aware" won the 2013 Hugo, and his novella "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" was also nominated for a Hugo. His translation of the novel The Three-Body Problem won the 2015 Hugo Award, the first translated novel in history to win that honor.

Liu's debut novel, The Grace of Kings, was released on April 7, 2015.

Biography

Liu was born in 1976 in Lanzhou, China, and immigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old, initially living in Palo Alto, California, and later moving to Waterford, Connecticut. Liu earned his A.B. in English from Harvard College and worked in the technology field for several years before earning his J.D. at Harvard Law School and entering the field of tax law. More recently, he has switched to a career as a litigation consultant in technology cases, where he can use both his legal and technology skills. He currently lives in Massachusetts with his wife Lisa Tang Liu and their two daughters.