Ted Chiang

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Ted Chiang
Chiang in Madrid, Spain, 2011
Chiang in Madrid, Spain, 2011
Born 1967 (age 50–51)
Port Jefferson, New York
Occupation Fiction writer, technical writer
Nationality American
Education Brown University (BS)
Period 1990–present
Genre Science fiction, fantasy
Notable works Tower of Babylon (1990)
"Story of Your Life" (1998)
Stories of Your Life and Others (2002)

Ted Chiang (born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His Chinese name is Chiang Feng-nan (姜峯楠).

His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and four Locus awards.[1] His short story "Story of Your Life" was the basis of the film Arrival (2016).

Early life and career[edit]

Chiang was born in Port Jefferson, New York.[2] Both of his parents were born in China, but immigrated to Taiwan with their families during the Communist Revolution before immigrating to the United States.[3] He graduated from Brown University with a computer science degree and in 1989 graduated from the Clarion Writers Workshop. As of July 2002, he was working as a technical writer in the software industry and resided in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle.[4]

Critic John Clute has written that Chiang's writing has a "tight-hewn and lucid style... [which] has a magnetic effect on the reader."[5]

Awards[edit]

Chiang has published fifteen short stories, novelettes, and novellas as of 2015, and has won numerous science fiction awards for his works: a Nebula Award for "Tower of Babylon" (1990); the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992; a Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for "Story of Your Life" (1998); a Sidewise Award for "Seventy-Two Letters" (2000); a Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Hugo Award for his novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" (2002); a Nebula and Hugo Award for his novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007); a British Science Fiction Association Award, a Locus Award, and the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Exhalation" (2009); and a Hugo Award[6] and Locus Award for his novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (2010).

Chiang turned down a Hugo nomination for his short story "Liking What You See: A Documentary" in 2003, on the grounds that the story was rushed due to editorial pressure and did not turn out as he had really wanted.[7]

In 2013, his collection of translated stories Die Hölle ist die Abwesenheit Gottes won the German Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for best foreign science fiction.

Year Organization Award title,
Category 		Work Result Refs
1991 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette "Tower of Babylon" Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette Nominated
1992 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "Understand" Nominated
1999 James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council James Tiptree Jr. Award "Story of Your Life" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominated
2000 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novella Won
2001 World Fantasy Convention World Fantasy Award for Best Novella "Seventy-Two Letters" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominated
2002 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" Won
2003 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette Won
James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council James Tiptree Jr. Award "Liking What You See: A Documentary" Nominated
2008 British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award,
Best Short Fiction 		"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" Nominated
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette Won
2009 British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award,
Best Short Fiction 		"Exhalation" Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Short Story Won
2011 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Won
2014 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" Nominated

Republication[edit]

His novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007) was also published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

"The Great Silence" was included in The Best American Short Stories anthology for 2016, which is a rare honor for stories and authors that fall under the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres.

Works[edit]

Collections[edit]

Film[edit]

A film adaptation by Eric Heisserer of "Story of Your Life", titled Arrival and directed by Denis Villeneuve, was released in 2016 to a critical and commercial success. It stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.[8][9]

Teaching[edit]

Chiang was an instructor at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop at UC San Diego in 2012 and 2016.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Chiang's awards, Internet Speculative Fiction Database
  2. ^ "Ted Chiang". Internet Speculative Fiction Database (Summary Bibliography). Retrieved October 4, 2012. 
  3. ^ Rothman, Joshua (January 5, 2017). "Ted Chiang's Soulful Science Fiction". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 7, 2017. 
  4. ^ "An Interview with Ted Chiang". SF Site. July 2002. Retrieved October 4, 2012. 
  5. ^ Chiang, SF Encyclopedia.
  6. ^ "2011 Hugo and Campbell Awards Winners". Locus. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
  7. ^ "Chiang". fantasticmetropolis.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02. 
  8. ^ "Jeremy Renner Joins Amy Adams in Sci-Fi 'Story of Your Life'". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 March 2015. 
  9. ^ Zutter, Natalie (August 8, 2016). "Your First Look at Arrival, the Adaptation of Ted Chiang's Novella Story of Your Life". TOR. tor.com. Retrieved 17 August 2016. 
  10. ^ "Clarion at UC San Diego Graduates and Instructors". Clarion. Retrieved December 9, 2016. 

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ted_Chiang&oldid=856943480"