Christopher Brown is an American author, who is known for writing science fiction and nature-focused nonfiction.
His first novel, ''Tropic of Kansas'', was published in 2017 by
Harper Voyager
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is h ...
, and was a finalist for the 2018
John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, or Campbell Memorial Award, was an annual award presented to the author of the best science fiction novel published in English in the preceding calendar year. It was given by s ...
of the year. ''Tropic of Kansas'' tells the story of a brother and sister traveling across an ecologically damaged United States during a period of political unrest.
His work frequently focuses on issues at the nexus of technology, politics, economics and ecology. His short fiction and criticism have been published in a variety of anthologies and magazines, including ''MIT Technology Review’s Twelve Tomorrows'', ''LitHub'', ''Tor.com'', ''Reckoning'', and ''The Baffler''.
He was a 2013
World Fantasy Award
The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...
nominee for the anthology he co-edited, ''Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic''.
His novel ''Rule of Capture'', a speculative legal thriller about a lawyer defending an accused eco-terrorist, was published by
Harper Voyager
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is h ...
in 2019. The sequel, ''Failed State'', follows the further escapades of defense lawyer Donny Kimoe as he appears before a post-revolutionary truth and reconciliation tribunal, and was nominated for the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award.
In 2020 Brown began writing a weekly newsletter about urban nature and wildlife, ''Field Notes'', and his new narrative nonfiction book drawing on the same material, ''A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys and other Wild Places'', is slated for publication by Timber Press in September 2024.
Before 2012, Brown wrote under the name Chris Nakashima-Brown.
Brown lives in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
, where he is a member of the
Turkey City Writer's Workshop Turkey City Writer's Workshop is a peer-to-peer, professional science fiction writer's workshop in Texas. Founded in 1973 and still ongoing today, it was consciously modeled after the east coast Milford Writer's Workshop.Official website