, birth_date = , birth_place =

Lanzhou Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province in northwestern China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. His ...

, Gansu, China , occupation = , nationality = American , period = , genre =

Science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

, subject = , movement = , notableworks= * '' The Paper Menagerie'' (2011) * ''The Grace of Kings'' (2015) * ''The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories'' (2016) * ''The Hidden Girl and Other Stories'' (2020) * ''All That We See or Seem'' (2025) , spouse = Lisa Kaiyee Tang Liu , children = , relatives = , influences = , influenced = , awards = *

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

s (×4) *

Locus Award The Locus Awards are an annual set of literary awards voted on by readers of the science fiction and fantasy magazine '' Locus'', a monthly magazine based in Oakland, California. The awards are presented at an annual banquet. Originally a poll ...

s (×3) * FantLab's Awards (×2) *

Nebula Award The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The awards are organized and awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), a nonprofit association of pr ...

(×1) * Sidewise Award (×1) *

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 ...

(×1) , signature = , website = , portaldisp = Kenneth Yukun Liu (born 1976) is an American author of

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

and

. Liu has won multiple Hugo and

Nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

Awards for his fiction, which has appeared in '' F&SF'', ''

Asimov's Science Fiction ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine edited by Sheila Williams and published by Dell Magazines, which is owned by Penny Press. It was launched as a quarterly by Davis Publications in 1977, after obtaining Isaac ...

'', '' Analog'', '' Lightspeed'', ''

Clarkesworld ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' is an American Online magazine, online Fantasy magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine edited by Neil Clarke (editor), Neil Clarke. It released its first issue October 1, 2006, and has maintained a regular monthl ...

'', '' Reactor'', ''

Uncanny Magazine ''Uncanny Magazine'' is an American science fiction magazine, science fiction and Fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy online magazine founded by publishing editors Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas. History First issued in 2014, the pu ...

'' and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies. Liu's debut epic fantasy novel series, ''The Dandelion Dynasty'', is described as silkpunk, a term coined by him to encapsulate the way it blends the material culture and philosophical roots of East Asian antiquity in an alternative vision of modernity. Liu has also written a new scifi thriller series, ''Julia Z'', which features a hacker with a specialty in AI and robotics. In addition to his original fiction, Liu has also translated some notable Chinese SF works into English, winning Hugo Awards for these translations as well.

Childhood and career

Liu was born in 1976 in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. He spent his childhood with his grandparents and credits his grandmother as giving him a lifelong love of storytelling. His mother, who received her Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, is a pharmaceutical chemist, while his father is a computer engineer. Liu immigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old. They lived in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and

Stonington, Connecticut Stonington is a town located on Long Island Sound in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The municipal limits of the town include the borough of Stonington (borough), Connecticut, Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Pa ...

before settling in

Waterford Waterford ( ) is a City status in Ireland, city in County Waterford in the South-East Region, Ireland, south-east of Ireland. It is located within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster. The city is situated at the head of Waterford H ...

, Connecticut. Liu graduated from Waterford High School in 1994, where he ran cross-country and track. At

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

, he studied English Literature and Computer Science, receiving his A. B. in 1998. After graduation, Liu worked as a software engineer for

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and then joined a start-up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

. He later received his J.D. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 2004 and after working as a corporate lawyer, eventually became a high-tech litigation consultant. He became a full-time writer in 2017. Liu began publishing fiction in 2002. His first published work was "Carthaginian Rose", a short story on

mind uploading Mind uploading is a speculative process of whole brain emulation in which a brain scan is used to completely emulate the mental state of the individual in a digital computer. The computer would then run a simulation of the brain's information ...

, part of '' The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology Volume 1''. This story would later become part of the AMC series ''PANTHEON''. Liu has said he wanted to become a writer so he could make stories that “turn values upside down and inside out to gain new perspectives”. In addition to magazines and online publications, Liu's short story fiction has been published in two collections, ''The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories'' (2016), which blends science fiction and fantasy to ask questions about historiography, cultural reinvention, storytelling, and transhumanism, and ''The Hidden Girl and Other Stories'' (2020) which explores ideas such as tradition and progress, the fallibility of memory, and the essence of what it means to be human. After a long career writing and publishing short fiction, Liu turned to an silkpunk epic fantasy series about an alternative vision of how a multi-cultural society can transition into modernity based on both East Asian and Western values, consisting of ''The Grace of Kings'' (2015), ''The Wall of Storms'' (2016), ''The Veiled Throne'' (2021), and ''Speaking Bones'' (2022). He has also written for the ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' universe, including the novel ''The Legends of Luke Skywalker'' (2017), a series of Canterbury-tale like in-universe legends. Along with his original work, Liu has translated the works of several Chinese authors into English, including

Liu Cixin Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...

, Hao Jingfang, Chen Qiufan, Gu Shi, and Xia Jia. His translation of '' The Three Body Problem'' by Liu Cixin became a best seller in English. He has also worked as an editor, with two anthologies of translated Chinese fiction, ''Invisible Planets'' and ''Broken Stars''. His latest translation is a new rendition of ''Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time''. Some of Liu's work have been adapted into visual media. His short story "Memories of My Mother" was the basis of ''Beautiful Dreamer'' (2016) by David Gaddie. His short story "Real Artists" was adapted into the short film ''Real Artists'' (2017) by Cameo Wood. His short story "Good Hunting", which uses steampunk to interrogate the consequences of Western colonialism and Chinese modernity, was adapted into an animated short as part of

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

's '' Love, Death & Robots'' series (2019). Six stories in ''The Hidden Girl and Other Stories'' and "Carthaginian Rose" were adapted by Craig Silverstein into the animated television series '' Pantheon''. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Liu was disturbed by finger-pointing,

jingoism Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national inte ...

, and xenophobia in the face of what he saw as an existential, global threat to all humanity; he began to seek solace in the

Tao Te Ching The ''Tao Te Ching'' () or ''Laozi'' is a Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi, though the text's authorship and date of composition and compilation are debated. The oldest excavated por ...

and subsequently released a new translation of the ancient text, ''Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time'' (2024). His latest work is a series of scifi thrillers, starting with ''All That We See or Seem'' (2025), featuring a young hacker named Julia Z. The series engages with the impact of AI, and in particular its consequences on the arts, the law, and other aspects of everyday life. Liu frequently speaks at conferences, think tanks, and universities on a variety of topics related to the evolving nature of work, machine-augmented creativity, and other aspects of futurism. Liu lives with his family near

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Awards

Liu's short story " The Paper Menagerie" is the first work of fiction, of any length, to win all of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. In addition, his short story, "Mono no aware" won the 2013

, and his novella "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" was also nominated for a Hugo. The first novel in his ''The Dandelion Dynasty'' series, ''The Grace of Kings'', was a 2016

finalist. The novel was the 2016

Best First Novel winner. Besides his original work, Liu's translation of

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

novel '' The Three-Body Problem'' (the first in the ''

Remembrance of Earth's Past ''Remembrance of Earth's Past'' () is a science fiction novel series by Chinese writer Liu Cixin. The series is also popularly referred to as ''Three-Body'' from part of the title of its first novel, ''The Three-Body Problem (novel), The Three- ...

'' trilogy) won the 2015

Hugo Award for Best Novel The Hugo Award for Best Novel is one of the Hugo Awards given each year by the World Science Fiction Society for science fiction or fantasy stories published in, or translated to, English during the previous calendar year. The novel award is ava ...

, making it the first translated novel to have won the award. Liu also translated Hao Jingfang's novelette, "Folding Beijing," which won a Hugo in 2016.

Winner

*2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards, Short Form winner, translation from the Chinese of " The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufan *2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, winner, " The Paper Menagerie" *2012

Hugo Award for Best Short Story The Hugo Award for Best Short Story is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The short story award is available for works of fiction of ...

, winner, " The Paper Menagerie" *2012 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, winner, " The Paper Menagerie" *2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for Best Online Publication in Small Form', winner, " The Paper Menagerie" *2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for Best Translated Novella or Short Story, winner, "Mono no aware" *2013

, winner, "Mono no aware" *2015

, winner, " The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu *2015 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, winner, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009" *2016

for Best First Novel, winner, ''The Grace of Kings'' *2017

for Best Collection, winner, ''The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories'' *2017

for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner, " Death's End" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu

Finalists and nominated

*2011

Nebula Award for Best Novella The Nebula Award for Best Novella is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novellas. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a novella if it is between 17,500 and 4 ...

, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" *2012 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, nominee, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" *2012 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, "The Waves" *2012

, nominee, "All the Flavors" *2012

Theodore Sturgeon Award The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award is an annual literary award presented by the Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas to the author of the best short science fiction story ...

, finalist, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" and " The Paper Menagerie" *2012

for Best Short Story, finalist, " The Paper Menagerie" *2012

Hugo Award for Best Novella The Hugo Award for Best Novella is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novella award is available for works of fiction of between ...

, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" *2013

for Best Short Story, finalist, "Mono no aware" *2013 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, ''The Litigation Master and the Monkey King'' *2013

, finalist, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" and "Mono no aware" *2014

Nebula Award for Best Novel The Nebula Award for Best Novel is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy novels. A work of fiction is considered a novel by the organization if it is 40,000 words or longer; ...

, nominee, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu *2014

, nominee, "The Regular" *2014 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, nominee, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel" *2014

for Best Short Story, finalist, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel" *2015

for Best Novella, finalist, "The Regular" *2015

, finalist, "The Regular" *2017

, finalist, '' Death's End'' by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu *2017

, nominee, ''The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories'', Best Collection *2020 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "Thoughts and Prayers" * 2021: Locus Award for the collection ''The Hidden Girl and Other Stories''

Bibliography

''The Dandelion Dynasty''

# # # #

''A Julia Z Novel''

Franchise novels

Short fiction collections

* *

Short stories

Anthologies (as editor)

* '' Invisible Planets'', Tor Books, November 2016 * '' Broken Stars'', Tor Books, February 2019

Translations

Classics * ''Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time'', May 2023 Full Length Novels * "Vagabonds" by Hao Jingfang, April 2020 * " The Waste Tide" by Chen Qiufan, April 2019 Short works * "Fields of Gold" by

, May 2018 * "The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales" by Fei Dao, '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', April 2017 * "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran

'' Clarkesworld Magazine'', June 2016 * "The Flowers of Shazui" by Chen Qiufan, '' Interzone (magazine), Interzone'', November 2012 * " Taking Care of God" by

br>(online)
'' Pathlight'', March 2012 * "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" by Xia Jiabr>(online)
'' Clarkesworld Magazine'', February 2012 * "The City of Silence" by Ma Boyong * "The Mark Twain Robots" by Ma Boyong, TRSF (September 2011), a special publication of MIT's ''Technology Review'' * "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufanbr>(online)
'' Clarkesworld Magazine'', August 2011 *"Gathered in Translation", an essay on the process and subtleties of translating Chinese SF to English, and the reverse
online
at '' Clarkesworld Magazine'', April 2013 ;''

'' Series * Book 1: '' The Three-Body Problem'', Tor Books, November 2014 (originally the

novel ''Three Body'', 三体, 2008, by

) * Book 3: '' Death's End'', Tor Books, September 2016 by Liu Cixin (originally the

novel ''Death's End'', 死神永生, 2010 by Liu Cixin) * Book 4: '' The Redemption of Time'', Tor Books, 2019 by Baoshu (originally a Chinese fanfic by Li Jun that was regularized by the original publisher Chongqing Press and series creator Cixin Liu; and published in 2011)

Liu's works in translation

Many of Liu's short stories have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and multiple other languages and published in short story collections: ;Chinese * 爱的算法 ("Algorithms for Love and Others"), published by SFW Publishing, September 5, 2012 * 思维的形状 ("The Shape of Thought and Others"), published by

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

Press, November 11, 2014 * 杀敌算法 ("In the Loop and Others"), published by SFW Publishing, March, 2015 * 奇点遗民 ("Staying Behind")，published by CITIC, 2017 ;Japanese * 紙の動物園 (" The Paper Menagerie"), published by Hayakawa, edited by 古沢嘉通 (Yoshimichi Furusawa), April 2015 ;French * La Ménagerie de papier (" The Paper Menagerie") published by Editions du Bélial, edited by Ellen Herzfeld and Dominique Martel, 2015. * Jardins de poussière ("Dust Gardens") published by Editions du Bélial, edited by Ellen Herzfeld and Dominique Martel, 2019. ;Spanish * El zoo de papel y otros relatos (" The Paper Menagerie") published by Runas, Alianza Editorial, edited by María Pilar San Román Navarro, 2017.

Filmography

Television

'' Pantheon'' is an animated television series based on Liu's sci-fi short stories "The Gods Will Not Be Chained", "The Gods Will Not Be Slain", "The Gods Have Not Died in Vain", "Staying Behind" and "Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" from the short fictions collection ''The Hidden Girl and Other Stories''. It premiered on

AMC+ AMC+ is an American subscription video on demand streaming service owned by AMC Networks that was launched on June 11, 2020. The service is a premium bundle that includes the live feeds and program libraries of the company's television networks ...

in 2022.

References

External links

* *
" Liu, Ken"
(''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (''SFE'') is an English language reference work on science fiction, first published in 1979. It has won the Hugo Award, Hugo, Locus Award, Locus and BSFA Award, British SF Awards. Two print editions appea ...

''; by Jonathan Clements) {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Ken 1976 births Living people American male novelists American male poets American male short story writers American science fiction writers American short story writers American speculative fiction translators American writers of Chinese descent Analog Science Fiction and Fact people Asimov's Science Fiction people Chinese–English translators Harvard College alumni Harvard Law School alumni Hugo Award–winning writers Nebula Award winners Sidewise Award winners World Fantasy Award–winning writers Writers from Gansu People from Lanzhou Chinese emigrants to the United States Writers from Connecticut