Michael Swanwick (born November 18, 1950) is an American

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, ...

and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s.

Writing career

Swanwick's fiction writing began with short stories, starting in 1980 when he published "Ginungagap" in '' TriQuarterly'' and "The Feast of St. Janis" in ''New Dimensions 11''. Both stories were nominees for the

Nebula Award for Best Short Story The Nebula Award for Best Short Story is a literary award assigned each year by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) for science fiction or fantasy short stories. A work of fiction is defined by the organization as a short sto ...

in 1981. His first novel was '' In the Drift'' (an Ace Special, 1985), a look at the results of a more catastrophic Three Mile Island incident, which expands on his earlier short story "Mummer's Kiss". This was followed in 1987 by '' Vacuum Flowers'', an adventurous tour of an inhabited Solar System, where the people of Earth have been subsumed by a cybernetic mass-mind. Some characters’ bodies contain multiple personalities, which can be recorded and edited (or damaged) as if they were wetware. In the 1990s, Swanwick moved towards the intersection between

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

magical realism Magical realism, magic realism, or marvelous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while incorporating magical elements, often blurring the lines between speculation and reality. ''Magical rea ...

. ''

Stations of the Tide ''Stations of the Tide'' is a science fiction novel by American author Michael Swanwick. Prior to being published in book form in 1991, it was serialized in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' in two parts, starting in mid-December 1990. ...

'' (1991) is the story of a bureaucrat's pursuit of a magician on a world soon to be altered by its 50-year tide swell; it is set far in the future, blurring the line between magic and technology. '' The Iron Dragon's Daughter'' (1993) is a fantasy set in a

Fairyland Fairyland (Early Modern English: ''Faerie''; ( Scottish mythology; cf. (Norse mythology)) in English and Scottish folklore is the fabulous land or abode of fairies or ''fays''. Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of ...

based on modern America, with elves wearing Armani suits and dragons serving as jet fighters. The main character, a

changeling A changeling, also historically referred to as an auf or oaf, is a human-like creature found throughout much of European folklore. According to folklore, a changeling was a substitute left by a supernatural being when kidnapping a human being. ...

stolen from the real world, struggles to survive a factory, a high school, and a university, all the while being manipulated by a dragon. In '' Jack Faust'' (1997), a retelling of the

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

legend, the scholar does not gain magical power but modern scientific knowledge with which he begins the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

centuries early. In the 2000s, Swanwick wrote several series of

flash fiction Flash fiction is a brief fictional narrative that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the For sale: baby shoes, never worn, six-word story; the 280-character story (also kn ...

s, beginning with '' Puck Aleshire's Abecedary'', a collection of 26 stories, each titled for a different letter of the alphabet. Other series included '' The Periodic Table of Science Fiction'', 118 stories each themed about a different chemical element. These were originally published in Sci Fiction. Later, ''The Infinite Matrix'' published ''The Sleep of Reason'', in which each story was based on one of

Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, an ...

’s '' caprichos''. In this period, he won several awards for short fiction; between 1999 and 2003, he had nine stories shortlisted for the

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 ...

, and won in 1999, 2000, and 2002. He also continued to write novels. '' Bones of the Earth'' (2002) is a

time travel Time travel is the hypothetical activity of traveling into the past or future. Time travel is a concept in philosophy and fiction, particularly science fiction. In fiction, time travel is typically achieved through the use of a device known a ...

story involving

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s. '' The Dragons of Babel'' (2008) is set in the same world as ''The Iron Dragon's Daughter'', although the setting and characters are different; ''The Iron Dragon's Mother'' (2019) was a third volume in the series. He has written two novels featuring the

posthuman Posthuman or post-human is a concept originating in the fields of science fiction, futurology, contemporary art, and philosophy that means a person or entity that exists in a state beyond being human. The concept aims at addressing a variety of ...

rogues Darger and Surplus, who had already appeared in short stories: ''Dancing with Bears'' (2011) concerns their adventures in post-Utopian Russia, and in “Chasing the Phoenix” (2015) they travel to China. After Gardner Dozois's death, Swanwick completed his unfinished novel ''City Under the Stars''. His many works of short fiction have been collected in ''

Gravity's Angels ''Gravity's Angels'' is a collection of science fiction stories by American writer Michael Swanwick. It was released in 1991, and was the author's first book published by Arkham House. It was published in an edition of 4,119 copies. The stories or ...

'' (1991), '' Moon Dogs'' (2000), ''Tales of Old Earth'' (2000), and others. A novella, ''Griffin's Egg'', was published in book form in 1991 and is also collected in ''Moon Dogs''. He has collaborated with other authors on several short works, including

Gardner Dozois Gardner Raymond Dozois ( ; July 23, 1947 – May 27, 2018) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of '' The Year's Best Science Fiction'' anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of '' Asimov's Science Fict ...

("Ancestral Voices", "City of God", "Snow Job") and

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ear ...

Dogfight A dogfight, or dog fight, is an air combat manoeuvring, aerial battle between fighter aircraft that is conducted at close range. Modern terminology for air-to-air combat is air combat manoeuvring (ACM), which refers to tactical situations requir ...

"). ''Stations of the Tide'' won the

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 ...

for best novel in 1991, and several of his shorter works have won awards as well: the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for "The Edge of the World" in 1989, the World Fantasy Award for "

Radio Waves Radio waves (formerly called Hertzian waves) are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the lowest frequencies and the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies below 300 gigahertz (GHz) and wavelengths ...

" in 1996, and Hugos for " The Very Pulse of the Machine" in 1999, " Scherzo with Tyrannosaur" in 2000, "

The Dog Said Bow-Wow "The Dog Said Bow-Wow" is a science fiction short story by American writer Michael Swanwick, published in 2001. It won the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Short Story and was nominated for the 2002 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. ''The Dog Said Bow ...

" in 2002, " Slow Life" in 2003, and "Legions in Time" in 2004.

Nonfiction writing

Swanwick has written about the field as well. He published two long essays on the state of the science fiction ("The User's Guide to the Postmoderns", 1986) and fantasy ("In the Tradition...", 1994), the former of which was controversial for its categorization of new SF writers into "cyberpunk" and "literary humanist" camps. Both essays were collected together in ''The Postmodern Archipelago'' 1997. A book-length interview with Gardner Dozois, '' Being Gardner Dozois'', was published in 2001. He is a prolific contributor to the New York Review of Science Fiction. Swanwick wrote a monograph on

James Branch Cabell James Branch Cabell (; April 14, 1879 – May 5, 1958) was an American author of fantasy fiction and ''belles-lettres''. Cabell was well-regarded by his contemporaries, including H. L. Mencken, Edmund Wilson, and Sinclair Lewis. His work ...

, ''What Can Be Saved From the Wreckage?'', which was published in 2007 with a preface by

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (17 February 1934 – 22 April 2023) was an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He was best known for writing and playing his stage and television characters Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He appeare ...

, and a short

literary biography When studying literature, biography and its relationship to literature is often a subject of literary criticism, and is treated in several different forms. Two scholarly approaches use biography or biographical approaches to the past as a tool for ...

of Hope Mirrlees, ''Hope-in-the-Mist'', which was published in 2009.

Television and film

Swanwick's short stories "Ice Age" and "The Very Pulse of the Machine" from ''Tales of Old Earth'' were adapted for the Netflix series '' Love, Death + Robots'' (2019) for its first and third seasons respectively.

Personal life

Swanwick thanks his wife, Marianne C. Porter, in all his books, referring to her as "the M. C. Porter Endowment for the Arts". He was a friend of

and Susan Caspar for many years. From this friendship grew ''Being Gardner Dozois'' and several collaborations, including the novel ''City Under the Stars''.

Awards

Bibliography

Novels

* ''In the Drift'' (1985) * '' Vacuum Flowers'' (1987) * ''

'' (1991) * '' Jack Faust'' (1997) * '' Bones of the Earth'' (2002) * ''City Under the Stars'' (2020), with

; Iron Dragon's Daughter series * '' The Iron Dragon's Daughter'' (1993) * '' The Dragons of Babel'' (2008) * ''The Iron Dragon's Mother'' (2019) ; Darger and Surplus series * ''Dancing With Bears'' (2011) * ''Chasing the Phoenix'' (2015)

Short fiction

; Collections * ''

'' ( Arkham House Publishers, 1991) * ''A Geography of Unknown Lands'' (1997) * '' Moon Dogs'' (2000) * '' Puck Aleshire's Abecedary'' (2000) * ''Tales of Old Earth'' ( Tachyon Publications, 2000) * ''Cigar-Box Faust and Other Miniatures'' (Tachyon Publications, 2003) * ''Michael Swanwick's Field Guide to the Mesozoic Megafauna'' (Tachyon Publications, 2004) * '' The Periodic Table of Science Fiction'' (2005) * ''

'' (Tachyon Publications, 2007) * ''The Best of Michael Swanwick'' (2008) * ''It Came Upon a Midnight: Three Brief Midwinter Tales'' (2011) * ''Midwinter Elves: Three Brief Midwinter Tales'' (2012) * ''Solstice Fire'' (2013) * ''Season's Greetings'' (2014) * ''Not So Much, Said the Cat'' (Tachyon Publications, 2016) * ''The Best of Michael Swanwick: Volume Two'' (2023) ;StoriesShort stories unless otherwise noted. * ''The Feast of Saint Janis'' (1980) (Novelette) * ''Ginungagap'' (1980) (Novelette) * ''Walden Three'' (1981) (Novelette) * ''Touring'' (1981) (with

Jack Dann Jack Dann (born February 15, 1945) is an American writer best known for his science fiction, as well as an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, the majority being as editor or c ...

and

) * ''Til Human Voices Wake Us'' (1981) (Novelette) * ''Mummer's Kiss'' (1981) (Novelette) * ''The Man Who Met Picasso'' (1982) * ''Golden Apples of the Sun'' (1984) (with Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois) (Novelette) * ''Ice Age'' (1984) * ''Afternoon at Schrafft's'' (1984) (with Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois) * ''Virgin Territory'' (1984) (with Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois) (Novelette) * ''When the Music's Over...'' (1984) * ''Trojan Horse'' (1984) (Novelette) * ''Marrow Death'' (1984) (Novella) * ''The Transmigration of Philip K.'' (1985) * ''The Gods of Mars'' (1985) (with

and

) * ''

'' (1985) (Novelette) (with

) * ''The Blind Minotaur'' (1985) * ''Anyone Here From Utah?'' (1985) * ''Snow Job'' (1985) (with Gardner Dozois) * ''Covenant of Souls'' (1986) * ''Foresight'' (1987) * ''The Overcoat'' (1988) * ''The Dragon Line'' (1988) * ''A Midwinter's Tale'' (1988) * ''Snow Angels'' (1989) (Novelette) * ''The Edge of the World'' (1989) * ''U.F.O.'' (1990) * ''Griffen's Egg'' (1991) (Novella) * ''Fantasies'' (1991) (with Tom Sullivan) * ''The Wireless Folly'' (1992) * ''In Concert'' (1992) * ''Picasso Deconstructed: Eleven Still-Lifes'' (1993) * ''Cold Iron'' (1993) (Novella) * ''The Changeling's Tale'' (1994) * ''The Mask'' (1994) * ''Walking Out'' (1995) * ''North of Diddy-Wah-Diddy'' (1995) (Novelette) * ''Radio Waves'' (1995) (Novelette) * ''The City of God'' (1995) (with Gardner Dozois) (Novella) * ''Ships'' (1996) (with Jack Dann) (Novelette) * ''An Abecedary of the Imagination'' (1996) * ''Mother Grasshopper'' (1997) * ''The Wisdom of Old Earth'' (1997) * ''Midnight Express'' (1998) * ''Wild Minds'' (1998) * ''120 is for Issues'' (1998) * ''Ancestral Voices'' (1998) (with Gardner Dozois) (Novella) * ''Microcosmic Dog'' (1998) * ''Archaic Planets: Nine Excerpts from the Encyclopedia Galactica'' (1998) (with Sean Swanwick) * '' The Dead'' (1996) * '' The Very Pulse of the Machine'' (1998) * '' Radiant Doors'' (1999) * '' Ancient Engines'' (1999) * '' Scherzo with Tyrannosaur'' (1999) * ''Green Fire'' (1999) (with Andy Duncan, Eileen Gunn & Pat Murphy) (Novelette) * ''Riding the Giganotosaur'' (1999) * ''Mickelrede; or, The Slayer and the Staff: A Ghost-Novel'' (2000) (with Avram Davidson) * ''The Madness of Gordon Van Gelder'' (2000) * ''Letter to the Editor'' (2001) * ''

'' (2001) * ''Five British Dinosaurs'' (2002) * ''A Great Day for Brontosaurs'' (2002) * '' 'Hello,' Said the Stick'' (2002) * ''Dirty Little War'' (2002) * '' Slow Life'' (2002) (Novelette) * ''King Dragon'' (2003) (Novelette) * '' Legions in Time'' (2003) (Novelette) * ''Smoke and Mirrors: Four Scenes from the Post-Utopian Future'' (2003) * ''A Bicentinial Minute'' (2003) * ''Bastards'' (2003) * ''Ether'' (2003) * ''Glass Soul'' (2003) * ''Stage Direction'' (2003) * ''Xeroxing'' (2003) * ''Coyote at the end of History'' (2003) * ''Deep in the Woods of Grammarie'' (2003) * ''The Last Geek'' (2004) * ''The Word that Sings the Scythe'' (2004) (Novelette) * ''Triceritops Summer'' (2005) * ''The Bordello in Faerie'' (2006) * ''An Episode of Stardust'' (2006) * ''Lord Weary's Empire'' (2006) (Novella) * ''Tin Marsh'' (2006) (Novelette) * ''Urdumheim'' (2007) (Novelette) * ''A Small Room in Koboldtown'' (2007) * ''Congratulations from the Future!'' (2007) * ''The End of All Things'' (2007) * ''The Mental Dagueereotype'' (2007) (with Anthony Trollope) * ''The Skysailor's Tale'' (2007) (Novelette) * ''The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport'' (2008) - a Darger and Surplus tale * ''From Babel's Fall'n Glory We Fled...'' (2008) * ''Shed that Guilt! Double Your Productivity Overnight!'' (2008) (with Eileen Gunn) * ''The Scarecrow's Boy'' (2008) * ''Hush and Hark'' (2008) * ''Metasciencefiction'' (2008) * ''The Armies of Elfland'' (2009) (with Eileen Gunn) (Novelette) * ''The Magaracs: A Family Saga, in Fragments'' (2009) * ''Zeppelin City'' (2011) (with Eileen Gunn) (Novelette) * ''Last Drink Bird Head'' (2009) * ''Invisibility for Beginners'' (2009) * ''Goblin Lake'' (2010) * ''Steadfast Castle'' (2010) * ''Spirits in the Night'' (2010) * ''Libertarian Russia'' (2010) * ''The Trains that Climb the Winter Tree'' (2011) (with Eileen Gunn) (Novelette) * ''Manger Animals'' (2011) * ''Mrs. Claus'' (2011) * ''Snowflake People'' (2011) * ''The Brain Baron'' (2011) * ''Cold Reading'' (2011) * ''An Empty House with Many Doors'' (2011) * ''The Man in Grey'' (2011) * ''For I Have Lain Me Down on the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again'' (2011) *"The Dala Horse" (2011) (Novelette), 3 "Best of" reprints * ''Adam's Third Wife'' (2012) * ''Cookie Elves'' (2012) * ''Meryons'' (2012) * ''Pushkin the American'' (2012) * ''The Woman Who Shook the World-Tree'' (2012) * ''The Year of the Three Monarchs'' (2012) * ''Tumbling'' (2013) * ''Bone-Fire Time'' (2013) * ''Interview with a Salamander'' (2013) * ''Mice Discover Fire'' (2013) * ''Ministering Angels'' (2014) * ''One Mile Below'' (2014) * ''Santas of All Nations'' (2014) * ''Straws'' (2014) * ''Of Finest Scarlett Was Her Gown'' (2014) (Novelette) * ''Passage of Earth'' (2014) * ''Six Untitled Tales Written in Mark Twain's Library'' (2014) * ''3 A.M. in the Mesozoic Bar'' (2014) * ''Lock Up Your Chickens and Daughters - H'ard and Andy Are Come to Town'' (2015) (with Gregory Frost) (Novelette) * ''Universe Box'' (2016) (Novelette) * ''Starlight Express'' (2017) * ''Eighteen Songs by Debussy'' (2019) * ''Ghost Ships'' (2019) * ''Cloud'' (2019) * ''Dragon Slayer'' (2020) * ''Artificial People'' (2020) * ''The Last Days of Old Night'' (2020) * ''Dream Atlas'' (2021) * ''Dreadnought'' (2021) * ''Huginn and Muninn - and What Came After'' (2021) * ''The Beast of Tara'' (2022) * ''The White Leopard'' (2022) * ''Nirvana or Bust'' (2022) * ''Reservoir Ice'' (2022) * ''The Star-Bear'' (2023) * ''Timothy: An Oral Histroy'' (2023) * ''Unquiet Graves'' (2024) * The Mongolian Wizard series **" The Mongolian Wizard" (2012)The Mongolian Wizard
at

Tor.com ''Reactor'', formerly ''Tor.com'', is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on specul ...

**"The Fire Gown" (2012) **"Day of the Kraken" (2012) **"House of Dreams" (2013) **"The Night of the Salamander" (2015) **"The Pyramid of Krakow" (2015) **"The Phantom in the Maze" (2015) **"Murder in the Spook House" (2019) **"The New Prometheus" (2019) **"Halcyon Afternoon" (2024) **"Dragons of Paris" (2024) ;Poems * ''Hooray for Eileen!'' (1994) * ''Cigar-Box Faust'' (2003)

Non-Fiction

* ''The Postmodern Archipelago'' (1997) * ''Being Gardner Dozois: An Interview by Michael Swanwick'' (2001) * ''What Can Be Saved from the Wreckage?: James Branch Cabell in the Twenty-First Century'' (2007) * ''Hope-in-the-Mist: The Extraordinary Career and Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees'' (2009) * ''October Leaves'' (2010) * ''Hunting the Phoenix'' (2015) * ''Being Gardner Dozois'' (2018) (with Gardner Dozois) * She Saved Us From World War Three': Gardner Dozois Remembers James Tiptree, Jr.'' (2020)

Critical studies and reviews of Swanwick's work

;''Chasing the Phoenix'' * ——————— ;Notes

References

External links

Swanwick's weblog
*

at Free Speculative Fiction Online
"October Leaves"
a photo-story at

Flickr Flickr ( ) is an image hosting service, image and Online video platform, video hosting service, as well as an online community, founded in Canada and headquartered in the United States. It was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and was previously a co ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanwick, Michael 1950 births 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American short story writers American alternate history writers American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American male short story writers American science fiction writers American speculative fiction writers Asimov's Science Fiction people Cyberpunk writers Dark fantasy writers Hugo Award–winning writers Living people The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction people Magic realism writers Nebula Award winners American science fiction critics Surrealist writers American weird fiction writers World Fantasy Award–winning writers Novelists from Philadelphia Writers of fiction set in prehistoric times Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age