About the Author

Elizabeth Moon grew up in South Texas, a few miles from the Mexican border, giving her early experience with major cultural differences and leading to a lifelong fascination with how culture shapes individuals and how they adapt (or don't) to new experiences. She has degrees in both history (Rice University) with several courses in geology and cultural anthropology on the side, and biology (University of Texas). She served three years active duty in the Marine Corps between the two degrees, doing systems design and programming on mainframes. After her second degree, she did graduate work in biology at The University of Texas at San Antonio, looking at the effect of environmental halocarbons on membrane function. She married her husband while both were in the military; they have one adult son.

Moon's first fiction sale came in 1985, and by the time her first novel sold, in 1988, she had a string of stories in ANALOG and FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION. She continues to go back and forth between science fiction and fantasy. So far, as of January 2016, she has 26 novels in print, and has published 50 shorter works in various magazines and anthologies. Awards include the Compton Crook Award for best first novel in 1989, finalist for the Hugo in 1997, and the Nebula Award for best novel with THE SPEED OF DARK in 2003 (also short-listed for the Clarke Award.) Most of her science fiction includes consideration of cultural interactions and the social/political/economic effects of new technology (life extension technology in the Serrano/Suiza books, and human-modification and communications in the Vatta's War series.)

When not writing, Moon enjoys photographing wildlife and native plants, singing in a choir, cooking for friends and family, drawing, reading, knitting, and lying in a hammock pretending to be plotting the next book. Her main science interests still lie in biology, medicine, space exploration, and earth sciences. Other nonfiction reading explores military science, history, cognitive anthropology, and topics related to particular books. Despite a busy writing schedule, she manages to read several articles a week in the journals she and her husband subscribe to.

Contents of these pages © 2016 Elizabeth Moon