John Varley

John Varley was born in Austin, Texas, and won a National Merit Scholarship to Michigan State University. He originally had plans to be a scientist, but he eventually dropped out. After taking a variety of odd jobs, he decided to become a science fiction writer, and his first sale, "Picnic on Nearside," appeared in the August 1974 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He is now among the most respected science fiction authors in existence. He rose to fame in the 70s and 80s, winning three Hugos and two Nebulas and writing countless novels and short stories. His work is among the most respected there is in the field, yet during the late 80s and most of the 90s he fell into a lull, and produced little aside from the novel Steel Beach (1992) and The Golden Globe (1998). During this period, he worked in Hollywood, and had an office at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio gate. He says that he "made a lot of money" during this period, but he grew disenchanted with Hollywood, and said, "Only one movie resulted from this time, and it was bad: Millennium (1989)."

Varley reportedly takes the entire blame for this. In the early years of the new millennium, he seems to be returning, with new short stories and new novels. His novel Red Thunder was published in 2003, and another, Mammoth, followed in 2005.