Ted Chiang

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Ted Chiang
Chiang in 2011
Chiang in 2011
Born1967 (age 53–54)
Port Jefferson, New York
OccupationFiction writer, technical writer
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationBrown University (BS)
Period1990–present
GenreScience fiction, fantasy
Notable worksTower of Babylon (1990)
Story of Your Life (1998)
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (2007)
Stories of Your Life and Others (2002)
Exhalation: Stories (2019)
Ted Chiang
Traditional Chinese姜峯楠
Simplified Chinese姜峰楠

Ted Chiang (born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and four Locus awards.[1] His short story Story of Your Life was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). He is also an artist in residence at the University of Notre Dame.[2]

Early life and career[]

Chiang was born in 1967 in Port Jefferson, New York.[3] Both of his parents were born in China and immigrated to Taiwan with their families during the Chinese Communist Revolution before immigrating to the United States.[4] His Chinese name is Chiang Feng-nan (姜峯楠). He graduated from Brown University with a computer science degree. He had been submitting stories to magazines since high school and after attending the Clarion Writers Workshop in 1989 he sold his first story, "The Tower of Babylon", to the Omni science magazine.[5]

As of July 2002, he was working as a technical writer in the software industry and resided in Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle.[6]

Chiang was an instructor at the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop at UC San Diego in 2012 and 2016.[7]

Reception[]

Critic John Clute has written that Chiang's work has a "tight-hewn and lucid style... [which] has a magnetic effect on the reader".[8] Chiang has commented on "metacognition, or thinking about one’s own thinking" being something most humans, but neither animals nor current AI, are capable of. He has also commented on the lack of competition or regulation on some major tech companies.[9]

Awards[]

Chiang has published seventeen short stories, novelettes, and novellas as of 2019, and has won numerous science fiction awards for his works: a Nebula Award for "Tower of Babylon" (1990); the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992; a Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for "Story of Your Life" (1998); a Sidewise Award for "Seventy-Two Letters" (2000); a Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Hugo Award for his novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" (2002); a Nebula and Hugo Award for his novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007); a British Science Fiction Association Award, a Locus Award, and the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Exhalation" (2009); and a Hugo Award[10] and Locus Award for his novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (2010).

Chiang turned down a Hugo nomination for his short story "Liking What You See: A Documentary" in 2003, on the grounds that the story was rushed due to editorial pressure and did not turn out as he had really wanted.[11]

In 2013, his collection of translated stories Die Hölle ist die Abwesenheit Gottes won the German Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for best foreign science fiction.

Year Organization Award title, category Work Result Refs
1991 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette "Tower of Babylon" Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette Nominated
1992 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "Understand" Nominated
1999 James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council James Tiptree Jr. Award "Story of Your Life" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominated
2000 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novella Won
2001 World Fantasy Convention World Fantasy Award for Best Novella "Seventy-Two Letters" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominated
2002 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" Won
2003 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette Won
James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award Council James Tiptree Jr. Award "Liking What You See: A Documentary" Nominated
2008 British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award,
Best Short Fiction 		"The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" Nominated
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novelette Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette Won
2009 British Science Fiction Association BSFA Award,
Best Short Fiction 		"Exhalation" Won
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Short Story Won
2011 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Won
2014 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling" Nominated
2017 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form Arrival Won
2019 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award for Best Novella "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom" Nominated
2020 World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novella Nominated
World Science Fiction Society Hugo Award for Best Novelette "Omphalos" Nominated

Republication[]

His novelette The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (2007) was also published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The Great Silence[12] was included in The Best American Short Stories anthology for 2016.

Works[]

Short stories[]

Collections[]

Film[]

Main article: Arrival (film)

The screenwriter Eric Heisserer adapted Chiang's story "Story of Your Life" into the 2016 film Arrival. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, the film stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.[24][25]

Personal life[]

As of 2016, Chiang lives in Bellevue, Washington with his partner, Marcia Glover.[26]

References[]

  1. ^ Chiang's awards, Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
  2. ^ "Ted Chiang". Institute for Advanced Study, University of Notre Dame. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Ted Chiang". Internet Speculative Fiction Database (Summary Bibliography). Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  4. ^ Rothman, Joshua (January 5, 2017). "Ted Chiang's Soulful Science Fiction". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  5. ^ "The Legendary Ted Chiang on Seeing His Stories Adapted and the Ever-Expanding Popularity of SF". Electric Literature. July 18, 2016.
  6. ^ "An Interview with Ted Chiang". SF Site. July 2002. Retrieved October 4, 2012.
  7. ^ "Clarion at UC San Diego Graduates and Instructors". Clarion. Archived from the original on 2008-04-27. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  8. ^ Chiang, SF Encyclopedia.
  9. ^ "Silicon Valley Is Turning Into Its Own Worst Fear". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  10. ^ "2011 Hugo and Campbell Awards Winners". Locus. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  11. ^ "Chiang". fantasticmetropolis.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-02.
  12. ^ "The Great Silence by Ted Chiang". Electric Literature. October 12, 2016.
  13. ^ "Fantastic Metropolis » Division by Zero". 2011-11-21. Archived from the original on 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  14. ^ "Understand - a novelette by Ted Chiang". 2014-05-27. Archived from the original on 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  15. ^ Chiang, Ted (June 2000). "Catching crumbs from the table". Nature. 405 (6786): 517. doi:10.1038/35014679. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 10850694.
  16. ^ "Seventy-Two Letters by Ted Chiang". Archived from the original on 2001-08-02. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  17. ^ Chiang, Ted (July 2005). "What's expected of us". Nature. 436 (7047): 150. doi:10.1038/436150a. ISSN 1476-4687.
  18. ^ "Fantasy and Science Fiction: Fiction". 2008-02-14. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  19. ^ "Exhalation". Lightspeed Magazine. 2014-04-29. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  20. ^ "Subterranean Press Fiction: The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang". 2018-06-07. Archived from the original on 2018-06-07. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  21. ^ "The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang — Subterranean Press". 2014-02-22. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  22. ^ "e-flux journal 56th Venice Biennale — SUPERCOMMUNITY – The Great Silence". e-flux Supercommunity. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  23. ^ "Exhalation by Ted Chiang". Penguin Random House.
  24. ^ "Jeremy Renner Joins Amy Adams in Sci-Fi 'Story of Your Life'". The Hollywood Reporter. 6 March 2015.
  25. ^ Zutter, Natalie (August 8, 2016). "Your First Look at Arrival, the Adaptation of Ted Chiang's Novella Story of Your Life". TOR. tor.com. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  26. ^ "How a Bellevue writer's short story became a major new film". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2019-06-10.

External links[]

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