Sawyer, Robert J.

Robert James Sawyer, novelist, was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on April 29, 1960 and lives in Mississauga, Ontario with his wife, poet Carolyn Clink. He is one of Canada’s best known science fiction writers. He is the only Canadian writer to have won all three of the top international awards for science fiction: the 1995 Nebula Award for The Terminal Experiment, the 2003 Hugo Award for Hominids, and the 2006 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Mindscan.

Sawyer is the author of 22 novels. His short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories and many anthologies. In addition to his own writing, Sawyer edits the Robert J. Sawyer Books science fiction imprint for Red Deer Press. Sawyer has also worked on radio, film and television productions. His novel, FlashForward (1999) was made into an hour-long dramatic TV series consisting of 22 episodes by ABC in 2009-2010. Sawyer has written and narrated documentaries about science fiction for CBC Radio’s Ideas series and hosted documentary series for Canada’s Vision TV. He has also been a freelance writer of technological articles.

Sawyer has taught science fiction writing at Ryerson University, University of Toronto, Humber College and the Banff Centre. He holds an honourary doctorate from Laurentian University. He has been a Writer-in-Residence at three Ontario libraries: the Richmond Hill Public Library, the Kitchener Public Library and the Toronto Public Library. Sawyer has given numerous talks at many venues, including the Library of Congress and National Library of Canada and has been keynote speaker at dozens of events in places such as Boston, Tokyo and Barcelona.

Sawyer has been an advocate of Canadian science fiction. He helped establish the Canadian Region of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 and served as the first Canadian Regional Director from 1992-1995. Sawyer’s work is well received internationally. His novels have been translated into many languages.

2015-06-03

A. Wilson