Science Fiction is for satisfying your curiosity, for stimulating your imagination ... I think people are realizing that science fiction is a spectrum, and that of course we have bad books and trashy books and books that are meant only as light entertainment. But we also have more ambitious books, and books that approach issues in an intelligent way, and books that touch on human concerns in an intelligent way. -- Robert Charles Wilson
Robert Charles Wilson was
born in the U.S.A., but has lived in Canada since he was nine, currently in
Toronto. As a child he developed an early love for reading and writing - especially
science fiction. That love has turned into a career, first as a short story writer and then with a sequence of highly praised novels.
I was born in the States--I'm still technically a US citizen. But my parents came up here when I was 9 years old and I've lived here essentially ever since. So I think of myself as Canadian ... I have family in Colorado, I have family in California, I have family in Alaska. I've been to those places. I don't feel like I'm setting something in a foreign country if I use an American setting. And it's convenient when you're writing SF because the US is a large, technically advanced, influential country that's going to play a large part in the history of the 21st century whether we like it or not.
He has been awarded the
Philip K. Dick Award for his novel
Mysterium, an
Aurora Award for his short story
The Perseids and another Aurora Award for his novel
Darwinia, which was also a finalist for a
Hugo Award. Four of his books have also been designated
New York Times Notable Books.
Wilson is one of the more underrated authors around today. His books defy the convenient subgenre labels, but he can write. Is it science fiction? Is it fantasy? Is it literature with a capital "L" and merely a SF&F backdrop? I don't know. I don't particularly care -- as long as he continues to produce books as good as A Bridge of Years and Gypsies.
Books by Robert Charles Wilson
A Hidden Place (1986)
Memory Wire (1988)
Gypsies (1989)
The Divide (1990)
A Bridge of Years (1991)
The Harvest (1993)
Mysterium (1994)
Darwinia (1998)
Bios (1999)
The Perseids and Other Stories (2001) short story collection
Chronoliths (2001)
Blind Lake (2004)
Spin (2005)
Sources:
http://www.sfsite.com/isfdb-bin/exact_author.cgi?Robert_Charles_Wilson
http://www.geocities.com/canadian_sf/pages/authors/wilson.htm
http://home.golden.net/~csp/interviews/wilson.htm