Robert J. Sawyer

Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Science Fiction Writer

Archive for the 'Short Fiction' Category

The Elopus and the Queen

Tuesday, October 18th, 2016

In 2014, GISHWHES, the “Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen,” had as an item: “Get a previously published Sci-Fi author to write an original story (140 words max) about Misha, the Queen of England and an Elopus [half elephant, half octopus].” My friend Shoshana Glick (after whom the character in my novel […]

40 years since my first submission

Sunday, August 14th, 2016

Forty years ago, on August 16, 1976, I made my first submission to a science-fiction magazine. I was sixteen years old. I submitted a story called “Loophole” to a small-press magazine called Unearth: The Magazine of Science Fiction Discoveries, edited by John M. Landsberg and Jonathan Ostrowsky-Lantz. I had almost no recollection of “Loophole” until I […]

35 Years Ago Today: My First SF Publication

Thursday, January 14th, 2016

The second (and most recent) print edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls begins its entry on me thus: SAWYER, ROBERT J(AMES) (1960-        ) Canadian writer who began publishing sf with “If I’m Here, Imagine Where They Sent my Luggage” for The Village Voice in 1981 … And indeed I did. […]

15th anniversary of Pope Mary’s abdication

Monday, July 6th, 2015

Scientists dream of having their work published in either Science (the leading American scientific journal) or Nature (the great British one). Imagine my surprise, then, when I received a commission from Dr. Henry Gee, the Senior Editor of Nature, to write an original 800-word science-fiction story for that magazine (a commission that concluded, in delightful […]

Wrestling with Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen

Tuesday, May 12th, 2015

I’m very pleased to have my story “Come All Ye Faithful” reprinted in Wrestling with Gods: Tesseracts Eighteen, edited by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart, just out from EDGE Publications During an online event for the launch of this book, I observed:Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with big questions: where did […]

I gave up writing short stories ten years ago today

Friday, February 6th, 2015

Ten years ago today I finished writing my last short story ever (“Biding Time”); I said then that I was giving up short fiction for good, but people refused to believe me. Well, it’s been a decade now, folks, and I’m showing no signs of fictive recidivism. I had a nice little career as a […]

35th anniversary of my first sale

Sunday, January 18th, 2015

Thirty-five years ago today, on January 18, 1980, I made my first professional sale: a science-fiction story about a starship called Starplex, with a crew that included reptilian aliens called Quintaglios, to the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, New York, which dramatized the story as part their summer 1980 starshow “Futurescapes.” Read the history of that […]

The Blue Planet

Friday, December 12th, 2014

On December 3, 1999, the Mars Polar Lander disappeared as it descended toward the red planet. Five days later, an editor with a wonderfully appropriate surname — Catherine Bradbury — at The Globe and Mail: Canada’s National Newspaper called to ask me if I could write a science-fiction story explaining the probe’s disappearance. The only […]

Iterations ebook!

Tuesday, February 11th, 2014

For the next 17 days, until February 28, for the first time ever, my first short-story collection Iterations and Other Stories is available as an ebook, along with five other great books by the likes of Kevin J. Anderson and Kristine Kathryn Rusch — all six books for just $2.99 from BookBale.com. Iterations features an […]

Fifteen years of Crossing the Line

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

I’m being honoured this weekend with a lifetime achievement Aurora Award, which isn’t just for my writing — it’s also, I’m told, for my work as an editor, teacher, and advocate. And one of the things I’m proudest of as editor is the anthology Crossing the Line: Canadian Mysteries with a Fantastic Twist, which I […]

The Stanley Cup Caper

Saturday, August 24th, 2013

Ten years ago today — Sunday, August 24, 2003 — the following short story, entitled “The Stanley Cup Caper,” was first published, in, of all places, The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest-circulation newspaper. The Star had commissioned this story from me in honour of the fact that the World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, was about […]

The Abdication of Pope Mary III

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Apropos of nothing at all … Scientists dream of having their work published in either Science (the leading American scientific journal) or Nature (the great British one). Imagine my surprise, then, when I received a commission from Dr. Henry Gee, the Senior Editor of Nature, to write an original 800-word science-fiction story for that magazine (a […]

Three For The Future

Sunday, October 28th, 2012

Thirty years ago, the November 1982 issue of Leisure Ways (the members’ magazine for the Canadian Automobile Association) published “Three For the Future” — three short-short science-fiction stories by Terence M. Green, Robert J. Sawyer, and Andrew Weiner, collected and introduced by John Robert Colombo. Last night, at John’s house, we all got together for a 30th […]

30 Years Ago Today: My First SF Publication

Friday, January 14th, 2011

The second (and most recent) print edition of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls begins its entry on me thus: SAWYER, ROBERT J(AMES) (1960-        ) Canadian writer who began publishing sf with “If I’m Here, Imagine Where They Sent my Luggage” for The Village Voice in 1981 … And indeed I did. […]

Short stories: five years after giving them up

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

It was five years ago today that I finished writing my last short story. That story, “Biding Time,” was written for the DAW Books anthology Slipstreams, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and John Helfers. I guess I went out with a bang. The story was reprinted in the prestigious Penguin Book of Crime Stories and […]

Free Sherlock Holmes short story

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

In honour of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, I’ll just point out that my science-fiction Holmes story “You See But You Do Not Observe” has long been available for free right here. It’s also available in several anthologies, starting with Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin Harry Greenberg (DAW), for which […]

"Come All Ye Faithful" now a free podcast

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Thanks to the fine people at Escape Pod, there’s a wonderful free podcast of my short story “Come All Ye Faithful,” first published in the anthology Space Inc., edited by Julie E. Czerneda, and available in my collection Identity Theft and Other Stories, published by Red Deer Press. The reading by Mike Boris is absolutely […]

Federations review: "strongest story in the book"

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

There’s a lovely review of the anthology Federations edited by John Joseph Adams right here, which says in part: The strongest story in this anthology is Robert J. Sawyer’s “The Shoulders of the Giants.” It’s a beautiful story. It’s worth the price of admission. w00t! Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Siteand WakeWatchWonder.com

Yeah, I wrote a vampire story — wanna make something of it?

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

John Joseph Adams has just published the anthology By Blood We Live, which is full of vampire stories — including one by yours truly. My story actually was previously published (so please don’t accuse me of jumping on the current bandwagon!): “Peking Man” copyright 1996 by Robert J. Sawyer. First published as the lead story […]

Free story in honor of Apollo 11: "The Eagle Has Landed"

Monday, July 20th, 2009

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, I’m uploading for free my short story “The Eagle Has Landed,” first published in the 2005 DAW anthology I, Alien, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg. You can read the full text for free right here. “The Eagle Has Landed” by Robert […]

Full text of "Identity Theft" novella online

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

My short-story collection Identity Theft and Other Stories from Red Deer Press is currently one of five finalists for the Aurora Award for Best Long Form Work in English. In honour of that, I’m pleased to offer the Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated title novella, “Identity Theft,” for free during the remainder of the voting period. […]

Federations interview

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

John Joseph Adams recently interviewed me about my story “The Shoulders of Giants,” which appears in his just-released anthology Federations. Among the things I say: Those who’ve read my recent novels have seen that I don’t have much interest in antagonists; I think the idea that all fiction is fundamentally about conflict, and you need […]

Peking Man lives

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

I’m delighted to report that John Joseph Adams has just bought reprint rights to my 1996 short story “Peking Man” for his new anthology By Blood We Live for Night Shade Books. “Peking Man” was originally published as the lead story in Dark Destiny III: Children of Dracula edited by my friend Edward E. Kramer, and […]

Federations table of contents

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Holy cow! How often do you get to be betwen the covers with Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, and Robert Silverberg? Woot! John Joseph Adams has announced the line-up for his upcoming anthology Federations, and it’s terrific (see below). I’m particularly pleased to note that the lead story is Orson Scott Card’s […]

On winning the Aurora Award

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

To my astonishment and delight, I won my tenth Aurora Award on Sunday (the Auroras are the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards, established in 1980). Michael Walsh and Clint Budd, who organized the ceremony, did an amazing job, with a wonderful banquet (something done too infrequently for the Auroras) followed by a witty Aurora […]

North of Infinity II table of contents

Tuesday, December 27th, 2005

Editor Mark Leslie Lefebvre has posted the table of contents for North of Infinity II, the second in the series of Canadian SF anthologies published by Mosaic Press. My story “Forever,” originally published in Mike Resnick’s Return of the Dinosaurs, is included, as are, to my delight, stories by my writing students Karen Danylak and […]