"We sailed northeast. After two weeks we left the Pentacles behind. This part of the Sea of Dust was monopolized by a peculiar lifeform known as the lilypad. There were hundreds of acres of these strange plants. Their photosynthetic organ was a single round leaf, yards in diameter but only an inch thick. It floated on the surface, absorbing as much sunlight as possible. The gray sea was greenly polka-dotted with thousands of the plants; they were free-floating and strangely sensitive. When disturbed, the leaf curled inwards, wrinkling over its entire surface and withdrawing completely into its root; a thick, round bulb. This immediately sank its the opaque depths, away from the reach of herbivores."

- from Involution Ocean (1977)

Bruce Sterling

BRUCE STERLING was born in 1954 in Brownsville, Texas. His grandfather was a rancher, his father an engineer. Sterling, purportedly a novelist by trade, actually spends most of his time aimlessly messing with computers, modems, and fax machines. He and his wife Nancy have a daughter Amy, born in 1987. They live in Austin, Texas. 

Sterling sold his first science fiction story in 1976. His solo novels include Schismatrix (1985), Islands In The Net (1988), Heavy Weather (1994), and Holy Fire (1996). In 1986 he edited Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. His two collections of short stories are Crystal Express (1989) and Globalhead (1992). In 1990 he and William Gibson published their collaborative 'steampunk' novel The Difference Engine. 

1992 saw the appearance of Sterling's first nonfiction book, The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier, a work of investigative journalism exploring issues in computer crime and civil liberties. Sterling released the entire text of the book on the Internet as non-commercial "literary freeware," and maintains a long-term interest in electronic user rights and free expression. Other nonfiction work by Sterling has appeared in The New York Times, Newsday, Whole Earth Review, Details, Mondo 2000, bOING bOING, and Wired. 

He has also written SF criticism for Science Fiction Eye and Monad, and regular columns for Interzone and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has been a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America ever since Salman Rushdie was condemned by religious fanatics. 

His latest book is entitled Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years.
 
(adapted from the press bio in Globalhead, with other sources)

Beyond Edge:

The Bruce Sterling Online Index — a guide to every Bruce Sterling work on the web