Ken Liu

Ken Liu
Portrait of Ken Liu by Lisa Tang Liu.
Born	刘宇昆; Liú Yǔkūn 1976 (age 47–48) Lanzhou, Gansu, China
Occupation	Author Lawyer Programmer Translator
Nationality	American
Genre	Science fiction, fantasy
Notable works	The Paper Menagerie (2011) The Grace of Kings (2015) Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi: The Legends of Luke Skywalker (2017) "Byzantine Empathy" (2018 short)
Notable awards	Hugo Awards (×3) Locus Awards (×3) FantLab's Awards (×2) Nebula Award (×1) Sidewise Award (×1) World Fantasy Award (×1)
Spouse	Lisa Tang Liu[1]
Website
kenliu.name

Ken Liu (born 1976) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his novel translations and original short fiction, which has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies.^[2]

Liu has also written an epic fantasy novel series, The Dandelion Dynasty, which he describes as silkpunk. The series is published by Simon & Schuster.^[3]

Liu was born in 1976 in Lanzhou, China.^[4] He spent his childhood with his grandparents.^[5] His mother, who received her Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, is a pharmaceutical chemist, while his father is a computer engineer.^[6] The family immigrated to the United States when Liu was 11 years old.^[4] They lived in California and Stonington, Connecticut before settling in Waterford, Connecticut. Liu graduated from Waterford High School in 1994, where he ran cross-country and track.^[7] At Harvard College, he studied English Literature and Computer Science, receiving his A. B. in 1998.^[7][8]

After graduation, Liu worked as a software engineer for Microsoft, and then joined a start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He later received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004 and after working as a corporate lawyer, eventually became a high-tech litigation consultant.^[7][8]

Liu began publishing fiction in 2002. His first published work was "Carthaginian Rose", a short story on mind uploading, which was published alongside nine other authors in The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology Volume 1.^[9]

Liu has said he wanted to become a writer so he could make stories that “turn values upside down and inside out to gain new perspectives”.^[10]

After a long career writing and publishing short fiction, Liu turned to epic fantasy novels, starting with The Grace of Kings (2015).^[11] He has also written for the Star Wars universe, with The Legends of Luke Skywalker (2017).^[12]

Along with his original work, Liu has translated the works of multiple Chinese authors into English, including Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, Chen Qiufan, and Xia Jia.^[13] His translation of The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin helped the book become a best seller to English readers.^[14] He has also worked as an editor. While editing the anthology Invisible Planets, Ken Liu translated the stories contained within it from Chinese into English.^[15]

Some of Liu's work have been adapted into visual media. His short story "Memories of My Mother" was the basis of Beautiful Dreamer (2016) by David Gaddie.^[16] His short story "Real Artists" was adapted into the short film Real Artists (2017) by Cameo Wood.^[17] His short story "Good Hunting" was adapted into an animated short as part of Netflix's Love, Death & Robots series (2019).^[18] Several of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories were adapted for the animated Pantheon.^[19]

Liu's short story collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (2020) explores ideas such as tradition and progress, the fallibility of memory, and the essence of what it means to be human.^[10] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Liu was disturbed by finger-pointing, jingoism, and xenophobia in the face of what he saw as an existential, global threat; he began to seek solace in the Tao Te Ching and subsequently released a new translation of the ancient text, Laozi's Dao De Jing: A New Interpretation for a Transformative Time (2024).^[20]

Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.^[21]

Liu's short story "The Paper Menagerie" is the first work of fiction, of any length, to win all of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards.^[1] In addition, his short story, "Mono no aware" won the 2013 Hugo Award,^[22][23] and his novella "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" was also nominated for a Hugo.^[24] The first novel in his The Dandelion Dynasty series, The Grace of Kings, was a 2016 Nebula Award finalist.^[25] The novel was the 2016 Locus Award Best First Novel winner.^[26]

Besides his original work, Liu's translation of Liu Cixin's Chinese language novel The Three-Body Problem (the first in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making it the first translated novel to have won the award.^[27] Liu also translated the third volume of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series, Death's End, in 2016, which was a 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel finalist.

One of Liu's short stories, "Thoughts and Prayers", is a part of Jonathan Strahan's The Year's Best Science Fiction (2020), Vol 1.

• 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner, "Death's End" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu^[28]
• 2017 Locus Award for Best Collection, winner, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories^[29]
• 2016 Locus Award for Best First Novel, winner, The Grace of Kings^[30]
• 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, winner, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu^[31]
• 2015 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, winner, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009"
• 2013 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, winner, "Mono no aware"
• 2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for best Translated Novella or Short Story, winner, "Mono no aware"
• 2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for best On-line publication in Small Form', winner, "The Paper Menagerie"
• 2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards, Short Form winner, translation from the Chinese of "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufan^[32]
• 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, winner, "The Paper Menagerie"
• 2012 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie"
• 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie"

• 2020 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "Thoughts and Prayers"^[33]
• 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel, finalist, Death's End by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu^[34]
• 2017 World Fantasy Award, nominee, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Best Collection
• 2015 Locus Award for Best Novella, finalist, "The Regular"^[35]
• 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Regular"^[36]
• 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel, nominee, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu^[37]
• 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Regular"^[38]
• 2014 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, nominee, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel"^[39]
• 2014 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel"^[40]
• 2013 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "Mono no aware"
• 2013 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King
• 2013 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" and "Mono no aware"
• 2012 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, nominee, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species"^[41]
• 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, "The Waves"
• 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "All the Flavors"
• 2012 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" and "The Paper Menagerie"
• 2012 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "The Paper Menagerie"
• 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary"
• 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary"

• —— (2017). The Legends of Luke Skywalker. Disney LucasFilm Press. ISBN 9781484780770. Archived from the original on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2018-09-10.

1. —— (2015). The Grace of Kings. Saga Press. ISBN 9781481424271.
2. —— (2016). The Wall of Storms. Saga Press. ISBN 9781481424301.
3. —— (2021). The Veiled Throne. Saga Press. ISBN 9781481424332.
4. —— (2022). Speaking Bones. Saga Press. ISBN 9781982148973.

• —— (2016). The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781481424363.
• —— (2020). The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781982134037.

• Invisible Planets, Tor Books, November 2016
• Broken Stars, Tor Books, February 2019

• "Dao De Jing" by Laozi, May 2023
• "Vagabonds" by Hao Jingfang, April 2020
• "The Waste Tide" by Chen Qiufan, April 2019
• "Fields of Gold" by Liu Cixin, May 2018
• "The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales" by Fei Dao, [1], Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2017
• "The Snow of Jinyang" by Zhang Ran, [2],Clarkesworld Magazine, June 2016
• "The Flowers of Shazui" by Chen Qiufan, Interzone, November 2012
• "Taking Care of God" by Liu Cixin (online), Pathlight, March 2012
• "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" by Xia Jia (online), Clarkesworld Magazine, February 2012
• "The City of Silence" by Ma Boyong
• "The Mark Twain Robots" by Ma Boyong, TRSF (September 2011), a special publication of MIT's Technology Review
• "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufan (online), Clarkesworld Magazine, August 2011
• "Gathered in Translation", an essay on the process and subtleties of translating Chinese SF to English, and the reverse: online at Clarkesworld Magazine, April 2013

Remembrance of Earth's Past Series

• Book 1: The Three-Body Problem, Tor Books, November 2014 (originally the Chinese language novel Three Body, 三体, 2008, by Liu Cixin)
• Book 3: Death's End, Tor Books, September 2016 by Liu Cixin (originally the Chinese language novel Death's End, 死神永生, 2010 by Liu Cixin)
• Book 4: The Redemption of Time, Tor Books, 2019 by Baoshu (originally a Chinese fanfic by Li Jun that was regularized by the original publisher Chongqing Press and series creator Cixin Liu; and published in 2011)^[42]

Many of Liu's short stories have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and multiple other languages and published in short stories collections:^[43]

Chinese

• 爱的算法 ("Algorithms for Love and Others"), published by SFW Publishing, September 5, 2012
• 思维的形状 ("The Shape of Thought and Others"), published by Tsinghua University Press, November 11, 2014
• 杀敌算法 ("In the Loop and Others"), published by SFW Publishing, March, 2015
• 奇点遗民 ("Staying behind")，published by CITIC, 2017

Japanese

• 紙の動物園 ("The Paper Menagerie"), published by Hayakawa, edited by 古沢嘉通 (Yoshimichi Furusawa), April 2015

French

• La Ménagerie de papier ("The Paper Menagerie") published by Editions du Bélial, edited by Ellen Herzfeld and Dominique Martel, 2015.
• Jardins de poussière ("Dust gardens") published by Editions du Bélial, edited by Ellen Herzfeld and Dominique Martel, 2019.

Spanish

• El zoo de papel y otros relatos ("The Paper Menagerie") published by Runas, Alianza Editorial, edited by María Pilar San Román Navarro, 2017.

Pantheon is an animated television series based on Liu's sci-fi short stories "The Gods Will Not Be Chained", "The Gods Will Not Be Slain", "The Gods Have Not Died in Vain", "Staying Behind" and "Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" from the short fictions collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. It premiered on AMC+ in 2022.^[44][45]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ken Liu.

• Official website
• Ken Liu at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• " Liu, Ken" (The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction; by Jonathan Clements)
• Ken Liu profile, NY Times Dec. 3, 2019. Focuses on his translations of Chinese SF.