Karl Schroeder () (born September 4, 1962) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

author and a professional

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abou ...

. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as

nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...

terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to make ...

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

, and

interstellar travel Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft from one star system, solitary star, or planetary system to another. Interstellar travel is expected to prove much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight due to the vast dif ...

, and are deeply philosophical. More recently he also focuses on near-future topics. Several of his short stories feature the character Gennady Malianov.

Biography

Schroeder was born in a

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

family in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

. In 1986 he moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, where he now lives with his wife Janice Beitel and daughter."About Me"
at the Karl Schroeder official website After publishing a dozen short stories, Schroeder published his first novel, ''Ventus'', in 2000. A prequel to ''Ventus'', ''Lady of Mazes'', was published in 2005. He has published seven more novels and is co-author (with

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

) of the self-help book ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction''. Schroeder currently writes, consults in the area of

futures studies Futures studies, futures research, futurism or futurology is the systematic, interdisciplinary and holistic study of social and technological advancement, and other environmental trends, often for the purpose of exploring how people will li ...

.Karl Schroeder official website
accessed September, 2008. In October, 2011, Karl Schroeder was awarded a Master of Design degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation from

OCAD University Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Awards

* 1982. Pierian Spring Best Story award for ''The Great Worm''. * 1989. Context '89 fiction contest winner for ''The Cold Convergence''. * 1993.

Prix Aurora Award The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lur ...

for Best Short Work in English for ''The Toy Mill''. * 2001. New York Times Notable book for ''Ventus''. * 2003. Prix Aurora Award for best Canadian SF novel for ''Permanence''. * 2006/2007: ''Sun of Suns'':

Kirkus ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

Best Book of 2006, 2007 Aurora finalist, 2007 nomination for the John W. Campbell Memorial award 2007 Award Winners & Nominees
/ref> * 2012.

Audie Award The Audie Awards (, rhymes with "gaudy"; abbreviated from ''audiobook''), or simply the Audies, are awards for achievement in spoken word, particularly audiobook narration and audiodrama performance, published in the United States of America. They ...

for best Original Work for ''

METAtropolis ''METAtropolis'' is a series of science fiction audiobook collections. In 2008, Audible.com released the audiobook anthology ''METAtropolis'', edited by John Scalzi and featuring short fiction in a shared world created by Scalzi, Elizabeth Bear, ...

: Cascadia'', a shared-world audiobook anthology in which Schroeder's contribution was the short story ''

Deodand A deodand is a thing forfeited or given to God, specifically, in law, an object or instrument that becomes forfeited because it has caused a person's death. The English common law of deodands traces back to the 11th century and was applied, on a ...

''.

Selected bibliography

Stand-alone

* ''The Claus Effect'' (with David Nickle). (Tesseract Books, 1997) * '' Permanence'' (Tor Books, 2002.) * ''Crisis in Zefra'' (Directorate of Land Strategic Concepts, National Defence Canada; 2005.) * ''Lockstep'' (Tor Books, 2014.)

Ventus

* '' Ventus'' (Tor Books, 2000) * ''Lady of Mazes'' (prequel to ''Ventus'') (Tor Books, 2005)

''Virga''

* '' Sun of Suns'' (Tor Books, 2006.) * ''Queen of Candesce'' (Tor Books, 2007.) * ''Pirate Sun'' (Tor Books, 2008.) * ''The Sunless Countries'' (Tor Books, 2009.) * ''Ashes of Candesce'' (Tor Books, 2012.)

References

External links

Official site
- including

Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...

-licensed text of some of his works *
Permanence - An Adaptationist Solution to Fermi's Paradox? by Milan M. Cirkovic

Adaptationism Fails to Resolve Fermi’s Paradox, Serbian Astronomical Journal, Vol. 170, pp. 89-100 (2005), by Milan Cirkovic with Ivana Dragicevic and Tanja Beric-Bjedov.
*
Interview with Karl Schroeder
'
small WORLD Podcast
2006
Video of Karl Schroeder on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, "Are We Bound for Space?"
panel discussion with Chris Hadfield, Donna Shirley,

Lawrence Krauss Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now cal ...

and Robert D. Richards
Audio of Karl Schroeder, "The Rewilding: A Metaphor"
presentation at the O'Reilly Media Open Source Conference. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schroeder, Karl 1962 births Living people Analog Science Fiction and Fact people Canadian science fiction writers Mennonite writers Writers from Brandon, Manitoba Writers from Toronto Creative Commons-licensed authors Canadian male novelists Canadian futurologists OCAD University alumni Canadian Mennonites