Michael Moorcock is one of the preeminent writers of science fiction and fantasy in the world. One of only three authors to receive lifetime achievement awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the Horror Writers of America, and the World Fantasy Association, Moorcock is the author of the "Jerry Cornelius Chronicles," which treat the exploits of a sexually ambiguous polymath and spy; the "Oswald Bastable" books, forerunners of the popular steampunk genre; and the "Colonel Pyat Quartet," an ambitious series of novels about a Russian engineer and that spans the twentieth century. During the 1960s and 1970s, Moorcock edited New Worlds, transforming it from a conventional science fiction magazine into an avant-garde journal with strong countercultural overtones. Prodigious enchanter.

"We were all part of a broad movement which was rejecting ... the played out conventions of Modernism. We were looking for methods which worked for us. Some were eventually abandoned. Some were modified. We now live in a world where many of our innovations, techniques and subjects we considered our own, have become so commonly used nobody even knows where they originally came from. We’ve probably, therefore, achieved what we set out to do, to establish fresh conventions better able to deal with contemporary life."