Kentucky born and bred, Terry Bisson is a writer of satirical, counterculturally-inflected, often riotously funny science fiction and fantasy novels such as Fire on the Mountain and Voyage to the Red Planet. One of the premiere writers of short fiction in the field, his stories have won two Nebulas, a Hugo, and two Locus Awards. Down-home revolutionary.

‘‘We used to think we were going to Outer Space. We’re not. We used to think robots were going to change everything, and they didn’t. None of that happened. If you look back at what really changed America, it was the interstate highway system and air conditioning. And look how the discovery of America transformed the world, every single person in the world, in the last 500 years. It was natural to think that going to the moon or to Mars would have the same transformational effect, but it didn’t. That’s the kind of thing I wish science fiction dealt with more.’’