William Gibson is an American-Canadian essayist and speculative fiction writer. He is widely credited with pioneering cyberpunk, a science fiction subgenre. His early works, which he produced during the late-1970s and early-1980s, helped create an iconography for the information age even before the dawn of the Internet in the 1990s. William Gibson is also credited with coining the term cyberspace.
Canadian actor James Doohan was initially a soldier in the Canadian army and had even sustained injuries in World War II. He later soared to fame with his Saturn Award-nominated role of Montgomery Scott in the Star Trek film and TV franchise. He also voiced the character in various video games.
A. E. van Vogt was a Canadian author whose bizarre narrative style had a major impact on many future science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick. One of the most influential and popular science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century, van Vogt was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1996.
Douglas Coupland is a Canadian novelist and artist who popularized the term “Generation X” mentioned in his international bestseller Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. He has published several novels, collections of short stories, and works of non-fiction. His art is frequently exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.
One of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2010, Czech-Canadian scientist and University of Manitoba professor Vaclav Smil perhaps developed his love for the environment while living among the Bohemian Forest in childhood. Apart from studying energy and environmental change, he also pens books such as Energy and Civilization.
Gordon Korman is a Canadian American author who has written over 80 fiction books. Over a career spanning 40 years, Korman has sold over 28 million books and has been featured at the top on The New York Times Best Seller list. Some of his works, such as the Monday Night Football Club series, have been adapted into TV series.
Robert J. Sawyer is a Canadian writer whose short fiction has appeared in popular magazines like On Spec, Amazing Stories, and Analog Science Fiction and Fact. An ardent supporter of Canadian science fiction, Sawyer played a key role in the establishment of the Canadian Region of SFWA. He has won many awards like the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.
Spider Robinson is a musician and science fiction author best known for his humorous stories and hard science fiction. Over the course of his illustrious career, Spider Robinson has won many prestigious awards, such as the Hugo Award, John W. Campbell Award, and Nebula Award. At the 2018 World Science Fiction Convention, Spider Robinson was named a Guest of Honor.
Initially a herbalist’s apprentice, Simon Newcomb later deviated to mathematics and astronomy. Born to a schoolteacher, he had loved math since age 5 but wasn’t formally educated. He later joined Harvard University, taught math at the US Navy, detected locations of celestial bodies, and wrote a science-fiction novel, too.
Gordon R. Dickson was an influential science fiction writer whose 1969 novel Wolfling inspired the creation of the lightsaber, a sword showcased in the Star Wars franchise. During his illustrious career, Dickson won many prestigious awards, including three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 2000, he was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Author of numerous books for young adults, Kenneth Oppel is an award-winning Canadian writer, especially known for his bestselling children's trilogy Silverwing, which sold over a million copies worldwide and Airborn, which earned him numerous awards and nominations. Some of his other important works are Half Brother, This Dark Endeavor, Such Wicked Intent, The Boundless, and The Nest etc.
Sci-fi author Judith Josephine Grossman, better known by her pen-name, Judith Merril, is also known for editing several anthologies. After her father’s suicide, she was raised by her mother in the Bronx. That Only A Mother remains one of her best-known short stories and has been part of many anthologies.