Terry Bisson

Who is Terry Bisson?

Terry Ballantine Bisson is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories. Several of his works, including "Bears Discover Fire", have won top awards in the science fiction community, such as the Hugo and the Nebula.

He was born in Madisonville, Kentucky, and raised in Owensboro, Kentucky.

While a student at Grinnell College in 1961, Bisson was one of a group of twelve students who traveled to Washington, D.C. during the Cuban Missile Crisis supporting U.S. President John F. Kennedy's "peace race". Kennedy invited the group into the White House and they met for several hours with McGeorge Bundy. The group received wide press coverage, and this event is regarded as the start of the student peace movement.

After leaving Grinnell College, Bisson graduated from the University of Louisville in 1964. He lived "on and off" in New York City for most of the next four decades, moving to Oakland, California in 2002. He became a "working" writer in 1981. A self-identified member of the New Left, he operated Jacobin Books, a "revolutionary" mail-order book service, from 1985 to 1990, in partnership with Judy Jensen.