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Ken MacLeod was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and lives in Renfrewshire. He is widely regarded as one of the most intellectually distinctive figures in modern British science fiction. Trained in science, with postgraduate research in biomechanics and years working in IT, MacLeod brings analytical rigour and political fluency to his speculative worlds.In 2009 he was Writer in Residence at the ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum at Edinburgh University, and in 2013 and 2014 was Writer in Residence at the MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier University.
He first rose to prominence as a writer with The Star Fraction (1995), the opening novel of the Fall Revolution sequence, a body of work noted for its sustained engagement with political philosophy, ideology, and technological change. To date, his novels and stories have received three BSFA awards and three Prometheus Awards, while several have been short-listed for the Clarke and Hugo Awards. Throughout his career, Ken’s fiction has remained unusually pluralistic — granting competing systems of thought serious consideration while retaining narrative drive and wit.
Ken is a longstanding friend of NewCon Press, having first appeared in our second ever release, disLocations (2007), his story "Lighting Out" winning the BSFA Award and being selected for Gardner Dozois' Years Best anthology. His short stories have subsequently featured in half a dozen further NewCon anthologies. His two stand-alone titles with us represent two contrasting modes: the contemporary, folklore-inflected Selkie Summer (May 2020), and the short story collection A Jura for Julia (August 2024), his first collection in eighteen years. Together they reflect both the breadth and adaptability of Ken's writing.
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