Gene Rodman Wolfe was born May 7, 1931, in Brooklyn, New York. Wolfe attended Texas A&M University from 1949-1952, and attained a B. S. degree from the University of Houston in 1956. Wolfe worked as a product engineer from 1956 to 1972, and as senior editor for Plant Engineering Magazine from 1972 to 1984, before turning to full-time writing. Wolfe is regarded as one of the major contemporary writers of science fiction. Wolfe has been honored with Nebula Awards, a Rhysling Award, British Science Fiction Award, British Fantasy Award, World Fantasy Awards and other awards.

Gene Wolfe was born on May 7, 1931 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Texas A&M University from 1949-1952, where he published (in 1951) his first short fiction, in the student literary magazine Commentator. Wolfe left Texas A&M during his junior year and was drafted into the U.S. military, serving in the Korean War. Upon his return to civilian life he graduated from the University of Houston in 1956 and became an industrial engineer until 1972. From 1972-1984 he served as senior editor for Plant Engineering Magazine, while at the same time building a legendary career as a writer of science fiction.

Wolfe's first published novel was _Operation Ares_in 1970, although he began to achieve real fame with his second, The Fifth Hand of Cerberus(1972). Since then he has produced a large and critically-acclaimed body of work, most notably the novel cycle The Book of The New Sun(1980-1983), which consists of The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the Autarch. (Wolfe followed this series up with a coda, The Urth of the New Sun, in 1987). _New Sun_tells the story of Sevarian, an apprentice torturer who is exiled and forced to wander a far-future dying Earth.

In 1984, Wolfe retired from his editing career and devoted himself to writing full-time. He published two more works in the _New Sun_universe: _The Book of the Long Sun_consists of the novels Nightside the Long Sun(1993), Lake of the Long Sun(1994), Caldé of the Long Sun(1994), and Exodus From the Long Sun(1996). Wolfe then wrote a sequel, __ _The Book of the Short Sun,_which include On Blue's Waters(1999), In Green's Jungles(2000) and Return to the Whorl(2001). The three _Sun_works are often referred to collectively as the "Solar Cycle." Other major works of Wolfe include The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories(1980) ; Soldier of the Mist(1986) and its two sequels Soldier of Arete(1989) and Soldier of Sidon(2006); The Wizard Knight(2005); and The Land Across(2013).

Wolfe has won a number of major literary awards, including two Nebula Awards, a Rhysling Award, two British Science Fiction Awards, a British Fantasy Award, four World Fantasy Awards, an Apollo Award, a Deathrealm Award, a Skylark Award, and the 1996 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. In 2013 the Science Fiction Writers of America awarded Wolfe the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.