S. P. Somtow
| S. P. Somtow | |
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S. P. Somtow
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| Born | Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul December 30, 1952 Bangkok, Thailand |
| Genre | Science fiction, fantasy, horror |
| Notable awards |
Best Novella 2002 The Bird Catcher |
| Website | |
| www |
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S. P. Somtow (a rearrangement of his real name Somtow Papinian Sucharitkul; Thai: สมเถา สุจริตกุล; rtgs: Somthao Sucharitakun; born December 30, 1952) is a Thai-American musical composer. He is also a science fiction, fantasy, and horror author writing in English. Somtow has both Thai and American citizenship.
A descendant of the Royal Chakri dynasty (his grandfather’s sister was a cousin and consort of King Vajiravudh), Somtow was born in Bangkok. However, he moved to England with his parents at the age of six months and English was his first language. Somtow was educated at Eton College and at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He returned to Thailand in the early 1960s for a five-year period, during which he became fluent in the Thai language. At age 11, he wrote a poem called Kith of Infinity, which was published in the English-language Bangkok Post. Shirley MacLaine saw it, and thinking that it was written by a dead poet, included it in her autobiography, Don’t Fall Off the Mountain. The poem contains the line "I am not a man", since Somtow was not yet an adult. It is presumed this caused MacLaine to assume that the author was a woman.
As a science fiction writer, Somtow is known for several series, among which are Mallworld, Inquestor, and The Aquiliad. He first was published as Somtow Sucharitkul in the late 1970s in Asimov’s and Analog science fiction magazines. He wrote several stories and novels under that name before changing his byline to S. P. Somtow.
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