Steven Gould

Steven Gould
Webcam self-portrait, 2006
Born	(1955-02-07) February 7, 1955 (age 61) Fort Huachuca, Arizona, U.S.
Occupation	Science fiction writer
Nationality	American
Spouse	Laura J. Mixon

Steven Charles Gould (born February 7, 1955) is an American science fiction writer and teacher. He has written ten novels and is best known for his 1992 novel Jumper, which was adapted as a film released in 2008.

Steven Charles Gould was born in Fort Huachuca, Arizona on February 7, 1955 to James Alan and Carita Louise Gould. His father was an Army officer; when Gould was in junior high his father was stationed at Fort Shafter in Hawaii for three years. The whole family learned to scuba dive there and Gould went diving frequently.

Gould attended Texas A&M University and has set much of his writing in Texas. Aggiecon, which is held in College Station on the Texas A&M campus, was the first science fiction convention Gould attended, and he was chair of Aggiecon V in 1975.

Gould submitted the first short story he wrote to Analog; it was rejected with a personal note from then-editor Ben Bova, who encouraged Gould to let him see his future work. The second story Gould wrote, "The Touch of Their Eyes," was read aloud by Theodore Sturgeon at a writing workshop at AggieCon in 1979. Sturgeon made one correction ("Calvary and Cavalry are two different things") and suggested that Gould submit it to Stan Schmidt, who had become editor at Analog in late 1978. Gould did, and the story was published by Analog in 1980.

Gould was director of the south/central region of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) from 1986–1989. He was also a guest lecturer at Texas A&M in 1990. Gould was president of SFWA for two years through June 2015.

Gould practices and teaches aikido, which was featured in his recent book, 7th Sigma. The young protagonist becomes an Uchideshi ("inside student"), as the first step toward his coming-of-age and other adventures. His scuba diving hobby informed scenes in his novels Greenwar and Blind Waves.Greenwar was a collaboration with his wife, Laura J. Mixon.