Terry Bisson

Terry Bisson
Terry Bisson, 2009
Born	Terry Ballantine Bisson (1942-02-12) February 12, 1942 (age 75) Madisonville, Kentucky
Language	English

Terry Ballantine Bisson (born February 12, 1942) is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories including "Bears Discover Fire", which won the Hugo award and the Nebula award and "They're Made Out of Meat".

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

While a student at Grinnell College (Iowa) 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 (the first time protesters had ever been so recognized) 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.

Bisson's political views are evident in his 1988 alternative history novel Fire on the Mountain, with its outspoken praise of revolutionary socialism.