Responding to every challenge

 

“A trap is only a trap if you don’t know about it.  If you know about it, it’s a challenge.” – China Miéville

Miéville, author of such bestsellers as King Rat and The City & the City, was born in England in September of 1972 and said he got his name in a rather unorthodox fashion.  “My parents went through the dictionary looking for a beautiful name, nearly called me Banyan, flicked on a few pages and came to China, which is cockney rhyming slang for mate,” he said.

 

Miéville intended to have a career in academics, earning degrees in social anthropology and international relations, then teaching English in the Middle East before trying his hand at writing in the late 1990s.  He has won dozens of writing honors, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award (three times) and the British Fantasy Award (twice).  In 2024 he co-authored the bestselling The Book of Elsewhere with actor Keanu Reeves. 

 

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he has authored 14 novels (a 15^th is ready to publish), several books of short stories, illustrated comics and children’s books, 6 nonfiction books, and a number of collections of essays. He said he plans to write a book in every genre, if possible.

 

“Every book I write, the first thing I have to do is get into the voice,” he said, “and the voice varies from book to book - that's part of what's interesting to me.”