Becky Chambers (born May 3, 1985)[1] is an Americanscience fiction writer. She is the author of theHugo Award-winningWayfarers series as well as novellas includingTo Be Taught, If Fortunate (2019) and theMonk & Robot series, which begins with the Hugo Award-winningA Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021). She is known for her innovative worldbuilding and character-driven stories, and is a pioneer of thehopepunk genre.[2]
Chambers was born in 1985 inSouthern California and grew up inTorrance. Chambers' family included several people with an interest in variousNASA space exploration efforts. Her parents are anastrobiology educator and a satellite engineer.[3] She became fascinated with space and its exploration at an early age. During her youth, after she first encountered a person who believed that such programs were unwise and that their funding would be better applied to solving Earth's problems, she began studying in detail humans' efforts to explore the cosmos, concluding that these efforts were commendable, although the present methods of funding could be improved. This deep analysis provided much inspiration for her writing.[4]
She published a novella,To Be Taught, If Fortunate, in August 2019, with a story that was not connected to theWayfarers books.
In July 2018, it was announced that she signed a two-book deal withTor Books.[7] The first book,A Psalm for the Wild-Built,[8] was published in May 2021. The story introduced Dex, a travelling tea monk, and Mosscap, asentient robot. The second book,A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, was published in July 2022 and continued the story of Dex and Mosscap.[9]
HerWayfarers series novels take place in afictional universe, governed by the Galactic Commons to which humans are relative newcomers. She has been lauded for the strong world-building in the series, including multiple unique alien races.[10] Reviewers have cited her complex and likeable characters who drive the story.[11] Her work has been alternately criticized and praised for the deliberate, character-driven pacing and lack of the propulsive plots typical of other space opera novels.[12][13]
Chambers has lived in Iceland and Scotland before returning to California, where she currently resides with her wife, Berglaug Asmundardottir,[1][14] inHumboldt County.[3]
