Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) was raised in Orange County, California, and despite obtaining a PhD in literature (UC San Diego) has been a successful novelist since the early 1980s. Describing himself as a “green socialist,” he is one of today’s most prominent SF authors, and along with his friend Ursula LeGuin, one of the most consistently radical in humanist outlook and literary practice. His newest work is Galileo’s Dream.