George R. R. Martin

George Raymond Richard Martin, born September 20, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey, is an American novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and television producer. He is best known for A Song of Ice and Fire, the unfinished fantasy series that began with A Game of Thrones in 1996. The books combine dynastic conflict, shifting alliances, civil war, supernatural threats, and multiple points of view rather than following one conventional hero. Martin grew up in a working-class family near the New York waterfront. He developed an early interest in science fiction and wrote stories for comic-book fandom. He earned a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in 1970 and an M.S. there in 1971. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a journalist and chess tournament director. His early professional fiction included science fiction and fantasy stories. “The Morning of the Mist,” published in 1973, and “A Song for Lya,” which won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1975, helped establish his reputation. His novella “Sandkings” won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1980. Martin also wrote the novels Dying of the Light and Fevre Dream, the latter a historical vampire story set largely on the Mississippi River in the nineteenth century. During the 1980s, Martin worked extensively in television. He wrote for The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, serving as a writer and producer on the latter series. He later returned to epic fantasy with A Game of Thrones. Its sequels include A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005), and A Dance with Dragons (2011). The series remains unfinished; the announced future novels are The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. HBO adapted the novels into Game of Thrones, which premiered in 2011 and concluded in 2019. Martin served as an executive producer and writer, although the show eventually moved beyond the published books. The series won numerous Emmy Awards and made characters such as Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Arya Stark internationally recognizable. Martin has also edited influential shared-world anthologies, including Wild Cards, a superhero series created with other writers. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he has supported the Jean Cocteau Cinema and the Stagecoach Foundation. His fiction is notable for political complexity, moral uncertainty, detailed invented history, and a willingness to allow major characters to die unexpectedly.