Established 2014 · London
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Biography
American

Becky Chambers

1985

Becky Chambers is an American science fiction writer whose Wayfarers series — beginning with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) — and Monk and Robot novellas have become defining works of 'hopepunk' science fiction: fiction that imagines diverse, compassionate futures where cooperation and kindness are the organizing principles of society. She won the Hugo Award for A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021).

Past sales0
PeriodContemporary
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

Becky Chambers (b. 1985) was born in southern California. She studied performing arts at the University of Edinburgh. She crowdfunded her first novel through Kickstarter.

Life and Career

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) — originally self-published, then picked up by Hodder & Stoughton — follows the diverse crew of a tunnelling ship through a character-driven space opera that prioritizes relationships, cultural understanding, and emotional intelligence over conflict and spectacle.

The Wayfarers series — A Closed and Common Orbit (2016), Record of a Spaceborn Few (2018), The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (2021) — has been praised for its inclusive vision of the future and its radical gentleness. A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (2022) — the Monk and Robot novellas — won Hugo Awards and imagine a post-scarcity world in which humanity’s relationship with technology and nature has been fundamentally renegotiated.

Major Works and Themes

Chambers writes about community, belonging, and what it means to live well. Her fiction rejects the grimdark trend in contemporary science fiction in favor of thoughtful, optimistic stories about diverse beings finding connection across difference.

Key Works

  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014)
  • A Psalm for the Wild-Built (2021) — Hugo Award
  • A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (2022) — Hugo Award

Collecting Chambers

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014, self-published/Hodder) — the debut — the self-published edition is very scarce. Hodder first editions bring $15–$30. Chambers signs at conventions.