He and Anjula lived in Denver before returning to the small town of Paonia ten years ago, where they live with their son. He returned to the US, and in 1996 worked for an early web development company in Boston. After graduating in 1994 he worked in China as a consultant, helping foreign companies enter the Chinese market. He attended Oberlin College in OH, where he met his wife-to-be Anjula (they married in 1998) and majored in East Asian Studies, spending time in China for foreign-language immersion. They lived in a commune briefly and remained in the area afterward when his parents divorced he split his time between them, going to various schools, finishing high school at the private Colorado Rocky Mountain School, where he learned the basics of writing.

(Apr.Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi was born Augin Colorado Springs CO, moving with his hippie parents to western Colorado soon after. Deeply thought provoking, Bacigalupi’s collected visions of the future are equal parts cautionary tale, social and political commentary and poignantly poetic, revelatory prose. “The Tamarisk Hunter” deals with the effects of global warming on water rights in the Southwest, while the title story, original to this volume, follows a New York sewage treatment worker who struggles to repair his antiquated equipment as the city’s inhabitants succumb to the brain-damaging effects of industrial pollutants. “The People of Sand and Slag” envisions a future Earth as a contaminated wasteland inhabited by virtually indestructible post-humans who consume stone and swim in petroleum oceans.

The Hugo-nominated “The Calorie Man” explores a post–fossil fuel future where genetically modified crops both feed and power the world, and greedy megacorporations hold the fates of millions in their hands. Bacigalupi’s stellar first collection of 10 stories displays the astute social commentary and consciousness-altering power of the very best short form science fiction.

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