author
Alexei Panshin
b. 1940
Best known for the Nebula Award-winning novel Rite of Passage, this American writer helped shape science fiction both as a storyteller and as a sharp, influential critic. His work often paired big speculative ideas with clear-eyed thinking about how the genre grows and changes.
1 Audiobook
Down to the Worlds of Men
by Alexei Panshin
About the author
Born in Lansing, Michigan, on August 14, 1940, Alexei Panshin became an important voice in American science fiction as both a novelist and a critic. He is most widely remembered for Rite of Passage, published in 1968, which won the Nebula Award and remains his signature novel.
Panshin was also deeply involved in science fiction fandom and criticism. Reference sources describe him as an active fan writer and editor early in his career, and later as a major critic of the field. With his wife, Cory Panshin, he co-wrote The World Beyond the Hill, a history and study of science fiction that won the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book.
He died on August 21, 2022. Across fiction, essays, and criticism, his reputation rests on combining imagination with serious thought about what science fiction can do.