Master of Disaster: Paolo Bacigalupi's Dystopian Tales Are Infuriating, Disturbing, and Impossible to Put down

This article presents an interview with Paolo Bacigalupi, a rising sci-fi star who has walked away with the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and, most recently, the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature--the Young Adult Library Services Association's top prize for prose. That's pretty impressive for a guy who's published only two novels--"The Windup Girl," a gritty futuristic thriller about the dire consequences of genetic engineering, and his first young adult novel, the Printz-winning "Ship Breaker," a postapocalyptic page-turner that was also short-listed for the National Book Award. Although the talented Mr. B. may sound like an overnight sensation, his first short story was published more than a decade ago, in 1999. Before that, in the early '90s, he attended Ohio's Oberlin College, where he majored in Chinese, and then spent a few years working as a web consultant and traveling in China. Since then, he's had his share of average-Joe jobs, including a four-year stint as an online editor and webmaster for "High County News," an environmentally conscious magazine. In this interview, Bacigalupi talks about his Printz-winning novel, his no-nonsense take on wealth and success, and why he's hooked on sci-fi.