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William Shunn

Goodreads Author

Born

in Glendale, California, The United States

Website

https://www.shunn.net/

Twitter

shunn

Genre

Science Fiction, Memoir, Fantasy

Member Since

May 2008

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/shunn

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William Shunn was born in Los Angeles and raised in Utah, the eldest of eight children in a devout Mormon family. A writer from a young age, he attended the Clarion Writers Workshop at Michigan State University in 1985, when he was 17. As was expected, he departed on a proselytizing mission for the LDS Church at the age of 19. He was assigned to preach in Alberta, Canada, but after six months he was convicted of felony mischief in connection with a false bomb threat and expelled from the country. The complete story is recounted in his memoir The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, available November 10, 2015.

In 1991, Shunn graduated from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with a degree in computer science. So William Shunn was born in Los Angeles and raised in Utah, the eldest of eight children in a devout Mormon family. A writer from a young age, he attended the Clarion Writers Workshop at Michigan State University in 1985, when he was 17. As was expected, he departed on a proselytizing mission for the LDS Church at the age of 19. He was assigned to preach in Alberta, Canada, but after six months he was convicted of felony mischief in connection with a false bomb threat and expelled from the country. The complete story is recounted in his memoir The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary, available November 10, 2015.

In 1991, Shunn graduated from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City with a degree in computer science. Soon thereafter he began finding success as a science fiction writer. His short fiction has appeared in Salon, Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Science Fiction Age, Realms of Fantasy, Electric Velocipede, Storyteller, Newtown Literary, and various anthologies, including year's-best collections. His work has been nominated for the Hugo Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and twice for the Nebula Award.

A small collection of his stories, An Alternate History of the 21st Century, was published by Spilt Milk Press in 2007, with an introduction by Cory Doctorow. Cast a Cold Eye, a short horror novel co-written with Derryl Murphy, appeared from PS Publishing in 2009.

Shunn served three years as a national juror for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and for three years hosted and produced the acclaimed Tuesday Funk literary reading series in Chicago. He has long worked as a software developer, notably for WordPerfect Corporation and Sesame Workshop, and on September 11, 2001, he created what may have been the first online "survivor registry," a database that allowed people in affected cities a way to report their status and allowed friends and families to see if their loved ones were okay.

William Shunn left the Mormon Church in 1995 and developed one of the earliest ex-Mormon web sites. He lives in New York City. ...more

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William Shunn’s books

Average rating: 3.83 · 1,573 ratings · 217 reviews · 23 distinct works • Similar authors

	Glitter & Mayhem by John Klima (Editor), Lynne M. Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Michael Damian Thomas (Goodreads Author) (Editor) 3.75 avg rating — 628 ratings — published 2013 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Vanishing Acts: A Science Fiction Anthology by Ellen Datlow (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Bruce McAllister (Goodreads Author), Mark W. Tiedemann (Goodreads Author) 3.77 avg rating — 518 ratings — published 2000 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection by Gardner Dozois, William Barton, Paul Melko 4.05 avg rating — 374 ratings — published 2004 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary 4.28 avg rating — 169 ratings — published 2015 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Year's Best SF 13 by Johanna Sinisalo (Editor, Contributor), Kathryn Cramer (Goodreads Author) (Editor, Contributor), Johanna Sinisalo (Contributor) 3.63 avg rating — 156 ratings — published 2008 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Inclination 4.30 avg rating — 20 ratings — published 2006 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Alternate History of the 21st Century: Stories 4.44 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2007 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Our Dependence on Foreign Keys it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After the Earthquake a Fire it was ok 2.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Accidental Terrorist : Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary (Hardcover)--by William Shunn [2015 Edition] by William Shunn (Goodreads Author), Unknown Author 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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William Shunn's Blog

This Year a Serial Takes Root

As near as I can pin it down, it was late January in 2009 when, frustrated by whatever recalcitrant writing project I was struggling with at the time, I opened up a new document and typed these sentences:

Everything changed when Hasta flipped Bobby Kimball the bird. The universe turned inside out—or at least that's how it seemed.

From then on, for Hasta and her friends, nothing was ever the same.

Thi Read more of this blog post »

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Published on February 04, 2022 05:00

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William Shunn wrote a new blog post A Coney Island Poem for the 4th of July Today is America's day, and what's more American than Coney Island? I have a poem for Coney Island, so, by the transitive property, this poem is also Read more of this blog post »
Nov 14, 2025 03:44AM · like
William Shunn is now following Rusty Carl Author of The House on the Corner: First Person Edition
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