Robin Sloan Explained

Robin Sloan
Alma Mater:Michigan State University
Birth Place:United States
Genre:Novels
Notable Works:Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

Robin Sloan is an American author. His debut novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, was published in 2012.

Early life

Sloan was born to a home economics teacher and an appliance salesman.[1] He grew up in Troy, Michigan, where he attended Wattles Elementary School.[2] He graduated from Athens High School in 1998.[3]

Sloan attended Michigan State University, where he co-founded the literary magazine Oats. He was also a columnist and cartoonist for The State News student newspaper. He graduated in 2002 with a degree in economics from the Eli Broad College of Business. He moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, after graduation for a fellowship at the Poynter Institute. In 2003, he founded the SnarkMarket blog with some friends.[4]

Sloan moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 to work at Current TV as a media strategist/interactive producer.[5] [6]

Career

Sloan crowdfunded his novella Annabel Scheme in 2009 through Kickstarter. After successfully funding the project, he quit his job at Current to write the novella full time.[7] About a thousand copies of the novella were printed and the novella was released under a Creative Commons NonCommercial license.[8]

Prior to working as an author, Sloan worked at Twitter as a media manager, helping news companies condense their reports to Twitter's 140 characters tweet limit.

Sloan's first novel Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore was released in 2012. The story began as a 6,000 word short story published onto Sloan's personal website and Kindle Store.[9] The novel was listed in San Francisco Chronicle's list of top 100 books of 2012.[10] It is about a laid-off Silicon Valley tech worker who begins working at a dusty bookstore with very few customers, only to start discovering one secret after another. The mysterious old books, along with the store's owner, lead to a 500‑year‑old secret society.[11]

His second novel Sourdough was released in September 2017. It was listed as one of the San Francisco Chronicle's top 100 books of 2017.[12]

His speculative fiction short story The Conspiracy Museum was published in The Atlantic in May 2020 as part of the "Shadowlands" project exploring conspiracy thinking in the United States.[13]

His third novel, Moonbound, was released on 11 June 2024.

Personal life

Sloan resides in Rockridge, Oakland, California. Sloan and his partner Kathryn Tomajan produce olive oil under the Fat Gold brand. They harvest off of leased land in Sunol, California.[14]

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Robin Sloan adds character to tech literature. Bowles. Nellie. December 12, 2012. SFGate. 2020-05-28.
  2. Web site: Robin Sloan's most treasured book. Sloan. Robin. August 10, 2012. San Francisco Chronicle. en-US. 2020-05-27.
  3. Web site: Troy Student to Urge MSU Classmates to Keep Building Their Legacies. Anderson. Kristin. April 26, 2002. MSU Today. February 24, 2014.
  4. Web site: Case Study: Robin Sloan Writes a Book. Kimball. Diana. August 16, 2012. Kickstarter. en. 2020-05-28.
  5. Web site: Disruptions: Even the Tech Elites Leave Gadgets Behind. Bilton. Nick. May 12, 2013. Bits Blog. The New York Times. en-US. May 27, 2020.
  6. Web site: Robin Sloan on his new book Sourdough, San Francisco culture, and a more optimistic Silicon Valley. Gartenberg. Chaim. 2017-09-06. The Verge. en. 2020-05-27.
  7. Web site: Kickstarter pairs creative projects with donors. Lagorio. Christine. November 10, 2009. SFGate. 2020-05-28.
  8. Web site: Cameron. 2010-01-14. Robin Sloan's "Annabel Scheme". 2021-02-01. Creative Commons. en-US.
  9. Web site: One on One: Robin Sloan, Author and 'Media Inventor'. Bilton. Nick. October 12, 2012. Bits Blog. The New York Times. en-US. 2020-05-27.
  10. Web site: Best books of 2012: 100 recommended books. December 21, 2012. San Francisco Chronicle. en-US. 2020-05-27.
  11. News: Google Aces Can't Defeat Bibliophiles 'Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan. Maslin. Janet. November 7, 2012. New York Times. 31 January 2014.
  12. Web site: Best of 2017: 100 recommended books. 2017-12-20. San Francisco Chronicle. en-US. 2020-05-27.
  13. Web site: How to Write Science Fiction That Isn't 'Useful'. Cushing. Ellen. 2020-05-15. The Atlantic. en-US. 2020-05-27.
  14. Web site: Fritsche . Sarah . September 24, 2018 . California olive oil producers fall short after 'borderline catastrophic' harvest . 2020-05-27 . San Francisco Chronicle . en-US.
  15. Web site: Publishers Weekly. Publishers Weekly . 13 September 2017.
  16. Web site: Annabel Scheme and the Adventure of the New Golden Gate . Robin Sloan . 2020 . RobinSloan.com . 1 February 2021.
  17. Web site: The Suitcase Clone. goodreads. 27 January 2023.
  18. Web site: 2024-06-14 . Moonbound by Robin Sloan . 2024-06-14 . www.publishersweekly.com.

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