Benjamin C. Kinney is a speculative fiction author, neuroscientist, and Hugo and Ignyte Award finalist. He worked as the assistant editor of the science fiction magazine Escape Pod from 2017-2023. His stories have appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Sunday Morning Transport, Lightspeed, and more. He currently lives in St. Louis with three cats, one son, and a spacefaring wife.
He is represented by Marisa Cleveland of the Seymour Agency.
How can I contact you?
Sign up for my newsletter (see sidebar), email me at benjamin.c.kinney (at) gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter at @BenCKinney. I’ve also begun dabbling in Instagram. See here for more contact info, including upcoming convention appearances.
What do you write about?
Oh jeez, everything. Sometimes I focus on stories that draw on my neuroscience expertise, but I’ve written across the spectrum of science fiction and fantasy. If I want to be pretentious, I’d tell you I write about science and faith, the human mind and the inhuman mind, and where these four intersect. Also dragons.
Is that your real name?
Nope! I publish under a pen name because my real name is associated with my nonfiction work, and I want separate google searches for those two tracks. I am a neuroscientist currently working in St. Louis, Missouri. My research interests include how the the brain’s mechanisms of handedness interact with nerve injuries and rehabilitation.
Why that pen name?
“Kinney” is a re-spelling of my mother’s maiden name, and the “C” is a family heirloom from my father’s side. Some puns survive for generations.
What does your website title mean?
It’s a reference to a stage of neural development that continues in the brain until adulthood: neural pruning. It’s my way of saying “website/life under development” in a too-clever neuroscience way.
I heard your wife went to Mars! Is that true?
As true as it gets! Thankfully, she came back!
What is your all-time favorite endorsement?
“you are the soul of books” – Chuck Tingle
How can I support your work?
Most of my fiction is in free online venues, or reprinted here on my website. However, my Publications page lists a few anthologies that you should definitely buy.
I don’t have a Patreon/etc because I receive adequate money from my day job, so go spend your money on a writer with a tighter budget, or subscribe to a few of the excellent genre magazines publishing short fiction in the modern age!
Tell me something else! Down with the FAQ format!
Let us dance among its cinders while I proclaim myself a member of the Codex writers’ group, a graduate of Viable Paradise 18, and an active member of SFWA!