Jay Lake was born in Taiwan on June 6, 1964, and was raised there and in Nigeria. He graduated from the University of Texas in 1986. During his lifetime, he published over 300 short stories and nine novels including Kalimpura, Calamity of So Long a Life, and The Last Plane to Heaven. He received several awards including the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction in 2004. He was also the subject of a documentary called Lakeside - A Year with Jay Lake, which follows his fight against cancer, and is scheduled for release in 2014. He died from colon cancer on June 1, 2014 at the age of 49.