Night Shade Books is an independent publishing company based in San Francisco, specializing in science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

, fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

, and horror

Horror fiction

Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...

. It was started in 1997 by Jason Williams, with Jeremy Lassen coming on board as a partner shortly after the company's founding. Night Shade won the 2003 World Fantasy Award

World Fantasy Award

The World Fantasy Awards are annual, international awards given to authors and artists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy...

 (Non-Professional).

The company has published work by Neal Asher

Neal Asher

Neal Asher is an English science fiction writer. Both his parents are educators and science fiction fans. Although he began writing Science Fiction and Fantasy in secondary school, Asher did not turn seriously to writing till he was 25...

, Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and was nominated for the National Book Award...

, Kage Baker

Kage Baker

Kage Baker was an American science fiction and fantasy writer.- Biography :Baker was born in Hollywood, California and lived there and in Pismo Beach most of her life. Before becoming a professional writer she spent many years in theater, including teaching Elizabethan English as a second language...

, Iain M. Banks, Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear

Sarah Bear Elizabeth Wishnevsky is an American author. Writing under the name Elizabeth Bear, she works primarily in the genre of speculative fiction, and was a winner of the 2005 John W...

, Glen Cook

Glen Cook

Glen Cook is a contemporary American science fiction and fantasy author, best known for his fantasy series, The Black Company. Cook currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.-Biography:...

, Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist.-Biography:Datlow was the fiction editor of Omni magazine and Omni Online from 1981 through 1998, and edited the ten associated Omni anthologies...

, Greg Egan

Greg Egan

Greg Egan is an Australian science fiction author.Egan published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness...

, Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson

Steven Erikson is the pseudonym of Steve Rune Lundin, a Canadian novelist, who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist....

, Phil Foglio

Phil Foglio

Philip "Phil" Foglio is an American cartoonist and comic book artist best known for his humorous science fiction and fantasy work.-Early life and career:...

, Kaja Foglio

Kaja Foglio

Kaja Foglio is a Seattle-based writer, artist, and publisher. Foglio co-won the first Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story in 2009 for Girl Genius, Volume 8: Agatha Heterodyne and the Chapel of Bones, and has continued to co-win two Hugo Awards the following years.-Early life and education:Born in...

, Matthew Hughes

Matthew Hughes

Matthew Hughes VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces....

, Rhys Hughes

Rhys Hughes

Rhys Henry Hughes , is a Welsh writer and essayist.Born in Cardiff, Hughes is a prolific short story writer with an eclectic mix of influences, which include Italo Calvino, Milorad Pavić, Jorge Luis Borges, Stanisław Lem, Flann O'Brien, Felipe Alfau, Donald Barthelme and Jack Vance...

, Douglas Lain

Douglas Lain

Douglas Lain is a fiction writer who has been compared to Philip K. Dick and Pamela Zoline. His first novel, entitled "Billy Moon:1968," is due out from Tor Books....

, Jay Lake

Jay Lake

Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is a science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon and currently works as a product manager...

, H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

, Andrew Migliore

Andrew Migliore

Andrew John Migliore is the founder and director of the annual and in Portland Oregon. In 2006 he also began a spin-off, two-day version of the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival held each August in Austin, Texas.He is also the co-author of Lurker in the Lobby: The Guide to the Cinema of H. P...

, Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Reynolds

Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in dark hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD from St Andrews, Scotland...

, Charles R. Saunders

Charles R. Saunders

Charles R. Saunders also credited as Charles Saunders is an African American author and journalist currently living in Canada. During his long career, he has written everything from novels both fiction and non-fiction, to screenplays and radio plays.- Background :Saunders was born in Elizabeth,...

, Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard

Lucius Shepard is an American writer. Classified as a science fiction and fantasy writer, he often leans into other genres, such as magical realism. His work is infused with a political and historical sensibility and an awareness of literary antecedents...

, John Shirley

John Shirley

John Shirley is an American fantasist, author of noir fiction, and science-fiction writer. Shirley is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, TV scripts and screenplays who has published over 30 books and 10 collections...

, S.P. Somtow, Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole

Michael A. Stackpole is a science fiction and fantasy author best known for his Star Wars and Battletech books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont...

, Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove

Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...

, Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Edward Wagner

Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into...

, Liz Williams

Liz Williams

Dr Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. The Ghost Sister, her first novel, was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award. She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.Williams is the daughter of a stage...

, Martha Wells

Martha Wells

-Biography:Martha Wells was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1964 and has a B.A. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University. She has published eight fantasy novels, two Stargate Atlantis tie-in novels, and several short stories...

, and Zoran Zivkovic

Zoran Živkovic (writer)

Zoran Živković is a writer, essayist, researcher, publisher and translator from Belgrade, Serbia , where he still resides.-Biography:...

.

The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl is a biopunk science fiction novel written by Paolo Bacigalupi and published in September 2009. It was named as the ninth best fiction book of 2009 by TIME magazine, and as the best science fiction book of the year in the Reference and User Services Association's 2010 Reading List...

by Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Bacigalupi

Paolo Tadini Bacigalupi is an American science fiction and fantasy writer.He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Compton Crook, Theodore Sturgeon, and Michael L. Printz awards, and was nominated for the National Book Award...

, published by Night Shade Books in September 2009, won the Hugo

Hugo Award

The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...

, Nebula

Nebula Award

The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...

, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Compton Crook

Compton Crook Award

The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best first novel of the year in the field of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc, at their annual Baltimore-area science fiction convention, Balticon, held on Memorial Day weekend in the...

, and a Locus Award

Locus Award

The Locus Award is a literary award established in 1971 and presented to winners of Locus magazine's annual readers' poll. Currently, the Locus Awards are presented at an annual banquet...

 for First Novel, and was called the "Winningest first novel in science fiction history" by Mark R. Kelly on the Locus Magazine website. It was also listed at number 9 in Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

as one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2009.

On July 9, 2010, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, or SFWA is a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers. It was founded in 1965 by Damon Knight under the name Science Fiction Writers of America, Inc. and it retains the acronym SFWA after a very brief use of the SFFWA...

(SFWA) placed Night Shade Books on probation after it admitted to and apologized to authors for contractual irregularities.