Corry L. Lee is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer recently escaped from academia. Her science fiction short story "Shutdown," about a former ballerina turned military commando, won the Writers of the Future award in 2011. World Fantasy Award-winning author Tim Powers says, "'Shutdown' is a beautifully vivid and imaginative story -- this is what science fiction is supposed to do."

Inspired by a childhood spent reading science fiction, Corry L. Lee studied physics and applied mathematics in college while sneaking in writing time between classes and research. She went on to complete a Ph.D. in experimental particle physics at Harvard University. For her thesis, she searched for rare decays of a heavy, unstable particles created by the Stanford Linear Accelerator and recorded by the BaBar detector.  BaBar and future "B-physics" experiments seek to understand a phenomenon called CP Violation, which will help explain why the universe is composed predominately out of matter (where did all the antimatter go?).

Since completing her doctorate in 2011, Corry has turned to writing full time. Though she still loves big, fundamental physics questions, fiction has always tugged at her heart. She's currently channeling her science background and fascination with spies into a series of novels set in an alternate 1890s, where the British Empire teeters on the brink of war with the Russo-Chinese Alliance. In The Clockwork Empire, a British spy and a young lady inventor race to uncover an Alliance plot in England. Along the way, they develop technology to sustain brains in mechanical bodies; hunt down the prizrachniy poyezd, an Alliance "ghost train" based on mysterious mu-metal; and discover that espionage may be more straightforward than romance.

During her Ph.D., Corry took a six-week break to attend Odyssey, the Fantasy Writing Workshop.  Odyssey taught Corry a great deal about writing—including the value of community. She frequently attends science fiction conventions where she loves meeting other writers and talking to fans. When she’s not writing or thinking about science, you’re likely to find Corry hiking or rock climbing, enjoying a night at the opera, discovering new and delicious teas, or reading a good book in the sun. That is, if she can find the sun. She lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and pines for the Colorado sunshine of her youth.

Find Corry on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Watch the dance interpretation of "Shutdown" and Corry's acceptance speech at the Writers of the Future awards ceremony in Hollywood's Wilshire Ebell Theatre on YouTube.