Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan is an American author. His debut novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, 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.[1]

Robin Sloan
Sloan in 2008
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMichigan State University
Home townTroy, Michigan
GenreNovels
Notable worksMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Website
www.robinsloan.com

Early life

Sloan was born to a home economics teacher and an appliance salesman.[2] He grew up in Troy, Michigan, where he attended Wattles Elementary School.[3] He graduated from Athens High School in 1998.[4]

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.[4] 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.[5]

Sloan moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 to work at Current TV as a media strategist/interactive producer.[5][6][7]

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.[8][5]

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.[6]

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][5] The novel was listed in San Francisco Chronicle's list of top 100 books of 2012.[10]

His second novel Sourdough was released in September 2017.[7] It was listed as the San Francisco Chronicle's top 100 books of 2017.[11]

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.[12]

Sloan and his partner Kathryn Tomajan produce olive oil under the Fat Gold brand. They harvest off of leased land in Sunol, California.[13]

Personal life

Sloan resides in Rockridge, Oakland, California.[2]

Bibliography
  • Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (2012) ISBN 978-1-92207-916-9
  • Ajax Penumbra 1969 (2013) ISBN 978-0-374-71184-9
  • Sourdough: A Novel (2017) ISBN 978-0-374-20310-8[14]
gollark: https://i.redd.it/wsh1pmfdpt941.png
gollark: I see.
gollark: *Physically*, or what?
gollark: Also, how do you "experience Jesus", whichever one you're talking about?
gollark: ... what?

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