Guests of Honor

Lee and Miller

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are creators of the long-running and best-selling Liaden Universe novels, with over 20 novels published.

Sharon Lee on Facebook Albacon logo Steve Miller on Facebook

They have been working in the fertile fields of genre fiction for thirty years, pioneering today’s sub-genre of science fiction romance – stories that contain all the action, adventure and sense of wonder of traditional space opera, with the addition of romantic relationships.

Over the course of their partnership, Lee and Miller have written thirty-one novels, twenty-two in their original space opera setting, the Liaden Universe®, where honor, wit, and true love are potent weapons against villainy.

There are more than 300,000 Liaden Universe® novels in print; Liaden titles regularly place in the top ten bestsellers in Locus Magazine, the trade paper of the speculative fiction genres; twelve titles have been national bestsellers.

Liaden Universe® novels have twice won the Prism Award for Best Futuristic Romance, reader and editor choice awards from Romantic Times, as well as the Hal Clement Award for Best YA Science Fiction Novel, proving the appeal of the series to a wide range of readers.

Lee and Miller’s work in the field has not been limited to writing fiction.

Sharon Lee served three years at the first full-time executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and went on to be elected vice-president, and president of that organization. She has been a Nebula Award jurist.

Steve Miller was the founding curator of the University of Maryland’s Science Fiction Research Collection. He has been a jurist for the Philip K. Dick Award.

Lee and Miller have together appeared at science fiction conventions around the country, as writer guests of honor and principal speakers. They have been panelists, participated in writing workshops, and given talks on subjects as diverse as proper curating of a cat whisker collection, techniques for creating believable characters, and worldbuilding alien societies.

In 2012, Lee and Miller were jointly awarded the E.E. “Doc” Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (aka the “Skylark” Award), given annually by the New England Science Fiction Association to someone who has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him. Previous recipients include George R.R. Martin, Anne McCaffrey, and Sir Terry Pratchett.

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller met in a college writing course in 1978; they married in 1980. In 1988, they moved from their native Maryland to Maine, where they may still be found, in a sun-filled house in a small Central Maine town. Their household currently includes four cats, a domestic short hair, and three Maine coons.