Picador lands new SF story collection from Chiang

Picador has landed a second book of short stories by acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang, Exhalation.

Ravi Mirchandani, associate publisher at the Pan Macmillan imprint, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Cullen Stanley at Cullen Stanley International and Kirby Kim at Janklow and Nesbit. It will be published in July 2019.

Chiang previous debut collection Stories of Your Life and Others was translated into 21 languages. One of its tales, The Story of Your Life inspired hit Amy Adams movie "Arrival". His fiction has won four Hugo, four Nebula and four Locus awards.

The publisher said: “Ted Chiang engages with humanity’s oldest questions – what is the nature of the universe? what does it mean to be human? – as well as ones that no one else has even imagined. And, each in their own way, the stories prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.”

Mirchandi added: “There is no living writer quite like Ted Chiang. His stories engage brilliantly and originally with ideas, yet are both haunting and moving. For too long he was SF’s best-kept secret. We could not be more delighted to be publishing him at Picador.”