Jeff Vandermeer is easily regarded as one of the best fantasists. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and traveled through Asia, Africa and Europe before returning to the USA. It was these travels that deeply influenced Vandermeer's fiction writing. Jeff VanderMeer - called "the weird Thoreau" by the New Yorker - is the 2016-2017 Trias Writer-in-Residence for Hobart-William Smith College. His Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance) has won the Shirley Jackson Award and Nebula Award and made it to over 30 best book lists. Three-time World Fantasy Award winner, VanderMeer is the co-director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen science-fiction/fantasy writing camp located at Wofford College. He is also the recipient of an NEA-funded Florida Individual Artist Fellowship for excellence in fiction and a Florida Artist Enhancement Grant. He lives with his wife Ann and their two cats Tallahasee, Florida.