- Michael Lawson Bishop is the author of sixteen novels and a wide range of stories, essays, and poems.
- Over four decades and in more than thirty books, he created what has been called a "body of work that stands among the most admired and influential in modern science fiction and fantasy literature.".
- Bishop identified as a Christian.
- Bishop's childhood was the peripatetic life of a military brat. He went to kindergarten in Tokyo, Japan, and he spent his senior year of high school in Seville, Spain.
- His son Christopher James "Jamie" Bishop died in the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. He created the covers for five of Bishop's books. Since Jamie's death, Bishop and his wife have been active proponents of gun control legislation.
- Bishop has also published two volumes of poetry and a collection of essays and reviews (A Reverie for Mister Ray, 2005) and has edited seven anthologies of science fiction and fantasy.
- Though much of his work incorporates elements of science fiction and fantasy, Bishop's novels reflect an array of literary influences and traditions. This is true of No Enemy but Time (1982), which won the Nebula Award and is one of his best known novels.
- Bishop was the longtime writer-in-residence at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia, and lived in nearby Pine Mountain.
- He graduated from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's (1967) and master's in English (1968).
- Bishop joined the Air Force as an English instructor at the Air Force Academy Preparatory school (1968-72) and at the University of Georgia (1972-74), before becoming a full-time freelance writer.
- Bishop, who has lived in Pine Mountain, Georgia, most of his adult life, was named to the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2018.
- He wrote two mysteries with Paul Di Filippo under the joint pseudonym "Philip Lawson": Would It Kill You to Smile? (1998) and Muskrat Courage (2000).
- After teaching in Colorado for four years, he became an instructor in the UGA English department in 1972. His success in publishing stories led him two years later to leave teaching to devote himself full time to writing.
- In 1993, 20th Century Fox optioned his novel Brittle Innings for a film and bought the rights outright in 1995. (To date, no film has been made.).
- He was also nominated for eight Hugo Awards and five World Fantasy Awards.
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