Larry Correia (; born 1977) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer, known for his Monster Hunter International, Grimnoir Chronicles, and Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. He has authored or co-authored over 25 novels, has over 50 published short works, two collections of stories, and has co-edited three published anthologies.
He was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2011, and his works have been nominated for the Audie Award multiple times, winning twice. He has won the Dragon Award for Best Military Science Fiction or Best Fantasy Novel four times. In 2014, Correia started the Sad Puppies campaign to nominate works for the Hugo Award, including his own, that he claimed were more popular but often unfairly passed over in favor of more literary works or stories with progressive political themes.
Early life
Correia grew up in El Nido, California working on his Portuguese father's dairy farm until his mid-teens, when his family moved to Utah. He stayed in California for about a year before joining his family in Utah. While attending Utah State University, Correia—who was raised Catholic—joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two-year mission in Alabama.
After returning home from his mission, he got married before graduating with an accounting degree. He worked as an accountant for several years before Correia opened a gun store with business partners while continuing to work as an accountant. He also started working as a firearms instructor and a CCW instructor. In 2013, he began working as a writer full-time.
Writing career
Correia's works often include magic and mythical monsters, such as vampires and werewolves. His stories are typically action-oriented with accurate and detailed depictions of firearms usage. Correia used to be active on firearms discussion boards, where he would write about his interest in weapons and low-budget monster movies, and also get inspiration from various online threads. The original rough draft of Dead Six appeared on one of these forums, "The High Road", in a thread started by Mike Kupari called "Welcome Back, Mr. Nightcrawler".
His self-published first novel, Monster Hunter International, was written for—and marketed directly to—the posters on these boards. One of these posters had once worked in a large independent bookstore, and passed it on to his old employer—who in turn passed it to Baen Books—which offered Correia a publishing contract. Monster Hunter International, despite being self-published, reached the Entertainment Weekly bestseller list in April 2008, before he received this publishing contract. Monster Hunter International was re-released by Baen in July 2009 and was on the Locus bestseller list in November 2009.
The sequel, Monster Hunter Vendetta, was a New York Times bestseller when released in September 2010. The third book in the series, Monster Hunter Alpha, was released in July 2011 and was also a New York Times bestseller. Dead Six, the first book in a new trilogy co-authored with Mike Kupari, was released in September 2011. Correia was a finalist for the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The fourth Monster Hunter International novel, Monster Hunter Legion, received 17 fewer nominations than the least-nominated finalist for the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Correia's The Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy, set in an alternate and magical 1930s, began with the release of Hard Magic in May 2011. The second book, Spellbound, was released in November that same year. The audiobook versions of Hard Magic and Spellbound won Audie Awards in 2012 and 2013 (respectively). Warbound (August 2013), the final book in the trilogy, was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel as a result of the Sad Puppies campaign, and received an Audie Award in 2014. The second Dead Six novel, Swords of Exodus, was released in September 2013. Correia wrote a number of short stories and a novel in 2013 and 2014 for Privateer Press that were set in the Iron Kingdoms role-playing world.
Monster Hunter Nemesis (July 2014), the fifth volume in the main Monster Hunter series, was chosen as a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, but Correia declined the nomination. Correia began Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, a new epic fantasy series, with Son of the Black Sword (November 2015), which won an inaugural Dragon Award in the "Best Fantasy Novel" category in 2016. It was also nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award and placed 9th in the voting for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2016.