Michael Livingston

Michael Livingston is an accomplished American author, historian, and professor, who is well-known for his fantasy novels that take an alternative history form. Born in Colorado, he holds several degrees in fields such as History, Medieval Studies, and English, which have greatly contributed to his academic and literary career. Livingston has been a student of fantasy writings by renowned authors like J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and James Joyce, which has influenced his own writing. He has published numerous fictional and academic works, receiving widespread praise from academic experts.

Livingston has lived in Charleston, South Carolina for several years, where he currently teaches at The Citadel. As an author, he has achieved significant milestones, including winning the prestigious international Writers of the Future Contest in 2005. His first novel, "Shards of Heaven," which is the first in a trilogy of historical fantasies, was published by Tor Books in November 2015. Livingston has also published in various other genres and venues, including a historical retelling of "Beowulf" and a brief story about quantum physics in the world-renowned journal of science, "Nature."

As an academic, Livingston has published more than a dozen articles on subjects as varied as early Christianity, "Beowulf," Chaucer, James Joyce, J.R.R. Tolkien, and digital and practical pedagogies. He has also served as the general editor of the Liverpool Historical Casebooks Series, for which he has edited casebooks on the Battle of Brunanburh, the Welsh rebel hero Owain Glyndwr, and the Battle of Crécy. Livingston has also received recognition for his work as a conflict analyst, winning the Distinguished Book Prize from the international Society for Military History in 2017 and 2020. He is the author of the bestselling narrative history "Never Greater Slaughter" and the bestselling audiobook "Black Crow, White Snow," as well as the "Seaborn" series of novels and the "Shards of Heaven" historical fantasy series.