American author of science fiction who in the mid-1980s emerged as a proponent of the subgenre known as cyberpunk, notably as the editor of Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (1986).

In 1976 Sterling graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and published his first story, “Man-Made Self,” in the anthology Lone Star Universe. His first novel, Involution Ocean (1977), describes a dystopian planet where inhabitants escape their confusing lives through drug abuse. The characters in The Artificial Kid (1980) struggle to gain stability in a world of fast-paced change.

Sterling's novel Schismatrix (1985) and the short-story collection Crystal Express (1989) examine the contrasting philosophies of the Shapers, who alter themselves genetically, and the Mechanists, who alter themselves with prosthetic devices. In Islands in the Net (1988), heroine Laura Webster is drawn into the geopolitics of a vast information network. In The Difference Engine (1990; written with William Gibson), Sterling imagines the ascent of the computer age during the 19th century. In 1992 he published Globalhead, a volume of short fiction, and The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier, an exposé of computer crime. Sterling's later works include Heavy Weather (1994) and Holy Fire (1996).