<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Greg Keyes (J. Gregory Keyes), born in Meridian, Mississippi, on April 11, 1963, is part Choctaw Native American, and while he was very young his father’s job took the family to a Navajo reservation in Arizona. Thus, at age 4 he was bilingual, and he began developing a powerful interest in language, storytelling, myth, and legend.

Keyes went to college at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi, where he earned a bachelors degree in anthropology. During a world history class at Mississippi State, the topic turned to the need for flood control in ancient civilizations such as Egypt and Mesopotamia, and Keyes began to envision a city on a river that was literally alive. Ultimately that vision became the basis for his first published novel, The Waterborn (1996), and its sequel, The Blackgod (1997).

He and his wife Nell moved to Athens, Georgia, she pursued a degree in metalworking, and he worked two jobs, one ironing newspapers, the other as a night guard. It was there that he began writing in his spare time because, as he stated in one interview, “Ironing newspapers gives you a lot of time to think.” While in Athens, Keyes earned a Masters degree in anthropology and pursued a Ph.D. The entire time he remained an avid player of a traditional Native American stickball game called kapucha toli, which according to Keyes involves heavy sticks, one ball, two goals, few rules, and frequent injuries.

Since retiring from toli, Keyes studied fencing in preparation for writing the novel Newton’s Cannon, and has become a certified instructor. He is also an avid cook.

Following The Blackgod Keyes wrote the vivid fantasy alternate-history The Age of Unreason, which began with Newton’s Cannon (1998). In this four-book series, Sir Isaac Newton, who was in actual history a known Freemason, while trying to unlock the secrets of alchemy, succeeds. In doing so, he unleashes dark magic upon the world, and embroils such famous characters as a young Ben Franklin, King Louis of France, and Peter the Great.

Keyes has also worked with J. Michael Straczynski to write a Babylon 5 trilogy of novels revealing the secrets of the paramilitary telepathic organization known as Psi-Corps, and has written several New York Times bestselling Star Wars novels. More recently he has launched his four-book Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone epic with the critically-acclaimed novel The Briar King (2003), followed by The Charnel Prince 2005) and The Blood Knight (2006).