Blake Stone-Banks writes and translates science fiction. Born in Kentucky and domesticated in Beijing, he thrives on bluegrass and revolutionary model operas.
His original fiction has appeared in Epoché Magazine. As a translator of Chinese speculative fiction, he has brought stories by Chen Qiufan, Xiu Xinyu, Lu Ban, Gelian, Wang Nuonuo, Channing Ren and Liu Maijia into English for Clarkesworld, and contributed to the anthologies The Best of World SF Vol. 1, AI 2041, and the Galaxy Awards: Chinese Science Fiction Anthology.
His translation of Channing Ren's "Resurrection" was a 2023 Hugo Award nominee for "Best Short Story."
Stay in orbit
New writing, translations, and dispatches from the Jagged Orbits of SF.
Original fiction
Epoché Magazine · 2017
Colosseum
An AI weapons drone iterates its myriad death scenarios to discover its path to survival in the past, present and future.
Translations from Chinese
Clarkesworld · October 2025
Giant Grandmother
A young woman's genetic evolution is interrupted by the return of her famous grandmother, an ice cream loving elephant, in a surreal rumination on inheritance, love, and engineered humanity.
Clarkesworld · December 2024
Life Sentence
A crewmember is lost investigating a black hole in this story about what time can do to a person, even if "in a black hole, there are no corpses."
Clarkesworld · December 2022
Upstart
A bureaucratic novelette about population control, genetic records, and a youth negotiating the timeline of his legally mandated death.
Clarkesworld · April 2020
Debtless
Deep-space miners labor under inherited debt in a future where "death is just the middleman."
Also in The Best of World SF Vol. 1 ed. Lavie Tidhar
Clarkesworld · March 2018
Farewell, Adam
Five recruits must sustain a virtual pop idol. When the idol dies, so do their contracts.
Anthologies
Head of Zeus · 2021
The Best of World SF: Volume 1
Ed. Lavie Tidhar. Twenty-six stories from twenty-one countries. Includes my translation of Chen Qiufan's "Debtless."
Amazon ↗Doubleday · 2021
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future
Chen Qiufan and Kai-Fu Lee pair AI research with speculative fiction across the globe. Two translated stories: "Twin Sparrows" and "Fate on a Leaf."
ai2041.com ↗Science Fiction World （科幻世界） · 2023
Galaxy Awards: Chinese Science Fiction Anthology
English-language showcase of award-winning contemporary Chinese SF. Two translated stories: Channing Ren's Hugo-nominated "Resurrection" and Wang Nuonuo's "Turing Food Court."
Amazon ↗