Sebastian Pirling (塞巴斯蒂安 · 皮尔灵)
editor for science-fiction and fantasy literature
Heyne Publishing House

Storydrive interview: Interview with Sebastian Pirling

Sebastian Pirling (born 1979), editor for science-fiction and fantasy literature at Heyne publishing house in Munich.

Pirling studied German language and literature, English language and literature and History at Bremen University and the University of Liverpool and got his MA in 2006. After a six-month internship at Panini Comics, Stuttgart, Pirling continued working for them and other publishers as a freelance translator, type setter and editor.

Since 2008 Pirling joined Wilhelm Heyne Verlag as a junior editor for science-fiction and fantasy literature and was promoted to editor two years later. Since then, he has been working on translated editions by authors like William Gibson, Robert Kirkman and Andy Weir as well as developing and editing books by German authors.

Pirling had the opportunity to co-edit the science-fiction yearbook Heyne Science Fiction Jahr for four years, and co-authored the non-fiction book Der Weg zum Mars – Aufbruch in eine neue Welt. Heyne launched the award-winning online magazine and e-book platform diezukunft.de in 2014, which he has had the chance to help develop and now run as deputy publishing director. The editorial team won the renowned Kurd Lasswitz Award for extraordinary achievements in the field of science-fiction publishing in 2015.

After Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award for The Three-Body Problem in 2016, Pirling had the great fortune to win this extraordinary author for Heyne. Pirling also wrote an afterword to his novella Mirror. The rather astonishing success of Liu Cixin’s works in the German-speaking world have has made way for other Chinese authors that Heyne bought such as Hao Jingfang and Chen Qiufan in the field of science-fiction as well as the late Jin Yong with his fantasy classic The Legend of the Condor Heroes – and hopefully many more.

Pirling won the C. S. Lewis Award 2017 for his own science-fiction novel Der Planet der verbotenen Erinnerungen which just got published.

Pirling is married with two children.