John Shirley

John Shirley is an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and songwriter whose work includes science fiction and horror. He is associated with the early development of cyberpunk; his 1980 novel City Come A-Walkin' predates many of the works commonly associated with the genre, and William Gibson described Shirley as "cyberpunk's Patient Zero" in an introduction to a later edition of the novel. His fiction also includes the A Song Called Youth trilogy and the story collection Black Butterflies.