ROBERT JOHNSON is a speculative fiction writer and independent researcher based in Portland, Oregon. His work explores the intersection of quantum physics, consciousness, and narrative form — what he calls *the physics of story*. Before turning to fiction full-time, Johnson spent twelve years as a software engineer working on distributed systems and cryptographic protocols, experience that informs the technical plausibility of his worldbuilding.
His short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and his essay The Narrative Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics was published in the interdisciplinary journal Foundations of Science. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop and a recipient of the Odyssey Writing Workshop's grant for emerging speculative fiction writers.
The Quantum Gate is his first novel, developed over seven years of research and revision, including consultation with physicists at the University of Oregon's Institute for Theoretical Science. He is currently at work on a standalone novel about memory, identity, and artificial consciousness, tentatively titled The Echo Chamber.
Johnson lives with his partner and two cats in a house full of books, notebooks, and instruments he cannot play. He believes that the best science fiction makes the impossible feel inevitable, and that every story is, at its heart, a thought experiment about what it means to be human.