Michael Szameit is a science fiction author from the former German Democratic Republic. His writings teem with quick-witted political innuendo and subtle mockery of East Germany's political system, and envision a future as seen through the filtered lens of a socialist society.Born in 1950, Michael had a stint studying physics before working in the film and TV industry throughout the '70s and becoming head of a recording studio. Starting in the early '80s, he worked for the editorial office of the Neues Leben publishing house, was delegated to study writing at the Leipzig Institute of Literature, and soon published his first short stories. A freelance author and publisher until 1990, he released four novels and two anthologies. At that time, he was ranked among the four most popular SF writers in the German Democratic Republic according a poll held by the Transfer magazine of the SF Club Andymon.As a member of both the East German Writers' Guild and the Working Group for Utopian Literature, he was tasked with promoting promising fledgling authors. After the reunification of Germany, he spent two decades working as a journalist for a Hamburg-based Special Interest publishing house, 15 years of which he was chief editor. During this time, he published the novel Copyworld, which placed fourth in the Kurd Lasswitz prize in 1997 as well as third in the Science Fiction Club Deutschland prize.Now retired and residing on the outskirts of Berlin, Michael has resumed freelance writing.