Larry Correia

Early years

Correia grew up in California working on his Portuguese father's dairy farm until his mid-teens, when his family moved to Utah. He stayed in California for about a year before joining his family in Utah. While attending Utah State University, Correia joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served a two-year mission in Alabama.

After returning home from his mission, he got married before graduating with an accounting degree. After working as an accountant for several years, Correia opened a gun store with business partners while continuing work as an accountant. He also started working as a firearms instructor and a CCW instructor. In 2013 he began working as a writer full-time.

Writing career

Correia's works include magic and often mythical monsters, such as vampires and werewolves. His stories are typically action-oriented with accurate and detailed depictions of firearms usage. Correia used to be active on firearms discussion boards, where he would write about his interest in weapons and low budget monster movies, and also get inspiration from various online threads. The original rough draft of Dead Six appeared on one of these forums, "The High Road", in a thread started by Mike Kupari called "Welcome Back, Mr. Nightcrawler".

His self-published first novel, Monster Hunter International, was written for—and marketed directly to—the posters on these boards. One of these posters had once worked in a large independent bookstore, and passed it on to his old employer—who in turn passed it to Baen Books—which offered Correia a publishing contract. Monster Hunter International, despite being self-published, reached the Entertainment Weekly bestseller list in April 2008, before he received this publishing contract. Monster Hunter International was re-released by Baen in July 2009 and was on the Locus bestseller list in November 2009.

The sequel, Monster Hunter Vendetta, was a New York Times bestseller when released in September 2010. The third book in the series, Monster Hunter Alpha, was released in July 2011 and was also a New York Times bestseller. Dead Six, the first book in a new trilogy co-authored with Mike Kupari, was released in September 2011. Correia was a finalist for the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The fourth Monster Hunter International novel, Monster Hunter Legion, received 17 fewer nominations than the least-nominated finalist for the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Correia's The Grimnoir Chronicles trilogy, set in an alternate and magical 1930s, began with the release of Hard Magic in May 2011. The second book, Spellbound, was released in November that same year. The audiobook versions of Hard Magic and Spellbound won Audie Awards in 2012 and 2013 (respectively). Warbound (August 2013), the final book in the trilogy, was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel as a result of the Sad Puppies campaign, and received an Audie Award in 2014. The second Dead Six novel, Swords of Exodus, was released in September 2013. Correia wrote a number of short stories and a novel in 2013 and 2014 for Privateer Press that were set in the Iron Kingdoms role-playing world.

Monster Hunter Nemesis (July 2014), the fifth volume in the main Monster Hunter series, was chosen as a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2015, but Correia declined the nomination. Correia began Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, a new epic fantasy series, with Son of the Black Sword (November 2015), which won an inaugural Dragon Award in the "Best Fantasy Novel" category in 2016. It was also nominated for the David Gemmell Legend Award and placed 9th in the voting for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2016.

A spin-off series set in the Monster Hunter universe—co-written with John Ringo—was started in August 2016 with Monster Hunter Memoirs. It is set about 30 years before the main series and follows the exploits of Chad Oliver Gardenier. The final book in the Dead Six trilogy, Alliance of Shadows, as well as Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners were released in October and December (respectively) that year. Monster Hunter Siege is scheduled for release in August 2017. House of Assassins and Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints are projected for release in 2017, with Monster Hunter Guardian (co-authored with Sarah A. Hoyt) and Destroyer of Worlds slated for release in 2018.

Sad Puppies

Correia, along with science fiction author Brad R. Torgersen were leaders of the "Sad Puppies", a group of SF fans and authors who organized a slate voting campaign to nominate more works by conservative and libertarian authors, as well as classic "pulp" science fiction, for Hugo Awards. The Sad Puppies charged that these popular works were often unfairly passed over by Hugo voters in favor of more literary works, or stories with progressive political themes.

Personal life

Correia lives in northern Utah with his family.

Monster Hunters series

1. Monster Hunter International (ISBN 0-74144-456-9, Infinity Publishing, December 2007; republished, ISBN 978-1-43913-285-2, Baen Books, July 2009)
2. Monster Hunter Vendetta (ISBN 1-43913-391-3, Baen Books, September 2010)
3. Monster Hunter Alpha (ISBN 1-43913-458-8, Baen Books, August 2011)
4. Monster Hunter Legion (ISBN 978-1-4516-3796-0, Baen Books, September 2012)
5. Monster Hunter Nemesis (ISBN 978-1-4767-3655-6, Baen Books, July 2014)
6. Monster Hunter Siege (ISBN 978-1-4814-8255-4, Baen Books, August 2017)
7. Monster Hunter Guardian, co-authored with Sarah A. Hoyt (forthcoming 2018, Baen Books)
8. Monster Hunter Omega (planned, Baen Books)

Monster Hunter Memoirs

Monster Hunter Memoirs is a spin-off series co-written with John Ringo.

The Grimnoir Chronicles

1. Hard Magic (ISBN 1-43913-434-0, Baen Books, May 2011)
2. Spellbound (ISBN 1-45163-775-6, Baen Books, November 2011)
3. Warbound (ISBN 978-1-4516-3908-7, Baen Books, August 2013)

Dead Six series

1. Dead Six (with Mike Kupari) (ISBN 1-45163-758-6, Baen Books, September 2011)
2. Swords of Exodus (with Mike Kupari) (ISBN 978-1-47673-611-2, Baen Books, September 2013)
3. Alliance of Shadows (with Mike Kupari) (ISBN 9781476781853 Baen Books, October 2016)

Iron Kingdoms

Saga of the Forgotten Warrior

Other

In addition to his novels, Correia has written a satirical Christmas story, "The Christmas (Noun)", and its sequel, "The Christmas (Noun) 2: The Nounening". He has recently written another sequel, "The Christmas (Noun) 3D: The Gritty Reboot", and published several short stories from Baen Books and the Crimson Pact. Correia also authored several shorts in the on-line series "Tom Stranger, Inter-dimensional Insurance Agent".