Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1974
• Where—Flint, Michigan, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Michigan
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
Marcus Sakey is an American award-winning novelist, originally of crime thrillers and later speculative fiction. Most notably, he wrote The Brilliance Trilogy (2013-2016), a mixture of futurism, technology, genetics, and more.
Sakey was born in Flint, Michigan, where he attended the University of Michigan (1992–1996) with a double major in communication and political science. Following graduation, he worked in advertising, marketing, tv, and graphic design, once owning his own design studio in Atlanta. That 10-year-long interlude, as he says on his website, was the perfect background for a crime writer—it allowed him "plenty of exposure to liars and thieves."
Eventually let go from his last advertising job—a job he disliked and had already decided to leave—Sakey collected a severance package and spent the next year reading. After a year, he began writing, and although he hadn't set out to become a crime writer, he took a look around and realized that crime sold.
A year later, in 2007, his debut crime novel, The Blade Itself, was published. It was featured as a New York Times Editor's Pick and named one of Esquire Magazine's 5 Best Reads of that year. Best of all, it sold…enabling Sakey to devote himself full time to writing.
To research his crime novels, which are are set on the south side of Chicago, Sakey shadowed homicide detectives, gang cops, and interviewed soldiers. He rappelled with SWAT teams, hung out with bank robbers, and even dissected a brain.
The switch from the world of crime fiction to sci-fi came several years later and involved a hiking trip with writer pal Blake Crouch where the two bounced around new approaches to their novels. More ideas came as a result of his wife's professional interest in autism. From autism it was a short leap to savants (think Dustin Hoffman in The Rain Man) and eventually to the idea of "brilliants" or "abnorms," the fictional characters in The Brilliance Trilogy. Sakey describes the basis of the series in a Huffington Post interview:
Starting in the 1980s, one percent of the world's population was born with savant gifts—ways of thinking, categorizing, and dealing with the world—far exceeding those of ordinary people. They didn't possess superpowers, but the most powerful could do things like sense patterns in the stock market, or be the strategic equivalent of Einstein. Some had the ability to recognize facial features or bodily movements, allowing them to discern motives and hidden intentions of other people.
In addition to his novels, Marcus was the host and writer of the Hidden City on Travel Channel, for which he endured pepper spray and dog attacks. Sakey lives with his wife and daughter in Chicago. (Adapted from various online sources, including the author's website.)