Horst Pukallus was born in Duesseldorf in 1949 and lives in Wuppertal today. Initially an insurance broker, be began his literary activities in the late 1960ies with reviews in critical science fiction magazines. His first short story was published in 1974. In 1975 he became a freelance writer, translator and editor. Apart from numerous short stories and novellas that established his reputation of one of the best German science fiction writers, he published novels in collaboration with Ronald M. Hahn, Andreas Brandhorst and Michael K. Iwoleit and became especially known for his groundbreaking translations of Anglo-American science fiction classics, for which he received the renowned Kurd Laßwitz Prize five times as best translator of the year. His story “Das Blei der Zeit” was awarded in 1991.