Bio

Arley was born at March AFB (California), but grew up in England, Hawaii, and Colorado. He kicked around Santa Barbara for a while, then went to Pitzer college. Somehow he landed in the Bay Area.

He lives in the SF Bay Area, and can usually be found in local coffee shops.

Arley identifies as Black/white/smidge o' Native.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

My Life in Genre

I went to my first convention in 2013, a local event called BayCon. I was absolutely terrified! I had joined a few writing Meetups earlier in the year and was just starting to meet people. Jose San Mateo encouraged me to go to BayCon, and even went with me the first day, just to make me feel more comfortable. At BayCon I met author Effie Seiberg.

Effie introduced me to Tim Pratt and later, in 2014, I went to the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Before the workshop was over, thanks to Effie, Tim, and some fantastic timing, I had a new job in the publishing industry, at Locus.

In 2014 I went to a private party, where I met Seanan McGuire. Seanan recruited me to slush for her Queers Destroy Science Fiction! issue, and that was how I started at Lightspeed.

Over time I took on more responsibility, went to more conventions, and met more people.

I never thought I'd be as involved in genre publishing as I am today, but I absolutely love it!

Photo: Josh Pearce & Arley Sorg chat about movies for Locus film reviews.