Austin Grossman

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Austin Grossman, October 29, 2007

Austin Grossman is a writer and game designer who has contributed to the New York Times and a number of important video games.

He is the author of the novel Soon I Will Be Invincible (Pantheon, 2007). The novel is a homage to comic books, featuring a mad genius supervillain, Doctor Impossible, who suffers from "Malign Hypercognition Disorder" ("evil genius" syndrome). Impossible battles a team of superheroes, including an ultra-strong and self-conscious cyborg called Fatale. Instead of focusing on just action, Grossman also looks at the awkward loneliness suffered by heroes and villains who don't fit into human society -- and whose super-powered bodies are often their greatest sources of suffering.

Grossman started his career in the game industry replying to a classified ad in the The Boston Globe in May 1992 that led him to Looking Glass Studios. Since then, Grossman has worked with the following companies: Dreamworks Interactive, Ion Storm Austin, Crystal Dynamics, including work on the Tomb Raider: Legend game.

Grossman attended Harvard University and is currently a graduate student in English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the twin brother of writer Lev Grossman and brother of sculptor Bathsheba Grossman, and the son of the poet Allen Grossman and the novelist Judith Grossman.