William F. Wu (born 1951 in Kansas City, Missouri) is a Chinese-American science fiction author. He published his first story in 1977. Since then, Wu has written thirteen published novels, one scholarly work, and a collection of short stories. His more than fifty published short stories have been nominated for the Hugo Award twice individually and once as a member of the Wild Cards group of anthology writers; his work has been nominated for the Nebula Award twice and once for the World Fantasy Award. He has written novels using the Three Laws of Robotics invented by Isaac Asimov, including the entire Robots in Time series and two entries in the Robot City series.
Wu is also the author of The Yellow Peril (1982), a revised version of his doctoral dissertation in American Culture from the University of Michigan on American fiction's evolving depiction of Chinese and Chinese-Americans.[1] (Wu has stated that he dislikes the terms "Sino-American" and "Oriental," preferring terms such as Asian, Asian American, Chinese and Chinese American). As a fiction author, he has always given his stories Asian characters, sometimes as protagonists and sometimes as supporting characters. Some of his fiction involves ethnic and racial topics and some involves universal issues.
Because "William" and "Wu" are such commonplace names, some of William F. Wu's achievements have inevitably been misattributed to another William Wu, or vice versa. William F. Wu has made a hobby of locating, contacting and meeting other people named William Wu (with or without the same middle initial). Photographs of Wu posing with his various namesakes have occasionally been published in Locus and other fan publications.