S(tephen) M(artin) Guariento was educated at the Manchester Grammar School. After this he spent an instructive year in Leeds learning how not to be a dentist, before finally graduating from UMIST with a degree in Management Sciences. Following graduation he worked in NHS Finance, where his affinity for the absurd found a natural home. He retired in 2019 to pursue writing full-time. His first novel, Incarnadine (“literary science fiction at its finest” –Mark Stockton, scifi365.net), was awarded the Quagga Prize Silver Medal for Fantasy in 2016. His non-fiction study of film tie-ins—Light into Ink: A Critical Survey of 50 Film Novelizations—was published by Ideogram Press in 2019 (“Packed with information and critical insight…this is a book I can recommend without hesitation” –Dr. Deborah Allison, Senses of Cinema). The author’s fascination for novelizations began in the early 1970s, with Target’s Doctor Who range. In the absence of home video, these compact paperbacks offered the chance to re-experience his favourite serials in the form of vivid prose adventures. He was quickly hooked, and over the years amassed an eclectic collection of TV and movie tie-ins (from Dr Phibes to À bout de souffle). In 2024 Ideogram issued his second novel, Wolftrap, and in 2025 his Revised and Updated edition of Light into Ink. The author spends his spare time obsessively re-reading the works of J.G.Ballard, collecting vintage film posters and listening to film scores and electronica. He also enjoys bragging of his family connection with the 14th Century artist Guariento di Arpo, which scholars have yet to disprove.

Author Steve Guariento is presented with the 2016 Quagga Prize Silver Medal for Fantasy at Waterstones Bookshop, London (November 5th 2016)