He was born Jerzy Tadeus Zebrowski in Villach, Austria, of Polish descent and has lived in the USA since 1951. He continues to be interested in his Eastern European heritage, as evidence by his Beneath the Red Star: Studies on International Science Fiction, which collected his writings on SF behind the Iron Curtain. He was part of the part of the earlier Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshops. He has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Nebula awards, and won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1999.