William Gibson is an American-Canadian writer known as the pioneer of the cyberpunk genre. He was born in 1948 in South Carolina but spent most of his early years in Virginia. Gibson avoided the Vietnam draft by moving to Canada where he studied English and became interested in science fiction. He is known for novels like Neuromancer that explore dystopian futures where technology and cyberspace intersect with crime. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" and his work heavily influenced cyberpunk as a genre that depicts a technologically advanced yet socially deteriorating future.