Science fiction focused on biotechnology, genetic engineering, and the consequences of manipulating living organisms.
Biopunk replaces cyberpunk's computer networks with biological ones. Instead of hacking code, characters hack DNA. The genre explores genetic engineering, synthetic biology, bioweapons, plagues, and the ethics of redesigning life itself. Like all '-punk' genres, it tends toward anti-corporate, anti-authoritarian themes, questioning who controls the technology and who suffers from it.
With CRISPR, synthetic biology, and pandemic experience reshaping the real world, biopunk is becoming less speculative by the year. Writing in this space requires you to engage with some of the most urgent ethical questions of our time. It's also a growing niche with readers actively seeking new voices.
A world where biotech corporations control the food supply and genetically engineered beings are treated as property.
Genetic engineering taken to its logical, catastrophic endpoint, with a lone survivor in a post-human landscape.
Write a scene where genetic modification is as normal as getting a tattoo. A character walks into a clinic for a routine bio-mod. Through their choices and the clinic's offerings, reveal the social pressures, class dynamics, and ethical boundaries of this world. No exposition; just the visit.