The Harry Ransom Center began processing a renowned science fiction novelist’s archive last month.

Bruce Sterling, one of the founders of the cyberpunk movement ­— a science fiction genre focused on technology in a dystopian setting — gave part of his paper archive of books and manuscripts to Center.

Richard Oram, associate director at the center, said the archive includes manuscripts of “The Difference Engine,” which Sterling coauthored with William Gibson, another founder of the movement and a complete collection of Sterling’s “Cheap Truth” newsletter, which he printed in Austin in the 1980s.

“Bruce created [‘Cheap Truth’] before the word cyberpunk had even been developed,” Oram said. “He sort of initiated the cyberpunk movement, which started in Austin.”

Oram said there were lots of people writing and reading Sterling’s anthology, “Mirror Shades.”

“I think there aren’t a huge number of literary movements of national importance and this is one that came out of Austin,” Oram said. “Bruce was behind a lot of these things.”