I may be showing my ignorance, but I think those like Verne and even Shelley were the original steampunk authors. I don't think of it as a totally separate genr

I may be showing my ignorance, but I think those like Verne and even Shelley were the original steampunk authors. I don't think of it as a totally separate genre as people continue to try to recapture and riff on the same styles and set pieces almost two centuries later. It is born of that era. Similarly, I think you could still write new cyberpunk. It's not dead, but on hiatus.