'Always connected'

 

“In fantasy, you can make a complete break, and you can put people in a situation where they are confronted with things that they would not confront in the real world.” – Elizabeth Moon

 

Born in McAllen, TX on March 7, 1945, Moon started writing Science Fiction and Fantasy as a teenager – something she first looked upon as a sideline before realizing she had a knack for creating new worlds that people wanted to read about.   After a career as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, she turned back to writing, first as a successful newspaper columnist and opinion writer then as a writer of science fiction. 

 

Her first novel, leading to “The Deed of Paksenarrion” series, was 1988’s Sheepfarmer’s Daughter, winner of the Compton Crook Award for best debut sci-fi novel.  She's now written 35 books, the most recent a collection of 6 stories titled Deeds of Wisom: Paksenarrion World Chronicles III, published in 2025.

  

Among Moon's many other awards are the Robert A. Heinlein Award for "outstanding published works in hard science fiction or technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space,” and a “Best Novel” Hugo for The Speed of Dark, a near-future story told from the viewpoint of an autistic computer programmer and inspired by her son Michael.

 

“My personal feeling about science fiction,” she said, “is that it's always in some way connected  . . . to our everyday world.“