Carol Severance (1944 – February 19, 2015) was a U.S.

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

writer.

Life

Carol Severance was a Hawaii-based Science Fiction and Fantasy writer known for her strong female characters. As an artist she had a special interest in Pacific Island peoples and their environments. In high school she held the Amateur Rocketry Association’s High Altitude Record. After growing up in Denver and earning an art degree, she served with the Peace Corps on remote atolls in Micronesia and traveled interisland on traditional sailing canoes. She found that her oil paints were too dull to capture the vivid colors of the reefs and lagoons, so she began “painting with words” by keeping a detailed journal of people and cultural events. She later assisted with anthropological field work in Micronesia, and went on to earn an M.A. in Journalism at the University of South Carolina. She was a news editor and feature writer and did many feature stories for the Hawaii Tribune Herald. She graduated from the 1984 Clarion West Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop. Carol wrote short stories, a prize-winning play and published four novels. Reefsong won the 1992 Compton Crook Award for the Best First Novel in the Field. The Island Warrior Series; Demon Drums, Storm Caller, and Sorcerous Sea are based partly on Pacific Island folklore, environments, and the conflict between good and evil. All her novels are available through Open Road Media. Severance was born in Ohio and grew up in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. She served with the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

from 1966-1968 and later assisted in anthropological fieldwork in the remote coral atolls of Chuuk,

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

. She lived in

Hilo Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Hawaii (island), Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 United ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

with her husband, former Peace Corps volunteer Craig J. Severance.CRAIG SEVERANCE RETIRES FROM UH HILO
Pacific News from Mānoa. Accessed 2009-09-02.)

Writing

Much of Severance's writing includes references to

Pacific Island Collectively called the Pacific Islands, the islands in the Pacific Ocean are further categorized into three major island groups: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Depending on the context, the term ''Pacific Islands'' may refer to one of se ...

lore and lifestyle. Severance won the

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented to the best English language first novel of the year in the field of science fiction, fantasy, or horror by the members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society at their annual science fiction convention, Baltic ...

for her debut novel, ''Reefsong'', in 1991.

Publications

Island Warrior series

# ''Demon Drums'' (1992) # ''Storm Caller'' (1993) # ''Sorcerous Sea'' (1993)

Other novels

* ''Reefsong'' (1991) -

winner for best first novel of 1991.

Short stories

* "Day of Strange Fortune" (1987) * "Isle of Illusion" (1987) * "Shark-Killer" (1988) * "Whispering Cane" (1990)

Anthologies containing her work

* ''

Magic in Ithkar 4 ''Magic in Ithkar 4'' is a shared world anthology of fantasy stories edited by Andre Norton and Robert Adams. It was first published as a paperback by Tor Books in July 1987. Summary The book collects fourteen original short stories by various ...

'' (1987) * ''Tales of the Witch World 3'' (1990)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Severance, Carol 1944 births 2015 deaths American fantasy writers American science fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers Women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American women