Roberta Ann MacAvoy (born December 13, 1949) is an American fantasy and science fiction author. Several of her books draw on

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

or Zen themes. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1984.

Biography

R. A. MacAvoy was born in

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. She attended

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

and received a B.A. in 1971. She worked from 1975 to 1978 as an assistant to the financial aid officer of Columbia College of Columbia University and from 1978 to 1982 as a computer programmer at SRI International before turning to full-time writing in 1982. She married Ronald Allen Cain in 1978. R. A. MacAvoy was diagnosed with

dystonia Dystonia is a neurological hyperkinetic movement disorder in which sustained or repetitive muscle contractions result in twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal fixed postures. The movements may resemble a tremor. Dystonia is often inten ...

(a neuro-muscular disorder causing painful sustained muscle contractions) following the publication of her Lens of the World series in the early 1990s. She now has the disorder under control and has returned to writing.

Bibliography

The Black Dragon series

* ''

Tea with the Black Dragon ''Tea with the Black Dragon'' is a 1983 fantasy novel by American writer R. A. MacAvoy. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1983, the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1984, and the Locus Award for best first novel in 1984; it al ...

'' (1983) * ''Twisting the Rope'' (1986)

The Damiano series

* '' Damiano'' (1983, Bantam) * ''

Damiano's Lute ''Damiano's Lute'' is a fantasy novel by R. A. MacAvoy published in 1984. Plot summary ''Damiano's Lute'' is a novel in which former mage Damiano tries to survive as he wanders through plague-ridden Renaissance Italy. Reception Dave Langford rev ...

'' (1984, Bantam) * ''Raphael'' (1984, Bantam) * omnibus edition titled ''A Trio for Lute'' These books were adapted by Bantam Software into a text adventure, ''I, Damiano: The Wizard of Partestrada'', for MS-DOS and Apple IIe computers.

The Lens of the World series

* ''Lens of the World'' (1990) * ''King of the Dead'' (1991) * ''Winter of the Wolf'' t ''The Belly of the Wolf''(1993)

Ewen Young

* ''The Go-Between'' (2005) – Amazon Shorts e-book, republished with editorial changes as ''In Between'' (2009) * ''Death and Resurrection'' (2011, Prime Books) – includes ''The Go-Between/In Between''

Other novels

* ''The Book of Kells'' (1985) * ''The Grey Horse'' (1987) * ''The Third Eagle'' (1989) * ''Albatross'' (with Nancy Palmer) (2016) * ''Shimmer'' (with Nancy Palmer) (2018)

References

External links

*
RAMacavoy.com
– blog

at ''Ansible''.co.uk, by editor David Langford {{DEFAULTSORT:Macavoy, R. A. 1949 births 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers American fantasy writers American science fiction writers American women novelists John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer winners Living people Women science fiction and fantasy writers