Sharan Newman (born April 15, 1949 in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...

) is an American historian and writer of historical novels. She won the

Macavity Award The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the " mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' ...

for Best First Mystery in 1994.

Biography

Newman's father was a

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

captain; her mother was a psychologist. In 1971 she both graduated from

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its ...

and married Paul Richard Newman, a physicist. She also gained a master's in medieval literature in 1973 from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

and then doctoral work in Medieval studies at the

University of California at Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. Newman lectures widely in medieval historypage 161-164, ''Great Women Mystery Writers'', 2nd Ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, publ. Greenwood Press, and currently lives in Ireland.

Writing

Newman's first novels were a historical trilogy about

Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First me ...

. Then she turned to mystery novels set in 12th-century France featuring Catherine LeVendeur, a novice in a convent run by Heloise – though she later leaves and marries.

Awards

Newman's debut mystery, ''Death Comes as Epiphany'', won the

for "Best First Novel" in 1994 and was also nominated for the

1994 Anthony Award Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the con ...

and the 1993

Agatha Award The Agatha Awards, named for Agatha Christie, are literary awards for mystery and crime writers who write in the traditional mystery subgenre: "books typified by the works of Agatha Christie . . . loosely defined as mysteries that contain no expli ...

in the same category. The novel was also nominated for the 1994 Dilys Award for the mystery title of the year which the ''Independent Mystery Booksellers Association'' booksellers have most enjoyed selling. ''The Wandering Arm'' and ''Strong As Death'' also received nominations for Agatha Awards for "Best Novel" in 1995 and 1996 respectively.

Bibliography

Guinevere series

* ''Guinevere'' (1981) * ''The Chessboard Queen'' (1983) * ''Guinevere Evermore'' (1985)

Catherine LeVendeur series

* ''Death Comes as Epiphany'' (1993)

* ''The Devil's Door'' (1994) * ''The Wandering Arm'' (1995) * ''Strong as Death'' (1996) * ''Cursed in the Blood'' (1998)
Herodotus Award for "Best US Historical Mystery" * ''The Difficult Saint'' (1999) * ''To Wear the White Cloak'' (2000) * ''Heresy'' (2002) * ''The Outcast Dove'' (2003) * ''The Witch in the Well'' (2004)

Other novels

* ''The Dagda's Harp'' (1976) * ''The Shanghai Tunnel'' (2008)

Anthologies and collections

* ''Death Before Compline'' (2011) *''Home from America'' (Aug 2010) in Death's Excellent Vacation

Anthologies edited

* ''Crime Through Time'' (1997) (with Miriam Grace Monfredo) * ''Crime Through Time II'' (1998) (with Miriam Grace Monfredo) * ''Crime Through Time III'' (2000) (intro.

Anne Perry Anne Perry (born Juliet Marion Hulme; 28 October 1938) was convicted of murder in New Zealand when a teenager, later moved to England and became an author. In 1954, at the age of fifteen, she and her 16-year-old friend Pauline Parker were tried ...

)

Non-fiction

* ''The Real History Behind the Da Vinci Code'' (2005) * ''The Real History Behind the Templars'' (2007) * ''The Real History of the End of the World'' (2010) * ''Defending the City of God'' (2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Sharan 1949 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American historians American historical novelists American mystery writers American women novelists Antioch College alumni Macavity Award winners Michigan State University alumni Writers from Ann Arbor, Michigan University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Novelists from Oregon Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages American women historians Women mystery writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Women historical novelists Novelists from Michigan 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Historians from Michigan