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

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

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 List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. She served with the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

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 approximately 2,000 small islands in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: Maritime Southeast Asia to the west, Poly ...

. She lived in

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

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

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 The Pacific islands are a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. They 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 several ...

lore and lifestyle. Severance won the

Compton Crook Award The Compton Crook Award is presented by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) to the year's best English language debut novel in the science fiction, fantasy, or horror genres, as voted by its members. BSFS confers the award at their annua ...

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

Plays

* "Sail to the Edge of the Moon" (1988)

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 American women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American women