Sandra Louise Miesel (born Sandra Louise Schwartz on November 25, 1941) in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

is an American

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, writer, editor and fiction critic. Her early work was in science fiction and fantasy criticism, while her later writings focus on religious critiques.

Writing career

Miesel was a member of

science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

(a connection which sprang from a letter she had published in ''IF'' magazine). She published several critical articles in the

science fiction fanzine A science-fiction fanzine is an amateur or semi-professional magazine published by members of science-fiction fandom, from the 1930s to the present day. They were one of the earliest forms of fanzine, within one of which the term "''fanzine''" ...

'' Yandro'', especially on Anderson and Dickson, as well as other fanzines such as ''

Granfalloon A granfalloon, in the fictional religion of Bokononism (created by Kurt Vonnegut in his 1963 novel ''Cat's Cradle''), is defined as a "false karass". That is, it is a group of people who affect a shared identity or purpose, but whose mutual ass ...

''. She started her career as a critic in 1970s with ''Myth, Symbol and Religion in The Lord of the Rings'' (1973 chap) on J R R Tolkien. She was nominated for the

Hugo Award The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members. The award is administered by th ...

for Best Fan Writer three times (1973, 1974 and 1975) and had two monographs published by Fannish

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction ...

es: ''Myth, Symbol and Religion in ''The Lord of the Rings (T-K Graphics, 1973) and ''Against Time's Arrow: The High Crusade of Poul Anderson'' (

Borgo Press The Borgo Press was a small publishing company founded by Robert Reginald in 1975 funded by the royalties gained from his first major reference work, ''Stella Nova: the contemporary science fiction authors'' (1970). That same year Reginald met M ...

, 1978). Miesel has written many articles for the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

press, chiefly focusing on history, art, and

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

. She wrote regularly for the ''Crisis'' Catholic magazine and is a columnist for the diocesan paper of the

Diocese of Norwich The Diocese of Norwich is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Church of England, forming part of the Province of Canterbury in England. Its origins trace back to the early medieval bishopric of See of Elmham, Elmham and Thetford, which were ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. Miesel is also a public speaker, having spoken at religious and academic conferences, appeared on

EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic programming. It is the largest Catholic television network in America, and is purported to be "the world's larges ...

, and given numerous radio interviews.

Highlighted works

Miesel has co-authored, ''

The Da Vinci Hoax ''The Da Vinci Hoax'' is a non-fiction book written by Carl E. Olsen and Sandra Miesel for the express purpose of critiquing Dan Brown's novel ''The Da Vinci Code''. The book was first published in 2004 by Ignatius Press. According to Olsen a ...

: Exposing the Errors in

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

'', with Carl E. Olson. This is a detailed critique of the popular novel based on her knowledge of Catholic history and teachings. She is also the co-author of ''The Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy'' with Catholic journalist and

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

yer Pete Vere. The book, published by

Ignatius Press Ignatius Press is a Catholic theological publishing house based in San Francisco, California, in the United States. It was founded in 1978 by Father Joseph Fessio, a former pupil of both Henri de Lubac and Pope Benedict XVI. Named after Ignatiu ...

, offers a detailed critique of

Philip Pullman Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. He is best known for the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials''. The first volume, ''Northern Lights'' (1995), won the Carnegie Medal

's ''

His Dark Materials ''His Dark Materials'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of '' Northern Lights'' (1995; published as ''The Golden Compass'' in North America), '' The Subtle Knife'' (1997), and '' The Amber Spyglass'' (2000). It follo ...

'' trilogy from a Catholic point of view.

Personal life

Miesel holds master's degrees in

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

and

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

. She lives in the

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

area. She was married to John Miesel for 42 years until his death in 2006.Silver, Steven H. "News: Obituary" ''SF Site'' September 2006
/ref>

Selected works

Fiction

* Speculative fiction. An earlier version was published as ''Dreamrider'' (

Ace Books Ace Books is a publisher of science fiction (SF) and fantasy books founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A. Wyn, Aaron A. Wyn. It began as a genre publisher of mystery fiction, mysteries and western (genre), westerns, and soon branched out int ...

, 1982).

Non-fiction

* * * "The Fan As Critic" in ''Science fiction fandom'' Joe Sanders, ed. (Contributions to the study of science fiction and fantasy, no. 62) Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. *

References

External links

Catholics and Science Fiction
a short interview between Miesel and

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miesel, Sandra 1941 births Living people 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics American fantasy writers American Roman Catholic writers American science fiction writers American women literary critics American women medievalists American medievalists American women novelists American women science fiction and fantasy writers American women short story writers Catholics from Louisiana