Elizabeth A. Lynn

Elizabeth A. Lynn (born 1946) is an American writer most known for fantasy and to a lesser extent science fiction. She is particularly known for being one of the first writers in science fiction or fantasy to introduce gay and lesbian characters; in honor of Lynn, the widely known California and New York–based chain of LGBT bookstores A Different Light took its name from her novel. Her novel Watchtower won the World Fantasy Award in 1980.

Body of work

Elizabeth Lynn is an openly lesbian science fiction and fantasy writer who has written numerous works featuring positive gay protagonists. Her Chronicles of Tornor novels (1979–80) were among the first fantasy novels to have gay relationships as an unremarkable part of the cultural background, and included explicit and sympathetic depictions of same-sex love. This series is composed of Watchtower, The Dancers of Arun (1979); and The Northern Girl (1980) – the last of which is of particular lesbian interest. The magical lesbian tale "The Woman Who Loved the Moon", also a World Fantasy Award winner, is the title story in Lynn's The Woman Who Loved the Moon collection along with other gay speculative fiction stories. Both these novels featured the science fiction concept hyperspace.

Lynn later returned to fiction with a fantasy series, again featuring gay relationships: Dragon's Winter (1998) and Dragon's Treasure (2004).