Born in Kentucky in 1948, Vonda Neely McIntyre arrived in the Pacific Northwest as a child of six. She wrote, taught, edited, influenced, nourished, and celebrated science fiction every year of her adulthood. She sold her first short story, “Breaking Point,” in 1969, at the age of twenty. In 1971, McIntyre founded the Clarion West Writers Workshop, which instructs and supports emerging science fiction, fantasy, and horror authors; in 1973 she won her first (but not her last) Nebula Award for the novelette “Of Mist and Grass and Sand.” In 2019 she died, shortly after completing her last novel’s manuscript. A brilliant and audacious author whose complete bibliography is available online courtesy of her website (https://vondanmcintyre.net/biography/), McIntyre also earned a black belt in Aikido, crocheted intricate yet mathematically plausible beaded sea creatures, and baked the fluffiest of scones.