Biography
Moon was born Susan Elizabeth Norris and grew up in McAllen, Texas. She started writing when she was a child and first tried a book, which was about her dog, at age six. She was inspired to write creatively, and says that she began writing science fiction in her teens, considering it a sideline.
She earned a Bachelor's degree in History from Rice University in Houston, Texas in 1968 and later earned a second B.A. in Biology. In 1968 she joined the United States Marine Corps as a computer specialist, attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant while on active duty. She married Richard Sloan Moon in 1969 and they have a son, Michael, born in 1983.
Moon began writing professionally in her mid-thirties and had a newspaper column in a county weekly newspaper. In 1986 she published her first science fiction in the monthly magazine Analog and the anthology series Sword and Sorceress. Her stories appeared regularly in Analog the next few years. Her first novel The Sheepfarmer's Daughter (1988) won the Compton Crook Award and inaugurated the Paksennarrion series.
Most of her work has military science fiction themes, although biology, politics and personal relationships also feature strongly. The Serrano Legacy is a space opera. Her Nebula-winning novel The Speed of Dark (2003) is a near-future story told from the viewpoint of an autistic computer programmer, inspired by her own autistic son Michael.
Elizabeth Moon has many interests beside writing. She has a musical background, having played the accordion during her university days and sung in choirs. She is an accomplished fencer, and captain of the SFWA Musketeers, a group of published speculative fiction authors who also fence.
Moon is also an experienced paramedic and has served in various capacities in local government.
On September 11, 2010, she wrote a blog entry "Citizenship" about assimilation and an Islamic group that wanted to build a memorial center at/near the site of the 9/11 attack, which was "perceived by many as derogatory toward Muslims and immigrants." Because it "dismayed, angered and offended" the co-chairs and other people associated with WisCon 35, a feminist science fiction convention to be held in May 2011, her invitation to be a guest of honor was rescinded by WisCon's parent body.
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