Petrey, Susan C
Entry updated 23 October 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1945-1980) US author, solely of stories, which she began to publish with "Spareen Among the Tartars" for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in September 1979, the first of seven Varkela tales. All these, with two standalone stories including "Spidersong" (September 1980 F&SF), are collected in Gifts of Blood (coll 1990). Varkela are non-supernatural Vampires: Spareen, protagonist of all but one of the series tales, is an ethical Varkela who works as a healer on the old Russian steppes, living on small agreed payments of blood in exchange for his services.
Petrey showed considerable promise but died young. For many years a scholarship fund set up in her memory helped aspiring writers meet the expense of attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop; this ceased in 2023. [JC/DRL]
Susan Candace Petrey
born Seattle, Washington: 7 April 1945
died 5 December 1980
works
- Gifts of Blood: The Collected Stories of Susan C. Petrey (Portland, Oregon: Oregon Science Fiction Convention Inc, 1990) [coll: edited by Paul M Wrigley and Debbie Cross: introductory essays by Ursula K Le Guin, Vonda McIntyre and Kate Wilhelm: hb/nonpictorial]
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