Cecelia Holland

Cecelia Holland (born 1943) began writing at age 12, and had finished three novels by 17! She received a BA from Connecticut College and briefly attended grad school at Columbia University, but dropped out to work in a bookstore in Manhattan. She published first novel Firedrake in 1966 and has been a full-time writer ever since.

Though she is the author of one out-and-out SF novel, Floating Worlds (1976), most of Cecelia Holland's more than two dozen books are historical fiction, set in a wide variety of times and places. Her historical novels, some of which contain fantastic elements, include Rakóssy (1967), Two Ravens (1977), The Bear Flag (1990) and many others. Recent books include historical fantasy The Angel and the Sword (2000), and a historical fantasy series about Vikings and the New World in the tenth century: The Soul Thief (2002), The Witches' Kitchen (2004), The Serpent Dreams (2005) and Varanger (2008).

Cecelia Holland has taught creative writing in universities and at Pelican Bay State Prison. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1981. She lives in Northern California, and has three adult daughters.