Katherine Kurtz
1944
Katherine Kurtz is one of the critically acclaimed American author, who is famous for writing modern and high fantasy, historical fantasy, and alternate history novels. She is particularly famous for writing the Deryni universe book series as well as for co-authoring the Adepy series books. Author Kurtz has been an active member of the Sorcerers Guild and the Swordsmen writers’ associations, as well as the Creative Anachronism Society. For several years, she used to reside in an Irish castle, but now she lives in Virginia, The United States. Author Kurtz began her writing career in the year 1970 with the publication of her debut book titled Deryni Rising. This book marked the beginning of her highly successful Deryni series. Her first book was very influential for being among the first fantasy books which was written in more of a historical fantasy mode than the legend or mythology mode. This was opposite to the common style of writing high fantasy books such as the ones written by J.R. Tolkien. Kari Sperring from the Strange Horizons has called author Kurtz as the first writer to have tried to write historical fantasy novels based in a secondary world. She has noted Kurtz’s close attention on the importance that faith had in the pre-modern societies of the Western regions. Author Kurtz is also praised for portraying magic as a ritual and formal practice as opposite to the informal and picaresque way magic was shown in the other fantasy book of her time.