Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough writes science fiction and fantasy that often combines speculative premises with folklore, humor, and characters engaged in care. Her early novel Bronwyn’s Bane appeared from Bantam in 1983 and belongs to the Songs from the Seashell Archives sequence. That comic-fantasy group also includes Song of Sorcery, The Unicorn Creed, and The Christening Quest, linking Bronwyn’s story to a broader invented tradition of quests and enchantment. Channeling Cleopatra, published by Ace in 2002, moves into science fiction and begins a separate Cleopatra sequence. Its premise concerns modern attempts to recover traits associated with historical figures, allowing Scarborough to explore identity, inheritance, and the risks of treating personality as transferable material. These books show two distinct sides of her bibliography: fairy-tale play in Bronwyn’s Bane and speculative biotechnology in Channeling Cleopatra. Scarborough also collaborated extensively with Anne McCaffrey and received a Nebula Award for The Healer’s War, reflecting a career that ranges well beyond these two books.