American female Speculative Fiction author, fairly prolific. Was a Classics teacher before working full-time as a writer, with a degree in Latin and a Masters in Classics. Unsurprisingly given the humanities background, her works tend more towards examining the social implications of things. Has written a fair amount of fantasy, but she's best known for her science fiction, having won two Hugos for novels and one for short story. Most of her science fiction tends to be of the "hard" variety, with Faster-Than-Light Travel being the only deviation from currently understood physics.