THE VFA PIONEER HISTORIES PROJECT

Suzy McKee Charnas

October 22, 1939 – January 2, 2023

“Every time there’s a new upsurge of feminism, for example, we rediscover that it’s all been thought of, talked over, and pursued in the past, but that the next generation of women failed to stick with the facts.This means that they are unprepared to hold on to what has been given to them when the backlash rolls in to take it all away again.” – Suzy McKee Charnas, 1999

Award-winning feminist science fiction, fantasy and nonfiction writer. Best known for 1980 novel The Vampire Tapestry, adapted into a play, “Vampire Dreams,” 2001. Joined the Peace Corps and taught in Nigeria for two years, 1961–1963. Taught ancient history and African studies at a private school in Manhattan, late ’60s. Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital as a curriculum writer for a drug-treatment program in secondary schools, 1967-1969. Published 15 books, all with women as central characters, 1970-1999. Barnard College, economics and history, 1961. Master of Arts in teaching and education, New York University, 1965. 

Photo. Suzy McKee Charnas, 1980.