Risa Aratyr

About Me

I was born in Chicago in 1953. After receiving a degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of California at Berkeley, I worked at an assortment of jobs including stage manager, vocalist-percussionist, ASL interpreter, astrologer, waitress, pre-school teacher, housepainter, freelance copy-editor, and administrative assistant, devoting years to some occupations and as little time as possible to others. I now live in Sonoma, California, where I practice martial arts, teach theatre management at Santa Rosa Junior College, and, of course, write.

My first published work was a brace of poems in a slim, cheaply-made anthology -- Voices of Poetry -- for which I was paid in copies. My articles on families and children appeared in Mothering Magazine and BabyTalk. I wrote a few features for the local newspaper, a 28-piece series on the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906 for the San Francisco Chronicle and two educational supplements for the New York Times, one of which (“Children Who Built America”) recently won first place in the Best Original Curriculum category at the Newspaper Association of America’s “Newspapers in Education” awards.

My first novel, the high Celtic fantasy Hunter of the Light, was published in 1995 by HarperPrism. Hunter of the Light received praise from luminaries in the field and continues to enjoy popularity within the genre, popping up on “best overlooked fantasy” and “favorite book” lists. It garners 5-out-of-5 star ratings in Amazon.com’s reader reviews, and inspired a fantasy RPG scenario.

I completed my second Éirinn novel, Shadow’s Road, three years ago, and hope still some day to sell it. My current project is a space-noir novel-in-progress, Darkdays.

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