Joan D. Vinge was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She has read science fiction since junior high school, and has been writing professionally since 1973. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, editor Jim Frenkel, and their two children. Joan's short story, 'Eyes of Amber', won the 1977 Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novelette and her novel The Snow Queen won the 1981 Hugo Award for Best SF Novel. She has been nominated for several other Hugo and Nebula Awards, as well as for the John W. Campbell New Writer Award.
