Sandra Louise Miesel (born Sandra Louise Schwartz on November 25, 1941) is an American medievalist, writer and science fiction and fantasy fan. Her early work was science fiction and fantasy criticism, fields in which she has remained active. She is a literary analyst; has described herself as "the world's greatest expert" on Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson[1], and has written front and back matter for many of Anderson's books.
She is the leading expert on Dickson's Childe Cycle series of novels, and has written a number of commentaries which have been published with the books in that series, including an afterword in The Final Encyclopedia, as well as an essay in The Dorsai Companion. She also worked with Dickson in putting together a detailed timeline of the series, in order to set exact dates for the events and people in the often overlapping stories.
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Miesel began her writing as a member of science fiction fandom (a connection which sprang from a letter she had published in IF magazine[2]), with critical articles in the science fiction fanzine Yandro, especially on Anderson and Dickson, as well as other fanzines such as Granfalloon. She was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer three times (1973–1975)[3]; and had two monographs published by fannish small presses: Myth, Symbol and Religion in The Lord of the Rings. (TK Graphics, 1973); and Against Time's Arrow: The High Crusade of Poul Anderson (Borgo Press, 1978).[4]
Since 1983, Miesel has written hundreds of articles for the Catholic press, chiefly on history, art, and hagiography. She wrote regularly for the now-defunct Crisis Catholic magazine and is a columnist for the diocesan paper of the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut. Miesel is also a well-known speaker. She has spoken at religious and academic conferences, appeared on EWTN, and given numerous radio interviews.
She has co-authored a book, The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code, a detailed critique of the popular novel based on her knowledge of Catholic history and teachings.
Most recently, she has co-authored a book The Pied Piper of Atheism: Philip Pullman and Children's Fantasy with Catholic journalist and canon lawyer Pete Vere. The book, published by Ignatius Press, offers a detailed critique of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.[5]
She holds master's degrees in biochemistry and medieval history from the University of Illinois.
She lives in the Indianapolis, Indiana area, as did her husband John (a fellow fan[6]), who died of a brain tumor August 30, 2006. They had been married 42 years.[7]