Biography (Official Long)

Author photo of Raven OakMulti-international award-winning and bestselling speculative fiction author and artist Raven Oak (she/they) is best known for Amaskan’s Blood (2016 Ozma Fantasy Award Winner, Epic Awards Finalist, & Reader’s Choice Award Winner), Amaskan’s War (2018 UK Wishing Award YA Finalist), Class-M Exile, and the collection Joy to the Worlds: Mysterious Speculative Fiction for the Holidays (Foreword Reviews 2015 Book of the Year Finalist). She has almost two dozen short stories published in various anthologies such as Sword, Sorcery, & Self-Rescuing Damsels, The Great Beyond, and Jeff Sturgeon’s The Last Cities of Earth. She’s even been published on the Moon!

She began her career as many authors do, trying to become the next Anne McCaffrey, Connie Willis, or Neil Gaiman. At the age of twelve, she took her first steps into novel writing by penning a 320 page novel about dragons with all the drama of a typical twelve-year-old. She studied English literature, music composition, and computers in college, and in 2001, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Texas. She later completed her Master of Science Degree in CECS from UNT in 2005. After thirteen years in the classroom as a computer and English teacher, she retired from education to pursue writing full-time.

Raven is a member of the local Seattle writing groups, Wit ‘n’ Word, and Writing Grounds, as well as the Northwest Science Fiction Society, Cascade Writers, and the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association. She’s also an Active member in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA).

Besides being a writer and artist, Raven is a geeky, disabled ENBY who resides in the Seattle area. She’s married to a game engineer who works for a Triple-A studio, and they often get their game on, be it tabletop, console, or PC gaming. She also enjoys cartography and staring at the ocean. Raven and her partner are owned by three kitties who enjoy lounging across the keyboard when writing deadlines approach. Her hair color changes as often as her bio does, and you can find her at www.ravenoak.net.