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Katharine Kerr was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944. Her maiden name was Katharine Nancy Brahtin. After dropping out of Stanford University in the mid-1960s, Kerr worked in a number of low-paying jobs, including a stint at the U.S. Post Office. In 1976, a friend gave Kerr her first fantasy role-playing game and she became so intrigued with both gaming and the fantasy field that she began writing articles for gaming magazines. After working as a contributing editor for Dragon Magazine, as well as contributing to gaming modules for both TSR, Inc., and Chaos, Inc., Kerr turned her attention exclusively to fiction writing.

Kerr is best known for her historical fantasy Deverry Series novels, published by Bantam and HarperCollins. Titles include Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood, and Dragonspell: The Southern Sea. Kerr also developed The Westlands Cycle series for HarperCollins. Among the titles of some of those novels are A Time to Exile, A Time of Omens, and Days of Blood and Fire.

Some of Kerr's other science fiction novels include Polar City Blues, Palace, and Freeze Frames and she has also edited three short-story anthologies.

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