Suzy McKee Charnas (October 22, 1939 – January 2, 2023)[1] was an American novelist and short story writer, writing primarily in the genres of science fiction and fantasy.

She considered Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness to have been a major inspiration for the initiation of her writing career, as it was one of the first feminist novels she had encountered.

[10] Her work did not take a feminist slant until after the first draft of "Walk to the End of the World", which she had originally intended to be political satire.

According to Charnas in an interview with SnackReads, the company that had published Walk to the End of the World, Ballantine Books, rejected Motherlines because it was deemed inappropriate for what they considered to be their target science fiction audience: young boys.

The book was finally accepted after one year (which was a long time for science fiction in this era) by editor David G. Hartwell, who went on to publish several of Charnas' other works.

[1] Director Guillermo del Toro assessed Charnas' The Vampire Tapestry as “flawless” on Twitter in 2015, saying later “It may be her masterpiece.” [16] Polly Shulman wrote that "the Holdfast tetralogy offers a fascinating look back at the permutations of the feminist imagination in recent years, and it underlines the ideals and challenges faced by feminists -- sometimes on purpose and sometimes in spite of itself.