Author Josepha Sherman died on 23 August 2012. Born 12 December 1946, she won the Compton Crook Award for the novel The Shining Falcon in 1990. Medical problems kept her out of the public eye for the last few years.

She wrote fantasy, science fiction, tie-in novels, and non-fiction. In addition, she was an editor, anthologist, and folklorist. Her first books, published in 1986, include the ninth Find Your Fate Junior Transformers book The Invisibility Factor, the original fantasy novel Golden Girl and the Crystal of Doom, and the nonfiction Indian Tribes of North America. Her last novel, the Star Trek book Vulcan’s Soul: Epiphany (the third book of the trilogy) was the fifth Star Trek novel she co-wrote with Susan M. Shwartz. In between, she wrote a dozen original novels, several Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Highlander tie-in novels, and pieces of several other ongoing fantasy series. She also edited a dozen books, from 1992’s A Sampler of Jewish-American Folklore to 2005’s Young Warriors: Stories Of Strength (co-edited with Tamora Pierce). But the latter part of her career was dominated by nonfiction books for both children and adults. Her magnum opus is the 900-page Storytelling: An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore (2008), of which she was the editor and a major contributor.

Sherman’s knowledge of and focus on folklore and pop culture brought sometime collaborator Mercedes Lackey to call her “the common man’s Joseph Campbell.”

Her Wikipedia page has a seemingly complete bibliography.

She is survived by many fans and friends.

A graveside funeral will be held Monday, 27 August 2012, at 9AM at the Hebrew Burial Association Cemetery (Brockett Place, East Haven, Connecticut 06512). For details, see Shure Funeral Home.

Contributions in her name made be made to:
Hebrew Burial Association
c/o Mr. Norman Goodman
377 Main Street
West Haven, CT 06516