Diana L. Paxson

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-13

Diana L. Paxson is an American writer born February 20, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan. She holds a BA from Mills College and an MA from UC Berkeley, and has lived for decades in Berkeley, California. Paxson specializes in fantasy and historical fiction infused with paganism and heathen spirituality, and has authored more than seventy short stories alongside numerous novels. She is best known for the Westria novels and for the Avalon series, which she began co-writing with Marion Zimmer Bradley and continued as sole author following Bradley's death, extending the mythos with volumes such as The Hallowed Isle sequence. Beyond fiction, she has written nonfiction guides to Norse and pagan practice, including Taking Up the Runes and Essential Asatru, and contributes regularly to SageWoman magazine. Paxson was a founding director of the Society for Creative Anachronism and has held leadership roles in several spiritual organizations, including the Fellowship of the Spiral Path and the Covenant of the Goddess. She served as western regional director for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America and was named Fantasy Guest of Honor at BayCon in 2007. An accomplished harpist, she remains active in Berkeley's literary and pagan communities. In December 2023, she and her son were the victims of a violent home-invasion stabbing, though she has continued writing and public engagement since.

Universe(s)

Books

• The Forest House (1994) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon
• Lady of Avalon (1997) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon
• Priestess of Avalon (2000) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon
• Ancestors of Avalon (2004) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon
• Ravens of Avalon (2007) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon
• Sword of Avalon (2010) · The Mists of Avalon Expanded Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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