Paula Volsky

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-10-28

Paula Volsky is an American fantasy writer, born and raised in Fanwood, New Jersey. She studied English literature at Vassar College, where she became friends with the writer Esther Friesner, and later took an M.A. in Shakespearean studies at the University of Birmingham in England. Before turning to fiction she sold real estate and worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Her first novel, The Curse of the Witch-Queen, appeared in 1982, followed in the late 1980s by the Sorcerer trilogy and The Luck of Relian Kru. From 1991 she wrote a sequence of large standalone novels, beginning with Illusion and ending with The Grand Ellipse in 2000, each taking a historical upheaval such as the French Revolution and recasting it with magic. Illusion and The Grand Ellipse were both Locus Award finalists for best fantasy novel. After nearly a decade without a new book she returned with the Veiled Isles trilogy (2011 to 2012), published under the name Paula Brandon. The editor Terri Windling once described her as a reliably entertaining storyteller.

Universe(s)

Books

• Illusion (1991) · The World of Vonahr Core Canon
• The Wolf of Winter (1993) · The World of Vonahr Core Canon
• The Gates of Twilight (1996) · The World of Vonahr Core Canon
• The White Tribunal (1997) · The World of Vonahr Core Canon
• The Grand Ellipse (2000) · The World of Vonahr Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 5 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 3 (2 finalist mention, 1 nomination)

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