Sylvia Engdahl

Sylvia Louise Engdahl (born November 24, 1933) is an American writer, known best for science fiction. Her debut novel "Enchantress from the Stars", published by Atheneum Books in 1970, was a runner-up for annual Newbery Medal and she won the Phoenix Award for that work twenty years later.
Biography.
Engdahl was born in Los Angeles, California. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists 11 books by Engdahl that were published from 1970 to 1981, including two anthologies she edited and three nonfiction books. Six science fiction novels, which include her first five books, were all published by Atheneum Books. From 1985 to 1995 she taught graduate courses for Connected Education, a pioneer in online education. She lives in Oregon with her two cats.
In August 2007, Engdahl published a new adult science fiction/visionary fiction novel, "Stewards of the Flame", which she followed with two sequels: "Promise of the Flame" (September 2009) and "Defender of the Flame" (April 2013).
Selected works.
Among 73 Library of Congress Online Catalog records of books created by Engdahl through 2014 (which may include multiple editions of some), all but the first 16 are nonfiction works as "book editor" beginning 2006.
Science fiction novels.
Engdahl wrote six science fiction novels published from 1970 to 1981 by Atheneum, all of which have been republished in the 21st century. Her new novels, two duologies published in 2007 and 2009 and in 2013 and 2014, respectively, are adult science fiction, not YA.
Awards.
Engdahl has won two annual book awards, the 1973 Christopher Award for "This Star Shall Abide" and the 1990 Phoenix Award for "Enchantress from the Stars". The latter, from the Children's Literature Association, designated the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity. "Enchantress" had been a runner up for the 1971 Newbery Medal, however. "Stewards of the Flame" won a bronze medal in the 2008 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards.
"Enchantress from the Stars" has also been runner-up for a few awards and has been named to several book lists.