Fantasy writer Lisa A. Barnett died Tuesday, May 2, 2006 at her home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a brain tumor. She died very peacefully in her sleep, in the company of her partner, Melissa Scott, and other family members.

Lisa was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, attended Girls’ Latin School, and received her BA from UMass/Boston. She was a member of the Piscataqua Obedience Club, a volunteer with EPONA (Equine Protection of North America) and senior editor at Heinemann in Portsmouth, NH.

Lisa worked in publishing since she was in college, starting at Baker’s Plays in Boston, and then moving to Heinemann in 1988, where she was able to start and develop their own line of books on theatre — putting both her major and her minor to work for her!

Her collaboration with Melissa Scott produced three novels: POINT OF HOPES and POINT OF DREAMS (Lambda Literary Award winner, 2002), both set in the fantasy city of Astreiant, and THE ARMOR OF LIGHT, set in an alternate Elizabethan England — and a not-very-short short story, “The Carmen Miranda Gambit,” published in the 1990 collection CARMEN MIRANDA’S GHOST IS HAUNTING SPACE STATION THREE.

A memorial service for Lisa A. Barnett will be held next Tuesday, May 9, at 1 PM, at the Remick and Gendron Funeral Home, 811 Lafayette Road, Hampton, NH.

Lisa had a great love for horses, especially horses in need and it is with her great love and compassion that she requested that any memorial donations be made to E.P.O.N.A. (Equine Protection of North America). Contribiutons may be sent to E.P.O.N.A. at PO Box 315, Epping, New Hampshire 03042. Or may be applied through our website at eponarescue.org.

— Don Sakers