Carol Severance (1944–2015) was a Hawaii-based writer of science fiction with a special interest in Pacific Islanders and their environments. After growing up in Denver, she served in the Peace Corps and later assisted with anthropological fieldwork in the remote coral atolls of Truk, Micronesia. She lived in Hilo, where she shared her home with a scholarly fisherman, a surfer, and an undetermined number of geckos.