C. J. Cherryh

Carolyn Janice Cherry (born September 1, 1942), better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award–winning novels ''Downbelow Station'' (1981) and ''Cyteen'' (1988), both set in her Alliance–Union universe, and her ''Foreigner'' series. She is known for worldbuilding, depicting fictional realms with great realism supported by vast research in history, language, psychology, and archeology.

Cherryh (pronounced "Cherry") appended a silent "h" to her real name because editor Donald A. Wollheim felt "Cherry" sounded too much like a romance writer. She used only her initials, C. J., to disguise that she was female at a time when the majority of science fiction authors were male.

The asteroid 77185 Cherryh is named in the author's honor. The asteroid's discoverers wrote of Cherryh: "She has challenged us to be worthy of the stars by imagining how mankind might grow to live among them." Provided by Wikipedia