R. A. Lafferty

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (Neola, Iowa, 1914 - Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 2002) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy of Irish descent, known for odd, inventive stories with an idiosyncratic voice. One explanation he offered for his first name is that it came from the saint's day on which he was expected to be born.

He grew up in Oklahoma and spent most of his life in Tulsa, where he worked as an electrical engineer for a local company. During the Second World War he served in the South Pacific. He did not begin writing until his forties, but over the following three decades he produced around thirty-four novels and several hundred short stories. He left his job in 1971 to devote himself fully to writing.

His stories often develop a wild or grotesque idea rather than a conventional plot. Their fierce humour, etymological digressions and eccentric characters give them a voice of their own, close to the folk tale. He won the Hugo Award in 1973 and a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990. After heart attacks in the 1980s he stopped writing in 1994. His legacy is that of a cult writer, admired by fellow authors but always for a small readership.