Melissa Scott is a science fiction and fantasy author noted for her science fiction novels featuring LGBT characters and elaborate settings. Scott studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, and earned her PhD. in comparative history. She published her first novel in 1984, and has since written some two dozen science fiction and fantasy works, including three co-authored with her life-partner, Lisa Barnett. Scott lived with Lisa, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for 27 years, until the latter's death of breast cancer on May 2, 2006.