Writer and Medievalist

LM Zaerr is a writer of fiction for teens and adults. She finds inspiration in medieval adventure tales, long forgotten and rarely translated. When she was little, her father told her stories and her mother read to her. She and her sister spun long stories as they walked in the forest. Their family played music and sang together, and she began to wonder how medieval performers played instruments while they told tales.

LM loved fantasy novels and the medieval world they inhabited. As an English major at Willamette University, she learned just enough to whet her appetite, so she went on to earn an MA in Medieval Studies at the University of York in England and a PhD in Middle English Literature at the University of Washington.

She became a medievalist at Boise State University. As a professor, she began a quest to understand medieval story performance. She learned to play the vielle and memorized forgotten tales in dusty languages. In her experiments, she studied ancient treatises in Latin and pored over manuscripts in drafty medieval halls. She performed in Europe and America, at schools, for banquets, on a cruise ship, and even at a cowboy bar. She often teamed up with her sister, harpist Laura Zaerr.

LM finally achieved her quest. She found a satisfying way to play the vielle while singing a tale, and she wrote a book about it. At that point, she turned to writing fiction full time, drawing on the literature she explored as a medievalist. She especially loves the tales of clever princess musicians who rescue themselves and sing their own lives. She has published short stories and is working on two novels.