Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America

The Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA) is the name of a literary group of American fantasy authors active from the 1960s through the 1980s, noted for their contributions to the fantasy subgenre of heroic fantasy or "Sword and Sorcery."The group served as a vehicle for popularizing and promoting the respectability of the subgenre.

Membership

Its name notwithstanding, membership was open to women as well as men. Early members were often more celebrated for their science fiction writings than their fantasy, as fantasy as a distinct literary genre was then hardly recognized. Entry to SAGA, however, depended solely on their fantasy credentials. The initial members and the works that formed the basis of their membership were

• Poul Anderson (for his novels The Broken Sword and Three Hearts and Three Lions)
• Lin Carter (for his "Thongor" series)
• L. Sprague de Camp (for his Pusadian tales and his work in popularizing Robert E. Howard's "Conan")
• John Jakes (for his tales of "Brak the Barbarian")
• Fritz Leiber (for his "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series)
• Michael Moorcock (for his tales of "Elric of Melniboné")
• Andre Norton (for her "Witch World" series)
• Jack Vance (for his "Dying Earth" stories).

Membership was later extended on an invitational basis to selected other living heroic fantasy authors, including

• C. J. Cherryh (for her "Morgaine" novels)
• Diane Duane (for......
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