Susan Candace Petrey (7 April 1945 – 5 December 1980) was an American writer of fantasy short fiction.
Born in Seattle, Petrey worked as a medical technologist after obtaining a degree in microbiology. Most of her writing took place in a setting involving "gentle healing vampires", the "Varkela".[1] Only three of her stories were professionally published during her lifetime. More of her work appeared in the posthumous collection Gifts of Blood (1990).[2] In 1981, she was nominated, also posthumously, for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her story "Spidersong" was nominated for the Hugo Award.
Petrey was active in the Portland, Oregon science fiction fandom. A group of her friends established the Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund[3] in her memory. The fund annually raises money to send aspiring writers to the Clarion Workshop.