Carr was born and raised in Houston, Texas. As an adult she lived in Texas and in other states. She studied physics at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Wayne State University, and Case Western Reserve University, which she left before achieving her doctorate to raise a family and write. She died of cancer, leaving a husband, two daughters, two granddaughters, and three sisters.

Carr's first story was published in the science fiction magazine Analog in 1976, and she continued writing through the remainder of her life. She tried to inject a sense of fun into her writing. Sometimes regarded as a feminist writer, she considered herself a "peoplist," dealing with such themes as bigotry and pollution in her fiction.

Rabelais series

• Navigator's Sindrome (1983)
• The Treasure in the Heart of the Maze (1985)
• Rabelaisian Reprise (1988)

Other novels

• Leviathan's Deep (1979)

Short stories

• "Alienation" (1976)
• "The Ax" (1977)
• "Right of Passage" (1978)
• "Inky" (1978)
• "In Adam's Fall" (1979)
• "Malthus's Day" (1979)
• "The Pavilion Where All Times Meet" (1979)
• "Sanctuary" (1979)
• "Does Not a Statistic Bleed?" (1979)
• "Star Spats" (1980)
• "The King Is Dead! Long Live -" (1980)
• "Child of the Wandering Sea" (1980)
• "The Selfish Genie" (1980)
• "The False-True Heir" (1980)
• "Hillsong" (1980)
• "Mustard Seed" (1981)
• "Blind Spot" (1981)
• "The Pacifists" (1981)
• "Measuremen" (1982)
• "Lungfish" (1982)
• "The Wondrous Works of His Hands" (1982)
• "Reunion" (1982)
• "Hippocampocracy" (1982)
• "The Kidnapped Key" (1983)
• "The Spoils of Victory" (1983)
• "Monolyth" (1983)
• "The Tempest Within" (1983)
• "Pieces of Eight" (1984)
• "The Piper's Pay" (1984)
• "Mudlark and Sky" (1984)
• "The Heart in the Egg" (1984)
• "Webrider" (1985)
• "Finnegan's Wake" (1985)
• "Immigrant" (1985)
• "Catacombs" (1985)
• "Webrider" (1985)
• "Drop-Out" (1986)
• "Rainbow's End" (1986)
• "The Price of Lightning" (1986)
• "Inky" (1987)
• "Hitchhiker" (1988)
• "Chimera" (1989)
• "Wart" (1989)
• "A Thief in the Night" (1989)
• "The Icarus Epidemic" (1990)
• "Plumduff Potato-Eye" (1990)
• "Computer Portrait" (1990)
• "The Kingdom of the Blind Eye" (1991)
• "Castles in the Air" (1992)
• "The War of '07" (1992)
• "Mourning Blue" (1993)
• "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again - And Again - And Again" (1993)
• "The Lady or the Tiger" (1993)
• "Flea Powder" (1994)
• "Roots and Forbidden Fruit" (1994)
• "The Widower's Wife" (1996)
• "Circus" (1996)
• "Ram in Wolf's Clothing" (1997)
• "Puss" (1999)
• "Reflections" (2000)
• "The Queen's Jewels" (2000)
• "The Walls That Bind" (2001)
• "The Lone Granger" (2002)
• "Wimpin' Wady" (2005)