Renee Bell grew up among the trees and mountains of the Pacific Northwest and has never really lost the habit of paying more attention to the edges of a map than the middle of it. She writes fantasy, YA and adult both, usually about people figuring out who they are once nobody's telling them anymore. Her first series is set in the world of Vireth.

Vireth began with a single question: who are you when you're no longer who the world has told you that you must be? That question grew into a girl, then an academy, then a fully mapped world with its own history, its own magic system, and its own uncomfortable truths.

When she's not writing, she's probably reading, taking pictures, halfway through a sewing project, or trying a recipe that hasn't earned her trust yet. She works in marketing by day, has three teenagers and a cat named Princess Zelda who runs the house, and there's usually a trip coming up on the calendar.

— Renee Bell