Miriam R. Dumitra has always been a polymath, with a love of learning and creating. As a child, they grew up in Romania, Austria, and the Philippines and learned to discover and imitate the widely varying world around them, often through books: thus began their love of the written word.

Having learned English from an American family in the Philippines, Miriam found solace in books (such as My Father’s Dragon, Filipino Children’s Favorite Stories, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe) that kept them grounded throughout many cross-continental moves. When their family settled in Canada in late 2007, their love of reading naturally extended to a love of writing. They began to pen poems, diary entries, and flash memoirs.

Tamora Pierce’s First Test provided the final motivation that pushed Miriam from book-loving poet to fantasy nerd and aspiring author. Devouring Pierce’s other books, as well as works by Rowling, Jordan, Riordan, and Sanderson, they found a genre whose epic proportions and fantastical landscapes somehow felt familiar after the years of traveling and discovering new cultures. Soon, they began work on their own YA fantasy novel.

After five years spent worldbuilding, writing, (procrastinating), and planning, Miriam released their debut novel, Brightshade, at the start of 2019. The second book in the Tales of Aether and Soul series is underway, and Miriam promises that they have a host of other book ideas to get to, just as soon as they finish writing about themselves in the third person.