Katherine Arden

Katherine Arden is an American author of fantasy fiction whose atmospheric novels draw on Russian folklore and history to create richly imagined worlds of magic and danger. Born in Austin, Texas, in 1992, she spent a year in Moscow studying Russian and later earned her MFA from the University of Vermont. She speaks Russian, French, and is passionate about travel, wilderness, and the natural world. Arden's debut, The Bear and the Nightingale, is the first book in the Winternight trilogy — a sweeping fantasy set in medieval Russia where a young woman named Vasya discovers she can see the spirits that protect her village, even as Christianity threatens to drive the old magic away. The trilogy (completed by The Girl in the Tower and The Winter of the Witch) became a New York Times bestseller and was praised for its atmospheric writing, its feminist reimagining of Russian fairy tales, and its vivid evocation of the Russian winter landscape. She has also written the bestselling Small Spaces series for middle-grade readers. Arden's fiction brings the dark enchantment of Russian folklore to English-language readers. Her audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers fantasy steeped in snow, firelight, and ancient magic — stories where the old spirits are real and a brave girl must choose between safety and freedom.