Born in Ukraine and currently residing in California, Elana Gomel is an academic, an award-winning writer, and a professional nomad. Her academic work centers on speculative fiction and narrative theory. Among her many academic books are Science Fiction, Alien Encounters, and the Ethics of Posthumanism and The Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. A member of Horror Writers of America (HWA), she is the author of many short stories, two collections, several novellas, and eight novels of dark fantasy and science fiction. Her stories appeared in The Best Horror of the Year, The Dark magazine, Apex, and many anthologies. Her novel Nightwood, a fairy tale about exile, marriage, and monsters, won the Silver Award in the Bookfest 2023 contest. Her latest novel is the epic dark fantasy A Tale of Three Cities.