is a traveler, an adventurer, and a mischief-maker. “I came from nothing, and will return to nothing, but I intend to have a good time while I’m here.”
With the exception of a brief visit to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she is a self-taught artisan who creates strange assemblages out of natural ephemera and binds books by hand. Both of these are the result of a childhood suffused with stories and with magic — the elusive magic of fairy tales read to me from the brittle pages of old books and of the more physical magic of the wild nature that surrounded me.
In 2001, in the arts district of Philadelphia, she founded Papaveria Press, a micro-press devoted to fairy tales and fantasy. She began by publishing miniature, handbound books of poems and stories written by her colleagues in the field of fantasy fiction, and eventually added trade and digital editions to the mix. Her move to the UK in autumn of 2006 put a halt to her work with Papaveria. For two years she was unable to work at all due to her immigration status. The momentum she once had in that field slowed considerably while she accustomed herself to her new life, new love, and finally marriage.
With her husband’s experience in the print industry and her with publishing and editing and their combined interest in all things occult, in 2008 they co-founded Hadean Press, an esoteric press exploring the union of myth and magic. It is in this community of readers and people who still believe in magic — cunning men and women, witches, sorcerers, tarot readers and ghost seekers — that she finds herself most at home. To their great delight, Hadean Press has thrived over the years, and it is where her passion now lies.
Most of her work as a bookbinder and book artist can be seen in the catalogs of the two presses. Her written work has been published by Prime Books, Lethe Press, Masque Books, Tor Books, Clarkesworld, Fantasy Magazine and more. She is also the co-founder and editor of Cabinet des Fées, an online journal of fairy tales (currently on hiatus).
For more info, see her website.
