“'Shadow and Bone' was my first book, and I think I was unconsciously echoing a lot of the fantasy that I had grown up with, which sets a kind of default for straight white characters. And that's something I've tried to improve on as I write, to write more authentically and reflect the people around me in the world, around me more realistically.”

American fantasy author

Leigh Bardugo is an American fantasy author best known for her young adult Grishaverse novels, including the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies. She is also the author of Ninth House, her acclaimed adult debut. Her work has reached beyond the page through screen adaptations of Shadow and Bone by Netflix and Ninth House by Amazon Studios. Bardugo serves as an executive producer on both projects, and her fiction is known for building expansive fantasy worlds across young adult and adult genres.