Samantha Shannon is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling fantasy author.

Born in London in 1991, Samantha studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford from 2010 to 2013, specialising in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Principles of Film Criticism. 

In 2013, at the age of 21, she published The Bone Season, the internationally bestselling first instalment in a seven-book series of fantasy novels. Her first book outside the series, The Priory of the Orange Tree, was a finalist in the Lambda Literary Awards 2020 and has sold over a million copies in English worldwide. Its prequel, A Day of Fallen Night, hit shelves in February 2023, becoming an instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller.

She is currently working on The Dark Mirror, the fifth book in the Bone Season series, which will be published in February 2025.

Author photo by Louise Haywood-Schiefer