Lise Arin lives in New York City with her husband and children. She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a PhD from Columbia. Matilda Empress is her first novel.

Adrienne Sharp is the critically acclaimed author of the story collection White Swan, Black Swan, a Barnes and Noble Discover Book and a national bestseller; the novel The Sleeping Beauty, a Barnes and Noble Discover Alumni book and one of Booklist’s ten best first novels of 2005; and the novel The True Memoirs of Little K, a finalist for the California Book Award and translated into six languages. Her newest novel is titled The Magnificent Esme Wells.