“And for heaven’s sake, publish nothing before you are thirty.”

Samantha Burgess-Smith has been writing stories since the 4th grade. Her first short story was a Sleeping Beauty retelling in which the princess and the dragon live happily ever after.

Award-winning in her field, Burgess-Smith has been on the founding teams of 3 start-up businesses, including an international non-profit. Following the death of her father and the birth of her two daughters, she evolved her entrepreneurship career into a return to her first love, writing.

Graduating with a degree in Literature with a specialization in Feminist Film Theory, Burgess-Smith has a deep fascination with elements of literary theory such as structure/form as content, the narrative gaze, and the reimagination of common tropes through the feminine lens. Experimentation with these elements comprises much of her work, as well as her meticulously high self-imposed standards for damn good dialogue.

Snake Wife, with its intense and intimate exploration of the maternal in fantasy fiction, is her debut novel.