V. L. Bovalino

V. L. Bovalino writes at the crossroads of myth, romance, and the uncanny, where every shadow might be hiding an old story waiting to be told. Readers first encountered her voice in young adult horror, where folklore and fear intertwined, before she turned toward epic fantasy with The Second Death of Locke, the opening of The Hand and the Heart series. In her work, love is inseparable from sacrifice, loyalty is tested at the sharpest edges of power, and magic is never without consequence.

Originally from Pittsburgh, she grew up with an ear for ghost stories and a fascination with the strange details tucked into history and folklore. That curiosity eventually carried her across the Atlantic, where she earned her doctorate in English and Creative Writing and made the UK her home. Alongside her writing, she teaches at Goldsmiths, University of London, guiding new voices in children’s and young adult literature.

Her novels and anthologies reveal a deep love of folklore and liminal spaces, whether through the haunting landscapes of My Throat an Open Grave or the collective unease of The Gathering Dark. Now, in her fantasy fiction written as V. L. Bovalino, she builds sweeping worlds lit by dangerous magic and anchored by characters who wrestle with duty, desire, and the cost of devotion.

Away from the page, she lives north of London with her partner and their loud cat, often surrounded by stacks of books and oversized sweaters. She remains drawn to the same things that shaped her earliest stories with unsettling myths, half-forgotten tales, and the mystery of how love endures when the world turns dark.