Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden Burdine (born 1987), best known by her pen name Katherine Arden, is an American novelist. Known primarily for her "Winternight" trilogy of fantasy novels, which are set in medieval Russia and have garnered nominations for Hugo and Locus Awards, she is also the author of the "Small Spaces" series of horror novels for middle grade children. The first in the latter series, "Small Spaces", won the Vermont Golden Dome Book Award in 2020. Biography. Arden was born in Austin, Texas, and currently resides in Vermont. She spent a year in Moscow after high school before returning  to Vermont. She attended Middlebury College, graduating with a degree in Russian and French in 2011. After graduating, and uncertain what she wanted to do, Arden took a job on a farm in Hawaii. Bored with the job, she took to writing in her spare time, and "the rest of the writing process just sort of happened in stops and starts." Arden's writing is influenced by J.R.R Tolkien, Mary Renault, Naomi Novik, Patrick O'Brian, Dorothy Dunnett, Diana Gabaldon, and Robin McKinley.