Cathryn deVries

Writing fantasy that meets you in your reality

Cathryn deVries is a recovering perfectionist who has been going slowly (or rapidly?) insane over fifteen years of home-schooling her four children, two of whom are on the autism spectrum. She is just a ‘tad’ obsessed with the written word, and won the Stuart and Hadow Short Story Prize 2023. With her neurodiverse daughter Emalyn, she has co-written a romantic epic fantasy trilogy that fans of Brandon Sanderson and J.R.R. Tolkien will feel right at home in. Emalyn is an artist as well as a writer and has a diploma in screen and media. Both mother and daughter love speculative fiction, as well as the great works of classic literature, and the influence of both can be seen in their work, hence their wish to write books that stay with readers long after they finish the last page. Since Cathryn suffers from depression, and Emalyn from anxiety, the deep needs and fears that drive human behaviour also drive their writing, and the complexities of how life shapes personality is something they explore deeply in their work.