The short bio:
Teika Marija Smits is a UK-based freelance editor and the author of the speculative short story collections, Umbilical (NewCon Press) and Waterlore (Black Shuck Books) for which she won the British Fantasy Society’s Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. She is delighted that ‘Teika’ means fairy tale in Latvian.
The longer bio:
Teika Marija Smits is a freelance editor, editor-at-large at Valley Press, and the author of the speculative short story collections, Umbilical (NewCon Press) and Waterlore (Black Shuck Books) for which she won the British Fantasy Society’s Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer in 2024. The same year she edited the We-inspired speculative fiction anthology The Utopia of Us (Luna Press Publishing) to celebrate the centenary of the first publication of Zamyatin’s We. Most recently, her novelette ‘The Art of Time Travel’ was shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Association award. Her latest title is the co-authored Dark Duets 1 (Hersham Horror) with Penny Jones. She is delighted that ‘Teika’ means fairy tale in Latvian.
Eight facts about me:
I am half-Latvian; the other half is Russian.
I was born in Windsor, Berkshire, in the 1970s, so I can still remember a time before the internet and smartphones. (In the eyes of my children, that makes me ancient.)
I have a Ph.D. in Chemistry and the title of my Ph.D. thesis was EPR Spectroscopic and Synthetic Aspects of Thiyl Radical Chemistry. Gripping stuff!
Like many writers I own a cat. Mitsie often sleeps on my lap while I write.
I like my coffee with cream. Since some coffee shops don’t serve cream, I am sometimes to be found carrying a little pot of cream about me just in case.
As a Christian, and a fan of Carl Jung, I am striving to become the best version of myself; to achieve individuation.
In spare moments I like to make art and handmade books, and I dream of one day creating my own limited edition illustrated book.
I love karate and regularly train at our local dojo, which is affiliated to the Karate Union of Great Britain. I am a 1st dan black belt and enjoy all aspects of this physically (and mentally) demanding martial art.
