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 UK-based freelance editor and the author of the short story collections Umbilical (NewCon Press), which was shortlisted for the 2024 Rubery Book Award, and Waterlore (Black Shuck Books), as well as the poetry pamphlet Russian Doll (Indigo Dreams Publishing). In 2024 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, she was the winner of the British Fantasy Society’s Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer. 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 she 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 most 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.
I love karate and regularly train at our local dojo.
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.