Léa Taranto (she/her) is a disabled, Chinese Jewish Canadian writer who spent her childhood reading fantasy. Her adolescence was much the same, except certified in various inpatient facilities for life-threatening OCD and comorbid disorders. A University of British Columbia MFA graduate and Simon Fraser University Writer’s Studio alum, she writes stories where readers with neurodivergence and/or mental illness can see themselves reflected in her characters. Since mental health does not exist in a vacuum, she acknowledges and empowers its intersectionalities, including race, ability, gender and sexuality. Based on life experience, her debut novel, A Drop in the Ocean, aims to do just that. It was voted an Honour Book for the Forest of Reading's White Pine Award, and a finalist for both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize (BC & Yukon Book Prizes). Find her beachcombing on the traditional, unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territories in BC.