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 won the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize (BC & Yukon Book Prizes)  was voted an Honour Book for the Forest of Reading's White Pine Award, and shortlisted for both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award (Canadian Children's Book Centre). Find her beachcombing on the traditional, unceded land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, səlilwətaɬ, and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territories in BC.