Jaymie Heilman grew up in Alberta, Canada, and lived in Wisconsin, Peru, and Nova Scotia before circling back home to teach Latin American and Caribbean history at the University of Alberta. She has published two history books with Stanford and Duke University Press and three short stories, and her YA novel Badass(ish) was published by Canada’s Ronsdale Press in 2023. CBC named Badass(ish) one of its 25 Canadian YA books to read in Fall 2023 and 49^th Shelf recently named it one of six books for young readers worried about climate change. She now writes fiction full time and lives in Edmonton with her husband, young son, and a ridiculous number of books.