Sophia Slade has been writing since she was still losing her baby teeth. As a teenager, she amassed an impressive 35 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards including two National Gold Medals and an American Voices and Visions award. During her undergraduate studies at New York University, she independently published six books under her given name (Sophia Elaine Hanson) including a young adult steampunk trilogy and three volumes of poetry. Her seventh book, a dark nightmare fantasy called Nightstrider, was launched via Kickstarter in 2022. Its unprecedented grassroots success caught the attention of Orbit Books, who picked up the series in 2023.