Ciannon Smart

Ciannon Smart is a British Jamaican writer of young adult dark fantasy. Her interest in the subject began on a childhood trip to Jamaica, where a visit to Rose Hall sparked a fascination with the idea of Black witches that eventually became her debut novel, Witches Steeped in Gold (2021), published by HarperCollins and built around two rival witches forced into an uneasy alliance against a shared enemy. Smart researched Jamaican Obeah traditions extensively while writing the book, and has credited reading An Ember in the Ashes and the announcement of Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone with giving her the confidence to pursue her own vision for the genre. The novel was widely recommended on release, including by USA Today, and was followed by a sequel, Empress Crowned in Red (2022); she has since begun a separate series, Rayleigh Mann.