Sofiya Pasternack

Sofiya Pasternack is an American author of middle-grade fantasy drawing on Jewish folklore and history. Her debut novel, Anya and the Dragon (2019), received a Sydney Taylor Book Award Honor, a US prize recognizing outstanding children's literature of Jewish content. She continued the story in Anya and the Nightingale (2020) and returned to Jewish-themed historical fantasy with Black Bird, Blue Road (2022). Pasternack's work is distinguished by grounding fantasy adventure in specific historical settings and Jewish tradition, rather than the generic medieval-European backdrops common in the genre. Her books are aimed at middle-grade readers and combine folkloric creatures with attention to the customs and history they draw from.