Ekaterina Sedia is a botanist and fantasy writer. She is best known for her steampunk novel "The Alchemy of Stone." Sedia's other novels include "The Secret History of Moscow," "According to Crow," and "The House of Discarded Dreams." She has also written several short fiction stories, poems, and nonfiction books. In addition to writing, Sedia teaches ecology and evolution courses as a professor at Stockton University. Sedia was born and raised in Moscow, Russia. She received her degree from Moscow State University. She moved to Boston, where she worked as a research assistant at MIT's Department of Brain Cognitive Sciences. She received her degree in plant ecology from Rutgers University.