Alma Alexander is the pen name of Alma A. Hromic, a fantasy writer whose novels include the "Worldweavers" young adult series, The Secrets of Jin-Shei and its sequel The Embers of Heaven, The Hidden Queen, and Changer of Days. She is a native of Yugoslavia and grew up in various African countries, including Zambia, Swaziland, and South Africa, also spending time in England and New Zealand before moving to the United States. She currently lives in Bellingham, Washington with her husband, R. A. Deckert. In addition to her fantasy novels, Alexander has published a memoir about growing up in Africa and an epistolary novel about the NATO war in Yugoslavia. She has also published numerous book reviews, travelogues, essays, poetry, and other articles in various magazines around the world. Her story "The Painting" won the 2000 BBC Short Story Contest. In 2009, she donated her archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.