Janet Olearski was born in London to an Anglo-Polish family, and studied languages and linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, and the University of London Institute of Education. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in Wasafiri, Litro, Bare Fiction, Beautiful Scruffiness, The Commonline Journal and elsewhere. She has authored several children’s books, among them Mr. Football, The Sunbird Mystery, and The Boy Who Never Smiled. For adults she has published two short-story collections, The Book of Reasonable Women and A Brief History of Several Boyfriends, two poetry collections, After The Fire and Grown-Ups, and two novels, Portuguese Pastoral and A Traveller’s Guide to Namisa. She is a graduate of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the founder of the Abu Dhabi Writers’ Workshop. She has lived and worked in Italy, Poland, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. She now lives in Central Portugal.