Mara Schiffren was born in NYC and also spent time on the West Coast as a child. In col­lege she com­pet­ed in fenc­ing and soc­cer, then moved to Israel to pur­sue the study of Jew­ish his­to­ry and reli­gion. She ulti­mate­ly obtained a doc­tor­ate in the Study of Reli­gion at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty with a focus on Judaism in the clas­si­cal peri­od. She cur­rent­ly resides in North Salem, NY with her cat and dog, where she writes fic­tion and non­fic­tion and coach­es cre­ativ­i­ty and wellness.