Deborah Harkness is an American scholar and novelist who has gained international recognition for her fiction work. She is best known as the author of the All Souls Trilogy, which began with A Discovery of Witches, a New York Times bestseller. The trilogy continued with Shadow of Night and The Book of Life. Beyond her trilogy, Harkness has also written The Black Bird Oracle, which serves as a sequel to the All Souls series. In addition to her work as a novelist, Harkness is an accomplished historian and scholar.