Beatrice Lebrun writes the kind of stories that make people cry, scream, or whisper “I shouldn’t relate to this.” She’s an author and illustrator obsessed with emotional horror, queer longing, and the quiet devastation of being alive.

Born in Venezuela and now based in the U.S., Beatrice grew up living in another world entirely. Dealing with intense maladaptive daydreaming since a very young age, she spent her childhood caught between realities: one mundane and expected, the other wild, dangerous, and hers. When the world demanded she stay grounded, she turned to writing since then, just to keep the other realities alive.

Glowrot, her debut novel in English. It’s deeply personal to her, a love letter to the versions of herself she never got to be, and a cautionary tale she once needed to hear. Her protagonists are raw, flawed, and cathartic reflections of her own wounds. If someone wants to call that a self-insert, she’s not offended. It just means they’ve never needed to write themselves back together.

When she’s not writing about haunted girls and broken realities, she’s helping others do the same as the Creative Director of StoryForge, where she builds safe spaces for writers and stories that don’t fit the mold.

You’ll usually find her drawing, dancing, dreaming, or whispering to her characters like they’re real people. (Sometimes, they whisper back.)