Michelle Michiko Sagara (born May 5, 1963) is a Japanese-Canadian author of fantasy literature, active since the early 1990s. She has published as Michelle Sagara, as Michelle West (using her husband's surname) and as Michelle Sagara West. Sagara has received two nominations for the John W. Campbell Award. She lives in Toronto and is employed part-time at Bakka-Phoenix, a local bookstore. Biography Sagara is the eldest child of Japanese immigrants. As a child, Sagara loved reading Nancy Drew mysteries as well as the works of Enid Blyton and J. R. R. Tolkien. She studied Physics, then English, at the University of Toronto before dropping out to pursue writing. After she married in 1990, she began publishing under Michelle West. Her debut book, Into the Dark Lands was published in 1991. She has said, in a 2008 interview: "I submitted the first novel to Del Rey books in 1987. It was rejected, but with a phone call, and in the end I revised the manuscript and sent it back. The revision was passed on to Lester del Rey, who was alive at the time. He rejected it with a 4 page single space letter which had all the trademark curmudgeonliness for which he was famed. But buried in that 4 page letter was a very definite 'This flashback of 94 pages needs to be its own damn book, and it should be book one.' So... I wrote that novel, and I submitted that novel, and that's the novel they bought." Bibliography Novels The Sundered (as Michelle Sagara/Michelle Sagara West) A Tolkienesque tale of love, betrayal, and redemption. Previously out of print, the series was reissued by BenBella Books under the name Michelle Sagara West. Into the Dark Lands, 1991 Children of the Blood, 1992 Lady of Mercy, 1993 Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light, 1994 The Sacred Hunt (as Michelle West, DAW Books) The Kingdom of Breodanir is facing a threat unlike any seen for centuries. An orphan boy and his adopted brother struggle against the ties that bind them together (and to their land) as they complete an impossible journey to save the world - at the risk of their own destruction. These are the first books set in the Essalieyan universe to be published. Hunter's Oath (October 1995) Hunter's Death (June 1996) The Sun Sword (as Michelle West, DAW Books) Sixteen years after the events of The Sacred Hunt,