Bridgette Dutta Portman is a YA sci-fi and fantasy author living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She loves inventing alternate worlds that reveal new possibilities for human existence (both good and bad). As a writer who has lived with an anxiety disorder since childhood, she is committed to writing stories that de-stigmatize mental illness and portray characters who manage feelings of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem as they become the heroes of their own stories. Her first novel, a YA fantasy called The Twin Stars, was published by Titan1 Studios in 2021 and was followed by two sequels. Bridgette is also an award-winning playwright whose work has been produced across the United States and overseas. She holds an MFA in creative writing (Spalding University, 2018) and teaches composition and dramatic writing at UC Berkeley's College Writing Programs.