Sylvie Weil was raised in Paris and earned her degrees in classics and French literature at the Sorbonne. She has taught French literature at Barnard, Bennington, and Hunter colleges, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of several works of adult fiction and the Elvina trilogy, a series of French novels for young adults. The first book in the trilogy, le Mazal d'Elvina , ( My Guardian Angel ), won the Prix Sorcieres, a prestigious French prize awarded for the best novel for young readers.