Anya Bergman is the pen name of Noelle Harrison, an internationally bestselling Irish author now resident in Ireland, where she is undertaking a PhD by Published Works at Edinburgh Napier University and tutors for Jericho Writers. She became fascinated with the Vardø witch trials and the folk tales of the far north while living in Norway, after visiting the Steilneset memorial to the women persecuted as witches there - a story that became her debut as Anya Bergman, The Witches of Vardø. The novel was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2023 and named a Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of 2023.