Janet Berliner

Award-winning author Janet Berliner was born in South Africa. Two days after her twenty-first birthday, she fled her homeland after friends warned her that the government was preparing to silence her outspoken criticism of Apartheid. In 1975, she founded Professional Media Services, a full-service editorial firm where she worked as a translator, literary agent, and developmental editor. Even though the South African government banned her first novel, Rite of the Dragon, a political thriller set in her homeland, over 200,000 copies were sold elsewhere. Together with George Guthridge, she developed the Madagascar Manifesto trilogy, which combines Jewish mysticism, African magic, and real-world horror. The final volume of the series, Children of the Dusk, received the Bram Stoker Award for superior achievement in a novel. Janet also developed the concept for a mosaic novel entitled Artifact, which she co-wrote with authors Kevin J. Anderson, Matthew J. Costello, and F. Paul Wilson.