Kaaronica Tæfé Evans is a Doctoral candidate in the Department of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she focuses on 19th- and 21st-century African American literature and literature of the African diaspora, and is an author. Kaaronica’s dissertation is titled "Mystical Islam and the Black Speculative Imagination," which attends to under-examined Islamic influences shaping representations of mystical phenomena in African American and Caribbean speculative neo-slave narratives written by Black women. Kaaronica holds a Bachelor of Communication degree from Northwestern University. While completing her undergraduate degree, Kaaronica wrote and published her first book, a humorous non-fiction handbook titled The Art of Bitchcraft: The Only Guidebook to the Magic of Getting What You Want (2007). Kaaronica is also the author of Fire & Clay (2013), a speculative fiction novel set in an Islamic and Africana fantasy world, infused with real historical events and settings. Born and raised in the Midwest, Kaaronica considers herself a citizen of the world, having lived in many countries. She spends her free time in quiet reflection or in some form of physical activity, typically pilates, dance, or hardcore weight training.