Ali Hazelwood is the pen name of an Italian-born American romance novelist and neuroscience professor.
[3][4] The story was originally written as Star Wars fan fiction about Rey and Kylo Ren, which Hazelwood first published on Archive of Our Own in 2018.
[5] In 2020, Hazelwood was approached by a literary agent about the story, who then helped her prepare it for publication.
[12] Hazelwood was born and raised in Italy[6] and lived in Japan and Germany before moving to the United States to pursue her Ph.D. in neuroscience.
[3][13] During her graduate study, Hazelwood researched brain stimulation[disambiguation needed] and cognitive neuroscience.