Eloisa James

For years, Mary Bly, a tenured associate professor of English Literature at Fordham University, had a secret. She was writing romance novels under the pen name of Eloisa James. Bly is the daughter of poet Robert Bly and short-story author Carol Bly. She was born in Minnesota in 1962. She graduated from Harvard University and attained an M.Phil. from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale University. As a child, she was drawn to romance even though she had to convince her father to let her read them by reading one romance novel for every classic novel that she read. She has gone on to write bestselling historical romance novels of great acclaim for HarperCollins Publishers.

She is a writer, professor, mother and wife. She and her husband Alessandro spend lazy summers in Italy.