MARKUS HEITZ was born in 1971 and lives in Homburg/Saar, Germany. His debut novel, Schatten über Ulldart (the first in an epic fantasy series), won the Deutscher Phantastik Preis (German Fantasy Award) in 2003. Since then, he has won the GFA ten times, more than any other writer. The author of more than thirty novels (seventeen bestsellers in Germany) in all genres, along with two children’s books, Heitz’s popular series Die Zwerge (The Dwarves) includes Der Krieg der Zwerge (The War of the Dwarves) and Die Rache der Zwerge (The Revenge of the Dwarves) and established him amongst Germany’s most successful fantasy writers. The series is now translated all over the world, including in Russia, Japan, and China. He is the editor of the science fiction series Justifiers, based on the RPG of the same name, and he also wrote the libretto of the musical Timm Thaler (aka The Legend of Tim Tyler: The Boy Who Lost His Laugh) and produces the German ambient-Gothic band Lambda.