Shelley Bates holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania, where she teaches as adjunct faculty. She was the winner of RWA's RITA Award for Best Inspirational Novel in 2005, a finalist for that award in 2006, and, writing as Shelley Adina, was a Christy Award finalist in 2009. Three of her books have shortlisted for the American Christian Fiction Writers' Carol Award for book of the year. Writing as Adina Senft, she is the author of the Amish Quilt trilogy from FaithWords. Of her fiction, publisher and industry blogger W. Terry Whalin has said, "Readers will be lost in the vivid world that Shelley paints with incredible detail and masterful storytelling." A transplanted Canadian, Shelley returns there annually to have her accent calibrated. Between books, she enjoys traveling with her husband, playing the piano and Celtic harp, and spoiling her flock of rescued chickens.