Award-winning author V.S. Kemanis has a professional background in the law and the arts. As a lawyer, she worked many years as a litigator in New York’s criminal justice system and as a supervising editor of decisions for the busiest appellate court in the country. An accomplished dancer of ballet and contemporary styles, Kemanis has performed, choreographed, and taught dance in California, Colorado, and New York.
Short fiction by Ms. Kemanis has been published in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Crooked Road Volume 3, The Best Laid Plans, Me Too Short Stories, and Autumn Noir, among others. Her book, Your Pick: Selected Stories, won the Eric Hoffer Award for best story collection a
PUSHBACK, a mystery-suspense novel, was published in November 2018 and is a finalist for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, mainstream category.
PUSHBACK: At his ten-year high-school reunion, an investment counselor finds he doesn't know one person there, and soon realizes he must outwit an unknown antagonist who wants him dead.
"...unsettling Hitchcockian thriller...Judicious use of humor provides some relief from the dark plot line. Fans of Daniel Palmer-esque intelligent suspense will be pleased." -- Publishers Weekly
"Ordinary Hijacked by Extraordinary, With Comedy... what’s most captivating about PUSHBACK is that even with people like Dave Barlow—just an average guy doing average things—life can take a sho
A California native, Maria Mathis lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where she teaches elementary school. She graduated with a degree in English Literature from CSU Fresno. She was an avid horsewoman, and still counts her horse, Fergus, as one of her best friends.
