Brian Staveley has an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University. He works as an editor for Antilever Press, and has published poetry and essays, both in print and on-line. He is the author of The Emperor's Blades.

Daniel José Older is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor and composer. Following the release of his ghost noir collection, Salsa Nocturna, Publisher’s Weekly declared Daniel a rising star of the genre. He has facilitated workshops on storytelling, music and anti-oppression organizing at public schools, religious houses, universities, and prisons. His short stories and essays have appeared in Salon, The Chicago Sun Times, The New Haven Review, Tor.com, PANK, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres among other publications. He co-edited the anthology, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From The Margins Of History and his urban fantasy novel The Half Resurrection Blues, is the first of his Bone Street Rumba series, released by Penguin’s Roc imprint. You can find his thoughts on writing, read his ridiculous ambulance adventures and hear his music at his website.

David D. Levine is the author of over fifty science fiction and fantasy stories. His story "Tk'Tk'Tk"won the Hugo Award in 2006, and he has been shortlisted for such awards as the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. His stories have appeared in Asimov's,Analog, F&SF, five Year's Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic. He lives in Portland, OR with his wife, Kate Yule. Arabella of Mars is his first novel.

David Herter lives in Seattle, Washington.

Haralambi Markov is a Bulgarian fiction writer, blogger and reviewer with a background in marketing. A Clarion 2014 graduate, Markov lives for the thrill of chasing down stories and you'll always catch him typing.

Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, and Crackpot Palace. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, from MAD Magazine to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories.

Kameron Hurley is the author of the novels God's War, Infidel, and Rapture a science-fantasy noir series which earned her the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer and the Kitschies Award for Best Debut Novel. She has won the Hugo Award (twice), and been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the BSFA Award for Best Novel. Her most recent novel is the epic fantasy The Mirror Empire. The sequel, Empire Ascendant, will be out in October 2015. She writes regularly for Locus Magazine.

In 1983, Kelly Robson's life changed forever when she picked up a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction with a Connie Willis story on the cover. She is a graduate of the Taos Toolbox writing workshop.
Kelly lives in Toronto with her wife A.M. Dellamonica, just around the corner from Van Gogh, Monet, and Bernini.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias trilogy --The Gold Coast, The Wild Shore and Pacific Edge --has been observed as "an intriguing work, one that will delight and entertain you, and, most importantly, cause you to stop and think" (The Santa Ana Register). His many other novels include Escape from Kathmandu and Green Mars -- which won the Hugo and Locus Award for Best Novel.

MALKA OLDER is a writer, humanitarian worker, and PhD candidate at the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations studying governance and disasters. Named Senior Fellow for Technology and Risk at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs for 2015, she has more than eight years of experience in humanitarian aid and development, and has responded to complex emergencies and natural disasters in Uganda, Darfur, Indonesia, Japan, and Mali. Infomocracy is her first novel.

Maria Dahvana Headley is the author of the novelQueen of Kings and the memoir The Year of Yes. With Neil Gaiman, she is the co-editor of the New York Times-bestselling anthology Unnatural Creatures, benefiting 826DC. Her Nebula-nominated short fiction has recently appeared inLightspeed, Nightmare, Apex, The Journal of Unlikely Entomology, Subterranean, Glitter&Mayhem, and Jurassic London's The Lowest Heaven and The Book of the Dead. Magonia, a young adult novel, came out in 2015. She grew up in rural Idaho on a sled-dog ranch, spent part of her twenties as a pirate negotiator and ship charterer in the maritime industry, and now lives in Brooklyn in an apartment shared with a seven-foot-long stuffed crocodile.

MICHAEL LIVINGSTON holds degrees in History, Medieval Studies, and English. He is an Associate Professor of English at The Citadel, specializing in the middle Ages. His short fiction has been published inBlack Gate, Shimmer, Paradox, and Nature. The Shards of Heaven is his first novel.

Nino Cipri is a queer and genderqueer writer living in Chicago. Nino is a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Writers' Workshop, which they attended with the help of an Illinois Arts Council Professional Development grant. Their writing has been published in Tor.com, Fireside Fiction, Betwixt, Daily Science Fiction, In The Fray, Autostraddle, and Gozamos. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a backstage theater tech. Nino has also worked as a farmhand, bike mechanic, barista, mail clerk, dishwasher, bookseller, and gas station attendant.

One time, an angry person called Nino a verbal terrorist, which has since made a great T-shirt slogan.

Noah Keller is a writer and artist who lives in North Carolina. He is a 2014 graduate of the Clarion Writers Workshop. The Museum and the Music Box is his first published story.

Priya Sharma is a doctor who lives in the UK. Her short stories have appeared in several magazines including Black Static, Interzone, Albedo One, and On Spec. She's been reprinted in Paula Guran's Best Dark Fantasy and Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror Volume 4.

Ray Wood was born in Wiltshire in 1990. He spent four years studying English and Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London, during which time he studiously managed to avoid writing anything that didn't have at least one sword or spaceship in it. He graduated with an MA in 2013 and currently lives in Surrey with his girlfriend. He is working on completing his first novel.

Sabrina Vourvoulias is the author of Ink (Crossed Genres, 2012), a speculative novel that draws on her memories of Guatemala's armed internal conflict, and of the Latin experience in the United States. It was named to Latinidad's Best Books of 2012. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Crossed Genresand in a number of anthologies, including Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. She is the managing editor of Al Día News in Philadelphia, and was the editor of Al Día's book 200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia (Temple University Press, 2012). She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.

SETH DICKINSON's short fiction has appeared inAnalog, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons,Beneath Ceaseless Skies, among others. He is an instructor at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers, winner of the 2011 Dell Magazines Award, and a lapsed student of social neuroscience. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Traitor Baru Cormorant is his first novel.

Usman T. Malik is a Pakistani vagrant camped in Florida. He reads Sufi poetry, likes long walks, and occasionally strums naats on the guitar. His work is forthcoming in the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Year's Best Weird Fiction, Nightmare, and other venues. In December 2014, Usman led Pakistan's first speculative fiction workshop in Lahore in conjunction with Desi Writers Lounge.

Veronica Schanoes is Assistant Professor in the department of English at Queens College - CUNY. Her fiction has appeared in Queen Victoria's Book of Spells, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and Strange Horizons. Her novella, "Burning Girls," published on Tor.com, is a finalist for the Nebula award. She lives in New York City.

Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction writer born on January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas. Her first published story, "The Hundredth Question," appeared in Fantasy&Science Fiction in 1999; since then, over two dozen further stories have appeared. She lives in Pasadena, California.

Nino Cipri is a queer and trans/nonbinary writer, editor, and educator. They are a graduate of the 2014 Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and earned their MFA in fiction from the University of Kansas. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer. They are the author of Homesick, a World Fantasy Award finalist and Dzanc Short Fiction Collection Prize winner, and the novellas Finna, a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, and Lambda awards, and Defekt, a British Fantasy Award winner and finalist for the Philip K. Dick and Locus awards. Dead Girls Don't Dream is their young adult debut.
SETH DICKINSON is the author of the Baru Cormorant novels and many short stories, as well as much of the lore and backstory of Bungie Studios’ Destiny. Seth lives in New York City.
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year. His story collections are, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, and Crackpot Palace. His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, from MAD Magazine to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories.
Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction writer born on January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas. His first published story, "The Hundredth Question," appeared in Fantasy&Science Fiction in 1999; since then, over two dozen further stories have appeared. He lives in Pasadena, California.
Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie, and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written. She was raised with a wolf and a pack of sled dogs in the high desert of rural Idaho, and now lives in Brooklyn.
David Herter is the author of Ceres Storm and Evening's Empire. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Kameron Hurley is the author of the novels God's War, Infidel, and Rapture a science-fantasy noir series which earned her the Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer and the Kitschies Award for Best Debut Novel. She has won the Hugo Award (twice), and been a finalist for the Nebula Award, the Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the BSFA Award for Best Novel. She writes regularly for Locus Magazine.

David D. Levine is the author of novel Arabella of Mars and over fifty science fiction and fantasy stories. His story "Tk'Tk'Tk"won the Hugo Award, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. His stories have appeared in Asimov's, Analog, F&SF, numerous Year's Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic.

He lives in a hundred-year-old bungalow in Portland, Oregon.

Michael Livingston, PhD. is the foremost academic interpreter of Robert Jordan's literary accomplishment and legacy. Among his many other books are the Shards of Heaven trilogy of novels (published by Tor) and multiple award-winning studies of military history. At present, he serves as the Secretary-General for the United States Commission on Military History and teaches at The Citadel.
Daniel José Older is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Book of Lost Saints, the young adult series Shadowshaper Cypher, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, the middle grade historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, and Star Wars: Last Shot. He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the Mythopoeic Award, the Locus Award, the Andre Norton Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Shadowshaper was named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as a New York City paramedic, and hear his music on his website, on YouTube, and on Twitter.
Malka Older is a writer, aid worker, and sociologist. She is the Executive Director of Global Voices, a community of writers, editors, and translators providing community journalism from all over the world and advocating for indigenous and minority languages, media literacy, digital rights, and online freedom of expression. Her science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named among the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, the Washington Post, and Book Riot; with sequels, it was a finalist for a Hugo award. The Mimicking of Known Successes, a murder mystery set on Jupiter, was on four best of 2023 lists and was a finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and Ignyte awards for Best Novella. The sequel, The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles, was named one of the best science-fiction books of 2024 by Esquire, and the third book in the series, The Potency of Ungovernable Impulses, comes out in June 2025. She is a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, where she teaches on predictive fictions. She is co-editor of We Will Rise Again, an anthology of speculative fiction about social justice movements, coming out in December 2025.
KIM STANLEY ROBINSON is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than 20 books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy: Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, and more recently Red Moon, New York 2140, and 2312, which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards—a first for any book. 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 he was given the Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” In 2017 he was given the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society.
Kelly Robson lives in downtown Toronto with her wife, writer A.M. Dellamonia. Her novelette “A Human Stain” won the Nebula Award, and her time travel adventure Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach won the Aurora Award and was a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and Locus Awards. Kelly’s first short story collection Alias Space and Other Stories was published in 2021. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.
Veronica Schanoes is an American author of fantasy stories and an associate professor in the department of English at Queens College, CUNY. Her novella Burning Girls was nominated for the Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award and won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novella in 2013. She lives in New York City. Burning Girls and Other Stories is her debut collection.

Priya Sharma’s fiction has appeared in venues such as Interzone, Black Static, Nightmare, The Dark and Tor.com. “Fabulous Beasts” (Tor.com) was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a British Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. Priya is a Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award winner, and Locus Award finalist, for her short story collection “All the Fabulous Beasts” (Undertow Publications). Her novella “Ormeshadow” (Tor.com) won a Shirley Jackson Award and a British Fantasy Award. It was a 2022 Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire finalist. Her latest novella "Pomegranates" (PS Publishing) is a finalist for a Shirley Jackson Award, a British Fantasy Award, and a World Fantasy Award. Her work has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, and Polish.

More information can be found at priyasharmafiction.wordpress.com

BRIAN STAVELEY has taught literature, religion, history, and philosophy, and holds an MA in poetry from Boston University. His books, which have been translated into over a dozen languages, include The Empire's Ruin, The Emperor's Blades, The Providence of Fire, The Last Mortal Bond, and Skullsworn. He lives in Vermont and divides his time between running trails, splitting wood, writing, and chasing his son downhill on a mountain bike.
Sabrina Vourvoulias is the author of Ink (Crossed Genres, 2012), a speculative novel that draws on her memories of Guatemala's armed internal conflict, and of the Latin experience in the United States. It was named to Latinidad's Best Books of 2012. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Crossed Genres and in a number of anthologies, including Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. She is the managing editor of Al Día News in Philadelphia, and was the editor of Al Día's book 200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia (Temple University Press, 2012). She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter.