KIT ROCHA is the pseudonym for the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author duo Donna Herren and Bree Bridges. They are best known for their gritty and sexy dystopian BEYOND series, and were the first indie authors to receive a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award. They currently live three miles apart in Alabama and spend their non-writing time caring for a menagerie of animals and crafting handmade jewelry, all of which is chronicled on their various social media accounts.
S. A. HUNT is a U.S. veteran, speculative fiction author, and Winner of Reddit.com/r/Fantasy's "Independent Novel of the Year" Award. They live in Petoskey, Michigan. Burn the Dark is the first volume in their Malus Domestica series, followed by the sequel I Come with Knives.
ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON has been recognized for her short fiction and YA novels, winning the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” which also appears in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (2015), guest edited by Joe Hill. Her debut YA novel, The Summer Prince, was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her follow up YA novel, Love is the Drug, won the Andre Norton Award in 2015. A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson is currently based in Mexico City, where she received a masters degree in Mesoamerican studies and now plays in a bossa nova band.
KATE ELLIOTT is the author of twenty-five fantasy and science fiction novels, including a YA fantasy trilogy (begun with Court of Fives), the acclaimed science fiction novel Jaran, and a short fiction collection, The Very Best of Kate Elliott. Born in Oregon, she now lives in Hawaii.
MARY ROBINETTE KOWAL is the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, and the Lady Astronaut series. She’s the President of SFWA, part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the Nebula and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Nashville with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.
RYAN VAN LOAN served six years in the US Army Infantry, on the front lines of Afghanistan. He now works in healthcare innovation. The Sin in the Steel is his debut novel. Van Loan and his wife live in Pennsylvania.
KIT ROCHA is the pseudonym for the
New York Times and
USA Today bestselling author duo Donna Herren and Bree Bridges. They are best known for their gritty and sexy dystopian Beyond series, and were the first indie authors to receive a Romantic
Times Reviewers' Choice Award. They currently live three miles apart in Alabama and spend their non-writing time caring for a menagerie of animals and crafting handmade jewelry, all of which is chronicled on their various social media accounts.
S. A. HUNT (she/her) is the author of the Malus Domestica horror-action series from Tor Books, which begins with
Burn the Dark. In 2014, she won Reddit's /r/Fantasy "Independent Novel of the Year" Stabby Award for her Outlaw King fantasy gunslinger series. She is an Afghanistan veteran (OEF 2010), a coffee enthusiast, a fervent bicyclist, and she currently lives in Petoskey, Michigan.
Alaya Dawn Johnson is an award-winning short story writer and the author of novels for adults and young adults. Her novel
Trouble the Saints won the 2021 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Her debut short story collection,
Reconstruction, was an Ignyte Award and a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist. Her most YA novel,
The Library of Broken Worlds, was nominated for the Locus Award for YA novel, won the BSFA award for Fiction for Young People, and was a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin prize. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, most notably the title story in
The Memory Librarian, in collaboration with Janelle Monáe. She is currently the visiting professor in the MFA program of Queens College (CUNY), and writes essays for her newsletter,
A stranger comes home.
Kate Elliott has been publishing science fiction and fantasy for over thirty years with a particular focus in immersive world building and epic stories of adventure&transformative cultural change. She’s written fantasy, science fiction, space opera based on the life of Alexander the Great (
Unconquerable Sun), Young Adult fantasy, the seven volume (complete!) Crown of Stars epic fantasy series set in a landscape reminiscent of early medieval Europe, and the Afro-Celtic post-Roman alternate-history fantasy with lawyer dinosaurs,
Cold Magic, as well as two novellas set in the Magic: The Gathering multiverse. Her work has been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Norton, and Locus Awards. Her novel
Black Wolves won the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award for Best Epic Fantasy 2015. If you’re wondering where to start with her other novels, here’s an answer: http://www.imakeupworlds.com/index.php/2015/02/where-should-i-start-with-your-novels/ (boy band style). She lives in Hawaii, paddles outrigger canoes, and spoils her schnauzer.
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award-winning alternate history novel,
The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series and
Ghost Talkers and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo Awards, the Nebula, and Locus Awards. Her stories appear in
Asimov’s,
Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette has also worked as a professional puppeteer, is a member of the Award-winning podcast
Writing Excuses, and performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and Neal Stephenson. She lives in Tennessee with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.
RYAN VAN LOAN served six years in the US Army Infantry, on the front lines of Afghanistan. He now works in healthcare innovation. Van Loan and his wife live in Pennsylvania.
