Linda D. Addison grew up in Philadelphia and began weaving stories at an early age. Addison is recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award®, HWA Mentor of the Year, SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry, and a Nebula award finalist. Catch her recent work in the anthology Afrofuturism Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy); You, Human, Vol. 2; The Big Bad Book of Kaiju, and Weird Tales Magazine #371. Her 2025 books: Everything Endless written with Jamal J. Hodge; An Illegal Feast with Consuelo G. Flores, Andrea Goyan, Elizabeth Eve King & Elizabeth Wong. She has published over 500 poems, stories, and articles.

Casey Aimer is a cyberpunk poet and editor who holds master’s degrees in both poetry and publishing. He works for an open-access scientific publisher and is founder of Radon Journal, an anarchist science fiction publisher. His poetry has been featured in Strange Horizons, Small Wonders, Worlds of IF, Space & Time, Star*Line, and many more. An SFWA and SFPA member, his work has been a Nebula and Rhysling Award finalist and Soft Star Magazine contest winner. He can be found on Bluesky and CaseyAimer.com

Kenna Alexander is a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation, an award-winning writer, game designer, trans woman, and owner of Coyote & Crow Games. While she currently resides in Tacoma, Washington, her heart will always be in New Orleans. With a degree in Communications and a focus on film and television, she’s held a range of roles over the years, finally settling into the hobby game industry, writing and game design in 2014. In 2018, she began designing Coyote & Crow, a game that would set a new standard of Native representation and inclusion in the hobby game space.

Kenna is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and an award-winning game designer and writer. She also owns Coyote & Crow Games.

David Anaxagoras is the Nebula Award finalist author of The Tower (Recorded Books). His short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Worlds of Possibility, Translunar Travelers Lounge, and elsewhere. He created and co-executive produced Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Amazon Prime Video’s award-winning coming-of-age series for which he received a WGA award nomination. He holds an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and currently resides in Texas (but not on purpose), where he writes full time, powered by cold brew coffee, 80s vinyl, and a healthy disregard for the impossible.

Charlie Jane Anders is the award-winning, nationally bestselling author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster. Her other books include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and the young adult Unstoppable trilogy. She also published a book about how to use creative writing to get through tough times called Never Say You Can't Survive. Her writing has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, ZYZZYVA, the Paris Review, McSweeney's, Esquire and the Catamaran Literary Reader. She’s currently writing the comic book Star Trek: Zero Point for IDW.

Kit Anderson is an Ignatz Award-nominated cartoonist from Boulder, Colorado living near Zürich. Her short stories have been published by Parsifal Press and the Rumpus, and collected into Safer Places...

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author. She is a Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award recipient, a British Fantasy, Ignyte, Locus, Foreword Indies and BSFA Award winner. She’s also a twice World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award finalist, and a finalist in the Philip K. Dick Awards and the Nommo Awards for speculative fiction by Africans. Eugen is an Otherwise Fellow, and was announced on the honor list for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. Danged Black Thing made the Otherwise Award Honor List as a ‘sharp collection of Afro-Surrealist work’. Visit her at eugenbacon.com.

Stewart C Baker (any pronouns) is an academic librarian and author of speculative fiction, poetry, and games. Stewart is the author of Spire, Surge, and Sea, a finalist for this year's Game Writing Nebula, and was lead writer for the Nebula-award-winning game A Death in Hyperspace, and has had shorter works in Asimov’s, Fantasy, Flash Fiction Online, Lightspeed, Nature and other places. Born in England, Stewart has lived in South Carolina, Japan, and Los Angeles, and now lives within the traditional homelands of the Luckiamute Band of Kalapuya in Oregon—although if anyone asks, he’ll usually say he’s from the Internet, where you can find him at https://infomancy.net.

STEVEN BARNES is the NY Times bestselling author of over thirty novels of science fiction, horror, and suspense. The Image, Endeavor and Cable-Ace Award winning author also writes for television, including The Twilight Zone, Stargate SG-1, Andromeda and an Emmy Award winning episode of The Outer Limits.

E.D.E. Bell is a fantasy writer, small press editor, and anti-censorship organizer. Her works are quiet and queer. She lives in Ferndale, Michigan, where she writes stories, revels in garlic, and manages the creative side of her indie press, Atthis Arts. Emily is a co-founder and on the Steering Committee for Publishing Professionals Against Book Bans (PPABB). You can follow eir adventures at edebell.com.

Renan Bernardo is a Nebula and Ignyte finalist author of science fiction and fantasy from Brazil. His fiction appeared in Reactor/Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Apex Magazine, Podcastle, Escape Pod, and elsewhere. He...

Denise is a writer, fiber artist, and professional chaos manager residing in Ohio with her husband. She has two kids, three cats, and more sewing machines and looms than anyone should practically need. Denise spent much of her childhood in Pern, Tortall, and Prydain. A Viable Paradise alumna, she now spends her days herding children and writing imaginary histories.

Denise can be found in most of the usual places under @dmbeucler

Bert-Oliver Boehmer is a science fiction author and creator of the Galacticide universe, blending large-scale interstellar politics with intimate human stakes.

With a background in computer science and molecular biology, and a career in bioinformatics and technology, he brings scientific rigor to his speculative worldbuilding. His work frequently explores fractured realities, systems of power, and the human cost of conflict. An experienced traveler—including sailing and desert off-roading—he draws on firsthand encounters with extreme environments to ground alien landscapes in physical authenticity.

Bert-Oliver is a member of SFWA and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Independent Authors Committee.

Jonathan is a full-time hybrid writer living in Colorado Springs with his wife Kiwi and twin daughters Danika Dawn and Darika Marie. (Dani and Dari are the inspirations for GEMINI...

Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of Never Let Me Sleep and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her YA tie-in novels, BattleTech: The Nellus Academy Incident and Shadowrun: Auditions, have both won Scribe Awards. Her editing work has earned her nominations for the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and multiple Hugo Awards. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology, co-edited with Amanda Pillar. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, Well World, and Predator.

Jennifer has been a full-time freelance author and editor for over seventeen years, and she has never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to teach writing classes and volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer's worlds at jenniferbrozek.com/

Sue Burke is an author and translator. Her novel Semiosis was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the Locus Best First Novel Award. Its sequels are Interference and Usurpation. She has also written the novels Immunity Index and Dual Memory, short stories, poetry, journalism, and essays, and she won the 2016 Alicia Gordon Award for Word Artistry in Translation from the American Translators Association. She was born in the Milwaukee, lived in Texas and Spain, and is now in Chicago. More information is at https://sueburke.site/

Gabrielle K. Byrne is the author of Rise of the Dragon Moon and The Edge of Strange Hollow. She lives in the rainy wilds of the Pacific Northwest, where she writes fantasy for kids of all ages. Gabby studied opera in Philadelphia, medieval studies in New York, literature in Scotland, and marine biology in the Pacific Northwest, but writing stories is the common thread that ties all her interests together. When she’s not writing, she can be found fishing spineless beasties out of the Salish Sea with her husband and two daughters. Gabby is a mentor for the Pitch Wars writing contest, and a contributor at The Winged Pen blog.

Cameron Roberson, who writes under the pen name Rob Cameron, is a New York City public school teacher, linguist, and writer. He is also lead organizer for the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers and founder of Constellations Mentorship for the Octavia Project. He's been a workshop leader at the National Council for Teachers of English Annual Conference, guest author at the Dartmouth College Speculative Fiction Project, and guest lecturer at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. His poetry, stories, and essays can be found in, among other places, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Foreign Policy Magazine, Tor.com, Solarpunk Magazine, Apex, Clockwork Phoenix Five, FIYAH, and forthcoming in Lightspeed Magazine. Daydreamer, his middle grade novel, was a finalist for the Andre Norton, the Nebula award for middle grade and YA.

Michael Capobianco is co-author, with William Barton, of the SF books Iris, Alpha Centauri, Fellow Traveler, and White Light. He has published two solo science fiction novels, Burster and Purlieu as well as short fiction. Capobianco was President of SFWA from 1996-1998 and again in 2007-2008. He currently serves as SFWA’s Authors Coalition Commissioner, Chair of SFWA’s Contracts Committee, Co-chair of SFWA’s Legal Affairs and Estates-Legacy Committees, and is a member of SFWA’s History Committee.

Rosalind Casey is a lifelong sci-fi/fantasy reader who has been bopping around the world of books for years. She is the store manager at Books of Wonder, New York's oldest and largest children's specialty bookshop.

Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in Red Wing, Minnesota. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. A 2015 Nebula finalist, she is the author of the cozy mystery CHEDDAR LUCK NEXT TIME as well as fantasy like A THOUSAND RECIPES FOR REVENGE. Her short stories can be found in publications ranging from Beneath Ceaseless Skies to Uncanny Magazine. In 2019 and 2022, she won the Rhysling Award for short speculative poetry. Her website BethCato.com includes not only a vast bibliography, but a treasure trove of recipes for delectable goodies. Find her on BlueSky as @BethCato and Instagram as @catocatsandcheese.

Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen (陳致宇) now writes stories near Portland, Oregon. He's the award-winning author of the bestselling KANGAROO series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and the lead writer for Realm's Echo Park podcast. https://CurtisCChen.com

Amy Chu is a multi-genre writer for comics and graphic novels for Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and Disney. She teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts.

P.A. Cornell is a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer. A two-time finalist for the Nebula Award, her stories have been published in over sixty magazines and anthologies, including Lightspeed, Apex, and four “Best of” anthologies. In addition to becoming the first Chilean Nebula finalist in 2024, Cornell has been a finalist for the Aurora and World Fantasy Awards, and in 2022 won Canada’s Short Works Prize. When not writing, she can be found assembling intricate LEGO builds or drinking ridiculous quantities of tea. Sometimes both. For more on the author and her work, visit her website pacornell.com.

Marie Croke is a fantasy, science-fiction, and horror writer with 50 stories in publication. She is a graduate of the Odyssey workshop, first place winner in the Writers of the...

RUSSELL DAVIS has written and sold numerous novels and short stories in virtually every genre of fiction, and is a past president of SFWA.

J.R. Dawson (she/they) is the Golden Crown award-winning author of The First Bright Thing. They have had shorter works in places such as F&SF, Lightspeed, Reactor, and Uncanny. Dawson currently...

J.S. Dewes is a sci-fi novelist, video game writer, and filmmaker who has written scripts for award-winning feature films and shorts. Jenny's debut science fiction series The Divide includes The Last Watch, The Exiled Fleet, and The Relentless Legion, plus the stand-alone sci-fi action-adventure Rubicon, all out now from Tor Books. A video game writer and editor by day, she spends her free time drawing, scrolling ArtStation, cuddling her sweet pets, and occasionally sleeping. 

TANANARIVE DUE (tah-nah-nah-REEVE doo) is an award-winning author who teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA.

A leading voice in Black speculative fiction for more than 20 years, Due has won an American Book Award, an NAACP Image Award, and a British Fantasy Award, and her writing has been included in best-of-the-year anthologies.

Anthony W. Eichenlaub’s most recent game is Wizard Confidential, a Prohibition-era urban fantasy set in Seattle and published by Choice of Games.

Ruthanna Emrys is the author of A Half-Built Garden and the Innsmouth Legacy series, and chairs the SFWA Emerging Technology Committee.

Ruthanna Emrys is the author of A Half-Built Garden, the Innsmouth Legacy series, and stories published in Analog and Strange Horizons, among other venues. She is co-chair of SFWA's Emerging Tech Committee.

Ben Francisco’s fiction has won the Indiana Review Fiction Prize, been featured in the Locus Recommended Reading List, and appeared in Strange Horizons, Sunday Morning Transport, PodCastle, and From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction. Ben’s work ranges from magic realism to space opera and has been known to feature oversexed ghosts, depressed precognitive psychics, and vampire aliens who reproduce like moss. Their first novel, Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth, was featured in BookLife’s Best of 2024 and Reactor Magazine’s Notable YA SF of 2024. A Kirkus starred review called it, “A captivating, heartfelt tale about family, diplomacy, and finding one’s place in the universe.” Visit Ben at benfrancisco.net.

Gwynne Garfinkle is the author of a novel, CAN'T FIND MY WAY HOME, and two collections, SINKING, SINGING and PEOPLE CHANGE. She lives in Los Angeles.

Brian U. Garrison is President of the SF&F Poetry Association (SFPA). Find his new chapbook, The Future is Antifascist, online at bugthewriter.com.

Cat Girczyc writes female-driven stories, usually science fiction or fantasy. She is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada and has sold 15 television episodes, including two episodes of the dark fantasy series The Collector. She’s seen her Cybersix character cosplayed, which was amazing. She continues to write and pitch TV series and features.
She has two Aurora awards for her SFF work. Her prose and poetry have been published in SFF markets including Amazing Stories, On Spec, Pulp Literature, Polar Borealis, Neo-opsis, The Vancouver Sci-Fi Magazine, The Unhelpful Encyclopedia: MurderBugs, Sally Port Magazine, and Tesseracts.

Ayana Gray is a New York Times bestselling author. Her works have been translated in a dozen languages across five continents and have received critical acclaim at the state and national level. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives and writes in Arkansas.

See the two bios I've already submitted (one from Finalist portal one from applying to be participant -- Isis said you could use one of those)

Thomas Ha is a writer of speculative short fiction whose work has been nominated for the Nebula, Ignyte, Hugo, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Awards, among others. You can find his...

Thomas Ha is a writer of speculative short fiction whose work has been nominated for the Nebula, Ignyte, Hugo, Locus, and Shirley Jackson Awards, among others. You can find his...

Joe William Haldeman (born June 9, 1943) is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1974 novel The Forever War. That novel, and other of his works including The Hemingway Hoax (1991) and Forever Peace (1997), have won major science fiction awards including the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. For his career writing science fiction and/or fantasy he is a SFWA Grand Master and since 2012 a member of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

K. M. Herkes writes speculative fiction in the Chicago suburbs, works in a public library, and shares her office with three cats who think they are dogs.

Her most recent book, Relics From a Traveling Show, is a story collection featuring tales about achieving victory through cooperation, mutual support, and stubborn survival. Other published works include The Rollover Files, an ongoing series about the challenges of midlife-onset superpowers, and Stories Of The Restoration, a completed cross-genre thriller series.

Jamal Hodge is a 2x Bram Stoker Award-nominated writer, a Nebula award finalist, and an award-winning director.

A TV, feature film and comic book writer, Madeleine is the winner of the Sloan Fellowship for screenwriting, and the Gold Aurora and Bronze Telly for a PSA produced by Women In Film. She also won numerous awards while completing the UCLA MFA Program in Screenwriting. Having run a number of successful crowdfunding campaigns for her comic, Boston Metaphysical Society, Madeleine taught a crowdfunding class for independent creators at Pulp Fiction Books in Culver City as well as guest lecturing at Scriptwriters Network, Dreamworks Animation, and UCLA Professional Programs. She has also published the book, Kickstarter for the Independent Creator.

Jennifer Hudak is a writer of speculative fiction and poetry. Her work can be found in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, The Sunday Morning Transport, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. She is a Nebula Award Finalist and a graduate of the Viable Paradise writer's workshop. Originally from Boston, she now lives with her family in Upstate New York where she teaches yoga, knits pocket-sized animals, and misses the ocean.

Jennifer Hudak is a writer of speculative fiction and poetry. Her work can be found in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, The Sunday Morning Transport, and Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. She is a Nebula Award Finalist and a graduate of the Viable Paradise writer's workshop. Originally from Boston, she now lives with her family in Upstate New York where she teaches yoga, knits pocket-sized animals, and misses the ocean.

Somto Ihezue is a writer and filmmaker. He is an MFA fellow in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. Somto writes about boyhood, land, joy, and disruption whilst navigating Igbo identity. His work has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, British Fantasy, and ALCS Tom-Gallon Trust Awards, and has appeared in Clarkesworld, POETRY, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Sauúti, and others. He was assistant editor of the Publishing Taught Me Anthology (SFWA & NEA) and co-editor of Will This Be a Problem? The Anthology.

Philip Janowski is a fiction writer and essayist living in Chicago. He is president of the Speculative Literature Foundation's Chicago Branch, a member of the Chicago Writers Association's Board of Directors, and a presenter with the late David Farland's international Apex Writers group. He has studied under such accomplished writers as Sequoia Nagamatsu, Martin Shoemaker, and Michael Zadoorian. His work in fiction has been awarded with an Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest, and his major project is the upcoming Dominoes Trilogy. He can be reached by his Instagram account (@spiral_go), or by email at (philip@speculativeliterature.org).

N(ora). K. Jemisin is a New York Times-bestselling author of speculative fiction short stories and novels, who lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. In 2018, she became the first author to win three Best Novel Hugos in a row. She has also won a Nebula Award, two Locus Awards, and is a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship.

Alex Jennings is a writer/editor/teacher/poet living in Baton Rouge. He was born in Wiesbaden (Germany) and raised in Gaborone (Botswana), Tunis (Tunisia), Paramaribo (Surinam) and the United States. He constantly devours pop culture and spends too much time on Bluesky.

He is the Program Director of DreamFoundry’s Con or Bust and pens a regular speculative poetry review column in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction called “Chapter and Verse.”

His writing has appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Electric Velocipede, Uncanny Magazine, Fantasy Magazine, New Suns, and Current Affairs, among other venues. His debut novel, The Ballad of Perilous Graves is available wherever books are sold.

Greg Kasavin is writer and creative director at Supergiant Games, the makers of Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades, and Hades II.

LP Kindred is an Ignyte Award nominated writer and editor, podcaster, and teaching artist of speculative fiction from the axes of Black and Gay Identities. His fiction explores the margins of belonging in contexts of community demands of an individual, individual demands of the community, and the ways both entities fail and succeed each other. An alum of Hurston-Wright, VONA, and Clarion workshops, LP's words feature in Apex, Fiyah Literary Magazine, LeVar Burton Reads, the Carnegie Hall website, Escape Pod, and PodCastle. Kindred is a cocoa-founder of Voodoonauts, a grassroots collective addressing the under-representation and isolation of Black Creatives in Speculative Fiction. Kindred is a co-host of Just Keep Writing, a podcast by writers, for writers, to keep you writing. Find LP Kindred at linktr.ee/lpkindred.

Alex Kingsley (they/them) is a writer, comedian, and game designer. They graduated from Swarthmore College with High Honors and are a part of the SFWA. They are a co-founder of new media company Strong Branch Productions, where they write and direct science-fiction comedy podcast The Stench of Adventure and edit weird fiction anthology show Tales From The Radiator. Their sci-fi play “The Bearer of Bad News” was produced by the Annenberg Foundation. In addition to their fiction, their non-fiction has appeared in Interstellar Flights Press, Ancillary Review of Books, and more. Alex’s tabletop games can be found at alexyquest.itch.io, and their dramatic catalog can be found on the New Play Exchange.

Michelle Knudsen is a New York Times best-selling author of 50+ books for young readers and a writer of speculative short fiction for adults. Her books include the award-winning Library Lion (Time magazine's 100 Best Children's Books of All Time), The Dragon of Trelian (Kids' Indie Next List; VOYA Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers), and Evil Librarian (YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults; Sid Fleischman Humor Award). Her latest titles are the middle grade fantasy novel Into the Wild Magic (a current Nebula finalist!) and the young adult novel Cursed Princess Club: A Most Unusual Princess. Her SFF short stories have appeared in Underland Arcana, Drabblecast, and Adventitious, and one was a 2023 BSFA finalist for Best Audio Fiction. A lifelong musical theater lover, Michelle is thrilled that two of her books have now been made into musicals! (Catch Evil Librarian in DC this June and Library Lion's return to Boston next January!) She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with three humans, two cats, and one snake. Find her on Instagram @michelle.knudsen, Bluesky @michelleknudsen.bsky.social, or at michelleknudsen.com.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the USA Today Bestselling author of a dozen novels, including Apprehension and the Lady Astronaut series. A winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards, she is also a professional puppeteer and award-winning audiobook narrator. She co-hosts the Writing Excuses podcast, served as SFWA President, and has an asteroid named after her. Also, her cat talks.

Jordan Kurella is a trans and disabled author who has lived all over the world (including Moscow and Manhattan). In his past lives, he was a photographer, radio DJ, and...

C. J. Lavigne is a Canadian SFF author. Her urban fantasy novel In Veritas (NeWest Press, 2020) was a finalist for the 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in Speculative Fiction and the 2021 Crawford Award, and was the Book Publishers Association of Alberta 2021 Speculative Fiction Book of the Year. Her short fiction has appeared in On Spec, Fusion Fragment, Augur Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, PodCastle, and other publications, and her novella The Drowned Man's Daughter was released by NeWest Press in September 2025. She is generally busy drinking coffee, petting the cat, and being a full-time media studies academic. 

Author William Ledbetter
William Ledbetter is a Nebula Award winning author with three novels and more than seventy speculative fiction short stories and non-fiction articles published in five languages, in publications such as Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Analog, Escape Pod and the SFWA blog. He's been a space and technology geek since childhood and spent most of his non-writing career in the aerospace industry. He is a member of SFWA, the National Space Society of North Texas, and a Launch Pad Astronomy workshop graduate. He lives near Dallas with his wife, a needy dog and three spoiled cats.

Wen-yi Lee is the author of When They Burned the Butterfly, a historical fantasy duology about Chinese secret societies and a girl gang in postcolonial Singapore, and The Dark We...

Jeff Lemire is the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of such graphic novels as Sweet Tooth, Essex County, Underwater Welder, and Mazebook as well as co-creator of Black Hammer,...

David D. Levine is the author of Andre Norton Nebula Award winning novel Arabella of Mars, sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus and Arabella the Traitor of Mars, space-opera caper novel The Kuiper Belt Job, and over sixty SF and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection Space Magic.

E.M. Linden is a Nebula-nominated writer from Aotearoa New Zealand who loves coffee, ghosts, birds and the sea.

Angela Liu is a three-time Nebula Award, Astounding Award, and Hugo Award-nominated writer/poet based in NYC and Tokyo. Her work has also been nominated for the Locus, Ignyte, and Rhysling Awards. She previously researched mixed reality at Keio University in Japan with a focus on new narrative platforms.

Her short fiction and poetry are published/forthcoming in Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Electric Literature, and The Dark, among others. Her novelette, “Imagine: Purple-Haired Girl Shooting Down The Moon” was a 2024 Nebula Award and Ignyte Award Finalist. Her novelette “Another Girl Under The Iron Bell” was a 2025 Nebula Award and Locus Award Finalist, and a notable story in 2025’s The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her poem, “there are no taxis for the dead” was a finalist for the inaugural Hugo Award for Best Poem in 2025. Her poem, “The Mourning Robot" is a 2026 Nebula Award Finalist.

Jessica Maison, a speculative fiction writer, comics creator, and filmmaker, grew up in Traverse City near the shores of Lake Michigan and currently lives in Los Angeles with her family and their animal familiars. The first book in her Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters graphic novel series was a Foreword INDIES finalist and IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award winner. Plastic Girl is her coming-of-age ecopunk trilogy that explores her fears and hopes for her daughters around the climate crisis. She is a screenwriter who also co-directed the time travel feature film, Own Worst Enemy. Her speculative/horror short fiction appears in Terraform and other publications, and her short comics has been published in several comics anthologies. She is the co-host of the improv storytelling/talk show podcast, Monster V. Monster, that launches soon. Her speculative short fiction and musings about monsters and folklore can be found on her Substack, Monster of the Week. In her other life, Jessica has worked and volunteered with non-profits involving homelessness, education, literacy, and climate.

Nico Martinez Nocito (they/them) is a Nebula- and Rhysling-nominated author of queer speculative fiction and poetry. Their work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Heartlines Spec, and numerous anthologies. Learn more about Nico and their writing on Bluesky and Instagram @nicowritesbooks, or on their website, nicomartineznocito.com.

Sara Megibow is the President and Senior Literary Agent at Megibow Literary Agency out of Broomfield, CO. She has worked in publishing since 2006.

K.A. Mielke (they/he) is the Nebula-nominated author of Losing Hit Points, Lonely in Happy Town, and Goblin Girl, as well as the co-author of Victory Lap with Riley Alexis Wood. They love drinking too much coffee, watching long video essays about philosophy and cartoons, and writing about queer heroes and hungry monsters. They live in Guelph, Ontario, where they enjoy watching the bats at dusk, and wondering what’s making that strange cry in the woods at night.

Mary Anne Mohanraj wrote A Feast of Serendib and Vegan Serendib, Bodies in Motion, Tornado, Perennial, The Stars Change, and twelve other titles. Other recent publications include stories for George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards series, Tor.com, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, and Lightspeed, and an essay in Unruly Bodies. She also works as a botanically-inspired multi-media artist.

Mohanraj founded Hugo-nominated and World Fantasy Award-winning magazine Strange Horizons, and serves as Executive Director of both DesiLit (desilit.org) and the Speculative Literature Foundation (speclit.org). She is Clinical Professor of fiction and literature at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Mari Ness has published over 300 works of short fiction and poetry in various anthologies, zines, and collections. Mari lives in central Florida, and almost always stops to watch the...

Connor Nevitt (he/him) earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a Creative Writing concentration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Born in Santa Clarita, CA, he seeks to make a name for himself in the speculative fiction world. He is an avid creative writer with a love for all things fantastical. Through his time as a stage electrician, screenwriter, and filmmaker, he has experience bringing his own work to life. He is an editor and producer for the podcast, Mohanraj and Rosenbaum Are Humans, a show sponsored by the SLF. As the Managing Director of the SLF, Connor is excited to immerse himself fully in the industry and help other writers thrive within it.

Annalee Newitz is a science journalist who also writes science fiction. They are the author of several books, including Automatic Noodle, an instant USA Today bestseller, The Terraformers, which was...

Sharyn November is an editor and marketing strategist. She founded Firebird Books at Penguin Random House, and is a two-time World Fantasy Finalist.

Aimee Ogden is an American werewolf in the Netherlands. She is the author of five novellas and over a hundred short stories, and her work has appeared in publications such...

Nnedi Okorafor is a New York Times bestselling author who writes speculative fiction for adults, young adults, and children. Her latest adult novel, Death of the Author. Her all-ages graphic...

H.H. Pak (they/them) is a Los Angeles-born child of Korean immigrants and a strong believer in the power of sacrificial love. Their speculative fiction has been published in Clarkesworld Magazine...

Diana M. Pho is a Hugo Award-winning developmental editor, writer, podcast producer, and all-around nerd.

Born in Nottingham, England, Jennifer R. Povey (she/her) now lives in Northern Virginia, where she writes everything from heroic fantasy to stories for Analog. She has written a number of novels across multiple sub genres. She is a full member of SFWA. Her interests include horseback riding, Doctor Who and attempting to out-weird her various friends and professional colleagues. Find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jrpovey/, or Bluesky at @NinjaFingers.

Angeli Primlani is a Chicago-based playwright and novelist. She is currently the programming manager for the Speculative Literature Foundation.

Angeli Primlani is a Chicago-based playwright, director, producer and actor.

Angeli has worked as an instructional designer, voiceover artist, medical editor, and fiction editor. She is currently the Special Events Manager for the Speculative Literature Foundation, and runs her own editing and production business, Primlani Productions.

Hache Pueyo is the Argentine-Brazilian writer and translator of CABARET IN FLAMES and BUT NOT TOO BOLD. She won an Otherwise Fellowship for her work with gender in speculative fiction,...

Since coming through Clarion West in 2005, Cat Rambo’s 300+ fiction publications have included stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and frequently appear in year’s best of collections. They work across genre, writing literary, thriller, science fiction, slipstream, fantasy, magic realism, historical, and humor with fluid ease, making them one of the leaders in American story writing.

T. K. Rex is a Pushcart-nominated science fiction and fantasy author from the western states, whose stories can be read in numerous publications, including their debut collection, The Wildcraft Drones, on shelves in 2026. They’re an alumni of the Clarion, Taos Toolbox and Futurescapes workshops; a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, the Authors Guild, and the Writers Grotto; and the co-host of Stir, a seasonal reading series in San Francisco. T. K.'s newsletter, interviews, and book tour dates can be found at tkrex.wtf.

Joyce Reynolds-Ward has been called “the best writer I’ve never heard of” by one reviewer. She has published over 32 books that include themes of high-stakes family, corporate, and political conflict, digital sapience, personal agency, realistic strong women, and (whenever possible) horses, frequently in Pacific Northwest settings.

She is the author of six speculative fiction series: The Netwalk Sequence, Goddess's Honor, The Martiniere Legacy Quartet, The People of the Martiniere Legacy, The Martiniere Multiverse, and The Cost of Power as well as standalones Vision of Alliance, Federation Cowboy, Beating the Apocalypse, Klone's Stronghold: Reeni and Alien Savvy.

Joyce is a Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off Semifinalist, a Writers of the Future SemiFinalist, and an Anthology Builder Finalist. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, co-chair of SFWA’s Independent Author Committee, and a member of Soroptimists International.

Vanessa is a Nebula Award-winning author who is terrible at writing bios and hopes you’ll follow her on Bluesky where she swears a lot, talks about her queer fantasy novels, and posts pics of her dogs wearing bowties while eating tiny pancakes.

Ariel Slamet Ries is an Ignatz-award winning cartoonist born and based on unceded Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri lands, Australia. After studying animation in Denmark for 4 years while making their webcomic...

Kate Ristau is the President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) and the Executive Director of Willamette Writers. She is the author of three middle grade series, Clockbreakers, Mythwakers, and Wylde Wings, and the young adult series, Shadow Girl. You can read her essays in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the chair of the Tigard Public Library Board of Directors, and you can meet her online at Kateristau.com.

Despite efforts to commit to a single skill set, Tonda has succeeded at balancing a career in cinematography with his passion for graphic design and animation. It was the fusion of these elements that led him to develop a unique style of motion design that combines photographic elements and traditional animation. His work has been sought after for national commercials, theatrical trailers, music videos and title sequences for both television and film.Tonda is currently at the helm at DOGUBOMB, a video game, film and commericial studio located in Los Angeles and has created content for a number of international brands including Pepsi, SONY, Snickers, AT&T, FedEx and Jim Beam.

Jason Sanford is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who’s also a passionate advocate for fellow authors, creators, and fans, in particular through reporting in his Genre Grapevine column (for which he's been a finalist multiple times for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer). He’s also published dozens of stories in magazines such as Asimov’s Science Fiction, Interzone, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies along with appearances in various “year’s best” anthologies and The New Voices of Science Fiction. His first novel Plague Birds was a finalist for both the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. Born and raised in the American South, Jason’s previous experience includes work as an archaeologist, journalist and a Peace Corps Volunteer. His website is www.jasonsanford.com.

Effie Seiberg is a fantasy and science fiction writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her stories include a Nebula Award finalist, a finalist in the AnLab Awards, a...

USA Today bestselling fantasy author Anthea Sharp is an expert on how authors can use Kickstarter successfully, and has raised over $150k there.

Cody Sisco is an author of cautionary utopias in alternate history settings. His LGBTQ+ science fiction series, Resonant Earth, explores fractured realities where truth is contested and survival is a form of resistance. He is also an editor, publisher, and literary culture producer.

Rosemary Claire Smith writes about dinosaurs, time travel, exploring space, alternate history, and ancient myths. Her novel Saurotopia, co-authored with Dave Creek, is forthcoming in July 2026. Her story “Apollo in Retrograde” won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. She is a four-time finalist for Analog Magazine's readers award. Look for her regular book reviews in in Analog. As a former archaeologist, Rosemary excavated ancient sites in the U.S. She’s never given up her dream of jumping back to the heyday of the dinosaurs, which is the basis for her interactive adventure game, T-Rex Time Machine. www.rcwordsmith.com

Michael Solis (pronounced SOH-lees) is the author of the YA sci-fi novel Deficient, winner of a Reviewers’ Choice Award from YADudeBooks and nominee for the Pushcart Prize, the Stonewall Book Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. He serves as Executive Director of Writers & Books, a literary arts nonprofit and independent bookstore in Rochester, NY, and is an active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA), where he co-chairs the MG/YA Committee.

A 2016 MBA graduate and published author, Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years, and counting. Capstone published the Powered series, and Unnerving Press published Offstage Offerings. Priya lives in Miami, Florida with her family.

Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the acclaimed fantasy novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON, which was nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. His next novel is the forthcoming sci-fi thriller THE FIST OF MEMORY. His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and The Africa Risen anthology and is collected in the books CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS and INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nommo, BSFA, Sidewise, Ignyte and Crawford awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing. He has edited five anthologies. He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things. He currently lives in Perth, Australia. Find him at wtalabi.wordpress.com and at @wtalabi online.

A bigender biracial bisexual who spans the gamut of genre and gender, Cecilia Tan is known as a pioneer in combining erotica with science fiction and fantasy. The author of over 100 short stories in publications ranging from Ms. Magazine to Asimov’s, Strange Horizons to Best American Erotica, and over 30 novels including the Magic University series, Daron's Guitar Chronicles, The Prince's Boy, and The Velderet, she is also an award winner, including the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement award and the RT Reviewers Choice Award. “ctan” (see-tan) as she is commonly known accepts all pronouns but uses she/her for society’s convenience. Her latest books are a paranormal urban fantasy with BDSM elements entitled Bound by the Blood, and a lesbian time travel mystery romance set in ancient China and modern New York City, The Mystery of the Bitten Peach (Neon Hemlock). Find out more at CeciliaTan.com.

Natalia Theodoridou is a transmasculine writer whose stories have appeared in publications such as Kenyon Review, Uncanny Magazine, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, and have been translated into Ukrainian, Italian, French, Greek, Estonian, Spanish, Chinese, and...

Tamika Thompson is author of The Curse of Hester Gardens. A former journalist and producer, she is also author of Unshod, Cackling, and Naked, which is the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner for Horror, as well as co-editor of Foreword INDIES Award-winning anthology, Graffiti. Her work has appeared in Interzone, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and The New York Times, among others.

Luis Torres is a Peruvian-born writer of thoughtful space adventures grounded in social realities and South American themes. With 20+ years designing tabletop RPGs, his hard-SF RPG Seven Worlds was a 2018 ENnie nominee. By day, he’s a Seattle program manager supporting AI products and a member of SFWA’s Emerging Tech/AI committee. He is working on his third SF novel.

Eugenia Triantafyllou is a Greek author and artist with a flair for dark things.Her work has won the British Fantasy and the Shirley Jackson Awards and has been nominated for...

Michael R. Underwood has circumnavigated the globe, danced the tango with legends and knows why Thibault cancels out Capo Ferro. He also rolls a mean d20. His novels include Geekomancy, Celebromancy and Shield and Crocus. He lives in Baltimore with his wife and an ever-growing library, and when he's not writing/gaming/living the dream he's the North American Sales and Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books.

He's also part of the Hugo-nominated podcast, The Skiffy and Fanty Show.

Wendy Van Camp writes science fiction, fantasy, historical regency, along with poetry and non-fiction essays. Her poetry and essays have appeared in "Indie Author Magazine", "Star*Line", "Planetside", and "Worlds of IF" among others. Her books include an Austen Regency series, "Letters From The Sea" and her Elgin-nominated speculative poetry collection, "The Planets," part of her "Scifaiku Astropoetry" series. Van Camp has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, the Elgin, Rhysling, and Dwarf Star Awards. She was editor for the sci-fi poetry anthology series "Eccentric Orbits," inaugural editor and creator of "Anaheim Poetry Review," and was a guest editor for the SFPA's "Eye to the Telescope." Van Camp was named Anaheim Poet Laureate during (2022-2024). Currently, she works at her woman-owned imprint, Indigoskye Press, an editorial and writing coach business.

M. Verant writes noblebright fantasy. His latest work is Dragons of the Great Wyves, which completes the award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy trilogy.

Joan Marie Verba is an autistic author, publisher, and web developer who lives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics. She has several science fiction and fantasy novels plus numerous short stories and articles in print. Her works have received the Mom’s Choice Award and the Scribe Award. She is an enthusiastic writer of noblebright and cozy fantasy stories.

Joan Marie Verba is an autistic author, publisher, and web developer who lives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. She has a bachelor’s degree in physics. She has several science fiction and fantasy novels plus numerous short stories and articles in print. Her works have received the Mom’s Choice Award and the Scribe Award. She is an enthusiastic writer of noblebright and cozy fantasy stories.

A Hugo- and Nebula Award finalist, author Marie Vibbert’s short fiction has appeared over 100 times in top magazines like Nature, Analog, and Clarkesworld, and been translated into Czech, Chinese and Vietnamese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was long listed by the British Science Fiction Award and her work has been called “everything science fiction should be” by the Oxford Culture Review. She is the editor of the 2026 Triangulation anthology “Bad Romance.” She also writes poetry, comics, and computer games. By day she is a computer programmer in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jaye Viner lives on what used to be the plains of eastern Nebraska. She knows just enough about a wide variety of things to embarrass herself at parties she never attends. She is the author of Jane of Battery Park, the Elaborate Lives series, and The Island of Dreams.

Jason Walz is the author/illustrator of several comics and graphic novels, including The Flip Side, the Last Pick trilogy and the Eisner Award-nominated Homesick. He is also a special education...

Dean Wells is a writer of retro-futurist science fiction and fantasy, alternatively humorous or laced with existential dread. He doesn’t know why, they just come out that way. His published works include the neo-steampunk novel The Clockwork Mechanicals, with short fiction appearing in Queer Sci Fi, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and their respective anthologies. Other publications include Ideomancer, Quantum Muse, 10Flash Quarterly, ShadowKeep Magazine, Demensions, and The Nocturnal Lyric. He has also written for the performing arts in various capacities. He and his wife live in the Pacific Northwest with a cat, mountain beavers, and a family of indifferent raccoons.

Alexis Westmore's work blends sci-fi & romance to explore power, identity, and connection across worlds that feel as real as they are unforgettable.

Rachel Wilson's been helping kids find their favorite books about dragons a Chicago Public Library since 2018. MSLIS: U of IL, MFA: Vermont College.

G. Willow Wilson is co-creator of the Hugo and American Book Award-winning comic book series MS MARVEL (now a Disney+ television series), writer of the GLAAD Award-winning POISON IVY series,...

John Wiswell is a Nebula-winning and Locus-winning author who lives in the middle of the woods. His debut novel, SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN, was released from DAW Books in the U.S. and Arcadia Books in the U.K. in April 2024. John's work has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, LeVar Burton Reads, Nature Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, the No Sleep podcast, Nightmare Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Podcastle, Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and other fine venues. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, World Fantasy, and British Fantasy Awards. His fiction has been translated into ten languages.He graduated Bennington College in 2005, and attended the Viable Paradise 17 workshop in 2013. He has multiple disabilities including a neuromuscular syndrome, and thinks healthy people's capacity to complain is very funny. He finds a lot of things very funny and would like to keep it that way.He is frequently available for interview and for talks at conferences. He has done panels at places such as Worldcon, the Nebula Awards Conference, and the World Fantasy Convention.