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 (Avery Hill, 2024). Kit makes comics about memory, nature, and space adventures sometimes, too. Second Shift (Avery Hill, 2025) is her first graphic novel.

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.

Amy Chu is a writer for comics, graphic novels, and animation. Her most recent graphic novel is the Nebula Award nominated Carmilla: The Eternal (Dark Horse / Berger Books) the final book in the award winning Carmilla the First Vampire trilogy. For Marvel she wrote the miniseries Emma Frost: White Queen, and for Gearbox/Dark Horse Borderlands: Moxxi's Mysterious Memento. She worked on two Netflix shows including the anime series DOTA: Dragon’s Blood. Her credits include characters such as Wonder Woman, Poison Ivy, Deadpool, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and Iron Man. Known for her Dejah Thoris: Princess of Mars prequel and her 28 issue run on Red Sonja, she is also the first female writer on the KISS and Green Hornet series. Amy is a frequent speaker at comic cons and schools and libraries, and has served as a judge for the MoCCA Fest, Harvey and Ringo awards. She is on the faculty of the Kubert School and the School of Visual Arts, and a board member of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Amy holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a double bachelor’s degree in Architectural Design from MIT and East Asian Studies from Wellesley College. Her interests include: Lego, coffee, donuts and whiskey. You can follow her on instagram @amy_chu, tiktok @theamychu, and on Facebook/iwritecomics.

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.

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.

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.

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.