Bo Balder, The Wan
Bo lives and works in the ancient Dutch city of Utrecht, close to Amsterdam. When she isn’t writing, you can find her madly designing knitwear, painting, and reading anything and everything from Kate Elliott to Iain M. Banks or Jared Diamond.

 Bo has always wanted to be an sff writer. For that reason, she practiced a series of pointless yet writerly professions like dishwasher, rowing coach, model, computer programmer, and management consultant. 

She’s a graduate of Viable Paradise Writer’s Workshop. She’s a member of Codex Writers Group and the Villa Diodati Expat Workshop. 

She is the first Dutch author to have published a story in F&SF (Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine). Her other short fiction has appeared in print and e-magazine format. A  full bibliography is here. 

​Michelle Markey Butler, Homegoing
Michelle Markey Butler holds a doctorate in English Literature, which is all Thomas Malory's fault. She blogs about parenting here and is pleased to report that despite their best efforts, none of the children have escaped. Recently.

Michelle's story "Little Hands" won an Honorable Mention in the Second Quarter 2010 Writers of the Future contest, while her book in progress, Lord Garland's Daughter, was named an Honorable Mention in Textnovel's 2010 contest. 

More about Michelle can be found on her website.

Andrew Coletti, The Knife's Daughter
Andrew Coletti is a lifelong history/fantasy/food nerd who holds degrees in Classics and Museum Education. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he divides his time between teaching, writing, cooking, and combinations thereof. He recreates ancient recipes for his food blog, Pass the Flamingo, and his food history writing has appeared in Atlas Obscura and Eaten magazine. The Knife’s Daughter is his first published novel. 

Ciel Dexter, Revimore
Ciel Dexter is the pseudonym of a writer based in the UK. As well as writing fiction, Ciel had worked as a social care consultant on a number of international projects. This has involved the extended stays in Ukraine, Mongolia and Kosovo. Now she lives and works at the English seaside. Ciel’s first novel, The Sister And The Daughter, was published in 2012.

Heather Fowler, People with Holes, Beautiful Ape Girl Baby, Suspended Heart
Heather Fowler is the author of the story collections Suspended Heart, People With Holes, This Time, While We’re Awake and Elegantly Naked in My Sexy Mental Illness. She received her M.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hollins University. Her work has been published online and in print in the US, England, Australia, and India, and appeared in such venues as PANK, Night Train, storyglossia, Surreal South, JMWW, Prick of the Spindle, Short Story America, and others, as well as having been nominated for both the story South Million Writers Award and Sundress Publications Best of the Net. Her poetry and fiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She is Poetry Editor at Corium Magazine and a Fiction Editor for the international refereed journal, Journal of Post-Colonial Cultures & Societies.

Please visit her website.

Caren Gussoff, The Birthday Problem
Caren Gussoff’s fiction has been featured in anthologies and magazines such as Serpent’s Tail, Seal Press, Hadley Rille, Fantasy Magazine, Abyss & Apex, has earned her an Octavia E. Butler scholarship, a Village Voice “Writer on the Verge” nomination, an Elizabeth George award, a Seattle Post-Intelligencer “Geek of the Week,” and a Speculative Literature Foundation grant, among other things. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband, SF artist Chris Sumption, her cats Molly Bloom and Paul Atreides, and some unnamed dust bunnies. She is everywhere online as “spitkitten.” 

Gussoff is also the author of numerous novels including Homecoming (2000, High Risk Books), The Wave and Other Stories (2003, Serpent’s Tail), and So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion (2022, Vernacular Books). The Birthday Problem is her second novel.

Nancy Hightower, Elementarí Rising
Nancy Hightower is
--A speculative fiction writer
--The art columnist for Weird Fiction Review
--The co-author, along with Carrie Ann Baade, of Cute and Creepy, an art book
--A sometimes book reviewer for Fantasy Matters and interviewer for DJ Spooky’s Origin Magazine
--A college teacher who lectures on the rhetorics of the grotesque, fantastic, and uncanny in art and literature

For more information, visit her website.

KJ Kabza, The Ramshead Algorithm
KJ Kabza sold his first story in 2002, while earning his B.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch College. Since then, he has sold over 70 stories to some of the top science fiction and fantasy venues of today, including F&SF, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Daily Science Fiction. His work has made both the Locus and Tangent Recommended Reading lists, has been translated into Hebrew and Simplified Chinese, and has been reprinted over 15 times in anthologies such as THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR 2014 and THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR, VOLUME SIX.

KJ lives with his husband in sunny Tucson, where he enjoys swimming, roller skating, and hiking the many empty trails on the outskirts of town. He sings in the shower, keeps little plastic dinosaurs on his desk, and, if he ever becomes a vampire, plans to spend eternity reading all the books he wishes he had more time for. Get to know him better at his website or on Twitter. 

Stuart Sharp, Court of Dreams
A full time writer and editor living in East Yorkshire, England, Stuart Sharp was born in 1980. He studied at the University of Hull, finally earning a PhD in history in 2010, just in time to realise that he had very little interest in historical research. The time he doesn't spend writing these days is usually spent fencing, playing cricket, or trying to keep his cat from walking over his laptop.

At various points, he has contributed to more than twenty novels, only a few of which have his name on. This has, on occasion, allowed him the joy of winning awards while not being able to say which ones. His urban fantasy novels Searching and Witch Hunt were published by Double Dragon Publishing, before he switched to things with more jokes in. Several of his short stories have appeared in print, most notably in Rapunzel's Daughters and Semaphore Magazine's anthologies. There was even a point where he used to write poetry, though a tendency to laugh when thinking about spondees eventually put him off that.

For more information and bloggery, visit him at Stusplace.

Lyle Blake Smythers, Feasting with Panthers
Lyle Blake Smythers is an actor, writer and librarian in the Washington, D.C., area. Since 1976 he has performed in over 100 stage productions, including three appearances at the National Theatre. He has published fiction, poetry, satire and literary criticism in Manscape, FirstHand, Playguy, The William and Mary Review, Insights, School Library Journal and Children's Literature Review. He is a former children’s librarian and is currently providing cataloging support for an ongoing project at the Library of Congress. 

Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Silence of the Wilting Skin
Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana writer of fiction, poetry, and architectural articles. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Prisms anthology, Terraform, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Wasafiri, Botswana Women Write, and other publications. Her poem “I Will Be Your Grave” is a Rhysling Award nominee. Her short story, “Virtual Snapshots” was longlisted for the 2017 Nommo Awards. Tlotlo Tsamaase works and lives in Botswana. She can be found at her website or on Twitter.

Geneva Zane, Stringbean and the Grace of Dog
Geneva Zane received her BA in creative writing from Bard College in 2018, where she received the Lockwood Prize in Creative Writing. Her novel, Stringbean and the Grace of Dog, was a finalist in the 2018 Fence Modern Prize in Prose: Literature Appropriate for Children. She has been published in both Chronogram and Hanging Loose magazine. She lives in the Hudson Valley, by the river.

The Editors

Michael D. Takeda, Editor in Chief
Michael Takeda started his editing career editing student papers at the University of Oregon over two decades ago. Since then, he has also worked as a translator and teacher of English and Italian, had a brief stint as a music reviewer for local newspaper "PDXS", completed two degrees in Italian literature, and is the author of various fictions. He currently lives in Worcester, Massachusetts. You can read some of his work on his website. 

Dr. William A. Racicot, Editor
Bill Racicot is, among other things, a medievalist, a writer, and a dancing poet. As a writer, he has presented at conferences and published scholarly articles on topics such as Chaucer, Milton, Oscar Wilde, and the movie "Groundhog Day," as well as publishing poems in various places. He teaches college writing and gothic fiction, and in his spare time, he works as a technical writer.

Josie Brown, Editor
Josie Brown is a voracious reader, blogger, and all round sharp lady. Among many other things, she is currently at work on a PhD in political theory, which may explain her work as a political speechwriter and that one time she founded a successful Model United Nations non-profit organization and speakers' bureau before she finished college. She spends much of her free time using her voice, either as an opera singer or a foul-mouthed hockey fan. You can read her rather eclectic blog here.

Dr. Stacy Giufre, Editor
Stacy Giufre began her career as a writer and editor at Cornell University where she co-founded a literary and art magazine known as The Quad. Since then, she has lived in France, Italy, Costa Rica, and Cambridge and has maintained a love affair with language. Having recently earned a PhD from a little-known school called Harvard, Stacy teaches Italian in Amherst, MA, and spends way too much time writing various academic articles and conference presentations about authors that most people have never heard of. She is also currently working on a memoir.

Judith K. Dial & Tom Easton, Editors (Impossible Futures, Deco Punk)

Judith K. Dial was born in Hollywood, CA, a circumstance she's never quite overcome. For many years she was a bookseller and book store owner, specializing in science fiction and accumulating far too many books. She is a former dude ranch waitress, electronic assemblist and technical writer. She lives in New England. 

Tom Easton was the book columnist for Analog for 30 years. He holds a doctorate in theoretical biology from the University of Chicago and teaches at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. His latest nonfiction books are Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues (McGraw-Hill, 14th ed. Rev., 2013), and Classic Editions Sources: Environmental Studies (McGraw-Hill, 4th., 2012). His latest novels are Firefight (Betancourt, 2003) and The Great Flying Saucer Conspiracy (Wildside, 2002) (both available as e-books from Naked Reader Press).

Blood and Souls for My Lord Editor!

Michael's top 5 fantasy picks (just in case you were wondering what we like):

1) "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay
2) The "Elric" series by Michael Moorcock
3) The "Night Angel" Trilogy by Brent Weeks
4) The "Wraeththu" series by Storm Constantine
5) "Elantris" by Branden Sanderson

Bill's top 5 fantasy picks (in no particular order):

1) The "Roads of Heaven" series by Melissa Scott
2) The "Quarters" series by Tanya Huff
3) "The Mirror of Her Dreams" and "A Man Rides Through" by Stephen Donaldson
4) All the "True Game" stuff by Sheri Tepper
5) "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge

Josie's fave 5 genre novels:

1) "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell" by Susanna Clarke
2) "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
3) "Empire in Black and Gold" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
4) "Farenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
5) "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett

Stacy's favorite genre novels:

1) "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
2) "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Marier
3) "The Meaning of Night" by Michael Cox
4) "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
5) "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco