Forrest Aguirre
Darin Bradley
Andrea Hairston
Berrien C. Henderson
Kimberley Long-Ewing
Josh Rountree
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
Sheree Renée Thomas
Juliette Wade
LaShawn M. Wanak
Forrest Aguirre holds a Master's Degree in African History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His novel, Heraclix & Pomp is available from Underland Press. His short fiction has appeared in more than sixty venues, including such wide-ranging magazines and anthologies as Asimov's, Gargoyle, Apex, Postscripts, Exquisite Corpse, 3rd Bed, American Letters & Commentary, Notre Dame Review, Polyphony and Diagram. His work has been honorably mentioned in various Year's Best anthologies and one of his stories was a StorySouth Million Writer's Award notable story. His short fiction has been collected in Fugue XXIX (Raw Dog Screaming Press). His editorial work has been recognized with a World Fantasy Award.
Darin Bradley is the author of four novels: Bloodmetal, Noise, Chimpanzee, and Totem. His debut short story collection, Light Both Foreign and Domestic, followed in Fall of 2017. He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and Theory and has taught courses on writing and literature at several universities. His short fiction, poetry, and critical nonfiction have appeared in a variety of journals.
Andrea Hairston was a math/physics major in college until she did special effects for a show and then she ran off to the theatre and became an artist. She is the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre and has created original productions with music, dance, and masks for over twenty-five years. She is also the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Afro-American Studies at Smith College. Her plays have been produced at Yale Rep, Rites and Reason, the Kennedy Center, StageWest, and on Public Radio and Television. Andrea has translated plays from German to English and has received many playwriting and directing awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Grant to Playwrights, a Rockefeller/NEA Grant for New Works, an NEA grant to work as dramaturge/director with playwright Pearl Cleage, a Ford Foundation Grant to collaborate with Senegalese Master Drummer Massamba Diop, a Shubert Fellowship for Playwriting, and a Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship.
She has published a number of essays and in received the 2011 International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award for distinguished contributions to the scholarship and criticism of the fantastic. Andrea was a Guest of Honor at WisCon 36.
Graduating from Clarion West in 1999, Andrea had her first novel, Mindscape, published by Aqueduct Press in 2006. It won the Carl Brandon Parallax Award and was shortlisted for the Phillip K Dick Award and the Tiptree Award. Redwood and Wildfire, her second novel, was published by Aqueduct Press in 2011 and won the 2011 James Tiptree Jr. Award and the 2011 Carl Brandon Society Kindred Award. Lonely Stardust, a collection of plays and essays is available from Aqueduct Press and, Will Do Magic For Small Change was published in Spring of 2016. Her latest novel, Master of Poisons is available from TorDotCom Publishing now, as well as reprints of Redwood and Wildfire and Will Do Magic For Small Change.Her latest novel, Archangels of Funk, is available now.
Berrien C. Henderson lives in the deepest, darkest wilds of southeast Georgia. He teaches high school Literature and Composition with a Southern accent. Berrien's writing has appeared in such diverse venues as The Journal of Asian Martial Arts, The Doctor T.J. Eckleburg Review, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Farrago's Wainscot, Fantasy Magazine, Clarkesworld Magazine, Abyss & Apex, Jabberwocky, and Bloody Knuckles: The MMAnthology. His mini-collection of Southern magical realism, Old Souls and the Grammar of Their Wanderings, is available from Papaveria Press. In his not-so-copious free time, Berrien pursues weightlifting and martial arts.
Kimberley Long-Ewing was raised in Indiana where ze learned to see the laws of thermodynamics in cornfields. Kimberley then moved to New Mexico for graduate school and adventuring where ze met the love of zir life, explored ancient pueblo ruins, and climbed mountains. Kimberley now lives in Wisconsin where explores the bluffs and lakes in search of unusual images to pin down in photographs. When not homeschooling one child, ze collaborates with the other, Rhea Ewing, on graphic novels and with zir partner on educational projects.
Kimberley is the author of the graphic novel series Urban Fey and Revenge of the Nature Imps. Zir short stories have appeared in Crossed Genres, No Man's Land (May 2011, Dark Quest Books), New Myths (newmyths.com), UnCONventional (Jan 2012, Spencer Hill Press), and Holiday Magick (May 2013, Spencer Hill Press).
Josh Rountree's short fiction has been published in some very cool magazines and anthologies like Realms of Fantasy, Polyphony 6 and Rayguns Over Texas, and has received honorable mention in both The Year's Best Science Fiction and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. His first novel (with Lon Prater), Alamo Rising, was published in 2013,and his short fiction collections, Can't Buy Me Faded Love and Fantastica Americana were published in 2008 and 2021 respectively. The Legend of Charlie Fish, is available now from Tachyon Publications, and his latest novel, The Unkillable Frank Lightning is forthcoming from Tachyon Publications. He lives and writes somewhere in the wilds of Texas.
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam is the author of the short story collection Where You Linger & Other Stories and the novella Glorious Fiends. Her fiction has appeared in over 90 publications such as LeVar Burton Reads and Popular Science, as well as in six languages. Her latest novel, Grim Root, is forthcoming from Dark Matter Ink. She has been a Nebula nominee twice. By day, she works as a Narrative Designer writing games. She lives in Texas with her partner and a mysterious number of cats.
Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, natural science and conjure, her roots in Memphis, and in the genius culture created in the Mississippi Delta. Sheree's stories and poetry explore ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.
She is the author of Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Aqueduct Press), honored with a Publishers Weekly Starred Review and longlisted for the 2016 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and of Shotgun Lullabies (2011), described as "a revelatory work like Jean Toomer's Cane." Thomas edited Dark Matter and Dark Matter: Reading the Bones (Hachette), the two black speculative fiction volumes that first introduced W. E. B. Du Bois's work as science fiction, winning two World Fantasy Awards (2001, 2005). Her editorial work uncovered a legacy of over a century of black science fiction writing and helped launch the careers of some of the most exciting new voices in the field.
Her stories, poetry, and occasional essays appear in numerous anthologies, newspapers, and literary journals, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Sycorax's Daughters, Do Not Go Quietly, So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy, Sunspot Jungle Vol. 2, Memphis Noir, Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks, Afrofuturo(s), Ghost Fishing: Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology, The Ringing Ear, Apex Magazine, FIYAH Magazine, Callaloo, Fireside Quarterly, African Voices, Jalada, Strange Horizons, Blacktasticon, Mojo Rising: Contemporary Writers, Mojo: Conjure Stories, Stories for Chip: Tribute to Samuel R. Delany, 80! Memories and Reflections On Ursula K. Le Guin, and Harvard's Transition. She is the Associate Editor of Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora (Illinois State University, Normal), the Founding Editor of MOJO: Journal of the Black Speculative Arts Movement, and the co-editor of Trouble the Waters: Tales of the Deep Blue (Rosarium).
Honored with fellowships from Bread Loaf Environmental, the Millay Colony of Arts, Smith College, the New York Foundation of the Arts, VCCA, Cave Canem Foundation, and the Tennessee Arts Commission among others, Thomas's multigenre writing explores the hidden wonders in the invisible.
Her stories have received Notable Mention in the Year's Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy and Honorable Mention in several volumes of the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror and have been named on the 2019 Locus Recommended Reading list. Her first all-fiction collection, Nine Bar Blues, is available from Third Man Books.
Her latest works are the 2023 NAACP Image Award nominated, 2023 LOCUS Award, and 2023 World Fantasy Award winning anthology Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction (with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight), and the novel Black Panther: Panther's Rage.
Juliette Wade's Broken Trust novels, Mazes of Power, Trangressions of Power, and Inheritors of Power are available from DAW Books, with sequels Spirits of Power, and Evolution of Power, to follow. Her short fiction has appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and several times in Analog, where her 2012 story, "The Liars," was illustrated by Michael Whelan.
She has turned her studies in linguistics, anthropology and Japanese language and culture into tools for writing fantasy and science fiction. She lives the Bay Area of Northern California with her husband and two children, who support and inspire her.
She blogs about language and culture in SF/F here and runs the "Dive into Worldbuilding" video series and workshop here.
LaShawn M. Wanak is a graduate of the Viable Paradise Workshop. Her novelette, "Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good," appears in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 anthology, edited by Carmen Maria Machado, series editor John Joseph Adams.
Her fiction, poetry and essays have been published in Tor.com, Fireside Magazine, FIYAH, and many others. She reviews books for Lightspeed and serves as editor for GigaNotoSaurus.
When she is not gushing about her favorite things on Twitter, she blogs about the writing life at her website, The Cafe in the Woods. She was born and raised on the south side of Chicago and now lives in Wisconsin with her husband and son.