Sandra Pope is an artist, author and in a previous chapter, was a high school teacher in California. She graduated from UCLA in fiction writing in 1972. In 2008, she penned GROWING UP WITHOUT THE GODDESS, a memoir about returning to North Carolina to discover her childhood abusers. For ten years, her pen fell silent. Then, during long walks through rural land debased by hog farms and abused by industrial farming, she listened to the land and honored its voice in poems. In 2021, Sandra's poem, “The Day After Christmas” was a finalist in the NC Poet Laureate Contest, judged by North Carolina's Poet Laureate.

• R L • powell is a neurodivergent writer who's lived through a lot—and also as queer as they come. When not scribbling mad words in a crooked house, he occasionally teaches rhetoric and critical theory to undergraduates. They didn't publish for a spell, but current work appears or is forthcoming in The Rumen, Impossible Archetype, Eunoia Review and elsewhere. He's not much for engaging in social media, but does have a website that they try to keep on top of: rl-powell.com.

Rajeev Prasad is a physician and writer whose stories appear in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and other fabulous magazines. He hopes you enjoyed reading this story. Follow him on twitter @rajeevwriter.

Jake Price is a senior at Susquehanna University pursuing a degree in creative writing. He was born in Texas, and now currently resides in Pennsylvania. He spends most of his time reading his work to his cat, Raven, who has yet to give him any feedback. Jake has an Instagram account where he posts his poetry, @nolenprice, that has amassed over 3100 followers as of writing this. His poetry has been published in Rivercraft Magazine, Poet Lore Magazine, and Sanctuary Magazine. His short fiction has been published in Cream Scene Carnival and Querencia Press.

TJ Price’s corporeal being (he/him) is currently located in Brooklyn, NY, with his handsome partner of many years, but his ghosts live in northeastern Connecticut and southern Maine. He either is or has been a wine-seller, a wine-drinker, an avid reader, an obsessive writer, a pen-and-ink artist, a dishwasher, a neurosurgical technologist, a proofreader, a storm-watcher, a music-maker, and other sundry avocations.

Primarily, TJ spends his time reading as much as his eyes can take, but when he's not reading, he's either writing weird stories about unnerving things, drawing lots of little circles in pen and ink, enjoying esoteric studies, or taking photographs of clouds.

Anselma Widha Prihandita (she/her) is a college writing instructor and PhD candidate in rhetoric and composition, with scholarly (and personal) interests in decolonial and transnational writing. Her most favorite job, however, is writing speculative fiction with hints of heartbreak and the personal political. She splits her time between the US West Coast, where she currently teaches and studies, and Indonesia, where she grew up and where her home remains. She attended the Odyssey workshop in 2023 on their Fresh Voices Scholarship, and the Clarion workshop in 2024 on their Octavia Butler Scholarship. Her stories are published or forthcoming in Cast of Wonders, khōréō magazine, Ghoulish Tales, Mysterion, and Fusion Fragment.

Anna Quercia-Thomas is a queer Hispanic American writer and academic currently based in Western Australia. She writes poetry and speculative fiction about found family, queer romance, and connection in dark times. Her work is featured in New Words Press, SWAMP Journal, and in the upcoming issue of Overland.

Eric Raglin (he/him) is a queer Nebraskan horror/Weird fiction writer. His short story collections include Nightmare Yearnings, Extinction Hymns (published by Brigids Gate Press), and Lonesome Pyres (published by Off Limits Pulp). He owns Cursed Morsels Press and has edited No Trouble at All (with Alexis DuBon), Bitter Apples, Shredded: A Sports and Fitness Body Horror Anthology, and Antifa Splatterpunk. Find him on Twitter, Bluesky, or Instagram @ericraglin1992.

Rhiannon Rasmussen is a queer author and illustrator interested in monstrosity and the persistence of hope. Rhiannon's fiction has appeared in publications including Lightspeed Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and Evil in Technicolor. Visit www.rhiannonrs.com for more.

Carly Racklin is a fantasy and horror writer, editor, and hobbyist illustrator currently nesting in the mountains of Tennessee with her friends, many plants, and the several families of birds that she feeds from her porch. She has written for a horror film festival and currently works in social media marketing. Her work has appeared in Metaphorosis Magazine, Mirror Dance, Luna Station Quarterly, and more. You can find more of her work at carlyracklin.com and follow her on Twitter @willowylungs.