Maria Schrater is a writer & poet based in Chicago. Her work can be found in Apparition Lit, Sycorax Journal, Abyss & Apex, and in Air & Nothingness Press’s Wild Hunt and Future Perfect in Past Tense anthologies. She is also Poetry Editor for Apparition Literary Magazine and an associate SFWA member. She especially loves folklore and mythology and often works with retellings. When not writing, she can be found imitating bird calls in the woods. You can find her on Twitter @MariaSchrater or on her website mariaschrater.com.

Elizabeth Shack lives in central Illinois with her spouse, cat, and an expanding collection of art supplies and gardening tools. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Writers Resist, Daily Science Fiction, The MacGuffin, Drifting Sands, and other venues.

Austin Shirey lives in Northern Virginia with his wife, Sarah, their two daughters, and two cats. His short fiction has appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, The Dread Machine, Gone Lawn, and Orca, among others. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lindenwood University. You can find his work online at www.austinshirey.com and follow him on Twitter @tashirey87.

A native Floridian, Crystal Sidell grew up playing with toads in the rain and indulging in speculative fiction. She holds a master of arts in both English and library & information science, moderates two creative writing groups, and has reviewed books for the Florida Library Youth Program. A Pushcart-nominated writer, her work has appeared in 34 Orchard, Apparition Lit, F&SF, Factor Four Magazine, The Sprawl Mag, Strange Horizons, Sylvia, and others. You can find her on Twitter @sidellwrites.

T. R. Siebert is a speculative fiction writer from Germany. Her short fiction has been published in Flash Fiction Online, Escape Pod and Fusion Fragment. When she's not busy writing, she can be found attempting to grow vegetables on her balcony or looking at pictures of cute dogs. Tweet at her @TR_Siebert.

João F. Silva is a Portuguese writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy now based in the UK. When not writing, he can be found playing video games or cooking Portuguese food. He's a member of the BSFA and was also on the jury for the Best Newcomer Award at the 2020 British Fantasy Awards.

Chloe Smith works as a middle-school teacher, librarian, and copyeditor, and writes science fiction and fantasy stories despite all that. She was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she lived in Texas and Washington states, New York City, and rural France before coming back to California. Her short fiction has appeared in Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, Bourbon Penn, and elsewhere. Her debut novella, Virgin Land, came out from Luna Press Publishing in 2023.

Elise Stephens credits much of her storytelling influence to a lifelong love of theater and childhood globetrotting. Much of her work focuses on themes of family, memory, and finding hope after a devastating loss. She is a first-place winner of Writers of the Future (2019), and her fiction has appeared in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Escape Pod, Writers of the Future Vol 35, and FIYAH, among others. Elise lives with her family in Seattle in a house with huge windows to supply the vast quantities of light she requires to stay happy. Elise is currently seeking representation on her next science fiction novel. Find her at www.EliseStephens.com.

A.D. Sui is a Ukrainian-born, queer, and disabled science fiction writer. She is a failed academic and a retired fencer. Her writing has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Augur, and others. Her debut novella THE DRAGONFLY GAMBIT is coming out with Neon Hemlock in 2024. When not wrangling her two dogs, she's on every social media platform as @TheSuiWay.

Catherine Tavares is a speculative fiction author of the sci-fi and fantasy variety and a member of both SFWA and Codex. An avid reader, she spends most of her time haunting the shelves of her local library, but she can on occasion be persuaded to try a new recipe or work on a new knitting project. You can read her work and learn more about her at www.catherinetavares.com.