Board of Trustees & Senior Staff

While John Edward Lawson has been called “the forgotten black man of horror,” he also regularly publishes science fiction, nonfiction, and literary fiction. His work has been nominated for the Dwarf Stars, Rhysling, Stoker, and Wonderland awards in addition to the Pushcart Prize. For his work as an editor, John received the 2018 HWA Specialty Press Award. He currently serves as President of the Horror Writers Association.

Lisa Wood is a Golden Stake Award-winning author, a MICO Award-winning screenwriter, a two-time Bram Stoker Award® Finalist, a Rhysling nominated poet, and an accomplished essayist. She writes high concept fiction that includes elements of psychological horror, mystery, dark fantasy, and romance. Wood has won Best Horror, Best Action, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards in both national and international film festivals. Wood has penned short fiction that has been published in groundbreaking works, including the anthologies Sycorax’s Daughters and Slay: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She is also part of the 2022 Bookfest Book Award winning poetry anthology, Under Her Skin. Her nonfiction has been published in Nightmare Magazine and academic textbooks such as the cross-curricular, Conjuring Worlds: An Afrofuturist Textbook. Wood is the founder of the Speculative Fiction Academy, an English and Creative Writing professor, a horror scholar, and a frequent contributor to the conversation around the evolution of genre fiction.

Becky Spratford is a Readers’ Advisory Librarian in Illinois specializing in serving leisure reading patrons ages 13 and up. She trains library staff all over the world on how to match books with readers through the local public library. She runs the critically acclaimed RA training blog RA for All, and its evil twin, RA for All: Horror. She is on the Steering Committee of the Adult Reading Round Table and is under contract to provide content for EBSCO’s NoveList database, reviews for Booklist and articles and columns for Library Journal. Becky specializes in helping libraries work with horror books and readers as the author of The Reader’s Advisory Guide to Horror, Second Edition (ALA Editions, 2012). As the public library world’s most visible horror expert, Becky has been profiled in the Chicago Tribune, appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio, and recorded numerous podcasts all in an effort to make sure libraries don’t forget about horror as they develop their collections, craft displays, and work with patrons. Becky was invited as a special guest at StokerCon 2017 for her contribution to the genre, and has run the annual StokerCon Librarian’s Day of programming since 2018. You can interact with Becky on Twitter @RAforAll.

Photo © Beowulf Sheehan

Marc L. Abbott is the award-winning author of Hell at the Way Station and Hell at Brooklyn Tea. He resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Maxwell I. Gold is an acclaimed Jewish-American cosmic horror poet and editor, with an extensive body of work comprising over 300 poems since 2017. His writings have earned a place alongside many literary luminaries in the speculative fiction genre. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, magazines, and anthologies such as Weird Tales Magazine, Startling Stories, Space and Time Magazine, Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, Chiral Mad 5, and many more. Maxwell’s work has been recognized with multiple nominations for both the Rhysling Award and the Pushcart Prize. Find him and his work at www.thewellsoftheweird.com.