Poets of the Dark: Interview with John Claude Smith
John Claude Smith has had three collections and two novels published, along with tales and/or poems in Vastarien, Pluto in Furs, the HWA Poetry Showcase series, and many more magazines and anthologies. His debut novel, Riding the Centipede, was a Bram Stoker Award Finalist. He is presently shopping two novels—one weird horror, one a non-traditional spin on vampires and werewolves—and an apocalyptic, music-based horror novella. Another novel is in final revisions, while there’s a fiction collection and a poetry collection in the works, too. Busy is good. He splits his time between the East Bay across from San Francisco, and …
Naomi Simone Borwein is a poet and academic. Her work appears or is forthcoming across a spectrum of publications: 
J.E. Erickson is the author of 
Janine Cross is the author of Touched by Venom, voted by Library Journal as one of the top five sci-fi/fantasy novels of 2005 and the first book in The Dragon Temple Trilogy. She’s also the author of Shadowed by Wings, Forged by Fire, and a literary novel, The Footstop Cafe. As a private pilot, she occasionally writes articles for aviation magazines. She’s in a long-term relationship with the semi-colon but flirts outrageously with the comma splice. You can find her at: janinecross.ca
Dianthe West (she/they) is an architecture writer turned poet and fiction author, which was always the prize. Their work is inspired by the sublime and the quirky, from Gothic landscapes to urban fantasy to Carrollian fairy tale satire. Dianthe’s poetry has been featured in HWA Poetry Showcase IX. They live with their family, plants, four-legged familiars, and hundreds of grazing bunnies in Guelph, Ontario. Find them on Twitter @Dianthe_West and at dianthewest.com.
Sumiko Saulson is a Bram Stoker Nominated poet for their 2022 collection 
Teel James Glenn 
Rook Riley is the author of short stories in the following anthologies: Queens and Courtesans, A Lone Star in the Sky, Rebels and Revenants, Strange Afterlives, and Witches and Warriors. After the military and then the Department of Defense took them to live on both coasts and smack in the Midwest, they moved back home to Texas. Currently, they are employed as a middle school teacher (Welcome to body horror at its finest!) and a freelance developmental editor. In addition, they also write horror novels, game in tabletop RPGs, practice Krav Maga, and spoon warfare. Hobbies …
Hillary Dodge is an award-winning editor and author of several speculative short fictions and poetry, as well as three nonfiction books. She spends a good deal of time traveling, going places that are forbidden, and eating. She once had tea with a Roma in a cave in the mountains of Spain. Another time found her eight hours from civilization in the heart of the Atacama with a mad desert hermit. She has been published in online magazines, podcasts, and print anthologies, including Pseudopod, the HWA Poetry Showcase, Space Squid, Hellbound Books, D&T Publishing, & Hex Publishers. She is a co-editor 
K. H. Vaughan is a refugee from academia with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. In that life he taught and worked in a variety of settings, and was particularly interested in the methodology and philosophy of science, decision theory, forensic issues, mass violence, and psychopathology. He is a writer of dark fiction and poetry and Director of Programming for NecronomiCon – Providence.
