Our job as fiction writers requires us to step into the hearts, minds, and bodies of other people. For this reason, writers are some of the most empathic beings I know. We’re skilled at using our imaginations. We use that tool to choose the actions, thoughts, and feelings experienced by our characters.
ROBERT LEVY‘s novel The Glittering World was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award as well as the Lambda Literary Award, while shorter work has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nightmare, Black Static, The Dark, Shadows & Tall Trees, Autumn Cthulhu, FOUND: An Anthology of Found Footage Horror Stories, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, and The Year’s Best Gay Speculative Fiction, among others. His debut story collection No One Dies from Love: Dark Tales of Loss and Longing was published by Word Horde in May. A Harvard graduate subsequently trained as a forensic psychologist, he teaches at the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing and can be found at TheRobertLevy.com.
Mae Murray is a writer and editor hailing from Arkansas, now living in eerie New England. She contributes essays and criticism to horror-centric websites, including Fangoria and Dread Central. She is the recipient of a 2022 Brave New Weird award for the Superior Achievement in Short Fiction for her story “The Imperfection” (Shortwave Magazine) and has been published in horror fiction anthologies and nonfiction collections. The Book of Queer Saints Volume I was her editing debut. Volume II is set to be released Halloween 2023. Her debut novel I’m Sorry If I Scared You is due Spring 2024. She owns and operates Medusa Publishing Haus. Find her on Twitter and Instagram as @maeisafraid
Lor Gislason (they/he) is a non-binary homebody and the author of Inside Out. They are also the editor of Bound In Flesh: An Anthology of Trans Body Horror. Find them on Twitter @Lorelli_ and their blog lorgislason.wordpress.com
Photo credit: John Kaczanowski
Wendy N. Wagner is a writer and Hugo award-winning editor. Her books include the forthcoming cosmic horror novel The Creek Girl (Tor Nightfire, 2025), The Deer Kings, The Secret Skin, and the Locus best-selling An Oath of Dogs. Her short stories, essays, and poems have appeared in seventy-some publications, running the gamut from horror to environmental literature. She is also the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine and the managing/senior editor of Lightspeed. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, two large cats, and a Muppet disguised as a dog. You can find her at winniewoohoo.com.
Michael R Collins was born at a very young age in the wilds of southern Idaho. After a few decades, he finally got his fill of all the sagebrush and rattlesnakes he could eat, so he struck out into the world. After slinging some bass guitar and general shenanigans in Austin, Texas, he currently lives in Pennsylvania with his partner Mel. He is a Bi author who has published four novels. His most recent novellas are Verum Malum, Miracles for Masochists (with James G. Carlson), and Dick Wiggler and Other Useless Superpowers (writing as Mick Collins) as well as penning a few alibis. (Just in case.)
Eboni J. Dunbar (She/her) is a queer, black woman who writes queer and black speculative fiction. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner. She received her BA from Macalester College in English and her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is a VONA Alum and the former managing editor for the Hugo Award-Winning FIYAH Literary Magazine.
Arley Sorg is an associate agent at kt literary and co-Editor-in-Chief at Fantasy Magazine. He is an SFWA Solstice Award Recipient, a Space Cowboy Award Recipient, a two-time World Fantasy Award Finalist, a two-time Locus Award Finalist, and a finalist for two Ignyte Awards. Arley is also a senior editor at Locus, associate editor at both Lightspeed & Nightmare, a columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and an interviewer for Clarkesworld. He is a guest critiquer for the current Odyssey Workshop and the week five instructor for this year’s Clarion West Workshop. Arley is a 2014 Odyssey graduate. His site: arleysorg.com. Twitter: @arleysorg Facebook is… a weird number.
Vince A. Liaguno is an award-winning writer, anthologist, editor, and an occasional poet. He is the Bram Stoker Award®-winning editor of Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet (co-edited with Chad Helder), the acclaimed Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (co-edited with Rena Mason), and the forthcoming Unspeakable Horror 3: Dark Rainbow Rising. His debut novel, 2006’s The Literary Six, was a tribute to the slasher films of the eighties and won an Independent Publisher Award (IPPY).
Corey Niles was born and raised in the Rust Belt, where he garnered his love of horror. His debut horror novel, Blood & Dirt, was released from NineStar Press in August 2022. His writing has appeared in over twenty publications, including issues, anthologies, and collections from Nightmare Magazine, the Horror Writers Association, Ghost Orchid Press, and Lycan Valley Press. You can keep up to date with his recent and forthcoming publications at coreyniles.com.
