Colleen Anderson (www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com) has been twice nominated for the Aurora Award in poetry, and longlisted for the Stoker Award. As a freelance editor, she has co-edited Tesseracts 17 (EDGE Publishing), and Playground of Lost Toys (EXILE Editions), which was nominated for a 2016 Aurora Award. New or forthcoming works are in Clockwork Canada, Futuristica Vol 2, Deadlights, The Goethe Glass, OnSpec and others. Currently she is working on an alternate history dark fiction novel and a poetry collection. Her poetry chapbook Ancient Tales, Grand Deaths and Past Lives is available through Kelp Queen Press.
Charlotte Ashley is a writer, editor, and bookseller living in Toronto, Canada. Her short fiction appears in a number of anthologies and magazines, including the Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2017 (ed. Rich Horton). She has been nominated for both the Aurora and Sunburst Awards and once performed a story from the equipment of a CrossFit gym. You can find more about her work at www.once-and-future.com or on Twitter @CharlotteAshley.
Brenda Cooper writes science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories. Her most recent novel is Spear of Light (Pyr), and her most recent story collection is Cracking The Sky (Fairwood Press). Brenda’s work has been nominated for the Phillip K. Dick and Canopus Awards and won two Endeavour Awards. Brenda is a technology professional and a futurist, and publishes non-fiction on the environment and the future. Brenda lives in the Pacific Northwest where she gardens, bikes, writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, and loves sunrises. For more information, visit her website at www.brenda-cooper.com.
Ian Creasey was born in 1969 and lives in Yorkshire, England. He began writing when rock & roll stardom failed to return his calls. So far, he has sold seventy-odd short stories to various magazines and anthologies. His debut collection, Maps of the Edge, was published in 2011; a second collection, Escape Routes from Earth, came out in 2015. His spare time interests include hiking and gardening—anything to get him outdoors and away from the computer screen. For more information, visit his website at http://iancreasey.com.
A.M. Dellamonica’s first novel, Indigo Springs, won the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her fourth, A Daughter of No Nation, has won the Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel. She is the author of over forty short stories in a variety of genres; these can be found on Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed and in numerous print magazines and anthologies, most recently Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She teaches writing in person at the University of Toronto and online through the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
Bev Geddes is a school-based speech/language therapist, and free-lance writer, working for various organizations such as Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. Her short story, “Living in Oz,” appears in the Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts anthology (Laksa Media) and her two speculative fiction novels, The Shellyman, and Secrets of Shalott, have recently been completed. When not reading, writing, or running away to her cabin at the lake, Bev enjoys playing the instrument of angels—her Celtic harp, aided and abetted by a menagerie of cats, a dog, and children.
Claire Humphrey is the author of Spells of Blood and Kin (St Martin’s Press, 2016). Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex, Crossed Genres, Fantasy Magazine, and Podcastle. Her short story “Bleaker Collegiate Presents an All-Female Production of Waiting for Godot” appeared in the Lambda Award-nominated collection Beyond Binary, and her short story, “The Witch Of Tarup,” was published in the critically acclaimed anthology Long Hidden.
Sandra Kasturi is the author of two poetry collections: The Animal Bridegroom (with an introduction by Neil Gaiman) and Come Late to the Love of Birds. She is also co-publisher of ChiZine Publications, winner of the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and HWA Specialty Press Awards. She is the co-founder of the Toronto SpecFic Colloquium and the Executive Director of the national Chiaroscuro Reading Series. Sandra’s work has appeared in various venues, including Prairie Fire, Evolve, Chilling Tales, ARC Magazine, Taddle Creek, and Abyss & Apex. When not producing ChiZine books, she works on her own: another poetry collection, Snake Handling for Beginners, and her first story collection, Mrs. Kong & Other Monsters.
Tyler Keevil was born in Edmonton, raised in Vancouver, and in his mid-twenties moved to Wales, where he now lives. He is the author of several books and his speculative fiction has appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies, including Salt’s annual Best British Fantasy series. He has received numerous awards for his work, most notably the Wales Book of the Year People’s Prize and the Writers’ Trust of Canada Journey Prize. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and the Course Leader in Creative Writing at the University of Gloucestershire.
Juliet Marillier, New Zealand born, Australian resident, writes historical fantasy novels and short stories, mostly for adult readers. Her work is published internationally and has won numerous awards. Juliet’s lifelong love of folklore, fairy tales and mythology is a major influence on her writing. Among her works are the Blackthorn & Grim series, the Sevenwaters series and the Shadowfell series. She is a member of OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.) When not busy writing, Juliet looks after her crew of five rescue dogs. For more information, visit Juliet’s website: www.julietmarillier.com.
Matt Moore writes horror and dark science fiction. His short stories, poetry and columns have appeared in a variety of print, electronic and audio markets including On Spec, Leading Edge, The Ottawa Citizen, Jamais Vu, The Drabblecast, and more. He’s a five time Aurora Award finalist, frequent panelist and presenter, and Co-Chair of the Ottawa Chiaroscuro Reading Series. His short story collection But It’s Not The End And Other Lies will be published by ChiZine Publications in January 2018.
Heather Osborne is a creative writing doctoral student at the University of Calgary where she teaches English literature and writing courses. She is a long-time member of the Imaginative Fiction Writing Association. She has been the writer-in-residence of Queen Elizabeth High School and the Academic Liaison for the Calgary genre literary festival, When Words Collide. Her creative dissertation is a novel-length work of interactive fiction entitled Figuera.
Dominik Parisien is the co-editor, along with Navah Wolfe, of several anthologies for Simon & Schuster’s Saga Press, including The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales. He also edited Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction (Exile Editions). His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Shock Totem, and various anthologies, most recently The Playground of Lost Toys, and Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories.
Nisi Shawl’s widely praised novel Everfair came out from Tor in September 2016. Her story collection Filter House co-won a James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 2009, and she’s the co-author of the acclaimed instructional handbook Writing the Other: A Practical Approach. She helped found the Carl Brandon Society, a nonprofit supporting the presence of marginalized races in the fantastic genres, and is a Clarion West Writers Workshop board member. Nisi is fairly active on Twitter and Facebook and maintains a website at www.nisishawl.com; in real life she ambles around Seattle at a feline pace with her cat, Minnie, and her mother, June.
Alex Shvartsman is a writer, translator and game designer from Brooklyn, NY. Over 80 of his short stories have appeared in Nature, Galaxy’s Edge, InterGalactic Medicine Show, and many other magazines and anthologies. He won the 2014 WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction and was a finalist for the 2015 Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction. He is the editor of the Unidentified Funny Objects annual anthology series of humorous SF/F. His collection Explaining Cthulhu to Grandma and Other Stories and his steampunk humour novella H. G. Wells, Secret Agent were published in 2015. His website is alexshvartsman.com.
Kate Story is a writer and performer. A Newfoundlander living in Ontario, Canada, her first novel Blasted (Killick Press) received the Sunburst Award’s honourable mention. She is the 2015 recipient of the Ontario Arts Foundation’s K.M. Hunter Award for her work in theatre. Recent publications include short stories “Yoke of Inauspicious Stars” (Carbide Tipped Pens, Tor Books); “Unicorn” (World Fantasy Award-nominated Gods, Memes, and Monsters, Stone Skin Press); “Show and Tell” (Aurora Award-nominated Playground of Lost Toys, Exile); “Equus” (Clockwork Canada, Exile); “Where the Seas Roll Up Their Thunder” (Those Who Make Us, Exile); and inclusion in ChiZine Publication’s Imaginarium: Best Canadian Speculative Writing 2015. She is honoured to be included in The Sum of Us.
Karina Sumner-Smith is the author of the Towers Trilogy from Talos Press: Radiant, Defiant, and Towers Fall. In addition to novel-length work, Karina has published a range of science fiction, fantasy, and horror short stories that have been nominated for the Nebula Award, reprinted in several Year’s Best anthologies, and translated into Spanish and Czech. She lives in Ontario near the shores of Lake Huron. For more information, visit her online at karinasumnersmith.com.
Amanda Sun is the author of Heir to the Sky, a YA Fantasy about floating continents, monster hunters, dragons, and pygmy goats. She also wrote the Paper Gods series, Ink, Rain, and Storm, set in Japan and published by Harlequin Teen. The Paper Gods were Aurora Award nominees and Junior Library Guild selections, as well as Chapters Indigo Top Teen Picks. Her short fiction has also been published in various anthologies. When not reading or writing, Sun is an avid cosplayer, gamer, and geeky knitter. To get free Paper Gods novellas and other goodies, visit her at AmandaSunBooks.com.
Hayden Trenholm is an award-winning playwright, novelist and short story writer. His short fiction has appeared in many magazines and anthologies and on CBC radio. His first novel, A Circle of Birds, won the 3-Day Novel Writing competition in 1993; it was recently translated and published in French. His trilogy, The Steele Chronicles, were each nominated for an Aurora Award. Stealing Home, the third book, was a finalist for the Sunburst Award. Hayden has won four Aurora Awards—twice for short fiction and twice for editing anthologies. He purchased Bundoran Press in 2012 and is its managing editor. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and fellow writer, Elizabeth Westbrook-Trenholm.
James Van Pelt is a part-time high school English teacher and full-time writer in western Colorado. He’s been a finalist for a Nebula Award and been reprinted in many year’s best collections. His first Young Adult novel, Pandora’s Gun, was released from Fairwood Press in August of 2015. James blogs at www.jamesvanpelt.com and can be found on Facebook.
Liz Westbrook-Trenholm has published or aired non-fiction and sf and mainstream short stories and had produced over 80 comedic dinner theatre murder mysteries. Her most recent publications were in Neo-Opsis and Prix Aurora-winning anthology, Second Contacts (Bundoran Press). Retirement from the federal public service at the end of 2016 is her portal back into the literary life alongside her husband, writer and publisher, Hayden Trenholm.
Edward Willett (www.edwardwillett.com) is the author of more than 50 books of fiction and non-fiction for all ages. Marseguro (DAW Books) won the Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English in 2009. His eighth novel for DAW, The Cityborn, came out in July 2017, and he’s now working on a new fantasy series, Worldshapers. Other recent titles include the Masks of Aygrima trilogy for DAW (written as E.C. Blake) and the Shards of Excalibur YA series for Coteau Books. His non-fiction runs the gamut from science books to biographies to history. Ed lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife, Margaret Anne Hodges, and daughter, Alice.
Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, and editor of the Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed magazine, which won the 2015 British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines including Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 (Horton), Armored, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, io9, Wired.com, and China’s Science Fiction World. She lives on the central coast of California with an editor, a dancer, two dogs, three cats, and a very small manticore.
Caroline M. Yoachim lives in Seattle and loves cold cloudy weather. She is the author of dozens of short stories, appearing in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, and Lightspeed, among other places. Her debut short story collection, Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World & Other Stories, came out with Fairwood Press in August 2016. For more about Caroline, check out her website at carolineyoachim.com.