Liz Barr (@_lizbarr) is the co-editor of Companion Piece: Women Celebrate the Humans, Aliens and Tin Dogs of Doctor Who (Mad Norwegian Press, 2015). She blogs about politics, pop culture, media and social justice with Stephanie Lai at no-award.net, and can be relied upon to have strong feelings about historical and fictional women. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a legal secretary and occasionally moonlights as a chew toy for a cat with an anxiety disorder.
Deborah Biancotti has published two short story collections, Bad Power and A Book of Endings. She has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award and the William L. Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Book, as well as the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards. Her work has appeared in Years Best anthologies locally and internationally. The Review of Australian Fiction published her most recent stories and in 2015 her new novella, “Waking in Winter”, will be available from PS Publishing. These days, Twitter is her online drug of choice. You can find her there as @deborah_b.
Born in Singapore but a global citizen, Joyce Chng writes mainly science fiction (SFF) and YA fiction. She likes steampunk and tales of transformation/transfiguration. Her fiction has appeared in Crossed Genres, the Apex Book of World SF Vol II and We See A Different Frontier. Her YA science fiction trilogy is published by a Singapore publisher, Math Paper Press. She can be found at A Wolf’s Tale (http://awolfstale.wordpress.com). She tweets too: @jolantru.
Thoraiya Dyer is an award-winning Australian writer. Her short science fiction and fantasy stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Apex, Analog, Nature and Cosmos, among others (for a full list, see http://www.thoraiyadyer.com). Her collection of four original stories, Asymmetry, available from Twelfth Planet Press, was called “unsettling, poignant, marvellous” by Nancy Kress. A lapsed veterinarian, her other interests include bushwalking, archery and travel. Find her on Twitter @ThoraiyaDyer.
Dirk Flinthart resides in Tasmania, where he raises children, teaches martial arts, writes (not enough!) and studies. He’s been responsible for a range of short stories and at least one novel, and is currently in the process of creating more. You can find scattered musings from him at https://dflinthart.wordpress.com/, but the internet access in his part of Tasmania is too primitive to support Twitter…
Lisa L. Hannett has had over fifty-five short stories appear in venues including Clarkesworld, Fantasy, Weird Tales, ChiZine, Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror (2010, 2011 & 2012), and Imaginarium: Best Canadian Speculative Writing (2012 & 2013). She has won three Aurealis Awards, including Best Collection for her first book, Bluegrass Symphony, which was also nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Her first novel, Lament for the Afterlife, is being published by CZP in 2015.You can find her online at http://lisahannett.comand on Twitter @LisaLHannett.
Kathleen Jennings is an illustrator based in Brisbane, Australia. Her work has won several Ditmars and twice been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. She blogs at http://tanaudel.wordpress.comand frequently posts sketches at Twitter and Tumblr (@tanaudel). Her portfolio is at http://kathleenjennings.com.
Sylvia Kelso lives in North Queensland, Australia. She mostly writes fantasy and SF set in analogue or alternate Australian settings, and likes to tinker with moral swords-and-sorcery and elements of mythology. She has published eight fantasy novels, including Amberlight and The Moving Water, which were finalists for best fantasy novel in the Australian Aurealis genre fiction awards. Her short stories appear in Australia and the US, including anthologies from DAW and Twelfth Planet Press. Her novella “Spring in Geneva”, a riff on Frankenstein, appeared in October 2013 with Aqueduct Press. http://www.sylviakelso.com
Stephanie Lai (@yiduiqie) is a queer Australian of Chinese descent (and a left-handed archer). She writes about identity, racism and Asian ladies, and has yelled about things in The Lifted Brow, Peril Magazine, and The Toast. She blogs about politics, pop culture, media and social justice (and drop bears) with Liz Barr at no-award.net. She likes penguins, infrastructure, and Asian steampunk, and is often paid to train people in surviving our oncoming dystopic future. Stephanie hates everything you love.
Laura Lam is an author originally from California but now based in Scotland. Her debut fantasy, Pantomime (2013), was a Top Ten Title for the 2014 American Library Association Rainbow List, won the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction, and was nominated for other awards. The sequel, Shadowplay, followed in 2014. Her next book is False Hearts (2016 Tor/Macmillan), a thriller featuring conjoined twins, cults, brainhacking, and the dark underbelly of near future San Francisco.
Juliet Marillier was born and brought up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and now lives in Western Australia. Her historical fantasy novels and short stories for adults and young adults have been published internationally and have won a number of awards including the Aurealis, the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Sir Julius Vogel Award. Her lifelong love of folklore, fairy tales and mythology is a major influence on her writing. Juliet is currently working on Tower of Thorns, second book in the Blackthorn & Grim historical fantasy/mystery series for adult readers. The first novel in the series, Dreamer’s Pool, was published in 2014. When not busy writing, Juliet is active in the animal rescue field, and she has her own small pack of waifs and strays. Her website is at http://www.julietmarillier.com
Kirstyn McDermott has been working in the darker alleyways of speculative fiction for much of her career. Her two novels, Madigan Mine and Perfections, each won the Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel and her most recent book is Caution: Contains Small Parts, a collection of short fiction published by Twelfth Planet Press. After many years based in Melbourne, Kirstyn now lives in Ballarat with her husband and fellow scribbler, Jason Nahrung, where she is currently pursuing a creative PhD at Federation University. She can be found online (usually far too often) via @fearofemeralds on Twitter or at http://www.kirstynmcdermott.com.
Sandra McDonald’s first collection of fiction, Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, was a Booklist Editor’s Choice, an American Library Association Over the Rainbow Book, and winner of a Lambda Literary Award. She writes adult and young adult books with gay, transgender and asexual characters, including the collection Drag Queen Astronaut, the thriller City of Soldiers (as Sam Burke) and the award-winning Fisher Key Adventures (as Sam Cameron). Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, and many other magazines and anthologies. Visit her at http://www.sandramcdonald.comand @sandramcdonald.
Foz Meadows is a bipedal mammal with delusions of immortality and fantasy writer. Her YA novels, Solace & Grief and The Key to Starveldt, are both available through Ford Street Publishing, and in 2014, she was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer for her blog, Shattersnipe. She can also be found on Twitter, tumblr and the Huffington Post, as well as reviewing for Strange Horizons and A Dribble of Ink. An Australian expat, Foz currently lives in Scotland with a toddler, not enough books and her very own philosopher. Surprisingly, this is a good thing.
Faith Mudge is a Queensland writer with a passion for fantasy, folk tales and mythology from all over the world—in fact, almost anything with a glimmer of the fantastical. She also spent a disproportionate amount of her childhood watching history documentaries, getting overly invested in dead monarchs. Her stories have appeared in various anthologies, the most recent of which include Kaleidoscope, Phantazein and The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013. She posts regular reviews and articles at beyondthedreamline.wordpress.com. Somewhere in the overcrowded menagerie of her mind, there are novels. She is even writing some of them.
Between teaching part-time and and studying Anthropology and English Literature at university full-time, Havva Murat still finds precious moments to devote to her true passion: writing. Nora of Kelmendi was an easy pick for Havva as all her grandparents were born in Albania and feisty Albanian women have surrounded her all her life. Being the first woman in her family to attend university and the first writer, she fully intends to model herself on the Cranky Ladies featured in this anthology, striking out on interesting paths no matter how thorny, and hopes other will be inspired to do the same.
L.M. Myles is the editor of the Hugo Award nominated Chicks Unravel Time with Deborah Stanish, and Companion Piece with Liz Barr. She’s written for Doctor Who in prose and on audio, and her essays have been published in Chicks Dig Time Lords, Outside In, and Chicks Dig Gaming. She co-hosts the Hugo Award nominated Verity! podcast, where she says extraordinarily sensible things about Doctor Who. She thinks lots more people should be interested in legal history cause it’s fascinating stuff. Too often she can be found procrastinating on Twitter @LMMyles.
Garth Nix was born in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he previously worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth’s books include the award-winning young adult fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen; the dystopian novel Shade’s Children; the space opera A Confusion of Princes; and a Regency romance with magic, Newt’s Emerald. His latest book, Clariel, is a prequel to the Old Kingdom trilogy. Garth lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children. http://www.garthnix.com/
Amanda Pillar is an award-winning editor and author who lives in Victoria, Australia, with her husband and two cats, Saxon and Lilith. Amanda has had numerous short stories published and has co-edited several fiction anthologies. Her first solo anthology was published by Ticonderoga Publications, titled Bloodstones. Amanda is currently working on the sequel, Bloodlines, due for publication in 2015. Amanda’s first novel, Graced, will be published by Momentum in 2015. In her day job, she works as an archaeologist.
Tansy Rayner Roberts is the author of the Creature Court trilogy, Love and Romanpunk, Ink Black Magic and other works of SF and fantasy, and has edited for the Science Fiction Writers of America’s Bulletin and AGOG! Press. She has won several Aurealis, Ditmar and WSFA awards for her work, and won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2013. You can find Tansy on Twitter at @tansyrr, and on both the Galactic Suburbia and Verity! podcasts. She is currently writing and publishing Musketeer Space, a gender-swapped space opera retelling of The Three Musketeers, at http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/tag/musketeer-space/
Barbara Robson (@bjrobson) is a research oceanographer at CSIRO who doesn’t write as often as she should. Her husband, Nathan Cassidy, suggested Theodora as a subject for a story and helped with historical fact-checking, but is still disappointed that Barbara didn’t take up his first suggested subject: the wife of Socrates. Some of Barbara’s other publications include “Baby Steps” in One Small Step (Fablecroft), “Mrs Estahazi” in Belong (Ticonderoga), “Lizzy Lou” in Year’s Best Fantasy 5 (Harper Voyager) and “State of the Art in Modelling of Phosphorus in Aquatic Systems” in Environmental Modelling and Software (Elsevier).
Nisi Shawl’s story collection Filter House won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She was a Guest of Honor for WisCon 35 and SFRA 2014. Shawl coauthored Writing the Other: A Practical Approach; edits reviews for the literary quarterly Cascadia Subduction Zone; and co-edited Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Two more anthologies are forthcoming in 2015: The Year’s Illustrious Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany. Shawl’s Belgian Congo steampunk novel Everfair is due out from Tor this fall. She’s fairly active on Twitter and Facebook, and promises to update her homepage soon.
Bram Stoker nominee and Shirley Jackson Award winner Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. She’s sold almost 200 short stories, three novels (the multi-award-winning Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification) and four short story collections including the multi-award-winning Through Splintered Walls. Her latest short story collection is The Gate Theory. Kaaron is a Current Fellow at The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, where she is researching Robert Menzies, Sir William Ashton, and the Granny Killer, John Wayne Glover. The resulting crime novel should see print in 2016.You can find her at http://kaaronwarren.wordpress.com/ and she tweets @KaaronWarren.
Tehani Wessely (@editormum75) started FableCroft Publishing in 2010 and has produced more than 20 publications since then, including original and reprint anthologies, novels and one shot stories. Work published by FableCroft has been shortlisted for awards in Australia and overseas, and has won Aurealis and Ditmar awards. Tehani herself won the Best New Talent Ditmar in 2008, and for her non-fiction writing has twice won the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review (for conversational reviews). She continues to write about Doctor Who with David McDonald and Tansy Rayner Roberts, and has an essay in the forthcoming Doctor Who collection Companion Piece. fablecroft.com.au
Jane Yolen, often called the Hans Christian Andersen of America, has over 350 books published. Time Magazine’s recent list of 100 best children’s books named her Owl Moon #6 on the list. Her books and stories have won the Caldecott, Nebula, Golden Kite, World Fantasy Award, Mythopoeic Award, Rhysling, and had a nomination for the National Book Award, among many others. She was the first writer in Western Massachusetts to be honored by New England Public Radio’s Arts & Humanities Award and the first woman to give the Andrew Lang lecture in Scotland since the speech’s inception in 1929. Six colleges and universities have given her honorary doctorates. http://www.janeyolen.com.