MEGAN ARKENBERG lives and writes in Wisconsin. Her work has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and dozens of other places. In 2012, her poem “The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead Languages” won the Rhysling Award in the long form category. She procrastinates by editing the fantasy e-zine Mirror Dance.
“Final Exam” was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine edited by Sheila Williams.
STEPHEN BACON lives in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, UK, with his wife and two sons. His short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies including Black Static, Shadows & Tall Trees, The Willows, Crimewave, Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds, edited by Nicholas Royle, Where the Heart Is, edited by Gary Fry, and the final three editions of Nemonymous, edited by DF Lewis.
His debut collection Peel Back the Sky was published in 2012. Forthcoming is a chapbook from Spectral Press called The Allure of Oblivion.
“None So Blind” was originally published in Shadows and Tall Trees 3, edited by Michael Kelly.
NATHAN BALLINGRUD was born in Massachusetts but spent most of his life in the Deep South. He worked as a bartender in New Orleans and a cook on offshore oil rigs; currently he’s a waiter in a fancy restaurant. His stories have appeared in several anthologies and year’s best collections. He won the Shirley Jackson Award for his short story “The Monsters of Heaven.” His first book, North American Lake Monsters: Stories, is due from Small Beer Press in 2013. He lives in Asheville, NC, with his daughter.
“Wild Acre” was originally published in Visions Fading Fast, edited by Gary McMahon, Pendragon Press.
LAIRD BARRON is the author of several books, including The Imago Sequence, Occultation, The Croning, and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. His work has appeared in many magazines and anthologies. An expatriate Alaskan, Barron currently resides in Upstate New York.
“Frontier Death Song” was originally published in Nightmare Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams.
The Oxford Companion to English Literature describes RAMSEY CAMPBELL as “Britain’s most respected living horror writer”. He has been given more awards than any other writer in the field, including the Grand Master Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association and the Living Legend Award of the International Horror Guild. Among his novels are The Face That Must Die, Incarnate, Midnight Sun, The Count of Eleven, Silent Children, The Darkest Part of the Woods, The Overnight, Secret Story, The Grin of the Dark, Thieving Fear, Creatures of the Pool, The Seven Days of Cain, Ghosts Know and The Kind Folk. Forthcoming are The Last Revelation of Gla’aki (a novella), and Bad Thoughts. His collections include Waking Nightmares, Alone with the Horrors, Ghosts and Grisly Things, Told by the Dead, and Just Behind You, and his non-fiction is collected as Ramsey Campbell, Probably. His novels The Nameless and Pact of the Fathers have been filmed in Spain. His regular columns appear in Prism, Dead Reckoning, and Video Watchdog. He is the President of the British Fantasy Society and of the Society of Fantastic Films.
Ramsey Campbell lives on Merseyside with his wife Jenny. His pleasures include classical music, good food and wine, and whatever’s in that pipe. His web site is at www.ramseycampbell.com.
“The Callers” was originally published in Four for Fear, edited by Peter Crowther.
Author most recently of the 2012 short story collection Stay Awake, DAN CHAON wrote the national bestseller Await Your Reply, which was named one of the ten best books of 2009 by Publisher’s Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, Janet Maslin of The New York Times, and Laura Miller of Salon.com, as well as being named among the year’s best fiction by the American Library Association and others.
He is also the author of the short story collections Fitting Ends and Among the Missing, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the novel You Remind Me of Me. Chaon’s fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize Anthologies, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Chaon lives in Ohio and teaches at Oberlin College, where he is the Pauline Delaney Professor of Creative Writing and Literature.
“Little America” was originally published in 21st Century Dead edited by Christopher Golden.
STEPHANIE CRAWFORD had her first publishing credit with “Tender as Teeth”, and continues to work on short stories, a novel, and screenplay while living among the wild Elvi in their natural habitat of Las Vegas. She can be reached on Twitter via @scrawfish
“Tender as Teeth” was originally published in 21st Century Dead, edited by Christopher Golden.
TERRY DOWLING is one of Australia’s most respected, versatile and awarded writers of science fiction, dark fantasy and horror, and author of the internationally acclaimed Tom Rynosseros saga. His collection Basic Black won the 2007 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection and is regarded as “one of the best recent collections of contemporary horror” by the American Library Association. The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror series featured more horror stories by Terry in its twenty-one year run than any other writer, while London’s Guardian compared his novel Clowns at Midnight to John Fowles’s The Magus.
Terry’s homepage is at www.terrydowling.com
“Mariner’s Round” was first published in Exotic Gothic 4 edited by Danel Olson.
GEMMA FILES was born in London, England but is a Canadian citizen, and has lived in Toronto, Ontario for her entire life. She has been a film critic and a teacher of screenwriting and Canadian film history. in addition to publishing two collections of short stories: Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, and two chapbooks of poetry.
Five of her short stories were adapted for the US/Canadian horror television series, The Hunger and she wrote two screenplays for the series.
Her short story “The Emperor’s Old Bones” won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Short Story of 1999. Her first novel A Book of Tongues: Volume One in the Hexslinger Series won the 2010 Black Quill award for “Best Small Press Chill” (both Editors’ and Readers’ Choice) and made the 2010 Over The Rainbow Reading List. The trilogy has since been completed with A Rope of Thorns and A Tree of Bones. She has is currently working on her first stand-alone novel.
“Nanny Grey” was originally published in An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane Magic edited by Jonathan Oliver.
JEFFREY FORD is the author of eight novels, most recently The Shadow Year, and four collections of short stories (his most recent, Crackpot Palace, was published in 2012. He is the recipient of the World Fantasy Award, Shirley Jackson Award, Edgar Allan Poe Award, and Nebula. His story, “The Drowned Life” was recently included in The Oxford Book of American Short Stories, 2nd ed. He lives in Ohio with his wife and sons.
“A Natural History of Autumn” was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction edited by Gordon Van Gelder.
RICHARD GAVIN is one of Canada’s most acclaimed authors of horror fiction. His books include Charnel Wine, Omens, The Darkly Splendid Realm, and At Fear’s Altar. His critical writings on the genre have appeared in Rue Morgue and Dead Reckonings.
For more information check out his website: www.richardgavin.net.
“The Word-Made Flesh” was originally published in At Fear’s Altar.
KIJ JOHNSON is a winner of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, and Crawford Awards. Her books include two novels, The Fox Woman and Fudoki, and a short-story collection, At the Mouth of the River of Bees. She splits her time between Seattle and Lawrence, Kansas, where she teaches writing and is the associate director for the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.
“Mantis Wives” was originally published in Clarkesworld Magazine edited by Neil Clarke and Sean Wallace.
MARGO LANAGAN has published five collections of short stories (White Time, Black Juice, Red Spikes, Yellowcake, and Cracklescape) and two dark fantasy novels, Tender Morsels and The Brides of Rollrock Island (published as Sea Hearts in Australia). She is a four-time World Fantasy Award winner, and her work has also won and been nominated for numerous other awards. Margo lives in Sydney, Australia, maintains a blog at www.amongamidwhile.blogger.com and can be found on Twitter at @margolanagan.
“Bajazzle” was originally published in Cracklescape.
SANDI LEIBOWITZ’S works have appeared or are forthcoming in magazines such as Strange Horizons, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Apex, Niteblade, and Cricket. She sings classical and folk music with Cerddorion and New York Revels, and plays recorders, medieval harp, and even more obsolete instruments with the early music trio Choraulos.
“Sleeping, I Was Beauty” was originally published in Goblin Fruit edited by Amal El-Mohtar, Jessica P. Wick, and Oliver Hunter.
CLAIRE MASSEY’S short stories have been published in Best British Short Stories, Murmurations: An Anthology of Uncanny Stories About Birds, A cappella Zoo, Unsettling Wonder, and elsewhere. Two of her stories are available as chapbooks from Nightjar Press. Claire lives in Lancashire, England, with her two young sons.
“Into the Penny Arcade” was originally published as a chapbook by Nightjar Press.
BRUCE MCALLISTER’S fantasy and science fiction have appeared over the year’s in the field’s major magazines and in “year’s best” anthologies (including Best American Short Stories 2007, guest-edited by Stephen King); and been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards. His new novel, The Village Sang to the Sea: A Memoir of Magic—of which “The Bleeding Child” is a section—will be published by Aeon Press in 2013. His previous novels are Dream Baby and Humanity Prime. Two of his short stories—the Hugo finalist “Kin” and “Moving On”—have been optioned for film.
“The Bleeding Child” was originally published in Cemetery Dance Magazine edited by Richard Chizmar.
KEVIN MCCANN has published seven collections of poems for adults and has had poems included in over thirty children’s anthologies to date. He has also published a collection of new and original ghost stories called It’s Gone Dark.
His website is www.kevinmccann.co.uk
“Two Poems for Hill House” were originally published in Here and Now/7beats.
GARY MCMAHON is the acclaimed author of seven novels. His short fiction has been reprinted in several “Year’s Best” volumes. He lives with his family in Yorkshire, where he trains in Shotokan karate and likes running in the rain.
Read more about Gary here: www.garymcmahon.com
“Kill All Monsters” was originally published in Shadows & Tall Trees edited by Michael Kelly.
TAMSYN MUIR is based in Auckland, New Zealand, where she divides her time between writing, dogs, and teaching high school English. A graduate of the Clarion Writer’s Workshop 2010, her work has previously appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and Nightmare Magazine.
“The Magician’s Apprentice” was first published in Weird Tales #359 edited by Ann VanderMeer.
ADAM NEVILL was born in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and grew up in England and New Zealand. He is the author of the supernatural horror novels Banquet for the Damned, Apartment 16, The Ritual, Last Days, and House of Small Shadows. In 2012 The Ritual was the winner of The August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel.
Adam lives in Birmingham, England, and can be contacted through www.adamlgnevill.com.
“Pig Thing” was originally published in Exotic Gothic 4, edited by Danel Olson.
IAN ROGERS is a writer, artist, and photographer. His short fiction has appeared in several publications, including Cemetery Dance, Supernatural Tales, and Shadows & Tall Trees. He is the author of the dark fiction collection Every House Is Haunted and SuperNOIRtural Tales, a series of stories featuring supernatural detective Felix Renn. Ian lives with his wife in Peterborough, Ontario. For more information, visit ianrogers.ca.
“The House on Ashley Avenue” was originally published in Every House Is Haunted.
PRIYA SHARMA is a medical doctor in the UK, where she spends as much time as she can devouring books and writing speculative fiction. She has a computer but prefers a fountain pen and notebook. Her short stories have appeared in publications such as Black Static, Interzone, Albedo One, On Spec, Fantasy Magazine and Bourbon Penn, as well as at Tor.com. She is currently working on a historical fantasy novel set in North Wales, not far from where she lives. More information can be found at www.priyasharmafiction.wordpress.com
“The Ballad of Boomtown” was originally published in Black Static edited by Andy Cox.
LUCY A. SNYDER is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Spellbent, Shotgun Sorceress, Switchblade Goddess, and the collections Sparks and Shadows, Chimeric Machines, and Installing Linux on a Dead Badger. Her writing has appeared in Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, Hellbound Hearts, Dark Faith, Chiaroscuro, GUD, and Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.
She currently lives in Worthington, Ohio with her husband and occasional co-author Gary A. Braunbeck. You can learn more about her at www.lucysnyder.com.
“Magdala Amygdala” was originally published in Dark Faith: Invocations, edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon
AMBER SPARKS’S short story collection, May We Shed These Human Bodies, was published by Curbside Splendor in 2012. Her short fiction has appeared in many journals and magazines. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband and two cats.
“This Circus the World” was originally published in Corium Magazine edited by Lauren Becker.
DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI is the author of the Edgar-nominated and Anthony Award-winning Expiration Date, as well the Shamus Award-winning Charlie Hardie series (Fun & Games, Hell & Gone), which is currently being developed by Sony Pictures Television.
He currently writes the monthly comic series Judge Dredd for IDW, Bloodshot for Valiant, and has written various bestselling comics series for Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse. Duane has also collaborated with CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker on a series of bestselling “digi-novel” thrillers.
In a previous life, he worked as an editor and writer for Details, Men’s Health and Philadelphia magazines, and was the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper. He lives in Philly. You can say “yo” to him at www.secretdead.com or twitter.com/swierczy.
“Tender as Teeth” was originally published in 21st Century Dead, edited by Christopher Golden.
LUCY TAYLOR is the author of seven novels, including Nailed, Dancing with Demons, Eternal Hearts, and the Stoker-award-winning The Safety of Unknown Cities. Her stories have appeared in over a hundred magazines and anthologies, including Best of Cemetery Dance, The Mammoth Book of Historical Erotica, Century’s Best Horror Fiction, Twentieth Century Gothic, Danse Macabre, and the Exotic Gothic anthology series.
New editions of four earlier collections: Painted in Blood, Close to the Bones, The Flesh Artist, and Unnatural Acts and Other Stories, will be published by the Overlook Connection Press in 2013 followed by a new collection, Fatal Journeys, later the same year.
Taylor lives in Pismo Beach, CA, where she attends the White Heron Sangha and volunteers with the Feline Network, a cat rescue group.
“Nikishi” was originally published in Exotic Gothic 4 edited by Danel Olson.
JAY WILBURN taught public school for sixteen years, but left to care for his younger son and to pursue a career as a full-time writer. He has published many horror and speculative fiction stories including his novels Loose Ends: A Zombie Novel and Time Eaters. Follow his many dark thoughts on Twitter @AmongTheZombies and at JayWilburn.com.
“Dead Song” was originally published in Zombies for a Cure edited by Angela Charmaine Craig.
CONRAD WILLIAMS is the author of seven novels, four novellas and over 100 short stories, some of which are collected in Use Once, then Destroy and Born with Teeth. In addition to his International Horror Guild Award for his novel The Unblemished, he is a three-time recipient of the British Fantasy Award, including Best Novel for One. He’s also editor of the acclaimed anthology Gutshot.
He is currently working on a novel that will act as the prequel to a major video game from Sony, as well as a novel of supernatural horror.