Joel Bisaillon of Umbra Ludus (shadow play) focuses on illustrating dark, dramatic, bold, and colourful imagery with a flair for the fantastical. With years of tabletop gaming and delving into Hitchcock, Baum, and Lovecraft at an early age, he led his creative focus towards the dark fantasy, cosmic and American gothic horror genres.

His art has graced the pages of Aurealis Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine, BYU’s Leading Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, New Myths E-Zine, Electric Spec Magazine, Expanded Horizons Speculative Fiction Magazine, Hyphenpunk, Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine, and The British Fantasy Society's Horizons Magazine. As well as several renowned roleplaying, tabletop gaming, and publishing companies, including New Comet Games, Vermin Games, Blasphemy Press, Jester’s Hand Publishing, Kelestia Games, Lostlorn Games, and Legendary Games.

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Gustavo Bondoni is a novelist and short story writer with over three hundred stories published in fifteen countries, in seven languages. He is a member of Codex and an Active Member of SFWA. His latest novel is a dark historic fantasy entitled The Swords of Rasna (2022). He has also published five science fiction novels, four monster books and a thriller entitled Timeless. His short fiction is collected in Pale Reflection (2020), Off the Beaten Path (2019), Tenth Orbit and Other Faraway Places (2010) and Virtuoso and Other Stories (2011).

In 2019, Gustavo was awarded second place in the Jim Baen Memorial Contest and in 2018 he received a Judges Commendation (and second place) in The James White Award. He was also a 2019 finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest.

His website is at www.gustavobondoni.com

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Maureen Bowden is a Liverpudlian, living with her musician husband in North Wales. She has had 204 stories and poems accepted by paying markets including Third Flatiron, Water Dragon Publishing, The First Line and many others. She was nominated for the 2015 international Pushcart Prize and in 2019 Hiraeth Books published an anthology of her stories, Whispers of Magic. They plan to publish an anthology of her poetry in the near future. She also writes song lyrics, mostly comic political satire, set to traditional melodies and her husband has performed them in folk music clubs throughout the UK. She loves her family and friends, rock ‘n’ roll, Shakespeare, and cats.

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Nebula Award-nominated Beth Cato is the author of A Thousand Recipes for Revenge and A Feast for Starving Stone from 47North plus two fantasy series from Harper Voyager. She’s a Hanford, California native now moored in the Driftless Area. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. Her website is BethCato.com; follow her on Instagram at @catocatsandcheese and Blue Sky at @BethCato.

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Simon Christiansen is a writer, poet, and game designer living in Denmark. His stories have been published in a variety of literary journals, and he has written award-winning works of interactive fiction. He is the recipient of three Xyzzy awards for interactive fiction and has been shortlisted for the Niels Klim award for best Danish science fiction novelette.

When not writing, he enjoys reading, juggling, and walking. Visit his website at www.sichris.com.

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Emmie Christie’s work includes practical subjects, like feminism and mental health, and speculative subjects, like unicorns and affordable healthcare. Her novel A Caged and Restless Magic debuted February 2024. She has been published in Factor Four Magazine, Small Wonders, and Flash Fiction Online, among others. She also narrates short stories and loves bringing stories to life out loud as well as on the page. Find her at www.emmiechristie.com, her monthly newsletter, or BlueSky (@emmiechristie33.bsky.social).

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Travis Corter works as a Copywriter in Duboistown, PA. Growing up on Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? helped foster his love of chilling tales. Through his writing, he hopes to find the humanity hidden in the horror. His favorite writers include Sam Rebelein, Christopher Golden, and Stephen King.

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Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. Her award-winning poetry and prose has appeared in over seventy journals, including F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, and Lightspeed. For more about her work, including her Elgin-nominated poetry collections, The Gates of Never, Bounded by Eternity, and From Voyages Unreturning, see www.deborahldavitt.com. She also has a new poetry chapbook out in 2024 (Xenoforming), as well as a TTRPG and novel coming to Kickstarter later the same year: Mists & Memory and In Memory’s Shadow, respectively.

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Zary Fekete grew up in Hungary. He has a debut novella (Words on the Page) out with DarkWinter Lit Press and a short story collection (To Accept the Things I Cannot Change: Writing My Way Out of Addiction) out with Creative Texts. He enjoys books, podcasts, and many many many films. Twitter and Instagram: @ZaryFekete


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Jaytham Firestar is a Chicago-based fantasy artist specializing in colorful and whimsical 2D illustrations. Jaytham is driven to combine their innate passion for justice with their artistic talents to create inspirational spaces that uplift the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized voices. They currently run the YouTube channel Queer Aesthetics, a new channel dedicated to supporting artists and exposing LGBTQ+ art history. Jaytham hopes to speak through their vibrant and affirming art to convey messages of radical love, mutual aid, and decolonization. Learn more about Jaytham at https://artbyfirestar.carrd.co/, and follow @ArtByFirestar on Twitter, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky to see project updates.

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Adele Gardner (they/them, Mx., https://gardnercastle.com/) has a poetry collection, Halloween Hearts, released by Jackanapes Press (https://www.jackanapespress.com/product/halloween-hearts) and over 500 stories, poems, art, and articles published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, Flash Fiction Online, Daily Science Fiction, and more. A member of SFWA, HWA, SFPA, and the Poetry Society of Virginia, and graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, Adele coedited SFPA’s short poetry anthology Dwarf Stars 2022 with Greer Woodward (https://sfpoetry.com/ds/22dwarfstars.html) and guest-edited the Arthuriana issue of SFPA’s poetry journal Eye to the Telescope (Issue 27, January 2018, https://eyetothetelescope.com/intros/027intro.html). Twelve of Adele’s poems won or placed in the Poetry Society of Virginia Awards, Rhysling Award, and Balticon Poetry Contest. Adele serves as literary executor for father, mentor, and namesake Delbert R. Gardner.

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Tim Hildebrandt is a writer in Indianapolis, Indiana. His short stories have appeared in Consequence Forum, the Boston Literary Magazine, Pandemic Magazine, Bending Genres, Corvus Review, and others. You can see his work at: https://www.instagram.com/ax_beckett

Tim has a bootless BFA, he lived in San Francisco in '68, traveled Europe from Amsterdam to Africa, and survived combat in Vietnam. hildebrandt343@icloud.com

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Peter J. King was active on the London poetry scene in the 1970s, as poet, publisher, editor, performer, broadcaster, and events organiser; returning to poetry in 2013 after an absence of about thirty years, he’s since been widely published in journals and anthologies. He also translates, mainly from Greek (with Andrea Christofidou) and German, writes short prose, and paints. His most recent poetry collection is Ghost Webs (The Calliope Script, 2022).

https://wisdomsbottompress.wordpress.com/peter-j-king/

(thumbnail credit: Maxim Kantor)

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Hana Lee is the author of Road to Ruin (Saga Press, 2024) and its forthcoming sequel, Flight of the Fallen. She is a biracial Korean American fantasy author. By day, she makes her living as a software engineer. She’s always loved the dark, the gothic, and the occult, so there’s usually a picturesque ruin of some kind lurking in the background of her novels. She lives in California with her partner and two fluffy cats. Her writing has appeared in Uncanny Magazine and Fantasy Magazine, and you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @K_Hana_Lee.

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Denny E. Marshall has had art, poetry, and fiction published. Some recent credits include cover art for Typehouse Magazine Jan. 2022 and interior art in Dreams & Nightmares Magazine Jan. 2022 as well as poetry in Page & Spine April 2022. Website is www.dennymarshall.com.

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Warren Muzak is a self-taught Canadian illustrator with a love for creating horror, and sci fi illustrations.

I am impacted by stories. Spoken or written, real or imagined. Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Arthur Rackham, and John Buscema are the visual storytellers whose work I am heavily inspired by.

As a seasoned independent freelance illustrator who realizes other people's ideas, I want to set myself apart from this commercial work by exhibiting my uniqueness and being recognized by my own special style.

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Mike Morgan was born in London, but not in any of the interesting parts. He moved to Japan at the age of 30 and lived there for many years. Nowadays, he's based in Iowa, and enjoys family life with his wife, two young children, and two even younger kittens. If you like his writing, be sure to follow him on Twitter where he goes by @CultTVMike or check out his website: https://PerpetualStateofMildPanic.wordpress.com.

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Meg O'Connor is a writer and data analyst based in Slidell, Louisiana. Her work has previously appeared in Lit Nerds, Bright Flash, Last Girls Club, and Horror Tree. Additionally, she writes about Louisiana as a freelance travel writer for Travel Lemming. She is currently working on a mystery novel set in Key West and can be found on Instagram at @megcathlinwrites.

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A freelance journalist and photographer, Sonali Roy wears several other hats including painter, 3-D art designer, music composer, and singer though the sudden demise of her 8-yr old canine friend Fuchoo baffled her. Devoted to vegan diet, Sonali enjoys brainstorming healthy recipes in the kitchen. She also loves creative writing.

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Kasia Runté is in her third year at the University of Lethbridge in the Indigenous Health program. She loves art, but resists making it her career because she not interested in compromising her art to be commercial. Instead, she wants art to be the passion that keeps her balanced at the end of the workday in a field such as palliative care. She is often drawn to darker themes and images, partly as a form of catharsis, and partly to balance her super-cheerful pieces.

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Lynne Sargent is a queer writer, aerialist, and holds a Ph.D in Applied Philosophy. They are the poetry editor at Utopia Science Fiction magazine. Their work has been nominated for Rhysling, Elgin, and Aurora Awards, and has appeared in venues such as Augur Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Daily Science Fiction. Their work has also been supported through the Ontario Arts Council. To find out more visit them at scribbledshadows.wordpress.com.

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Carl Scharwath has appeared globally with 180+ journals selecting his writing or art. Carl has published four poetry books and his latest book is The World Went Dark, published by Alien Buddha Press. Carl has four photography books, published with Praxis and CreatiVingenuitiy. His photography was exhibited in the Mount Dora and Leesburg Centers for the Arts. Carl is currently an art editor at Glitterati and former editor for Minute Magazine. He was nominated for four The Best of the Net Awards (2022-25) and two different 2023 Pushcart Nominations for poetry and a short story.

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Ritiksha Sharma is a person. She enjoys scribbling and doodling. Her work has appeared in The Collidescope, Penumbric Speculative Fiction Magazine and Illustrated Worlds Magazine.



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Irina Tall (Novikova) is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor's degree in design.

The first personal exhibition "My soul is like a wild hawk" (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, draws on anti-war topics. The first big series she drew was The Red Book, dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds. Writes fairy tales and poems, illustrates short stories. She draws various fantastic creatures: unicorns, animals with human faces, she especially likes the image of a man - a bird - Siren. In 2020, she took part in Poznań Art Week. Her work has been published in magazines: Gupsophila, Harpy Hybrid Review, Little Literary Living Room and others. In 2022, her short story was included in the collection The 50 Best Short Stories, and her poem was published in the collection of poetry The wonders of winter.

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Yuliia Vereta (she/her) is a Polish writer of Ukrainian origin who is now living her third life in Katowice, where she works as a translator and is a poet on a good day and a disaster-maker on a bad one. Her speculative works have been published in print and online, among others in Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Leading Edge, Penumbric, Kaleidotrope, and ParSec. She is a 2022 Best of the Net Nominee.

When she isn't working, writing or cooking, she tries to remake her stationary time machine into a smaller portable model, since the one she currently owns does not fit into the elevator of the 12-story building where she lives and constantly becomes the source of strange questions at airport customs.

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A one-time teen mother and high school dropout, Dr. Larina Warnock serves a large school district in Southern Oregon. She lives with her husband, three dogs, and a turtle older than she is. Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction has appeared or is forthcoming in MetaStellar, Abyss & Apex, Space & Time Magazine, and others. She can be found on Substack at larinawrites.substack.com.