Elaine U. Cho is the author of OCEAN'S GODORI and TEO'S DURUMI. She has an MFA in Flute Performance and is a kyūdō practitioner.

Dawson (she/they) is the Golden Crown award-winning writer of THE FIRST BRIGHT THING, THE LIGHTHOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, and various short stories. You can find them at www.jrdawsonwriter.com

Amanda Foody has always considered imagination to be our best attempt at magic. She is the New York Times, USA Today, and indie bestselling author of fantasy novels, including the Wilderlore series, All of Us Villains duology, and more.

Emily Jane is the USA Today bestselling author of the fun genre-bending novels ON EARTH AS IT IS ON TELEVISION and HERE BESIDE THE RISING TIDE. She lives on an urban farm in Cincinnati with her husband and their two kids.

Micaiah Johnson is a Brooklyn-based author and scholar. She received her BA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and her MFA in fiction from Rutgers-Camden and her doctorate at Vanderbilt university. Her debut novel THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS won the Compton Crook Award and was an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times. NPR named it one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science fiction books of the last decade. 

Yume Kitasei is a Japanese and American speculative fiction author of THE DEEP SKY, THE STARDUST GRAIL, and SALTCROP. She lives in Brooklyn with two cats, Boondoggle and Filibuster.

Matthew Kressel is a Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominated author and coder. His books include a short story collection, HISTORIES WITHIN US, and novels SPACE TRUCKER JESS and THE RAINSEEKERS. He runs the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series with Ellen Datlow and created the Moksha submissions system used by many fiction publishers today.

Ray Nayler is the author of the novel The Mountain in the Sea, which won the Locus Award for “Best First Novel,” and the novella The Tusks of Extinction. Called “one of the up-and-coming masters of SF short fiction” by Locus, Nayler’s stories have been published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Vice, and Nightmare, as well as in many “Best Of” anthologies. His stories have won the Clarkesworld Readers’ Poll and the Asimov’s Readers’ Award, and his novelette “Sarcophagus” was a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award.

Sarah Pinsker is the author of over sixty works of short fiction, one novella, two novels, and two collections, which have been translated into almost a dozen languages. Her work has won Nebulas, Hugos, the Philip K Dick, Locus, the Eugie Foster, and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and been nominated for World Fantasy Awards. She is the author of two short story collections: the Philip K Dick Award-winning Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea: Stories and Lost Places, published by Small Beer Press. Her novels include A Song For A New Day and We Are Satellites (Penguin/Random House/Berkley). Tordotcom novella Haunt Sweet Home appeared in September 2024.

Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of When Among Crows, Arch-Conspirator, Poster Girl, Chosen Ones, the Divergent series, and the Carve the Mark duology. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Tara Sim is the critically acclaimed YA and Adult fantasy author of the We Shall Be Monsters duology, The Dark Gods Saga, the Scavenge the Stars duology, and the Timekeeper trilogy who can typically be found wandering the wilds of the Bay Area, California. When she’s not chasing cats or lurking in bookstores, she writes books about magic, murder, and mayhem.

Andrea Stewart is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Drowning Empire trilogy and The Gods Below and is a writing coach at The Novelry. She lives in sunny California, and in addition to writing, can be found herding cats, looking at birds, and falling down research rabbit holes.

Mia Tsai is a Taiwanese American author of BITTER MEDICINE, a xianxia-inspired contemporary fantasy, and the forthcoming THE MEMORY HUNTERS. She is also an editor at Giganotosaurus, a 2024 Hugo Award finalist for Best Semiprozine, and the creator of ConCurrent, a SFF convention.

Julia Vee was a trial lawyer in Silicon Valley for over two decades. She attended U.C Berkeley and majored in Asian Studies. She often writes with co-author Ken Bebelle. Their novel EBONY GATE, an Asian-inspired urban fantasy was a Golden Poppy Finalist for the Octavia E. Butler award. The series conclusion, PEARL CITY, released in July of 2025.

Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published eight novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for Nebulas, World Fantasy, Hugos, Locus, and a Lodestar. She is the Managing Editor for The Sunday Morning Transport and teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ WFCMYA MFA and St. Mary’s College of Maryland.