Rae Carson was born in 1973 in California and now lives in Arizona. She developed an enthusiasm for storytelling in her earliest childhood. She studied social sciences and worked in various industries after graduating from university before she realized her dream and became a writer. The Girl of Fire and Thorns is her debut novel. In her own words, she "write[s] books about teens who must do brave things. [Her] books tend to contain lots of adventure, a little magic and romance, and smart girls who make (mostly) smart choices. [She] especially love[s] to write about questions [she doesn't] know the answers to." Has also published as Rae Carson Finlay.

Karen Osborne is the author of Architects of Memory and Engines of Oblivion, as well as a violinist, videographer and thereminist. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Fireside, Escape Pod, Robot Dinosaurs and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. She once won a major event filmmaking award for taping a Klingon wedding. Karen lives in upstate New York with her family, too many instruments, and a bonkers orange cat.

Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, and Pretty Marys All in a Row, among others. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vastarien, Tor Nightfire, Titan Books, and The Dark. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin and Ignotus awards. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their excitable calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts. Find her online at gwendolynkiste.com

Rafeif Ismail is an award-winning emerging multilingual writer based in Boorloo, WA (colonially known as Perth). Rafeif’s work explores the themes of home, belonging the so-called 'Australian' identity in the 21st century through the lens of a refugee and third culture youth of the Sudanese diaspora. Rafeif’s work has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across Australia and internationally, with a debut novel forthcoming. Deeply committed to creating diverse works and spaces, Rafeif is the current managing director of Djed Press and a participant in the 2020 AFTRS Talent Camp. Rafeif learned English by reading comic books and relearned her first language (Sudanese Arabic) through reading poetry. Rafeif saw Black Panther about 28 times in cinema and can stand with the best of them on Doctor Who and Star Trek trivia.

a former academic, adjunct, cashier, blueberry-harvester, and kentuckian, alix e. harrow is now a full-time writer living in virginia with her husband and their semi-feral kids. she is the hugo award-winning and nyt-bestselling author of THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY (2019), THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES (2020), a duology of fairytale novellas (A SPINDLE SPLINTERED and A MIRROR MENDED), and various short fiction. her next book, STARLING HOUSE will be out on halloween 2023! her writing is represented by kate mckean at howard morhaim literary agency. newsletter: https://writtenworld.substack.com/ email: alixeharrow at gmail.com insta: alix.e.harrow