Clay F. Johnson is the author of A Ride Through Faerie & Other Poems (2021), published by Gothic Keats Press in honor of John Keats on the bicentennial year of his death. His writing has been published widely, nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Rhysling Award, and received Honorable Mention in The Best Horror of the Year. His collection’s eponymous poem, “A Ride Through Faerie”, was recently presented at “Ill Met by Moonlight”, a university conference in England that discussed the darker side of faeries in literature. Find out more on his website at https://www.clayfjohnson.com/ and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @ClayFJohnson.

Adam Bolivar is a poet of mythic and folkloric fantasy, a weird fiction writer and a playwright for marionettes with a particular interest in alliterative verse, balladry and “Jack” tales. That he is a member of an occult poetic society known as the Crimson Circle is a rumour which is only whispered in darkness.

Sunand Tryambak Joshi is an Indian American literary scholar, and a leading figure in the study of Howard Phillips Lovecraft and other authors. Besides what some critics consider to be the definitive biography of Lovecraft (H. P. Lovecraft: A Life, 1996), Joshi has written about Ambrose Bierce, H. L. Mencken, Lord Dunsany, and M.R. James, and has edited collections of their works. His literary criticism is notable for its emphases upon readability and the dominant worldviews of the authors in question; his The Weird Tale looks at six acknowledged masters of horror and fantasy (namely Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Dunsany, M. R. James, Bierce and Lovecraft), and discusses their respective worldviews in depth and with authority. A follow-up volume, The Modern Weird Tale, examines the work of modern writers, including Shirley Jackson, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Thomas Ligotti, T. E. D. Klein and others, from a similar philosophically oriented viewpoint. The Evolution of the Weird Tale (2004) includes essays on Dennis Etchison, L. P. Hartley, Les Daniels, E. F. Benson, Rudyard Kipling, David J. Schow, Robert Bloch, L. P. Davies, Edward Lucas White, Rod Serling, Poppy Z. Brite and others. Joshi is the editor of the small-press literary journals Lovecraft Studies and Studies in Weird Fiction, published by Necronomicon Press. He is also the editor of Lovecraft Annual and co-editor of Dead Reckonings, both small-press journals published by Hippocampus Press. In addition to literary criticism, Joshi has also edited books on atheism and social relations, including Documents of American Prejudice (1999), an annotated collection of American racist writings; In Her Place (2006), which collects written examples of prejudice against women; and Atheism: A Reader (2000), which collects atheistic writings by such people as Antony Flew, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, Emma Goldman, Gore Vidal and Carl Sagan, among others. An Agnostic Reader, collecting pieces by such writers as Isaac Asimov, John William Draper, Albert Einstein, Frederic Harrison, Thomas Henry Huxley, Robert Ingersoll, Corliss Lamont, Arthur Schopenhauer and Edward Westermarck, was published in 2007. Joshi is also the author of God's Defenders: What They Believe and Why They Are Wrong (2003), an anti-religious polemic against various writers including C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, T. S. Eliot, William F. Buckley, Jr., William James, Stephen L. Carter, Annie Dillard, Reynolds Price, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Guenter Lewy, Neale Donald Walsch and Jerry Falwell, which is dedicated to theologian and fellow Lovecraft critic Robert M. Price. In 2006 he published The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting It Wrong, which criticised the political writings of such commentators as William F. Buckley, Jr., Russell Kirk, David and Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly, William Bennett, Gertrude Himmelfarb and Irving and William Kristol, arguing that, despite the efforts of right-wing polemicists, the values of the American people have become steadily more liberal over time. Joshi, who lives with his wife in Moravia, New York, has stated on his website that his most noteworthy achievements thus far have been his biography of Lovecraft, H. P. Lovecraft: A Life and The Weird Tale.

Kyla Lee Ward is a Sydney-based creative who works in many modes, that have garnered her Australian Shadows and Aurealis awards. She has placed in the Rhyslings and received multiple Stoker and Ditmar nominations. Reviewers have accused her of being “gothic and esoteric”, “weird and exhilarating” and of “giving me a nightmare.” This Attraction Now Open Till Late is her first collection of dark and fantastic stories after two poetry collections, The Macabre Modern and Other Morbidities and The Land of Bad Dreams. Her work on RPGs including Demon: the Fallen saw her appear as a guest at the inaugural Gencon Australia. Her short film, 'Bad Reception', screened at the Third International Vampire Film Festival and she is a founding member of Deadhouse - tales of Sydney Morgue and the Theatre of Blood, which have also performed her work. A practicing occultist, she likes raptors, swordplay and the Hellfire Club. Please permit me to explain my personal scheme of ratings - I would prefer to simply provide reviews, but here at Goodreads, one is a necessary precursor to the other. 3 is the most common score I give, because it means the book was good. I enjoyed it, it was well-presented and properly proofed, and I consider the author to have achieved their objective. I give out 4s much more rarely and believe I have only ever given out one 5. 2s are also rare and mean I found the book flawed in respect of its own intent, or atrocious formatting and proofing errors. I have never yet rated a book at 1.

Wilum lived in Seattle, WA and wrote Cthulhu Mythos fiction full-time. He was the self-proclaimed "Queen of Eldritch Horror," and had been writing Lovecraftian weird fiction since the early 1970s. Writing weird fiction was his life, but congestive heart failure slowed his writing. He considered his finest books to be Some Unknown Gulf of Night (Arcane Wisdom Press 2011), Uncommon Places (Hippocampus Press 2012) and The Tangled Muse (Centipede Press 2011).

Oliver Smith was born in 1966, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. His stories generally deal with the weird, fantastic, and speculative: there’s a mermaid in the bathroom, jars of pickled brains are plotting in the pantry, a giant flea is sat where the flatmate used to be, and down the pub a strange green man has lost his head and isn't going to take it lying down. He studied fine art painting and his writing practice developed from an interest in various surrealist techniques. He utilizes an analogous approach when writing using various cut-up and fold in techniques, automatic writing, and formal poetic exercises. His influences include Kingsley Amis, Lucius Apuleius, J G Ballard, Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Angela Carter, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alasdair Gray, Aldous Huxley, Henrik Ibsen, Franz Kafka, H P Lovecraft, David Madsen, Gustav Meyrink, Michael Moorcock, George Orwell, Edgar Allan Poe, Herbert Rosendorfer, Bruno Schulz, Clark Ashton Smith, and August Strindberg. His prose writing has appeared in the following anthologies: ‘Land’s End’ Inkermen Press (2008), ‘Cold Turkey’ Inkermen Press (2009), ‘This Hermetic Legislature: A Homage to Bruno Schulz’ Ex Occidente Press (2012), ‘Transactions of the Flesh: A Homage to Joris-Karl Huysmans’ Ex Occidente Press/Zagava Press (2013), ‘Dark Hall Press Cosmic Horror Anthology’ Dark Hall Press (2014) His poetry has appeared in S T Joshi’s ‘Spectral Realms’ from Hippocampus Press. More short stories are due to be published in the anthologies ‘History and Horror, Oh My’ from Mystery and Horror, LLC and ‘Techno-Horror’ from Dark Hall Press.

Works of American poet Edwin Arlington Arlington include long narratives and character studies of New Englanders, including "Miniver Cheevy" (1907). Edwin Arlington Robinson won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work. His family moved to Gardiner, Maine, in 1870. He described his childhood as "stark and unhappy." Early difficulties of Robinson led to a dark pessimism, and his stories dealt with "an American dream gone awry." In 1896, he self-published his first book, "The Torrent and the Night Before", paying 100 dollars for 500 copies. His second volume, "The Children of the Night", had a somewhat wider circulation. Edwin Arlington Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1922 for his first "Collected Poems," in 1925 for "The Man Who Died Twice," and in 1928 for "Tristram." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin\_Ar...

John Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS. He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books. His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks. He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings. John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher. John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS. source: Amazon