
The city. Noisy, crowded, and ever in motion, the city can be more than a setting—it can be a character, as nuanced and as fickle as a human being, with as many traits and quirks as the best mapped-out characters. The city can be the ever-present and constant companion (or foe) to the protagonist and antagonist alike. Winter in the A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is an anthology of dark speculative fiction tales set in 18 cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter. In Paris, a vagrant artist confronts a terrible truth while traveling across a frozen Seine and the well-walked paths of l’empire de la Mort…Children depart on a mystical quest to find their parents among the icy tombs of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem…In the snow-begotten slums of Manila, a young fighter must disobey her family and society to finally find freedom…The white-out conditions in Brooklyn are not nearly as dangerous as deals made in blood and bone…
Authors

Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita. An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his forthcoming dark fantasy novel TRAIL OF SHADOWS, his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO and THE GHOULMAKER’S ARIA, and his newest horror collection, SLOW BURN. UNSEAMING and AFTERMATH OF AN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENT, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy. As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for MYTHIC DELIRIUM, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years. He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee. With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.

Lily Childs... writes dark fiction, horror and chilling mysteries. She is currently completing her first novel, a supernatural asylum thriller set in the south of England. Her gothic horrors, ghost stories and crime tales have been published in anthologies, most recently: The House of Three: a Short Story (Ganglion Press), The Twistweaver’s Son in The Demonologia Biblica (Western Legends Publishing), The Ossillatrice Shift in Bones (James Ward Kirk Fiction), Strange Tastes in Fresh Fear (James Ward Kirk Fiction), Girl Don’t Come in Thirteen (Soul Bay Press), Rapture in The Bestiarum Vocabulum (Western Legends Publishing) and Bad Exposure in Phobophobias 2 (Western Legends Publishing) Cabaret of Dread: a Horror Compendium (2012) is a gathering of Lily’s terrifying tales, and a selection of her poems was published in Courting Demons - A Collection Of Dark Verse in 2011. Lily is also author of the Magenta Shaman dark urban fantasy, short story series. Her psychological crime thriller Carpaccio was nominated for a Spinetingler Award in 2011. She is a member of The British Fantasy Society and former Horror Editor at Thrillers Killers 'n' Chillers e-zine. Blog: The Feardom http://lilychildsfeardom.blogspot.com Twitter @LilyChilds and Facebook.com/LilyChildsFeardom


Sam Rebelein holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College (with a focus on Horror and Memoir), a certificate of graduation from the Lubbock Area Square & Round Dance Federation, and that one trophy in The Last of Us Part II for when you beat the game on the hardest difficulty. Hard to say which of these is his greatest accomplishment. Sam's work has appeared in a number of speculative fiction publications, including Bourbon Penn, Coffin Bell Journal, The Dread Machine, Press Pause Press, Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year, and elsewhere. His award-nominated story "Black Fanged Thing" was listed as a stand-out piece of 2018 on Barnes & Noble's "Sci-fi & Fantasy Blog." HarperCollins' horror and crime imprint William Morrow is publishing Sam's debut horror novel EDENVILLE on October 3rd, 2023, and his debut short story collection THE POORLY MADE AND OTHER THINGS in 2024. For more about Sam's writing (and pictures of his dogs), follow Sam on Twitter @HillaryScruff.


Bracken MacLeod has worked as a martial arts teacher, a university philosophy instructor, for a children's non-profit, and as a trial attorney. His short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies including LampLight, ThugLit, and Splatterpunk and has been collected in 13 VIEWS OF THE SUICIDE WOODS by ChiZine Publications. He is the author of MOUNTAIN HOME, a novella titled WHITE KNIGHT, and STRANDED, from Tor Books. His newest novel, COME TO DUST, is coming from Journalstone/Trepidatio Press in June of 2017. He lives outside of Boston with his wife and son, where he is at work on his next novel.

Hollingsworth graduated from The Kubert School in 1991 and began getting regular work from Marvel Comics and DC Comics. In 1993, he was hired to the Dark Horse Comics staff as head of the painted art department. After a year, he returned to freelance work and helped launch the award-winning Preacher from DC's Vertigo imprint. He has worked on many titles for DC/Vertigo, Marvel, and others, including Catwoman, Batman, Daredevil and Alias. He won an Eisner Award for Best Colorist/Coloring in 1997, for work on several comics including Death: The High Cost of Living. He was nominated in 2004 for Catwoman. His latest project is an Eternals book written by Neil Gaiman and pencilled by John Romita, Jr.. Hollingsworth signed an exclusive contract with Marvel in April 2010.[1] In 2003, he enrolled in the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Hollywood to become a visual effects artist in the film industry. He began working as a texture painter and technical director on such films as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Fantastic Four, Serenity, Superman Returns, among others. Toward the end of 2006, Hollingsworth moved to Croatia.

I'm a genderqueer non-binary author with a penchant for the dark and strange. I primarily write SFF but enjoy literary writing as well. (Pronouns she or they) When not writing, I teach music at an international school, climb, eat anything involving peanut butter, and serve the whims of my shiba inu. I've also published stories and novels as Suzanne van Rooyen and you can find those on the link under 'influences' in my profile.

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

