- A. T. Greenblatt [Schedule]
|
 | - A.T. Greenblatt is a Nebula Award winning writer and mechanical engineer. She lives in New York City where she's known to frequently subject her friends to various cooking and home brewing experiments. Her work has been nominated for a Hugo, Locus, and Sturgeon Award, has been in multiple Year's Best anthologies, and has appeared in Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, and Clarkesworld, as well as other fine publications. You can find her online at http://atgreenblatt.com and on BlueSky at @AtGreenblatt
|
-
- A.C. Wise [Schedule]
|
| | - A.C. Wise is the author of the novels Wendy, Darling and Hooked, and the recent short story collection, The Ghost Sequences. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and has been a finalist for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Stoker, Locus, Aurora, British Fantasy, Shirley Jackson, Ignyte, and Lambda Literary Awards. In addition to her fiction, she contributes a regular review column to Apex Magazine.
|
-
- Aaron Pound [Schedule]
|
| | - Aaron has been a science fiction fan ever since he pulled a copy of Samuel R. Delany's Nova off his father's bookshelf when he was nine and discovered the genre. It was not long before he had consumed every science fiction and fantasy novel in the house and went looking for more. He has been a member of WSFA and helping with Capclave for almost nine years. He was the Vice-Chair of the 2022 Capclave, and is a first time chair for Capclave this year. He is available at any time for a discussion about Babylon 5.
|
-
- Adeena Mignogna [Schedule]
|
 | - Adeena Mignogna is on a quest to encourage others to develop a love of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math… through a love of science fiction!
Adeena is a physicist and astronomer (by degree) working in aerospace as a software engineer and manager. More importantly, she’s a long-time science fiction geek with a strong desire to inspire others through writing about robots, aliens, artificial intelligence, computers, longevity, exoplanets, virtual reality, and more.
Website <> Blog <> LinkedIn <> Twitter <> Facebook
The Robot Galaxy Series on Amazon
Co-Host of The BIG Sci-Fi Podcast
|
-
- Alex Shvartsman [Schedule]
|
 | - Alex Shvartsman is the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019) fantasy novels. Over 120 of his stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, etc. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction (2014) and was a two-time finalist (2015 & 2017) for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction.
His translations from Russian have appeared in F&SF, Clarkesworld, Tor.com, Asimov’s, etc. Alex has edited over a dozen anthologies, including the long-running Unidentified Funny Objects series. He’s the editor-in-chief of Future Science Fiction Digest.
|
-
- Andy Duncan [Schedule]
|
 | - Andy Duncan ( https://linktr.ee/andy_duncan ) is a writer, teacher, journalist and connoisseur of weirdness. His honors include a Nebula Award, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, three World Fantasy Awards, and awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Science Fiction Research Association. His latest collection is An Agent of Utopia, from Small Beer Press; he narrates nine stories on the Recorded Books audio edition. His non-fiction project Weird Western Maryland is ongoing. A former board member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, he lives in Maryland’s mountains as a tenured English professor at Frostburg State University.
|
-
- Bill Lawhorn [Schedule]
|
 | - Bill Lawhorn is a four time Capclave chair. During the week he discusses and writes about the future of work. He writes reviews for SFRevu.
|
-
- Bjorn Hasseler [Schedule]
|
 | - Bjorn Hasseler found Eric Flint's novel 1632 in a public library. Then he discovered that fans were not just allowed but encouraged to write in the 1632 universe. He writes the Neustatter's European Security Service thread (A Matter of Security, Missions of Security, Security Threats) and co-edited 1637: The Coast of Chaos and A 1632 Christmas. A few years ago, he volunteered to help out and became managing editor of the Grantville Gazette.
Bjorn lives near Laurel, Maryland and has worked as a military reenactor, a library page, a sports information director, a data manager, a registrar, and an academic advisor.
|
-
- Brick Barrientos [Schedule]
|
 | - Brick Barrientos hosts the movie trivia game show Silver Screen Test. He won a national championship in College Bowl and was a one-day champion on Jeopardy. Brick has been regularly hosting trivia contests since the days of reading questions off cards instead of tablets. Before the pandemic, he could be found all over Maryland winning pub quiz trivia cash. Since lockdown, remote technology has enabled him to be both a contestant and host for quizzes with participants over four continents. He is the proud father of a daughter who is also a science fiction fan and may also have a cat.
|
-
- Carolyn Ives Gilman [Schedule]
|
 | - Carolyn Ives Gilman is a Hugo and Nebula Award nominated author of science fiction and fantasy. Her books include Dark Orbit, a space exploration adventure; Isles of the Forsaken and Ison of the Isles, a two-book fantasy about culture clash and revolution; and Halfway Human, a novel about gender and oppression. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and others. Her work has been translated into a dozen languages and appeared in numerous Best Science Fiction of the Year anthologies.
Gilman lives in Washington, D.C., and works as a freelance writer and museum consultant, currently doing work for the U.S. Capitol. She is also author of seven nonfiction books about North American frontier and Native history.
|
-
- Cathy Green [Schedule]
|
| | - I have been a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association for over 20 years and have been involved in running Capclave since the first one in 2001, and have chaired it three times. I was also Facilities Division Head for DisCon III, the 79th WorldCon and Convention Center Function Space Area Head for Chicon 8. I've been a fan of both media and literary SFF my whole life, ever since my mother fed me as an infant while watching Star Trek:TOS on its original broadcast run, thus forever associating SFF and happiness in my mind. Star Wars and Dr. Who were my first major obsessive fandoms.
|
-
- Charles Gannon [Schedule]
|
 | - Dr. Charles E. Gannon‘s best-selling books have won the Dragon Award, the ALA Choice Award (Outstanding Book), the Compton Crook Award, and have been nominated for four Nebulas. His Caine Riordan series of hard sf novels have all been national best-sellers and include 4 finalists for the Nebula, 2 for the Dragon, and a Compton Crook winner. In 2020, the “Caineverse” expanded into an exclusive imprint, Beyond Terra Press (Chris Kennedy Publications) which has brought readers the closely entwined Murphy's Lawless series, reissued the anthology Lost Signals of the Terran Republic, and has just recently embarked upon an unprecedented cooperative venture as an novel incubator for Baen Books.
Gannon’s epic fantasy series, The Vortex of Worlds, debuted in 2021 with This Broken World. He collaborated w/ Eric Flint in the NYT/WSJ bestselling Ring of Fire series, has written two solo novels in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising world, and co-authored three volumes with Steve White in the Starfire series. He’s also worked in the Honorverse, Man-Kzin, and War World universes. His other writing credits include lots of short fiction, table-top roleplaying games (Traveller, 2300 AD, Twilight: 2000, Dark Conspiracy) and years of work as a scriptwriter/producer in NYC.
As a Distinguished Professor of English, Gannon received 5 Fulbrights, and his Rumors of War & Infernal Machines won the 2006 ALA Choice Award for Outstanding Book. He is a frequent subject matter expert for national media venues (NPR, Discovery, etc.) and for various intelligence and defense agencies.
|
-
-
- Courtni Burleson [Schedule]
|
| | - Courtni is a frequent convention-goer, WSFAn, and serial book club member. She's the organizer of the DC Nerds of Color and Super Friends - a nearly 3,800 member Meetup group that hosts a welcoming and inclusive nerd environment grounded in the perspectives of people of color.
|
-
- Danielle Ackley-McPhail [Schedule]
|
 | - Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. In 2014 she joined forces with Mike McPhail and Greg Schauer to form eSpec Books (www.especbooks.com).
Her published works include eight novels, Yesterday's Dreams, Tomorrow's Memories, Today’s Promise, The Halfling’s Court, The Redcaps’ Queen, Daire’s Devils, The Play of Light, and Baba Ali and the Clockwork Djinn, written with Day Al-Mohamed. She is also the author of the solo collections Eternal Wanderings, A Legacy of Stars, Consigned to the Sea, Flash in the Can, Transcendence, Between Darkness and Light, and the non-fiction writers’ guides The Literary Handyman, More Tips from the Handyman, and LH: Build-A-Book Workshop. She is the senior editor of the Bad-Ass Faeries anthology series, Gaslight & Grimm, Side of Good/Side of Evil, After Punk, and Footprints in the Stars. Her short stories are included in numerous other anthologies and collections. She is a full member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
In addition to her literary acclaim, she crafts and sells original costume horns under the moniker The Hornie Lady Custom Costume Horns, and homemade flavor-infused candied ginger under the brand of Ginger KICK! at literary conventions, on commission, and wholesale.
Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats.
|
-
- Darrell Charles Schweitzer [Schedule]
|
 | - Darrell Schweitzer has been attending Capclave for as long as there has been a Capclave and he attended Disclave for decades before that. He is author of THE MASK OF THE SORCERER, THE DRAGON HOUSE, THE WHITE ISLE, and THE SHATTERED GODDESS plus about 350 published stories, which have appeared in venues as diverse as AMAZING STORIES, TWILIGHT ZONE MAGAZINE, INTERZONE, POSTSCRIPTS and the Black Wings anthology series (all seven volumes so far). Recently PS Publishing issued a two-volume career retrospective of his best short fiction, THE MYSTERIES OF THE FACELESS KING and THE LAST HERETIC. Recently Hippocampus Press issued yet another collection of his short fiction, THE CHILDREN OF CHORAZIN. He has been active as a critic and reviewer for many years and is still a regular contributor to THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION and DEAD RECKONINGS. His most recent essay collection is THE THRESHOLD OF FOREVER. As an editor, he worked with the late George Scithers on ASIMOV'S SF and AMAZING, and co-edited WEIRD TALES for 19 years. He has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award four times and won it once (with George, for WEIRD TALES). He is presently an active anthologist. Most of his recent anthologies seem to have tentacles, i.e. are Lovecraft-themed, the most recent being SHADOWS OUT OF TIME from PS Publishing. With all these publications from INTERZONE, POSTSCRIPTS, New English LIbrary, PS Publishing, etc. he might have some claim to being a famous British writer, except his accent is entirely unconvincing.
|
-
-
- David Keener [Schedule]
|
 | - David Keener is an author, editor, and podcaster who lives in Northern Virginia. He writes science fiction, fantasy, and mystery but loves mashing up his favorite genres in new and unexpected ways, as demonstrated in stories such as Clash by Night, Road Trip, and The Whispering Voice. Rumor has it that he may be working on a hard-SF zombie story.
He is the anthologist behind the “Fantastic” anthology series from Tannhauser Press, as well as a co-editor of Fantastic Defenders, Fantastic Detectives, and The Forever Inn. He frequently speaks at conferences and conventions. Find out more about him at his website: http://www.davidkeener.org
|
-
- Doc Coleman [Schedule]
|
 | - Doc Coleman never dreamed of being a writer.
But he had a way with words. And he wanted to tell stories.
One day a friend told Doc that it takes 10,000 hours to master a new skill. He didn’t know how true that was, but he did see that you don’t get better at things you don’t do.
He set about getting better at writing.
He started a blog, writing about something he knew about: technology.
About six months later, he started writing short stories.
Doc’s stories have appeared in The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences’ Tales from the Archives, the Way of the Gun Bushido Western Anthology, the Steampunk Special Edition of Flagship magazine, and in the charity anthology Paradise Found: Tales From the Library. In 2017 he published his first novel, The Perils of Prague, the first book in the Steampunk Comedy/Adventure series The Adventures of Crackle and Bang. In 2018 he published The Shining Cog and Other Steampunk Tales, a collection of Steampunk short stories. In the coming year, he plans on publishing the second Crackle and Bang Adventure, The Kindred of Kali. He’s also a contributing author to eSpec Books’ Forgotten Lore series.
Doc has been a perennial guest at Balticon, RavenCon, Capclave, and Continual. He is also known as a narrator and a voice actor.
When he isn’t juggling projects, making a living, or mainlining podcasts, Doc is a gamer, an avid reader, a home brewer and beer lover, a fan of renaissance festivals, and frequently a smart-ass. He lives with his lovely wife and two cats in Germantown, MD.
|
-
-
- Ef Deal [Schedule]
|
| | - Ef Deal is a musician,a poet, an editor, a video editor, and an author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. She began writing at the age of 9, teaching herself to type on an Underwood Royal typewriter. Her short fiction has been published in numerous online zines and print anthologies including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and most recently in A Cast of Crows from eSpec Books, Dangerous Waters from Brigid’s Gate, and Chris Ryan’s Soul Scream Antholozine. She is currently assistant fiction editor at Abyss&Apex magazine, and video editor for Strong Women ~ Strange Worlds. Her novel Esprit de Corpse from eSpec Books is the first in a steampunk paranormal romance series set in France, featuring the gifted Twins of Bellefées. She lives in Haddonfield, NJ, with her husband and her chow chow and enjoys marching with the Golden Knights alumni drum and bugle corps. She is a member of SFWA and HWA. Her website is www.efdeal.net. Follow her blog Talespinner at efdeal.blogspot.com.
|
-
- Hildy Silverman [Schedule]
|
 | - Hildy Silverman writes speculative fiction of all kinds primarily for anthologies. Her story, “The Six Million Dollar Mermaid,” was a finalist for the WSFA Small Press award. Her novella, "Invasive Species", was released in 2023 as part of the Systema Paradoxa Cryptid Crate series published by eSpec Books. She is a member of the Crazy 8 Press authors consortium and occasionally edits novels and short stories for others.
From 2005-2018, Hildy was the publisher and editor-in-chief of Space and Time, a venerable magazine of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is a past president of the Garden State Speculative Fiction Writers and a frequent panelist on the science fiction convention circuit.
|
-
- Ian Randal Strock [Schedule]
|
| | - Ian Randal Strock (www.IanRandalStrock.com) is a writer, editor, and publisher. He thinks of himself as a science fiction writer, though 98% of his published words have been non-fiction (including three books of presidential history). He is the winner of two AnLab Awards from Analog (his writing has appeared in the magazine more than two dozen times). His fiction has also appeared in Nature (three times), and a bunch of recent anthologies. He is the owner, publisher, and editor of Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz), which published the recent anthology Jewish Futures, as well as Release the Virgins, Across the Universe, and Three Time Travelers Walk Into..., as well as the definitive book about Samuel R. Delany's novel Dhalgren, the Hugo Award finalist Jar Jar Binks Must Die, and collections and novels by Allen Steele, Tanith Lee, Michael Moorcock, and many more.
|
-
- Inge Heyer [Schedule]
|
 | - Inge Heyer, Ph.D., has spent decades developing a unique expertise in astronomy communications across a variety of settings, including college classrooms, K-12 schools, informal educational settings, professional scientific journalism, and science fiction venues.
Born and raised in Berlin, Germany, she completed her secondary education there before accepting a scholarship to attend Tenri University (Japan), where she studied Japanese. After later earning an undergraduate degree in Astronomy and Physics from Smith College, she earned a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, and a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Wyoming.
In addition to her professional work as senior data analyst at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Dr. Heyer also served as Deputy Press Officer for the American Astronomical Society and as the public information officer at the Joint Astronomy Centre, where she led the education and public outreach efforts. She has earned Shodan in both Judo and Karate.
Dr. Heyer currently teaches astronomy and physics at Loyola University Maryland. She is co-author of seven books, including Investigating Astronomy (4th Edition) and Being a Successfully Busy Professor. And if you have ever wondered how those beautiful Hubble images got into science fiction series like Babylon-5 and Star Trek, Inge is the trouble-maker who instigated this...
|
-
-
- Jack Campbell [Schedule]
|
 | -
Jack Campbell (John G. Hemry) is a retired US Navy officer who writes the New York Times best-selling Lost Fleet series which has been published in English, French, Japanese, German, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Spanish, Hungarian, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, and Chinese, as well as the Genesis Fleet and Lost Stars series, and the "steampunk meets high fantasy" Pillars of Reality and Empress of the Endless Sea series. His latest book is The Lost Fleet - Outlands: Resolute. He's had numerous short stories published dealing with alternate history, time travel, SF, fantasy, and humor. His YA novel The Sister Paradox won the 2018 Epic ebook award. While in the Navy he served in surface warfare, intelligence, amphibious warfare, anti-terrorism, and other assignments. He lives in Maryland with his indomitable wife “S” and three great kids. www.jack-campbell.com
|
-
- James Morrow [Schedule]
|
| | - Born in 1947, James Morrow has been writing fiction ever since, as a seven-year-old living in the Philadelphia suburbs, he dictated “The Story of the Dog Family” to his mother, who dutifully typed it up and bound the pages with yarn.
Upon reaching adulthood, Jim channeled his storytelling urges toward the production of speculative literature. The majority of his eleven novels are written in satiric-theological mode, including the critically acclaimed Godhead Trilogy. He has won the World Fantasy Award twice (for Only Begotten Daughter and Towing Jehovah), the Nebula Award twice (for his story “The Deluge” and the novella City of Truth), and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award once (for the novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima).
In recent years the author has produced historical fiction informed by a fantastika sensibility, including The Last Witchfinder (about the birth of the Enlightenment), Galápagos Regained (about the coming of the evolutionary worldview), and a novel-in-progress that sardonically reimagines the A.D. 325 Council of Nicaea. The French translation of Jim’s Darwin epic recently received the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.
www.jamesmorrow.net
|
-
- Jean Marie Ward [Schedule]
|
 | - Jean Marie Ward writes fiction, nonfiction and everything in between. Her credits include a multi-award nominated novel, two popular art books and editing CrescentBlues.com. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov’s to the anthologies of Zombies Need Brains. The former editor of CrescentBlues.com, she is a frequent contributor to BookBale.com and ConTinual, the convention that never ends. Find her on the web at JeanMarieWard.com
|
-
- Jennifer R. Povey [Schedule]
|
| | - Born in Nottingham, England, Jennifer R. Povey (she/her) now lives in Northern Virginia, where she writes everything from heroic fantasy to stories for Analog. She has written a number of novels across multiple sub genres. She is a full member of SFWA. Her interests include horseback riding, Doctor Who and attempting to out-weird her various friends and professional colleagues.
|
-
- Jo Miles [Schedule]
|
 | - Jo Miles writes optimistic science fiction and fantasy. Their debut novel Warped State is out now, and their short stories have appeared in magazines including Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and more. Their story “The Longest Season in the Garden of the Tea Fish” in Strange Horizons was nominated for a WSFA Small Press Award. They live in Maryland, where they spend their time dreaming up strange new worlds and serving the whims of their two cats. Find a complete list of Jo’s books and short stories at www.jomiles.com.
|
-
- Joan Wendland [Schedule]
|
| | - Joan Wendland is a Renaissance woman. Engineer, game designer, author, juggler, and sometimes stand up comic. She can do almost anything but sew or draw. She lives in northern Virginia but is still a Jersey girl at heart.
Joan’s fine card games can be found at www.blood-and-cardstock.com
Her writing blog is located at www.zoo-illuminati.com
Her Twitter handle is @BandCGames
|
-
- John Ashmead [Schedule]
|
 | - John Ashmead has a BA in physics from Harvard, summa cum laude, and a masters in physics from Princeton.
For several years he was an assistant editor for Asimov's SF Magazine (but has lived an otherwise blameless existence).
Since then he has worked as a software and database developer, working in the medical, legal, advertising, financial, scientific, and other areas, with clients ranging from a perinatal laboratory to a cemetery (his company slogan is cradle to grave programming). He currently supports a leading optical switch manufacturer (your web pages & email travel over switches he helped build).
John has stayed part of the science fiction community. Recently he co-edited (with Darrell Schweitzer) Tales from the Miskatonic University: what evils lurk in the dark reaches of the Dewey Decimal System? And he has given talks at NASA, Philcon, Capclave, Balticon, and several Worldcons on subjects such Time Travel, Invisibility, Practical Telepathy, Artificial Intelligence, and the Quantum Internet.
He has published several peer-reviewed physics papers on the relationship between time and quantum mechanics: does quantum mechanics apply along the time dimension? and if so, how could we look for this experimentally? and with current technology? Details (& papers) at his web site Time and Quantum Mechanics.
His lifetime goal is to build a really practical time machine.
|
-
- Joshua Palmatier [Schedule]
|
 | - A professor of mathematics at SUNY College at Oneonta, Joshua Palmatier has published nine novels to date—the “Throne of Amenkor” series (The Skewed Throne, The Cracked Throne, The Vacant Throne), the “Well of Sorrows” series (Well of Sorrows, Leaves of Flame, Breath of Heaven), and the “Ley” series (Shattering the Ley, Threading the Needle, Reaping the Aurora). He is currently hard at work on a new series called the “Crystal Cities.” He has also published numerous short stories and has edited numerous anthologies. He is the founder/owner of a small press called Zombies Need Brains LLC, which focuses on producing SF&F themed anthologies, the most recent being Dragonesque, Solar Flare, Artifice & Craft, and Game On!. ZNB has also recently launched a new online SF&F magazine called ZNB Presents through Patreon at www.patreon.com/zombiesneedbrains. Find out more at www.joshuapalmatier.com or at www.zombiesneedbrains.com. You can also find him on Facebook under Joshua B. Palmatier and Zombies Need Brains, and on Twitter at @bentateauthor and @ZNBLLC.
|
-
- Karlo Yeager Rodriguez [Schedule]
|
 | - Karlo Yeager Rodríguez is originally from the enchanting island of Puerto Rico, but moved to the Baltimore area some years ago where he now lives with his wife and one odd dog. He is the host of the SFF podcast, Podside Picnic and the non-fiction editor for Seize the Press. His fiction has appeared in such places as Uncanny, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Strange Horizons.
|
-
- Keith R.A. DeCandido [Schedule]
|
 | - Keith R.A. DeCandido has written 60 novels, 110 short stories, and 50 comic books, which is great if you like numbers ending in zero. His output includes work in more than 30 different licensed universes from Alien to Zorro, including TV shows (Star Trek, Supernatural), movies (Cars, Kung Fu Panda), games (Resident Evil, World of Warcraft), and comic books (Spider-Man, Thor). He also has written extensively in universes of his own creation, mostly fantastical police procedurals in the fictional cities of Cliff's End (Dragon Precinct and its sequels and short stories) and Super City (the novel The Case of the Claw and a mess of short fiction), and urban fantasies in the somewhat real locales of Key West (the tales of Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet) and New York (the Bram Gold Adventures). Recent and upcoming work includes the fantasy novels Phoenix Precinct and Feat of Clay, latest in the Precinct and Bram Gold series, respectively; the Resident Evil comic book miniseries Infinite Darkness: The Beginning; the urban fantasy short story collection Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet; the Star Trek Adventures role-playing game module Incident at Kraav III (with Fred Love); and short fiction in Star Trek Explorer magazine, in the anthology series Sherlock Holmes: Cases by Candlelight, Phenomenons, and Thrilling Adventure Yarns, and in the anthologies Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, Joe Ledger: Unbreakable, A Cry of Hounds, and The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny, as well as in two anthologies that Keith also co-edited, Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups (with Jonathan Maberry) and The Four ???? of the Apocalypse (with Wrenn Simms).
Keith is also a prolific prognosticator on pop-culture, primarily for the award-winning webzine Tor.com, for whom he's been a regular contributor since 2011, and also for Entertainment Weekly, Star Trek: The Official Magazine, and the essay anthologies published by Crazy 8 Press, Smart Pop, Becky Books, and Sequart and in the Outside In, Gold Archive, and Subterranean Blue Grotto series.
In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith is an editor (for clients both personal and corporate), a musician (currently percussionst for the parody band Boogie Knights), a martial artist (a fourth-degree black belt in karate), the co-owner of WhysperWude (a very small press), and possibly some other stuff he can't recall due to the lack of sleep. Find out less at his hilariously retro web site at DeCandido.net.
|
-
- Ken Altabef [Schedule]
|
 | - Ken Altabef’s short fiction has appeared in fantasy magazines such as F&SF, Interzone, Daily Science Fiction, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Dark Matter, Abyss & Apex, and Speculative North. His stories have received honorable mention in Years Best SF and Best Horror of the Year. He is the author of twelve fantasy novels, best known for popularizing Inuit culture with the ALAANA'S WAY series which takes place in a unique fantasy world based on Inuit mythology. His critically acclaimed LADY CHANGELING TRILOGY features shapeshifting faeries, action, intrigue, and romance. He is the editor of two mixed-genre anthologies from Blueberry Lane Books. Visit his website at www.KenAltabef.com
|
-
- L. Penelope [Schedule]
|
 | - Leslye Penelope (who also writes as L. Penelope) has been writing since she could hold a pen and loves getting lost in the worlds in her head. She is an award-winning author of fantasy and paranormal romance. Her novel Song of Blood & Stone was chosen as one of TIME Magazine's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time.
She started a web development studio in 2003 and is also an award-winning independent filmmaker, co-founded a literary magazine, and sometimes dreams in HTML. Her podcast, My Imaginary Friends, is a weekly journal of her publishing life, perfect for readers and writers alike. She lives in Maryland with her furry dependents. Visit her website to learn more: http://www.lpenelope.com.
|
-
- Lawrence M. Schoen [Schedule]
|
 | - Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, is a past Astounding, Hugo, and Nebula, nominee, twice won the Cóyotl award for best novel, founded the Klingon Language Institute, and occasionally does work as a hypnotherapist specializing in authors' issues. He is a chimeric cancer survivor.
His science fiction includes many light and humorous adventures of a space-faring stage hypnotist and his alien animal companion. Other works take a very different tone, exploring aspects of determinism and free will, generally redefining the continua between life and death. Sometimes he blurs the funny and the serious. Lawrence lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife and their dog.
|
-
- Leah Cypess [Schedule]
|
 | - Leah Cypess is the author of the Sisters Ever After books, a series of stand-alone middle grade novels that retell fairy tales from the points of view of forgotten younger sisters. The first book in the series, Thornwood, is now out in paperback; the second book, Glass Slippers, was published in April 2022. Leah has also written four young adult fantasy novels and numerous works of short fiction. She is a three-time Nebula finalist and a World Fantasy Award finalist. You can learn more about her and her books at www.leahcypess.com.
|
-
-
- Mark Roth [Schedule]
|
| | - Computer professional - programmer, and sr. systems administrator, now writing, mostly sf. Lifelong sf fan, was a member of PSFS, current member of WSFA and BSFS. Website is https://mrw.5-cent.us
|
-
-
-
- Mary G. Thompson [Schedule]
|
| | - Mary G. Thompson is the author of Wuftoom, which Booklist called “impressively unappetizing and absolutely unique,” and other novels for children and young adults. Her contemporary thriller Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee was a winner of the 2017 Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the 2018-2019 Missouri Gateway award. Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Apex Magazine, and others. Look for her contemporary YA novel The Word and sci-fi novella Constrained Elements, coming soon. Mary is originally from Eugene, Oregon, where she attended the University of Oregon School of Law. She practiced law for seven years, including five years in the US Navy JAGC, and now works as a law librarian. A graduate of The New School’s Writing for Children program, she lives in Washington, DC.
|
-
- Meridel Newton [Schedule]
|
| | - Meridel Newton lives and works in Washington, DC. She has had stories included in anthologies such as 1001 Knights and Recognize Fascism, Giganotosaurus, and a few self-published ventures. She recently published The Future Second by Second, the first novella of a trilogy from Interstellar Flight Press.
|
-
- Michael A Ventrella [Schedule]
|
 | - Michael A. Ventrella’s most recent novel is BIG STICK, a Teddy Roosevelt-steampunk adventure. This follows his previous novels BLOODSUCKERS: A VAMPIRE RUNS FOR PRESIDENT and the TERIN OSTLER fantasy series.
He’s edited over a dozen anthologies, including RELEASE THE VIRGINS, THREE TIME TRAVELERS WALK INTO…, TALES OF FORTANNIS, THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF GRIGNR THE BARBARIAN, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (co-edited with Randee Dawn) and the BAKER STREET IRREGULARS series with New York Times Bestselling Author Jonathan Maberry.
Among his nonfiction works are THE BEATLES ON THE CHARTS from McFarland, two books about the Monkees (co-written with Mark Arnold) from BearManor Media, and HOW TO ARGUE THE CONSTITUTION WITH A CONSERVATIVE, from Gray Rabbit Publications.
His short stories have appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including the HEROES IN HELL series and the MINISTRY OF PECULIAR OCCURANCES series.
Michael leads the Pocono Liars Club, a group of local writers who host writing seminars and workshops. Their web page is https://poconoliarsclub.wordpress.com.
At his website (MichaelAVentrella.com) he interviews other authors, editors, agents, and publishers to get advice for the starting author. He also has another blog where he discusses politics (VentrellaQuest.com.)
In his spare time, he is a lawyer.
|
-
-
-
- Morgan Hazelwood [Schedule]
|
 | - Morgan Hazelwood (she/her) writes from her lair in Northern Virginia. She's a blogger, vlogger, and podcaster of writing tips and writerly musings, plus an actively querying fantasy author. Her short story, "Just a Hike In The Woods" was published by the Dark Recesses Webzine.
When not writing, you can find her devouring book series on her kindle, learning to scroll saw, or feeding her webcomic addiction. She volunteers for her local science fiction and fantasy convention: Balticon. She is also a voice for Anansi Storytelling – a fairytale audio drama podcast.
You can find her at: morganhazelwood.com or across social media
|
-
- Natalie Luhrs [Schedule]
|
| | - Natalie Luhrs is a two-time Hugo Award loser best known for writing "George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun." Everything else is mere details at this point.
|
-
- Nate Hoffelder [Schedule]
|
 | - Nate has been helping people solve tech problems since 2009, first as a blogger, and later as a web designer. His day job is helping authors with their websites, and his leisure activities include taking care of 3 Little Free Libraries, creating bookmarks, memes, t-shirt designs, and event badges, and helping non-profits with their tech problems.
|
-
- Neil Clarke [Schedule]
|
| | - Neil Clarke (neil-clarke.com) is the multi-award-winning editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and over a dozen anthologies, including the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. An eleven-time finalist and the 2022 winner of the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form, he is also the three-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director. In 2019, Clarke received the SFWA Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
|
-
- Paul Haggerty [Schedule]
|
| | - Paul Haggerty is an independently published author of two novels. The first in the series, The Lynx Who Came in From the Cold was published in July of 2023. Due to an issue with quantum flux, or some other such SF concept, the second novel, Road Kill, was published an entire year earlier. The 3rd novel, The International Criminal Conspiracy, is due early in 2024.
|
-
- Perrianne Lurie [Schedule]
|
| | - Perrianne Lurie is a long time fan who ran the Green Room for Balticon for many years. She was the Hugo Ceremony director for Torcon 3 and the Email Liaison and Deputy Program Division Director for BucCONeer. She is active in strategy (Euro) board gaming and has GMed at Euroquest, Prezcon and other gaming conventions. She watches way too much television and (mostly art house) movies. She retired from the Pennsylvania Department of Health in 2020, where she was a public health physician and infectious disease epidemiologist. She now lives in suburban Maryland.
|
-
- R. Z. Held [Schedule]
|
 | - R. Z. Held writes speculative fiction, including the Amsterdam Institute series of space opera novellas. Her Silver series of urban fantasy novels was published under the name Rhiannon Held. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm. At work, she uses her degree mostly for copy-editing technical reports; in writing, she uses it for world-building; in public, she'll probably use it to check the mold seams on the wine bottle at dinner.
|
-
- Randee Dawn [Schedule]
|
 | -
Maryland-born Randee Dawn is now a Brooklyn-based entertainment journalist who scribbles about the glam world of entertainment by day, then spends her nights crafting wild worlds of fiction. Her debut humorous pop culture fantasy, Tune in Tomorrow, published in 2022 and was finalist in the 2023 Next Generation Indie Awards. She's a former editor at The Hollywood Reporter and Soap Opera Digest, and these days covers the wacky world of show business for Variety, The Los Angeles Times and other publications. Dawn's obsessive love of all things Law & Order led her to appear in one episode and later co-author The Law & Order SVU: Unofficial Companion. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and online publications, and once a month she can be found the hosting Brooklyn Books & Booze reading series in Brooklyn. When not writing she's focused on her next travel destination, and hangs out with her wonderful, funny husband and fluffy Westie. She admits she reads way too many books and consumes far too many mangoes.
|
-
- Richard Sparks [Schedule]
|
 | - Richard Sparks is a lifelong scriptwriter, comedy writer, lyricist, librettist and screenwriter, now author of New Rock New Role, the first book in a fantasy adventure / comedy series, to be published by CAEZIK SF & F on November 21st 2023.
Comedy isn't about nice people telling jokes. That's a dinner party. Comedy is about fear, pain, failure, disaster, betrayal, misunderstanding, challenges, confusions, contusions, delusions and things going horribly wrong. What good adventure doesn't have those?
Watched by tens of millions live, three hardcore gamers win the World Championship of Sword and Sorcery. Before they have time to enjoy their triumph, they are hurled off through a maelstrom of madness and unceremoniously dumped...
In the middle of nowhere.
Separately. Alone. Where they are no longer who they were In Real Life, but their own avatars. For real. Equipped only with crappy, noob-level gear.
And they can hear wolves.
If they want to find out what has happened, and why, they have to survive; and find each other; and get good.
And complete a quest that is far stranger, and more demanding, than anything they've ever faced before.
High adventure, and low comedy.
Richard has completed the first four books in the New Rock series, and is currently working on the fifth.
|
-
- Sam Lubell [Schedule]
|
| | - Sam Lubell has attended every Capclave since the first one, chaired it twice (and will chair it again in 2025), organized its programming three times, and did the program book and/or restaurant guide most of the other years. He has served as president of WSFA for three years and secretary (and editor of the WSFA Journal) more years than anyone else ever. He also runs the magazine discussion group that meets after WSFA meetings. For the Baltimore Science Fiction Society Sam is chairing Balticon 2024, runs the book discussion group, and ran the Compton Crook Award for Best First novel for several years. He has also worked on Worldcon and World Fantasy committees. He reads and reviews SF and Fantasy.
|
-
- Samantha Katz [Schedule]
|
| | - Samantha Katz is a New York City public high school student and is thrilled to have her publishing debut in Jewish Futures. She is a proud city girl with a majestic cat, a theater addiction, and too many novels in various states of editing on her laptop. Her Instagram is @srkatz_writer
|
-
- Sarah Avery [Schedule]
|
 | - Sarah Avery won the 2015 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for her first book, Tales from Rugosa Coven. Her short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Space and Time, Fantasy Scroll, Great Jones Street, and Black Gate. She was Black Gate's columnist on teaching and fantasy literature and on series fantasy for a decade. Avery coedited the Trafficking in Magic, Magicking in Traffic anthology with David Sklar. A Kickstarter campaign allowed her to publish a novella, The Imlen Brat, with illustrations by Kate Baylay. Grants from the Maryland State Arts Council an the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County allowed her to release much of her short fiction backlist in ebook format. An escaped academic, she lives in Maryland with her family and over a hundred kinds of medicinal plants.
|
-
-
- Sarena Ulibarri [Schedule]
|
 | - Sarena Ulibarri (she/her) lives, writes, and plants trees in the American Southwest. Her novella, ANOTHER LIFE, was published in 2023 by Stelliform Press, and a science fiction retelling of The Nutcracker, STEEL TREE, is forthcoming from Android Press. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, DreamForge, and Solarpunk Magazine, as well as anthologies such as Solar Flare (from Zombies Need Brains), Bioluminescent: A Lunarpunk Anthology, and Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures. She is also Editor-in-Chief of World Weaver Press, which published the WSFA nominated story "In the Belly of the Whale" by Angus McIntyre in TRENCHCOATS, TOWERS, AND TROLLS: CYBERPUNK FAIRY TALES. Find more at www.SarenaUlibarri.com, or track her down on whatever social media platform is still relevant.
|
-
- Scott Edelman [Schedule]
|
 | - Scott Edelman has published 115+ short stories in magazines such as Lightspeed, Analog, Apex, and The Twilight Zone, and in anthologies such as Why New Yorkers Smoke, Crossroads: Southern Tales of the Fantastic, and MetaHorror. His collection of zombie fiction, What Will Come After was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Memorial Award, and was followed by a collection of zombie novelettes, Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them. His science fiction short stories have been collected in What We Still Talk About from Fantastic Books. His most recent collections include Tell Me Like You Done Before: and Other Stories Written on the Shoulders of Giants and Things That Never Happened, the latter of which caused Publishers Weekly to write, "his talent is undeniable. He has been a Stoker Award finalist eight times, both in the category of Short Story and Long Fiction. He is also the author of the Lambda Award-nominated novel The Gift. Edelman also worked for the Syfy Channel for 13+ years as editor of Science Fiction Weekly, SCI FI Wire, and Blastr. He was the founding editor of Science Fiction Age, which he edited during its entire eight-year run. He also edited SCI FI magazine, previously known as Sci-Fi Entertainment, for more a decade, as well as two other SF magazines, Sci-Fi Universe and Sci-Fi Flix. He has been a four-time Hugo Award finalist for Best Editor. Additionally, he is the host of the Eating the Fantastic interview podcast, which since February 2016 has allowed listeners to eavesdrop on his meals with creators of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comics, and more.
|
-
- Scott H. Andrews [Schedule]
|
 | -
Scott H. Andrews is a writer, musician, chemistry lecturer, writing teacher, and Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the ten-time Hugo Award finalist and World Fantasy Award-winning online fantasy magazine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. His literary short fiction has won a $1000 prize from the Briar Cliff Review, and his genre short fiction has appeared in Space & Time, Crossed Genres, and Ann VanderMeer’s Weird Tales. Scott has taught writing at the Odyssey Workshop, Writefest, Confluence, Clarion West's One-Day Workshops, and online for Odyssey Online Classes, Clarion West, and Cat Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers. He has lectured on short fiction, secondary-world fantasy, editing, magazine publishing, audio podcasting, dungeon-mastering, heavy metal, and beer on dozens of convention panels at multiple Worldcons, World Fantasy conventions, and regional conventions in the Northeast and Midwest. He is a ten-time finalist and 2019 winner of the World Fantasy Award, a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Editor, and he celebrates International Stout Day at least once a year.
|
-
- Shahid Mahmud [Schedule]
|
 | - “Shahid Mahmud founded Arc Manor in 2006. The company publishes science fiction and fantasy under two imprints: Phoenix Pick, which focuses on reprints primarily for online distribution and eBooks, and CAEZIK SF & Fantasy, which publishes new works using traditional methods and distribution for paper editions. He relocated from California to Maryland in 2005 and established Arc Manor the following year. Phoenix Pick was introduced in 2007, emphasizing the revival of out-of-print science fiction and fantasy works. Shahid and Hugo-award winner Mike Resnick co-created Galaxy’s Edge magazine in 2013. A rediscovered Heinlein manuscript, initially titled 666, was released as The Pursuit of the Pankera under the CAEZIK SF & Fantasy imprint in March 2020 under an exclusive contract granted by the Heinlein Prize Trust. Arc Manor also features other renowned authors like Nancy Kress, Harry Turtledove, Mercedes Lackey, Ben Bova, and Robert J. Sawyer. In 2023, Shahid launched a new membership based service for eBook procurement, BookBale.club. Prior to moving from California and founding Arc Manor, Shahid was a Senior Investment Officer in San Diego. To honor his contributions to the City, the acting mayor declared November 7th, 2005 as ‘Shahid Mahmud Day’.”
|
-
-
- Sunny Moraine [Schedule]
|
| | - Sunny Moraine is—among many other things—the author of the novella Your Shadow Half Remains, coming in February 2024 from Tor Nightfire. Their debut short fiction collection Singing With All My Skin and Bone was released in 2016 and their short stories have been published in Tor.com, Uncanny, Apex, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Shimmer, Lightspeed, and Nightmare. They have been featured in the anthologies Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, The Humanity of Monsters, and Looming Low Vol. 1. An occasional podcaster/narrator/voice actor, they are the writer, producer, and lead actor of the serial horror drama podcast Gone, which wrapped up its first season in January 2018 and released a second season in 2022. They also worked on the writing team of the dark fantasy audio series The Shadow Files of Morgan Knox.
They have written very many words of fanfiction, most particularly for the shows Harsh Realm and The Walking Dead, as well as the Dishonored game series. These can be read on Archive of Our Own, under the name dynamicsymmetry.
Sunny holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Maryland-College Park, and their doctoral dissertation focused on the philosophy of physical space and systematized dehumanization in the context of three specific Holocaust death camps. It’s always interesting when this comes up at social occasions.
|
-
-
- Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. [Schedule]
|
 | - Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. is Principal Lecturer in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, adaptations, and behavior of carnivorous dinosaurs, and especially of tyrannosauroids (Tyrannosaurus rex and its kin). He received his Bachelors in Earth & Planetary Geology at Johns Hopkins in 1987 and his Ph.D. from the Department of Geology & Geophysics at Yale in 1992. He is also a Research Associate of the Department of Paleobiology of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History and serves on the Scientific Council of Maryland Academy of Science (which operates the Maryland Science Center (Baltimore, MD)).
He is also the creator and Faculty Director of the College Park Scholars-Science & Global Change program.
In addition to his dinosaur research, Holtz has been active in scientific outreach. He has been a consultant on museum exhibits around the world, and on numerous documentaries. He is the author of the award-winning popular audience books. He is the current editor of the “Life of the Past” series at Indiana University Press.
|
-
- Tom Doyle [Schedule]
|
 | -
Tom Doyle’s latest work for Graphic Audio is the Agent of Exiles series of supernatural spy adventures in the 6th century BCE. Book 3 of the series, India Match, was just released in August.
His recent SF novel, Border Crosser, follows the far-future journeys of Eris, a psychologically extreme secret agent whose shifting loyalties cause chaos wherever she goes.
Tom is also the author of the American Craftsmen trilogy from Tor Books, in which modern magician-soldiers fight their way through the legacies of Poe and Hawthorne as they attempt to destroy an undying evil.
Tom has survived Harvard, Stanford, and cancer, and he writes in a spooky turret here in Washington, DC.
|
-
- Ty Drago [Schedule]
|
 | - Ty Drago is the author of ten published novels. These include RAGS, (YA horror-NeoParadoxa), DRAGONS (YA SF-eSpec Books), TORQ (YA-SF Swallow's End Publishing), and his five-book UNDERTAKERS series (Middle Grade horror-Sourcebooks & Month9Books). His novel PHOBOS (Adult SF-Tor Books) was labeled "a strong contender for SF debut of the year" by Publisher's Weekly, and the first book in the UNDERTAKERS series, RISE OF THE CORPSES, has been optioned for a feature film.
For the last twenty-five years, Ty has been the founder, publisher, and managing editor of Allegory (www.allegoryezine.com), a biannual online magazine publishing science fiction, fantasy, and horror from around the world.
Ty teaches creative writing to adults. In addition, he has visited more than 70 middle schools in six states from Maine to Kentucky, and has spoken in front of almost 60,000 students about the prizes and pitfalls of being a writer.
He and his wife, Helene, make their home in South Jersey.
|
-
- Vanessa Rose Phin [Schedule]
|
| | - Ness is a disabled editor, writer, and calligrapher. Ve is a former editor-in-chief for Strange Horizons, where ve ran its first trans/nonbinary special and initiated development of its content warning system. Over vees tenure, Ness & the SH collective were shortlisted for six Hugos, several British Fantasy awards, a World Fantasy award, and an Ignyte Community award. Ness is a general DS9 gif-bag and dachshund parent, who spends most of vees time carefully managing creativity, activism, and family around the realities of ME/CFS. Ve can be found online at @marsfox.bsky.social.
|
-
-
|
