Cecil Beckett was born and raised in rural New Zealand. He enjoys writing short fiction about the past and the present. His short stories placed second in both the 2020 and 2021 Victoria Odyssey House Short Story Competition. He lives in Auckland with his wife and their cat.

Born in Japan and raised in the swampy Lowcountry of South Carolina, Jacqueline’s writing focuses on outsiders seeking their place in the world, family, and how place shapes us. She loves history, mystery, and magic found in the everyday, which she writes about on her Substack, Collecting Dust. The Bright Leaf Legacy offers a first look at the family at the center of her first novel. Jacqueline lives with her husband and two children in North Carolina.

Zena Ryder is a Brit living in BC, Canada, writing historical fiction mostly set during the American Civil War. She’s currently querying agents with a novel about a young woman committed to an insane asylum during the War. At the same time, she’s working on her next novel, which is about an ‘old maid’ who became a Union spymaster while living in the Confederate capital. Zena’s run an in-person writing group since 2018 and is founding the First Novel Fellowship, an online community for people who want to write the first draft of their first novel in one year.

Rob Hardy grew up in the Finger Lakes Region of New York, where his story is set; majored in History and Latin at Oberlin College; and served as the first Poet Laureate of Northfield, Minnesota. He has published fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including two nonfiction pieces in Minnesota History.

Nicole Babb is a recovering litigator who is using her exit from the world of facts to write stories that exist somewhere between the real and not-real. Her favorite stories include larger-than-life characters and an extra helping of snark. She’s a lifelong New Orleanian, and when she’s not writing enjoys good wine, the occasional bad wine, yoga, and board games. Her work has appeared in Does It Have Pockets and Foofaraw, and in 2024, she was awarded the Scribes Prize for Microfiction. Find her at nicolebabb.com.

Rachel Henderson lives in New Orleans, where she spends her free time writing and playing bagpipes. Most of her fiction leans toward horror – but, as a once-upon-a-time history major, she also adores exploring historical fiction. 

Her stories have appeared in Hiding Under the Leaves, (s)crawl, foofaraw, After Happy Hour Review, 100-Foot Crow, Neither Fish Nor Foul, the Creepy podcast, and elsewhere. In 2021, she won first place in the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Competition. Find her at www.rlhendie.com.

A lifelong resident of Oklahoma, Morgan Want received her BA in English from Oklahoma Baptist University, with a minor in professional editing. Her work has been featured in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, Every Day Fiction, Pure in Heart Stories, and Vine Leaves Press’s 50 Give or Take anthologies. She is currently at work on her first novel.

Shay Galloway studied creative writing at Utah State University and received an MFA from Roosevelt University, Chicago. Her work has been featured in several journals and mags. Her debut novel, The Valley of Sage and Juniper was released March 2023 with Running Wild/RIZE Press. She currently teaches college English and resides in Washington with her husband and sons.

Dr. Ezra Harker Shaw is a non-binary writer, academic, and award-winning author with a doctorate in Creative Writing. Born in Scotland and now based in London, they have published seven books across poetry and prose, with work appearing in journals, anthologies, and essay collections. A celebrated performance poet and playwright, Harker Shaw has been nominated for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry and serves as literary editor of Selkie Songs. Their teaching, editorial work, and doctoral research—including the award-winning novel The Aziola’s Cry, inspired by Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley—reflect a passion for the strange, the beautiful, and the bold.

Christopher DeWitt lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife Christine, son Alex, three dopey but lovable dogs, and a weird, vegan cat. When he isn’t writing and reading, he is exploring the beautiful and sometimes eerie Superstition Mountains and the haunts of Tombstone. He also occupies his free time trying to figure out if his house—built practically on top of old western mines—is as haunted as The Copper Queen Hotel in Bisbee, Arizona (It is!). A United States Air Force veteran and licensed pilot, he loves anything that flies and earth-bound racing machines that go very, very fast.