Clay McLeod Chapman

Clay McLeod Chapman writers books, comic books, children's books, as well as for film and television. His most recent novels include What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters. 

You can find him at www.claymcleodchapman.com.

Cynthia Pelayo

Cynthia Pelayo is a Bram Stoker Award and International Latino Book Award-winning author and poet. Her novels include Vanishing Daughters, Forgotten Sisters, Children of Chicago and The Shoemaker’s Magician. In addition to writing genre-blending novels that incorporate elements of fairy tales, mystery, detective, crime, and horror, Pelayo has written numerous short stories, the poetry collection Crime Scene, the story collection Loteria, and is editor of the upcoming Ghosts of Where We Are From, An Anthology of Latinx Horror. She holds a master of fine arts in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She lives in Chicago with her family. For more information, visit www.cinapelayo.com.

L.C. Marino

Author of thrills, suspense, and horror fiction and host of The Suspense is Killing Me Podcast. Author of The Haunting of the Whispering House series, including titles Bury the Child, Burn the Girls, and Bless the Mother. Lucas is also owner of the Spineless Reads indie online bookstore and CEO of a training company that helps nonfiction authors create training products from their expertise. His nonfiction titles include Monetize Your Book with a Course and Course Pricing Strategies. Lucas is a retired veteran of the US Coast Guard and earned his Doctor of Engineering degree from The George Washington University. He now lives in a pile of trees in Virginia.

Johnny Compton

Johnny Compton is a San Antonio based author whose short stories have appeared in several publications since 2006, including Pseudopod, Strange Horizons and The No Sleep Podcast. His fascination with frightening fiction started when his kindergarten teacher played a record of the classic ghost story “The Golden Arm” for her class.  Bram Stoker Award–nominated The Spite House, his debut novel, was released in 2023. His second book, Devils Kill Devils, was released in 2024.

Heather Mihok

Heather Mihok is a Young Adult horror writer and author of The Inn-Sitter and The Next Time I Blink. She lives in a charming, historical little town (like most) in Virginia, full of ghosts that keep her company and inspire her work. She particularly loves spooky stories and real-world horror, and that reflects in her writing.

Heather is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has drafted one novel a year since 2002. When not writing, she can be found buying books faster than she can read them, practicing yoga, or eating her weight in thin crust pizza.

Paulette Kennedy

Paulette Kennedy is the bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain, The Devil and Mrs. Davenport, and Parting the Veil, which received the HNS Review Editor’s Choice Award. She has had a lifelong obsession with the gothic. As a young girl, she spent her summers among the gravestones in her neighborhood cemetery, imagining all sorts of romantic stories for the people buried there. Her latest novel, The Artist of Blackberry Grange, is set in her native Ozarks and slated for publication in March of 2025.

Chris Panatier

Chris lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, daughter, and a fluctuating herd of animals resembling dogs. He writes short stories and novels, and draws album covers for metal bands. His novels, THE PHLEBOTOMIST (2020), STRINGERS (2022), and THE REDEMPTION OF MORGAN BRIGHT (2024) are all out from Angry Robot Books. His short fiction has appeared in Metaphorosis, The Molotov Cocktail Magazine, Ghost Parachute, The Deadlands, Tales To Terrify, Trembling With Fear, Ellipsis Zine, Defenestration and others. As a lawyer, he goes after companies that poison people. 

Brandon Perras Sanchez

Brandon Perras-Sanchez is a writer, musician, filmmaker and actor who is inspired by 80s horror, folklore, fantasy, mythology, metal and noise rock. He grew up in the woods of Vermont but now resides in Providence, RI. He is currently working on future horror projects such as Monster Makeup's third full length film, Queen of the Rats and a second book/screenplay To Break A Pale Yolk. 

Brandon is part of the production company Monster Makeup who brought you the gory, campy, Drag Queen cult classic Death Drop Gorgeous, the nightmarish folk horror Saint Drogo.

What drives Perras-Sanchez as a writer are the Sasquatch that lurk in the woods, the sea monsters that rule the deep, and the ghosts that haunt the abandoned house at the end of the street. These fantastical creatures are at the center of his artistic practice because they embody themes of feeling “unnatural” and ostracism. Growing up as a queer Cuban kid, he often felt like an outsider, not only because of his sexuality, but also his Spanish heritage. He found his friends in the stacks of library books that he would haul home—the strange, dark and mystical inhabitants of mythology, cryptozoology and more. The worlds of monsters, witches, ghosts and other creatures of lore became a refuge, where the outcasts and the feared felt right at home.

Elizabeth Broadbent 

Elizabeth Broadbent escaped the swamps of South Carolina for the Commonwealth of Virginia, where she lives with her three sons, two cats, two dogs, flock of crows, and a very patient husband. She’s the author of Ink Vine and Ninety-Eight Sabers (Undertaker Books), as well as the upcoming Blood Cypress (Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2025), The Swamp Child (Undertaker Books, 2025), Bluefeather (Undertaker Books, 2026), Tigers of Greater Antarctica (Sley House Publications, 2026), and Breaking Neverland (Sley House Publications, 2026). As a freelance journalist, her work has appeared in places such as The Washington Post, Time, Insider, and ADDitude Magazine.

Sam Rebelein 

Sam Rebelein lives in Poughkeepsie, NY, where he writes spooky fiction and works as a Professional Tutor in the Writing Center at Dutchess Community College. His debut novel EDENVILLE was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and won a Wonderland Book Award for Best Novel. Sam's collection of interconnected short fiction, THE POORLY MADE AND OTHER THINGS, is set in the same fictional upstate New York county as EDENVILLE; he also has a novel coming in Fall 2025 called GALLOWAY'S GOSPEL, which is set in the same world. For more about Sam's work, follow him on Instagram @rebelsam94. 

Andrew K. Clark 

Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Western North Carolina where his people settled before the Revolutionary War. His poetry collection, Jesus in the Trailer was published by Main Street Rag Press and shortlisted for the Able Muse Book Award. His debut novel, Where Dark Things Grow, was released by Cowboy Jamboree Press in September of 2024 and is the winner of a Firebird Book Award in the Magical Realism category. The sequel, Where Dark Things Rise, will be published by Quill and Crow Publishing House in the fall of 2025. His work has appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, The Wrath Bearing Tree, and many other journals. He received his MFA from Converse College. Connect with him at andrewkclark.com. 

Scott J. Moses 

Scott J. Moses is the author of Our Own Unique Affliction (a novella to be rereleased in January 2025 through Shortwave Publishing). He has sold over twenty-five short stories to, but not limited to, Cosmic Horror Monthly, The NoSleep Podcast, Planet Scumm, and elsewhere. He also edited What One Wouldn’t Do: An Anthology on the Lengths One Might Go To. He is Japanese American and lives in Maryland. You can find him on Bluesky @scottjmoses or www.scottjmoses.com. He is represented by Alec Frankel of IAG for TV/Film.

Aimee Hardy 

Aimee Hardy is the author of Pocket Full of Teeth (2024), which Kirkus calls, "Haunting and powerful–this dark little gem of a novel is an absolute must-read." She is also an editor for Running Wild Press and is dedicated to the art of storytelling. She received a Pushcart nomination for "Paper" (2019), and her short stories and poems have been published with Running Wild Press, Stonecoast Review, and other literary collections. Aimee is married with two kids and loves to get lost in nature or disappear into a good book with a warm cup of tea. 

Chris DiLeo 

DiLeo is a high school English teacher in New York's Hudson Valley, and a horror/thriller novelist—he also has two coffins in his office. You know, for decoration.

DiLeo's novels include What Ever Happeneded toJo Rose?, The Devil Virus, The Hands of Onan and coming March 2025, from Sobelo Books, Empty Devils.

Amazon reviewers are saying, “DiLeo’s horror skills are undeniable. He’s a master of suspense and understands the parameters and power of the monsters he’s created . . . [DiLeo’s] prose is first-rate and engaging . . . [It’s] like reading a horror movie . . . [With] deftly blend[ed] suspense, action . . . Dark, dramatic, and thoroughly chilling . . . [You’ll be] grabbed by the first page until the very last word . . . Disturbing and perturbing, and rampantly unsettling . . . [There will be] nightmares for a lot of us . . . DiLeo is definitely on the very dark and disturbing side of the scale.”

He is online @authordileo

Nick Roberts 

Nick Roberts is the award-winning author of Mean Spirited, The Exorcist's House, Dead End Tunnel, and many more. He’s a member of the HWA and a doctoral graduate from Marshall University. His internationally best-selling books have been translated to multiple languages, and several of his works have been optioned for adaptation. He resides in South Carolina with his family and is an advocate for people in recovery from substance use disorders.

D. Alexander Ward 

D. Alexander Ward’s most recent novels are POUND OF FLESH from Crystal Lake Publishing and BENEATH ASH & BONE from Bleeding Edge Books. His forthcoming novel, NIGHTJAR, will be released by Watertower Hill Publishing in 2026.

As an anthologist, he edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated anthologies LOSTHIGHWAYS: Dark Fictions From the Road and co-edited the anthologies GUTTED: Beautiful Horror Stories from Crystal Lake Publishing; THE SEVEN DEADLIEST; SHADOWS OVER MAIN STREET Volumes 1-3; and the mini-anthology STRANGE ECHOES.

He is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association, current Chair of the Virginia Chapter of the HWA, and owner of Bleeding Edge Books.

Along with the haints in the woods, he lives near the farm where he grew up in rural Virginia, where his love for the people, passions, and folklore of the South was nurtured. There, he spends his nights writing, collecting, and publishing tales of the dark, strange, and fantastic.

Red Lagoe 

Red Lagoe is the author of the vampire novel Bloodstains by Gaslight (2025) as well as the 2024 novella, In Excess of Dark. She has released three horror collections including Impulses of a Necrotic Heart. Red has dozens of stories in various publications, and she was the curator and editor of Nightmare Sky: Stories of Astronomical Horror. In addition to writing, Red loves creating art using traditional fine art mediums like paint, ink, and charcoal.

RJ Joseph 

Rhonda Jackson Garcia, aka R. J. Joseph, is an award winning, Shirley Jackson and Stoker Award™ nominated Texas based writer/professor/speaker. Her creative and academic work examines the intersections of race, gender, and class in the horror genre and popular culture. Rhonda is an instructor at The Speculative Fiction Academy and a co-host of the Genre Blackademic podcast. She has most recently been at work with Raw Dog Screaming Press on their new novella line, Selected Papers from the Consortium for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena.

Cassandra Rose Clarke 

Cassandra Rose Clarke is a speculative fiction writer who also writes horror romance under the pen name Rose Bitterly. Her work has placed in the Rhysling Awards and been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award, the Pushcart Prize, and YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults. She grew up in south Texas and currently lives in Virginia, where she writes and tends to multiple cats. She holds an M.A. in creative writing from The University of Texas at Austin, and in 2010 she attended the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in Seattle. 

Jason Nickey 

Jason Nickey is a utility worker by day and horror writer by night. Working mostly in shorter fiction, Jason's writing explores all different styles of horror from psychological, quiet, extreme, and humorous. He lives in South Charleston, West Virginia with his partner and three cats. He is the author of the extreme LGBTQ novella 'Rural Decay' and the collection 'Slush Pile'.

Errick Nunnally 

Errick Nunnally was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, he served one tour in the Marine Corps before deciding art school would be a safer—and more natural—pursuit. He is permanently distracted by art, comics, science fiction, history, and horror. Trained as a graphic designer, he has earned a black belt in Krav Maga/Muay Thai kickboxing after dark, and first prize in one hamburger contest. Errick’s writing includes: the novels, BLOOD FOR THE SUN, ALL THE DEAD MEN, and LIGHTNING WEARS A RED CAPE; a comic strip collection, LOST IN TRANSITION; and a short novel THE QUEEN OF SATURN AND THE PRINCE IN EXILE, available in April 2025 from upstart publisher Clash Books. The following are some magazines and anthologies that he has appeared in: Galaxy’s Edge; Fiyah Literary Magazine; Lamplight; and Nightlight, a Black Horror Podcast. Eventually, Errick came to his senses and moved to Rhode Island with his two lovely children and one beautiful wife. Visit erricknunnally.us to see more of his work.

Todd Keisling 

TODD KEISLING is the two-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of Devil’s Creek, Scanlines, Cold, Black & Infinite, and most recently, The Sundowner’s Dance, among several others. A pair of his earlier works were recipients of the University of Kentucky’s Oswald Research & Creativity Prize for Creative Writing (2002 and 2005), and his second novel, The Liminal Man, was an Indie Book Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013). He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

Drew Huff 

If you want to be enthralled and excited, read Drew Huff. Her fiction is pure action, filled with unique concepts, worlds, and characters. She’s the author of fast-paced horror novel Free Burn (Dark Matter INK, 2024), LGBT sci-fi novella Landlocked In Foreign Skin (Jan 2025), cosmic horror novel The Divine Flesh (Dark Matter INK, March 2025), and is querying her horror-fantasy manuscript, The Exodontists. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies. For more information, visit her website at drewehuff.com

Felix I.D. Dimaro 

Born in Nigeria, raised in Toronto, Felix I.D. Dimaro is an author of allegorical, dark, psychological fiction often centering around morality, mental health, societal conditions, the environment, or the real-life issues he has experienced. He has released eleven books to date, including the eco-thriller, “Black Bloom: A Story of Survival,” the extreme horror novel, “Humane Sacrifice: The Story of the Aztec Killer," and the tale of cat cloning gone wrong, "In the Darkness, Eyes and Teeth."

When not writing, Dimaro is usually reading, watching professional wrestling, or running even though no one is chasing him. A lifelong creature of the night, you can find Dimaro’s nocturnal musings at thingsthatkeepmeupatnight.substack.com

Nathan Ballingrud 

Nathan Ballingrud is the author of Crypt of the Moon Spider, The Strange, Wounds, and North American Lake Monsters.The novella Cathedral of the Drowned, the second installment of The Lunar Gothic trilogy, will be published in August of this year. He's twice won the Shirley Jackson Award and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, and Stoker Awards. His work has been adapted for both film and television. He lives in Asheville, NC.