Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born Canadian speculative fiction writer and editor. Her novels – Brown Girl in the Ring (1998), Midnight Robber (2000), The Salt Roads (2003), The New Moon's Arms (2007) – and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk (2001) often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.
Jack Dann is an American writer best known for his science fiction, as well as an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, the majority being as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. He has published nine novels, numerous shorter works of fiction, essays, and poetry, and his books have been translated into thirteen languages. His work, which includes fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, and historical and alternative history genres, has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, J. G. Ballard, and Philip K. Dick.
Sherrilyn Kenyon is a US writer. Under her former married name, she wrote both urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She is best known for her Dark Hunter series. Under the pseudonym Kinley MacGregor she writes historical fiction with paranormal elements. Kenyon's novels have sold over 70 million copies in print in over 100 countries. Under both names, her books have appeared at the top of the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today lists, and they are frequent bestsellers in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Catherine E. Murphy, writing primarily under the byline C. E. Murphy, is an American-born author, based in Ireland, who writes in the fantasy and romance genres. She is the author of the Walker Papers series, The Negotiator Trilogy, and the Inheritor's Cycle as well as The Strongbox Chronicles. She has also written the graphic novel Take a Chance.
Karen Joy Fowler is an American author of science fiction, fantasy, and literary fiction. Her work often centers on the nineteenth century, the lives of women, and social alienation.
Ali Smith CBE FRSL is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting".
Martha Wells is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has published a number of fantasy novels, young adult novels, media tie-ins, short stories, and nonfiction essays on fantasy and science fiction subjects. Her novels have been translated into twelve languages. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for her science fiction series The Murderbot Diaries. She is also known for her fantasy series Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura. Wells is praised for the complex, realistically detailed societies she creates; this is often credited to her academic background in anthropology.
Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic.
Janeen Webb is an Australian writer, critic and editor, working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.
Catherine A. Merriman is a British novelist, short-story writer and editor who has published five novels and three short-story collections. Her work often addresses the experiences of women. Her first novel, Leaving the Light On (1992), won the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award; her other works include the novels Fatal Observations (1993) and State of Desire (1996); the short-story collections Silly Mothers (1991), shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year, and Getting a Life (2001); and the edited collection Laughing, Not Laughing: Women Writing on 'My Experience of Sex' (2004), which won an Erotic Award. Born in London, she has lived in Wales since 1973, and is often considered to be a Welsh author.
Lucy Sussex is an author working in fantasy and science fiction, children's and teenage writing, non-fiction and true crime. She is also an editor, reviewer, academic and teacher, and currently resides in Melbourne, Australia.
Alethea Kontis is an American writer of Teen & Young Adult Books, picture books and speculative fiction, primarily for children, as well as an essayist and storyteller. She is represented by Moe Ferrara at Bookends Literary Agency.
Jewelle Lydia Gomez is an American author, poet, critic and playwright. She lived in New York City for 22 years, working in public television, theater, as well as philanthropy, before relocating to the West Coast. Her writing—fiction, poetry, essays and cultural criticism—has appeared in a wide variety of outlets, both feminist and mainstream. Her work centers on women's experiences, particularly those of LGBTQ women of color. She has been interviewed for several documentaries focused on LGBT rights and culture.
Jeanne C. Stein is an American urban fantasy author. She now lives in Colorado, but was raised and educated in San Diego, which is the setting for her contemporary vampire fantasy.
Dreaming Down-Under is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb.
Edmund R. Schubert is an American author and editor best known for his work in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, though some of his short stories are mysteries, including one that was a preliminary nominee for an Edgar Award in 2006 for Best Short Story. In 2015 he was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Editor but subsequently withdrew himself from consideration due to the block voting tactics which had been used to shape the ballot, stating that "I can't in good conscience complain about the deck being stacked against me, and then feel good about being nominated for an award when the deck gets stacked in my favor. That would make me a hypocrite." He has also written for and edited several business magazines.
Leone Ross FRSL is a British novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and academic, who is of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry.
Casey Plett is a Canadian writer, best known for her novel Little Fish, her Lambda Literary Award winning short story collection, A Safe Girl to Love, and her Giller Prize-nominated short story collection, A Dream of a Woman. Plett is a transgender woman, and she often centers this experience in her writing.
Ire'ne Lara Silva is a Chicana feminist poet and writer from Austin, Texas. Her parents were migrant farmworkers. She has published numerous works of poetry and her short story collection won the 2013 Premio Aztlán Literary Prize. A central theme of her work is Indigenous survival and perseverance despite colonization: "let's empower ourselves with that knowledge."
Daisy Johnson is a British novelist and short story writer. Her debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, and beside Eleanor Catton she is the youngest nominee in the prize's history. For her short stories, she has won three awards since 2014.
