AUTHOR

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the NEBULA, HUGO, and WORLD FANTASY awards, he wrote the DANDELION DYNASTY, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with The GRACE OF KINGS), as well as short story collections THE PAPER MENAGERIE AND OTHER STORIES and THE HIDDEN GIRL AND OTHER STORIES. He also penned the STAR WARS novel, THE LEGENDS OF LUKE SKYWALKER.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, cryptocurrency, history of technology, bookmaking, narrative futures, and the mathematics of origami.

AUTHOR AND LANGUAGE CREATOR

David J. Peterson is an author and language creator. He's created languages for many television shows and films, such as HBO's GAME OF THRONES, the CW's THE 100, Netflix's THE WITCHER, and Marvel's DOCTOR STRANGE. Lately he has been doing all his work with his amazing conlang partner, Jessie Sams, including projects like Freeform's MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM, Amazon's PAPER GIRLS, Peacock's VAMPIRE ACADEMY, and Legendary Entertainment’s DUNE. They both work together on the weekly YouTube series LangTime Studio.

LANGUAGE CREATOR

Jessie Sams has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a professor of linguistics at Stephen F. Austin State University for 13 years, where she created a conlanging course and taught students how to construct a language from the ground up. She is now a full-time professional conlanger and works with her partner, David Peterson. Their languages appear in TV shows and films, including Freeform's MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM and the Peacock's VAMPIRE ACADEMY, and they host the weekly livestream LangTime Studio on YouTube, where they create new languages from scratch and share the process.

AUTHOR

Samantha M. Bailey is the USA TODAY and #1 nationally bestselling author of WOMAN ON THE EDGE, which has sold in eleven countries to date, and the instant #1 national bestseller, WATCH OUT FOR HER. She is also a journalist and freelance editor; her work has appeared in NOW Magazine, The Village Post, The Thrill Begins, and The Crime Hub, among other publications. Samantha lives in Toronto, where she can usually be found tapping away at her computer or curled up on her couch with a book.

(Image: Dahlia Katz Photography)

AUTHOR

Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school, figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, making music, or attempting to bake. She lives in an old farmhouse in Tennessee with her husband, children, two cats, a dog, and probably some ghosts.

AUTHOR, COPY EDITOR AT THE NEW YORKER

Maya Chesley is a Fulbright ETA scholarship recipient and a Pushcart Prize nominee. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Johns Hopkins University. Their work has been published in various journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, where they currently work as a copy editor.

CREATIVE WRITER, CONSULTANT, AND MUSIC JOURNALIST

Faisal G. Binzagr is a creative writer, consultant, and music journalist based in Saudi Arabia. He enjoys storytelling in many forms, whether it's long-form fiction, theatre, poetry, or narrative design for video games.

He has a Certificate in Filmmaking from The National Film & Television School in the UK, and has been actively involved in a number of projects across a variety of mediums, including recently delivering his first ‘Storytelling for Video Games’ course.

He cherishes any opportunity to tell a great story and offer his unique experiences. He has a particular fondness for narratives that empower others, although his current work in progress is a bleak murder mystery/noir novel set in the Arabian Gulf!

AUTHOR

Jacquetta Nammar Feldman is a children’s author and lives in Austin, Texas. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin, and she’s currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Wishing Upon the Same Stars, a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, is her debut novel.

AUTHOR, TEDx SPEAKER, EDITOR, GHOSTWRITER

Laura Thomas is a writer, TEDx speaker, and the founder of NEXT LEVEL STORY, where she is a professional editor and ghostwriter. Her first book, THE MAGIC OF WELL-BEING: A MODERN GUIDE TO LASTING HAPPINESS, distills masterful advice for living a better life, and her upcoming memoir explores her journey through loss, love, and coming home to herself.

LIBRARIAN AND WRITER

Lourdes Montes was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico and currently resides in Charleston, SC. When she’s not being a cool YA librarian, she’s reading, doing homework for her MLIS, eating snacks, trying to talk someone into reading Gideon the Ninth or attempting to write scary stories.

AUTHOR

Emily Rath is a romance and fantasy author. A university professor by day, she lives in Florida with her husband, son, and cat. They regularly comb the local beaches looking for shark teeth.

AUTHOR

Amanda Linsmeier has been a book nerd as long as she can remember, and it was that great love of reading—especially R.L. Stine books and fairytales—that eventually brought her to writing her own things. A self-proclaimed wimp, she finds courage in making up stories that scare her a little, and she hopes to scare you a little bit, too. She lives in a small house surrounded by trees and cornfields, with a man who smells like maple syrup and woodsmoke. Together they have three wonderfully wild children, and, somehow, five pets.

Amanda is the author of STARLINGS (June 2023).