Spotlight

MAËLLE DOLIVEUX is a French and Swiss illustrator who has lived all over the world, from New Jersey to New Zealand. She has graduated from the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program at the School of Visual Arts in 2013. In her spare time she enjoys chess-boxing, loose-rope walking, and making up fake hobbies for herself in her biographies. She is also the cofounder of Beehive Books, as well …Read More

LEE O’BRIEN (he/they) is an associate agent at Looking Glass Literary. Lee is interested in middle grade, young adult, and adult books in a range of genres, from fantasy to thrillers to romcoms. He’s especially looking for stories with a strong commercial hook or a compelling high-concept, and loves anything full of twists and turns, an unforgettable cast of characters, or a mystery he can’t put down. He’s actively …Read More

Founded in 1995, Tachyon Publications LLC is a publisher of smart science fiction, fantasy, and horror, as well as the occasional mystery, memoirs, young adult, and literary fiction. We champion the creative storytelling of authors who inspire us through intelligent prose and imaginative worlds. Our titles are consistently unique, thought-provoking, and entertaining; our books have received the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, Mythopoeic, Locus, Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire, Endeavor, …Read More

Allan Kaster is a child of the Sputnik era. Raised, mostly, in San Antonio, Texas, he traveled the world as an Air Force brat. Sharing and trading comic books with other kids in Germany is a fond memory of his childhood. He started reading sci-fi novels when he was ten-years old. Not surprisingly, science was always his favorite subject in school. He graduated from Texas A&M University with …Read More

David Steffen is an editor, software developer, and cross-stitcher. He is most well-known for editing Ignyte Award-winning online zine Diabolical Plots and The Long List Anthology and for administering the Submission Grinder. He has restored an old mill to working order, gone skydiving, and worked as a model (one of these things is not true), but his favorite hobby is collecting more hobbies.

What is the origin story for …Read More

Shane Hawk is a Cheyenne and Arapaho horror writer and high school history teacher from California whose work has been featured in numerous anthologies and the stage. He is the co-editor of Never Whistle at Night, a groundbreaking anthology showcasing Indigenous horror stories that challenge and redefine the genre. Hawk’s writing is inspired by family lore, cryptid sightings, and the haunting legacy of colonialism. When he’s not crafting spine-chilling …Read More

ETHAN PRICE is a visual artist living in Kentucky. His work implements a delicate handling of drawing and painting, punctuated by various textured overlays to create a body of work that evokes mystery, decay, and the passage of time.

His work has been featured in publications like Infected by Art, and has shown in a variety of galleries across the US including Arcadia Contemporary, Arch Enemy Arts, and Nucleus …Read More

DAPHNE TONGE is the founder and CEO of Illumicrate, the UK’s first specialist book subscription box. She is also the founder and MD of Daphne Press, a science fiction and fantasy publisher. She’s judged for book prizes and is an event chair. Previously, she was an award-winning book blogger. She lives in London, but is Chinese-Filipino born and was raised in Manila.

Tell us about your book subscription …Read More

Her imagination, creativity, and thirst for learning have been near-constant companions, but artist/illustrator CHRISTINE MITZUK didn’t initially consider working as an artist. Her career started after college while working as a production artist and graphic designer at a few design and marketing firms for about seven years. She gained insight into client work and procedures to help a project flow along. As a freelance artist she uses several of …Read More

VIRGINIA LEE is an artist, illustrator and sculptor based on Dartmoor, England where she was raised in a creative household immersed in myth and fantasy art. She has illustrated several books for children, including the Greek myth of Persephone and the Russian fairy tale ”The Frog Bride”. She provided illustrations for The Enchanted Lenormand Oracle , StoryWorld cards, and The Secret Histories: Mermaids and Hobgoblins books. She also worked …Read More

M.M. OLIVAS is an alumna of the 2022 Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop and the 2023 Under the Volcano Writers Residency. Her short fiction has appeared in several publications, includingUncanny Magazine,Weird Horror Magazine,Apex, andBourbon Penn. As a trans, first-generation Chicana, she explores the intersection of queer and diasporic experiences in her fiction. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, earning her MFA in creative writing at …Read More

Tell us about your magazine, The Deadlands. When was it founded, and who’s on the publishing team?

The Deadlands is a spec-fic/literary zine all about death. It launched in May 2021. In late 2020 I (Sean Markey) brought the idea to E. Catherine Tobler (Elise), whom I knew from when she was the editor in chief of Shimmer, which had closed down a few years before. The publisher of …Read More

MICAELA ALCAINO is a book cover designer and illustrator who relocated from her home in Sydney, Australia to London, UK in 2013. Her career has been marked by significant achievements, including being named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars in 2021 and winning the prestigious Designer of the Year title at the British Book Awards in 2022, with a subsequent nomination this year in 2024. She was also a …Read More

CHRIS MCGRATH was born in the Bronx and has lived in and around NYC his whole life. At an early age he became interested in art, especially science fiction and fantasy. After graduating from The School of Visual Arts in NYC, Chris gave guitar lessons for several years before beginning his career in 2001. Since then he has done covers for #1 New York Times best selling authors such …Read More

What is the mission statement of your organization?

We are Authors Against Book Bans.

We stand united against the deeply unconstitutional movement to limit the freedom to read. We unequivocally support the availability of diverse voices on our library shelves, in our schools, and in our culture. We pledge to band together against the oppression of literature, to speak when our voices are silenced, to go where our bodies …Read More

WANG JINKANG(1948-), a Chinese science fiction writer, senior engineer, and multiple Yinhe Award winner. He spent several years in a countryside commune, before being sent to work in an iron foundry and a diesel engine plant. This unique experience sparked his interest in science and engineering, and in 1978, he entered Xi’an Jiaotong University for further studies. Later, he became a petroleum engineer in Nanyang Oilfield. At the age …Read More

Raya Golden has a unique and stylized vision and brings her work into the world using a variety of mediums ranging from watercolors to digital multimedia. In 2014 she did a comic based on George R.R. Martin’s story ”The Meathouse Man”. It was nominated for a Hugo Award for best graphic novel. In 2015 she released her first full length graphic novel, Starport, an adaptation of a 1994 …Read More

LINDSAY ELLIS is an author, media critic, and Hugo-nominated video essayist. She also was the co-host of the PBS digital series It’s Lit! . After earning her bachelor’s in Cinema Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she earned her MFA in Film and Television Production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with a focus in documentary and screenwriting. She lives in Long Beach, CA. Apostles of Mercyis her …Read More

Sara Felix is a Hugo Award winning mixed media artist who creates with inks, acrylics, resin and sometimes clay. She is an editor for the Hugo Award winning fanzine Journey Planet and has been also nominated for her work for the past few years. She has designed two Hugo Award bases, one with Vincent Villafranca in 2018 and one on her own in 2016, and has created four Lodestar …Read More

Richard A. Kirk is an author, illustrator, and visual artist. He is the author of novels The Lost Machine and Necessary Monsters, and illustrated collection Magpie’s Ladder. Illustrated novel Tailor of Echoes was published in early 2022. He has illustrated works by Clive Barker, Christopher Golden, Frank Herbert, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Thomas Ligotti, China Miéville, the rock band Korn, and others. Kirk’s artwork is exhibited and collected internationally. When …Read More

You’re the publishing director for the SF/F imprint at Quercus in the UK (formerly known as Jo Fletcher Books). We understand you’re relaunching with a new vision and name. Tell us about it.

I was very lucky when I started at Quercus; Jo Fletcher Books was 11 years old and well-established, and had a reputation for being particularly strong in epic fantasy, having launched authors like Sebastien de Castell, Peter …Read More

Manzi Jackson is a contemporary visual Artist based in Kigali, Rwanda.

He dabbles in surrealist and magical concepts, displayed in his ability to portray the full magical breadth of his subjects with breathtaking, colorful technique.

He’s currently focusing on a body of portrait and figurative works depicting dreamy energy that draws us into a rich and vibrant realm.

His use of flower-draped muses in astronaut …Read More

Artist/writer Winona Nelson was born in 1983 and grew up in Duluth MN. She has drawn all her life and began painting digitally as a teenager. She studied classical realism and art for the entertainment industry at the Safehouse Atelier in San Francisco.

Winona is a queer, Two Spirit Indigenous person, and her fine art often focuses on the stories and history of her tribe, the Ojibwe of …Read More

Tell us about your project. When was it founded, and who’s involved in running it?

The Sunday Morning Transport was founded in August 2021, and we published our first story in January 2023. Julian Yap is editor in chief, Fran Wilde is managing editor, and our copyediting, proofreading, and social media team is Kaitlin Severini (our copyeditor), Ryan T. Jenkins (copyedits and proofing), Delia Davis (year one proofreader) and …Read More

When I give presentations to aspiring writers – particularly presentations on writing and selling short stories – I’m always careful to emphasize that short stories are no longer the apprenticeship into the novel world that they once were. I know plenty of folks who have sold science fiction and fantasy novels without ever having bothered with shorts.

That said, short fiction did kind of function as a proving and learning …Read More

Tell us about your magazine, Omenana. When was it founded, and who’s on the publishing team? What is your mission?

Omenana was cofounded in 2014 by Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu (AKA Mazi Nwonwu) and Chinelo Onwualu. Presently, Omenana‘s publishing team comprises Mazi Nwonwu, managing editor; Iquo DianaAbasi, editor; Godson Okeiyi, graphic artist; Sunny Efemena, illustrator; and Chinaza, editorial assistant.

Omenana‘s mission is to develop the writing and reading of speculative …Read More

I have always loved short stories. I don’t remember a time when I ”discovered” them. For me, there was nothing to find. They were always there; in school textbooks, homework assignments, in the anthologies I would randomly pick off the shelf at the library. There was never any question either of what I would start writing when I decided to learn story craft. In those early days, reaching the …Read More