Our Authors & Guest Editors

Sophia Adamowicz is a writer and tutor based in the UK. As the co-founder of Artemis Writers, Sophia runs workshops on all aspects of the craft. Sophia is an alumna of the Faber Academy, through which she completed two long courses on novel writing. Her short stories, flash fiction and nonfiction articles have appeared in several publications, including Cunning Folk, Crow & Cross Keys, Haven Speculative, and Trash Cat Lit. Her flash fiction “Wixton Fen” was nominated for the Genrepunk Awards (2025). She lives in Cambridge with her partner, two cats, and a Bernese Mountain Dog.

Mike Allen wears many creative hats, at least one of them tailor-made by his wife and partner-in-crime Anita. An author, editor and publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror, Mike has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence The Black Fire Concerto and The Ghoulmaker’s Aria, his forthcoming dark fantasy novel Trail of Shadows, and his newest horror collection, Slow Burn.

Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, his first two volumes of horror tales, were both finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Another collection, The Spider Tapestries, contains experiments in weird science fiction and fantasy. 

As an editor and publisher, Mike has been nominated twice for the World Fantasy Award: first, for his anthology Clockwork Phoenix 5, the culmination of the Clockwork Phoenix series showcasing tales of beauty and strangeness that defy genre classification; and then, for Mythic Delirium, the magazine of poetry and fiction he edited for twenty years.

He’s a three-time winner of the Rhysling Award for poetry. His six poetry collections include Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection, and Hungry Constellations, a Suzette Haden Elgin Award nominee. 

With Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists. You can find him on Instagram at @mythicdelirium and Bluesky at @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.

J.R. Blanes lives in Chicago with his wife and dog. His short fiction has been published in several anthologies, magazines, and podcasts such as Winter in the City, Tales to Terrify, The NoSleep Podcast, Thirteen, and Creepy, among others. In between bouts of writing and dog wrestling, he plays bass guitar and records music. Portraits of Decay is his debut novel.

Angel Luis Colón is the author of the award-nominated novels Hell Chose Me and No Happy Endings, the Blacky Jaguar series of novellas, the award-winning young adult novel Infested, the hit middle-grade novel Minecraft: House of Horrors, and the short story collection Meat City on Fire and Other Assorted Debacles. He has spent time editing flash fiction for websites like Shotgun Honey and was the editor of the Latine-focused anthology, ¡Pa’Que Tu lo Sepas!. He’s also had multiple short stories appear in web and print publications, including Literary Orphans, The Molotov Cocktail, and the legendary crime fiction mag Thuglit.

When he’s not writing, you’ll find him baking bread or enjoying a scotch—mostly at the same time.

Author and Co-editor The Black Tapes

Libby Cudmore is the author of novels The Big Rewind and Negative Girl, as well as short fiction published in 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Bowery Gothic, and Eleventh Hour Literary, among others. She co-edited the Anthony Award-nominated Lawyers Guns & Money: Crime Fiction Inspired By The Songs of Warren Zevon with Art Taylor. Libby is an alumni of the Barrelhouse Writer’s Camp, the recipient of the Eleventh Hour Inaugural Literary Prize, the Shamus Award, and the Black Orchid Novella Prize, among other honors. She lives in Upstate NY with her husband and two cats.

Megan Engelhardt is the author of the creature-centered story collection Phantom Menagerie with short fiction featured in, among other publications, Asimov’s, Daily Science Fiction, and Crossed Genres. She also co-authored horror novel The Way We Used to Walk with her good friend Mark Beall. She writes stories that are slightly sideways of normal, that explore the hidden corners of the world, and that celebrate found families of all types. When Megan is not writing at home in Ohio, she’s chasing after her four kids, reading about cryptid and alien encounters, and watching musicals with her husband.

Naomi Eselojor is a speculative fiction writer from Nigeria and a global talent migrant endorsed by the Arts Council England for her contributions to Africanfuturism. She is the recipient of the 2023 Utopian Award for Short Fiction and the 2024 Wilson Okereke Prize for Short Stories, and has also been a finalist for the Nommo Award as well as nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Ako Caine Prize, and Utopian Awards. Naomi’s works have appeared in Afrofuturism Short Stories, African Ghost Short Stories, 2022 Best of Utopian Speculative Fiction, Omenana Magazine, Lolwe, Hexagon Magazine, Dark Matter Magazine, and elsewhere. Among other programs, Naomi is an alum of Milford Writer’s Workshop, the Voodoonauts Fellowship, and served as a Spring mentor in 2024 and 2025. She is currently one of the instructors at Spread the Word’s Developing Tutors 2025/2026 and resides in the United Kingdom. 

Editor: Shards of Gotham

Jamal Hodge is a multi-award-winning filmmaker and writer who is a sitting Board Member of Harlem Film House and Axs Lab. Since May of 2016, Jamal Hodge’s films have been an official selection in over 100 Film Festivals, and have won over 50 awards including The Vanguard Award (Best of The Fest) at the Hip Hop Film Festival (2020), Best Director at The Chelsea Film Festival (2020) and Best Director at GenreBlast (2020). In 2018 he directed the first season of Investigation Discovery Channel’s Primal Instinct’ and came on as a Producer on the Animated feature film ‘Pierre The Pigeon Hawk’ (starring Will.I,.Am, Jennifer Hudson, and Whoopi Goldberg) raising half a million dollars of investment. He is co-directing/producing a PBS docu-series called Southern Storytellers (2022) with Peabody-winning producer/director Craig Renaud.

As a writer, Hodge is an active member of The Horror Writer’s Association and The SFPA, being nominated for a 2021 Rhysling Award for his Poem ‘Fermi’s Spaceship’, While his poem ‘The Silence of God’ placed in the 2021 Horror Writer Association Showcase. His screenplay ‘Mourning Meal’ won 5 awards (including best short screenplay at NYC Horror Film Festival 2018) while his poetry is featured in the historical all-black issue of Star*line Magazine (issue 43.4) and has been featured in SPACE AND TIME Magazine, PENUMBRIC Speculative Fiction Magazine, and in the CHIRAL MAD 5 anthology alongside such greats as Linda Addison, Sharee Renee Thomas, & Josh Malerman

Motivated by his accomplishments, Hodge has blossomed to take his talents to the next level. Jamal’s tone of work, or what he calls, “Inspirational Darkness”, can be described as a melding of genres. The Psychological Horror, Thriller, and Inspirational genres are Jamal’s usual forte of filmmaking. His mission is to add value to people’s lives through his unique brand of cinema. He’s excited to continue to grow outstanding partnerships to create memorable and impactful cinematic experiences for audiences across the world.

Editor: 120 Murders and co-editor The Black Tapes)

Nick Mamatas is the author of several novels, including the instant cult classic Move Under Ground the speculative thriller The Second Shooter, and the posthuman riff on Shakespeare: Kalivas! Or, The Washed Away. His short fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Best American Mystery Stories, Tor.com, and many other venues. Nick is also an anthologist; with Ellen Datlow he co-edited the award winning Haunted Legends and with Masumi Washington the acclaimed The Future is Japanese. He also produced an anthology of progressive weird fiction Wonder and Glory Forever. Nick’s fiction and editorial work has been nominated for the Hugo, World Fantasy, Locus, and Bram Stoker Awards. He is also a member of the editorial collective of The Anarchist Review of Books.

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. Errick’s work includes: the novels, The Queen of Saturn and the Prince in Exile, Blood for the Sun, and Lightning Wears a Red Cape; Lost in Transition, a comic strip collection; a number of short stories; and first prize in one hamburger contest. Eventually, Errick came to his senses and moved to Rhode Island with his two lovely children and one beautiful wife.

Elena Pavlova lives in Montana, Bulgaria, and is the author of numerous short stories, novels, fiction collections, and game books. Her short stories have appeared in various Bulgarian publications, winning awards from national competitions, while two of her novels have received prestigious awards: Bulgaria’s National Konstantin Konstantinov Award (2019) went to „Камен и пиратите от 5г“ (Kamen and the Pirates from 5-B) and the ESFS’s Best Work for Children Award (2021) went to „Коледари срещу хали“ (Christmas Carolers vs Hallus Beasts). She is also an accomplished translator and has translated into Bulgarian authors as diverse as Robert Howard, Robert R. McCammon,

“Jeff Somers observes these amiable sociopaths with a funky wit …” — Bruce Allen, The New York Times

Jeff Somers (www.jeffreysomers.com) began writing by court order as an attempt to steer his creative impulses away from engineering genetic grotesqueries. From 1995 to 2014, he published The Inner Swine, a personal zine expressing his often alarmingly dumb opinions on everything under the sun, and several pieces were chosen for inclusion in The Zine Yearbook. He has published ten novels, including the Avery Cates series of dystopian sci-fi novels (avery-cates.com) published by Orbit Books, the dark urban fantasy The Ustari Cycle (wearenotgoodpeople.com) published by Gallery Books, and the standalone novels Lifers (Creative Arts Book Company), Chum (Tyrus Books), and Five Funerals (forthcoming from Ruadán Books). He’s also published more than sixty short stories, including “Ringing the Changes,” which was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories 2006 and “The Little Birds,” published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine in 2023. He writes about books for BookBub, the craft of writing for Writer’s Digest (which published his book Writing Without Rules), and everything else for Lifehacker. He lives in Hoboken with his wife, The Duchess, and their cats. He considers pants to always be optional. As a verified attention whore, he can be found lurking on Bluesky (jeffsomers.bsky.social), Threads, (@jeffsomersauthor), and occasionally on X (jeffreysomers), Facebook (jeffreydxsomers), and Instagram (jeffsomersauthor), where he posts more photos of whiskey bottles and cats than is probably healthy.

“Hefty and insistently entertaining … the story races along with an appealing balance of grimness and likability.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Soaked in blood and steeped in deadly power and desperation.” — Publishers Weekly

Michael Strode is a writer and filmmaker born and raised in Hawaii, now living in Los Angeles. He received an MFA in Film Production from USC, and has written and directed several award-winning shorts, including the action/horror film Black Gulch. Despite a BA in Medieval History and Philosophy from Brown, Michael has come to terms with his love for genre fiction. Spit and Touch Iron is his debut novel.

Molly Tanzer is the author of five novels, including Creatures of Want and Ruin, winner of the Colorado Book Award for Historical Fiction, as well as many works of shorter fiction. Her official Jirel of Joiry stories can be found in New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, and her novella, And Side by Side They Wander, is forthcoming from Tordotcom in May 2026. Follow her on Instagram @molly_tanzer, or on BlueSky @mollytanzer.bsky.social. She lives outside of Boulder, CO with her many houseplants.

Climber, tattoo collector, and peanut-butter connoisseur, Xan van Rooyen is an autistic, non-binary storyteller from South Africa, currently living in Finland where the heavy metal is soothing and the cold, dark forests inspiring. Xan has a Master’s degree in music, and–when not teaching–enjoys conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. You can find Xan’s stories in the likes of Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy’s Edge among others. They have also written several novels including upcoming YA cyberpunk novel Second Soul, and adult aetherpunk novel Silver Helix. Xan is also part of the Sauútiverse, an African writer’s collective with their multi-award nominated anthology Mothersound out now from Android Press. Feel free to say hi on socials. Find all links here: https://linktr.ee/xanvanrooyen

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist. She is the author of numerous works including Love is a Crematorium and Other Tales, Darling, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, Detritus in Love,and Nameless. She won the Bram Stoker Award for her stories Little Dead Red and “Fracture.” Mercedes lives and works in Las Vegas. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com.