Bill Campbell is the author of Sunshine
Patriots, My Booty Novel, and the anti-racism satire, Koontown
Killing Kaper. Along with Edward Austin Hall, he co-edited the
groundbreaking anthology, Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism
and Beyond. He also co-edited Stories for Chip: A Tribute
to Samuel R. Delany with Nisi Shawl, Future Fiction: New
Dimensions in International Science Fiction and Fantasy with
Francesco Verso, and APB: Artists against Police
Brutality with Jason Rodriguez and John Jennings. His
Afrofuturist spaceploitation graphic novel, Baaaad Muthaz (with
David Brame and Damian Duffy) was released in 2019. His historical
graphic novel with Bizhan Khodabandeh, The Day the Klan Came to
Town, was released by PM Press in 2021. Campbell lives in
Washington, DC, where he spends his time with his family and helms
Rosarium Publishing.
John Jennings is a professor, author, graphic novelist, curator, Harvard Fellow, New York Times Bestseller, 2018 Eisner Winner, and all-around champion of Black culture.
As Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), Jennings examines the visual culture of race in various media forms including film, illustrated fiction, and comics and graphic novels. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on the experiences of people of color. His research interests include the visual culture of Hip Hop, Afrofuturism and politics, Visual Literacy, Horror, and the EthnoGothic, and Speculative Design and its applications to visual rhetoric.
Jennings is co-editor of the 2016 Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (Rutgers) and co-founder/organizer of The Schomburg Center’s Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem. He is co-founder and organizer of the MLK NorCal’s Black Comix Arts Festival in San Francisco and also SOL-CON: The Brown and Black Comix Expo at the Ohio State University.
Nisi Shawl's first novel, Everfair, was
a finalist for the 2016 Nebula Award. In 2009 their Aqueduct story
collection Filter House received the Otherwise Award. They have
published three other short fiction collections--Something More and
More (Aqueduct, 2010), A Primer to Nisi Shawl (Dark Moon Books,
2017), and Talk Like a Man (PM Press, 2019). Shawl is, with Cynthia
Ward, the author of Writing the Other: A Practical Approach
(Aqueduct, 2005), and has edited numerous anthologies, including the
World Fantasy Award-winning New Suns: Speculative Fiction by People
of Color (Solaris, 2019), Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism,
African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler with Rebecca Holden
(Aqueduct, 2013), and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany
with Bill Campbell (Rosarium, 2015).
S.P. SOMTOW,is a Thai-American author known for his significant contributions to the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. The International Herald Tribune referred to him as "the most well-known exaptriate Thai in the World." Somtow's literary work is marked by a wide range of awards and honors, reflecting his profound impact on the genres he writes in. He won the World Fantasy Award in 2002 for his novella The Bird Catcher and has been nominated several times for this award. Other accolades include the International Horror Guild Award, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1981, the Locus Award for Best First Novel in 1982 for Starship & Haiku, and nominations for the Hugo and Bram Stoker Awards.
His noteworthy series include Inquestors, Aquiliad, and Valentine. The Inquestors series, comprising titles like Light on the Sound and The Throne of Madness, is a collection of linked stories exploring a unique and complex universe. The "Aquiliad" series blends historical elements with science fiction, while his Valentine series, starting with Vampire Junction, delves into the horror genre with a unique take on vampire mythology. Somtow's versatility as a writer is evident in the breadth and depth of his work, making him a celebrated figure in speculative fiction. His ability to weave intricate plots, create compelling characters, and explore complex themes has cemented his place as a prominent figure in the literary world.
CATHERINE ASARO, renowned for her contributions to the hard science fiction genre, has made a significant mark with her scientifically rigorous and imaginative writing. Asaro's works stand out for their scientific depth, with novels like Primary Inversion, The Radiant Seas, and Spherical Harmonic featuring complex elements such as quantum mechanical wave functions and Klein bottles. Her writing often includes sophisticated mathematical concepts, notably in her Skolian Empire books, which are based on a paper she wrote on complex variables and special relativity. The novel Spherical Harmonic presents an imagined universe based on Hilbert space described by spherical harmonic eigenfunctions. Asaro's The Quantum Rose is an allegory to quantum scattering theory, showing her ability to interweave advanced scientific concepts with compelling storytelling.
In addition to her literary accolades, which include the Nebula Award, Reader’s Choice Award, and the Prism Award, Asaro has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University. This background in physics significantly influences her approach to science fiction, lending authenticity and depth to her stories. Her engagement with scientific concepts is not just limited to her novels; she also explains the mathematics and physics behind her ideas in essays at the end of some of her books, making her works particularly appealing to readers interested in the science behind the fiction.
NEAL ASHER, an influential English science fiction writer, was born in 1961 in Essex, UK. His writing career, particularly in the science fiction genre, took off after 2000 when he secured a three-book contract with Pan Macmillan. Asher's works are primarily published in the UK but have also found a substantial readership in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Japan, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. The majority of his novels are set in a future history known as the Polity universe, which features classic science fiction elements like world-ruling AIs, androids, hive minds, and aliens. His narratives often explore themes of technological and physical enhancement, with characters undergoing various augmentations. His works include the Agent Cormac series, The Transformation Trilogy, the Rise of the Jain Trilogy, and standalone novels like Prador Moon, Hilldiggers, and Shadow of the Scorpion. His latest book as of 2023 is War Bodies, a high-octane standalone set in the expansive Polity world.
DAVOD BOOP is a Denver-based speculative fiction author, editor, award-winning essayist, and screenwriter. His diverse career spanned various roles before he turned to fiction, including working as a DJ, film critic, journalist, and actor. His novels, such as the sci-fi/noir She Murdered Me with Science and the Weird Western mosaic novel The Drowned Horse Chronicle, showcase his versatility across genres. David has also edited the bestselling and award-nominated Weird Western anthology series like Straight Outta Tombstone." His short fiction includes media tie-ins for various franchises, such as Predator and Veronica Mars. Boop is a summa cum laude graduate from UC-Denver in Creative Writing,
Sofia Samatar is the author of the novels A Stranger in Olondria and The Winged Histories, the short story collection, Tender, and Monster Portraits, a collaboration with her brother, the artist Del Samatar. She is the recipient of the William L. Crawford Award, the Astounding Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award. She teaches Arabic literature, African literature, and speculative fiction at James Madison University.
katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
In 2013, her first book, North End Love Songs (The Muses’ Company) won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Since then, her work has garnered awards and critical accolades across genres. Her novels The Break (House of Anansi) and The Strangers (Hamish Hamilton) were both national best sellers and won multiple literary awards.
She is the author of numerous other bestselling titles, including the A Girl Called Echo series (HighWater Press) and the Seven Teachings Stories series (HighWater Press).
