Dr John Chu is Senior National Curator, Midlands (Pictures and Sculpture) at the National Trust. He specialises in 18th-century British and French painting and has published and lectured widely on the art of Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. He previously worked at Tate on the Turner Bequest and has taught at the Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Reading.

Leah Cypess is the author of four YA novels- Mistwood, Nightspell, Death Sworn, and Death Marked. Both Mistwood and Death Sworn were on the Kirkus Best Books for Teens list, and Death Sworn was a Teen Vogue "Most Exciting YA Book" of the year. She lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. Thornwoood is her middle grade debut.

Hugo Award-winning and bestselling author Sarah Gailey is an internationally published writer of fiction and nonfiction. Their nonfiction has been published by Mashable and The Boston Globe, and they won a Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Their most recent fiction credits include Vice and The Atlantic. Their debut novella, River of Teeth, was a 2018 finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. Their bestselling adult novel debut, Magic For Liars, was published in 2019.

Kat Howard is the author of the novels Roses and Rot, a 2017 Locus Award finalist, and An Unkindness of Magicians, an NPR Best Book of 2017 and 2018 Alex Award winner. Her most recent story collection, A Cathedral of Myth and Bone, which includes short fiction that has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and performed as part of Selected Shorts, was released in January 2019.

Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of novels, collections, and novellas including Don't Fear the Reaper, Earthdivers, and The Only Good Indians.

His essay 'My Life with Conan the Barbarian' reveals his love for the character. He has won the Ray Bradbury Award, the Stoker Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction. Stephen lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado.

T. Kingfisher is the adult fiction pseudonym of Ursula Vernon. She is an author and illustrator based in North Carolina who has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Dragon awards.

Her debut adult horror novel, The Twisted Ones, won the 2020 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel, and was followed by the critically acclaimed The Hollow Places.

The author of many published science fiction short stories, Ann Leckie lives in St Louis, Missouri, with her husband, children and cats.

She's currently the Secretary for the SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America).

Arkady Martine is a speculative fiction writer and, as Dr AnnaLinden Weller, a historian of the Byzantine Empire and an apprentice city planner.

Under both names she writes about border politics, rhetoric, propaganda and the edges of the world. Arkady grew up in New York City and, after some time in Turkey, Canada and Sweden, lives in Baltimore with her wife, the author Vivian Shaw.

Seanan McGuire is the author of the Hugo, Nebula, Alex and Locus Award-winning Wayward Children series, the October Daye series, the InCryptid series, and other works.

She also writes darker fiction as Mira Grant. Seanan lives in Seattle with her cats, a vast collection of creepy dolls, horror movies, and sufficient books to qualify her as a fire hazard.

She won the 2010 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and in 2013 became the first person to appear five times on the same Hugo ballot.

An avid reader of fantasy literature since age six, Naomi Novik is also a history buff with a particular fascination with the Napoleonic era and a fondness for the work of Patrick O'Brian and Jane Austen.

She lives with her husband and daughter in New York City along with many purring computers.

Rebecca Roanhorse is a Hugo, Nebula and Locus award-winning speculative fiction writer. She also won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2018.

Her novels Trail of Lightning and Storm of Locusts are part of the Sixth World series. She lives in northern New Mexico with her husband, daughter and pups.

Alyssa Wong writes award-winning fiction, comics, and games. Their stories have won the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award.

Alyssa was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and their fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards.

Alyssa’s comics credits include Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, Marvel (Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Alligator Loki, Extreme Carnage), DC (Batwoman, Wonder Woman), and Adventure Time. Alyssa has also written for Overwatch and Blizzard Entertainment’s Story and Franchise Development.

Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, The Cosmology of the Wider World, and The Shadow Year.

His story collections are, The Fantasy Writer's Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, The Drowned Life, and Crackpot Palace.

His short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, magazines and anthologies, from MAD Magazine to The Oxford Book of American Short Stories.

Dominik Parisien is an editor, poet, and writer. He has worked on several anthologies with Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, including The Time Traveler’s Almanac (Tor), Sisters of the Revolution (PM Press), and The Bestiary (Centipede Press). He is the editor for Clockwork Canada, an anthology of Canadian steampunk for Exile Editions, and the coeditor of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, along with Navah Wolfe.

Dominik is also the poetry editor for Postscripts to Darkness, and was an editorial assistant for Weird Tales. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Shock Totem, Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing, and other venues. 

Navah Wolfe is a Hugo Award–nominated editor at Saga Press and the coeditor of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, along with Dominik Parisien.

She was previously an editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, where she worked on many bestselling books, including some that have won awards such as the Printz Honor, The Pura Belpré Award, The Pen/Faulkner Award, The Stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Schneider Family Award.