Robert Silverberg has been a professional writer since 1955, widely known for his science fiction and fantasy stories. He is a many-time winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, was named to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 2004 was designated as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.

His books and stories have been translated into forty languages. Among his best known titles are Nightwings, Dying Inside, The Book Of Skulls, and the three volumes of the Majipoor Cycle: Lord Valentine's Castle, Majipoor Chronicles and Valentine Pontifex.

His collected short stories, covering nearly sixty years of work, are being published in nine volumes by SF Gateway and Subterranean Press. His most recent book is Tales Of Majipoor (2013), a new collection of stories set on the giant world made famous in Lord Valentine's Castle.

He and his wife Karen and an assorted population of cats, live in the San Francisco Bay Area in a sprawling house surrounded by exotic plants.

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.

A veteran of the American Civil War who fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga in the Union ranks, Bierce became one of America's best-known writers and journalists, admired for his insolent, entertaining and sometimes courageous columns.

In 1913 he set off for Mexico, then in the throes of revolution, and was never seen again. Ralph Steadman is the author of many illustrated books including Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo, The Big I Am, The Scar-Strangled Banner, Alice and Animal Farm. His most recent publication is the novel, Doodaaa.

A multi-award-winning author, Roger Zelazny spent his life involved in literature. After studying English to Masters' level, he wrote swathes of short stories, novels and poems.

He numbers three Nebula awards, six Hugo awards and two Locus awards among his prizes, and his work has inspired numerous other writers. He died at the age of 58, but his legacy lives on.

Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis has won, among other accolades, ten Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards for her writing, and was recently named an SFWA Grand Master.

She lives in Greeley, Colorado with her husband Courtney Willis, a professor of physics at the University of Northern Colorado.

Editor Bryan Thomas Schmidt is an author of novels and short fiction, and Hugo-nominated editor. He has edited Alan Dean Foster, Tracy Hickman, Frank Herbert, was the first editor on Andy Weir's The Martian.

His anthologies include Infinite Stars, Predator: If it Bleeds, Shattered Shields (with Jennifer Brozek), Beyond the Sun, Raygun Chronicles, and Mission: Tomorrow.