Guests include Brian Keene, Gary Braunbeck, Lucy Snyder, Wrath James White, Kelli Dunlap, Alex McVey, Jason Sizemore, Chesya Burke, Alethea Kontis, Kim Paffenroth, D. Harlan Wilson, and Steven Gilberts.
Writing Guests of Honor:
Kelli Dunlap
Kelli spends her free time pounding on the keys with the bloody nubs that used to be her fingers. She has sold several short stories to both online and print magazine, and even dabbled in a poetry sale here or there. Her first novel will be available in 2009 through Morning Star, an imprint of Bloodletting Press. She has a family and pets, but more importantly, a website–where you can stay up to date on the novel or other output from the bloody nubs: kellidunlap.com. Visit her and she’ll refrain from shaking her nubs at you, thus splattering you with bloody goo.
Brian Keene
Author of over twenty horror, crime, and dark fantasy novels and short story collections, including Castaways, Dead Sea, Unhappy Endings, Dark Hollow, Urban Gothic, and many more. He also writes comic books for Marvel, DC and others. The winner of two Bram Stoker Awards, as well as several other literary awards, Keene’s work has been translated into German, Polish, French, Spanish, and Taiwanese. His novel, The Rising (published in early 2003), is often credited (along with Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later) as ushering in the current resurgence of zombies in pop culture. Several of his works have been optioned for film and other media. His short story The Ties That Bind was released on DVD in July 2009 as a short independent film. Also in 2009, his novel Terminal debuted as a limited release stage play.
Gary Braunbeck
Gary A. Braunbeck is a prolific author who writes mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mainstream literature. He is the author of 19 books; his fiction has been translated into Japanese, French, Italian, Russian and German. Nearly 200 of his short stories have appeared in various publications.
Lucy Synder
The author the author of a trilogy of novels that are set be published by Del Rey starting in 2009; the first book in the series is entitled Spellbent. Also the author of Sparks and Shadows, a cross-genre short story collection from HW Press, Lucy A. Snyder may be most known for her humor collection Installing Linux on a Dead Badger (And Other Oddities). With over 70 short fiction sales and over 20 poetry sales, her fiction goes all over the road, although she does tend to write genre stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, etc.) more often than straightforward mainstream fiction. She also writes a column for Horror World on science and technology for writers.
Wrath James White
Succulent Prey marks his first mass-market release from Leisure Books. If you have a taste for extreme fiction with socio-political and philosophical messages that push boundaries, break taboos, and leave you thinking long after the book has ended then check out Teratologist co-written with Edward Lee, Poisoning Eros co written with Monica O-Rourke, The Book of A thousand Sins collection, His Pain novella, Orgy of Souls with Maurice Broaddus, Hero novella with J.F. Gonzalez, and Population Zero. If you have a weak stomach, a closed mind, rigid morals, and Victorian sexual ethics, than avoid his writing like the plague.
Artist Guest of Honor:
Alex McVey
Alex McVey is an award-winning, Chesley-nominated illustrator whose work has been published internationally, ranging from album art to graphic design to book illustration. He has illustrated the works of Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Gahan Wilson, Brian Keene, Ramsey Cambpell, and Richard Matheson, among others. His clients include ad firms, gaming companies, film studios, bands, and book and magazine publishers.
Editor Guest of Honor:
Jason Sizemore
A young writer and editor from Appalachia Kentucky, Jason has seen his fiction appear in nearly two dozen books and magazines. He’s a prolific non-fiction writer, having dozens of essays, reviews, and editorials published in print and on the web on varied subjects such as gaming, geek culture, and politics. He earned his college degree from Transylvania University, making him an ideal candidate to head a horror magazine. He was a 2006 Stoker Award nominee for his work on the Aegri Somnia anthology. In 2007, he published his first chapbook (under the newly formed APEX BOOKS division of Apex Publications) titled Webs of Discord. He appears in Writers Workshop of Horror and has a collection of Appalachian horror titled Irredeemable from Shroud Publications coming out in the spring of 2010.
Featured Guests Include:
Chesya Burke
With more than 40 publishing credits to her name, including the acclaimed Chocolate Park, Chesya Burke has been making her mark in the horror and fantasy worlds. She has several articles appearing in the African American National Biography published by Harvard University and Oxford University Press, received the 2003 Twilight Tales Award for fiction and an honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Science Fiction: 18th Annual Edition.
Alethea Kontis
Alethea Kontis is the New York Times bestselling author of Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark-Hunter Companion, as well as the AlphaOops series of picture books. She has done multiple collaborations with artist Janet Lee including A is for Alice, The Umbrella of Fun, and the illustrated Twitter serial Diary of a Mad Scientist Garden Gnome. Alethea’s most recent work can be found in the Apex Publications anthologies Harlan County Horrors and Dark Faith.
Kim Paffenroth
Dr. Kim Paffenroth is a professor of religious studies at Iona College, and the author of several books on the Bible and theology. He grew up in New York, Virginia, and New Mexico. He attended St. John’s College, Annapolis, MD (BA, 1988), Harvard Divinity School (MTS, 1990), and the University of Notre Dame (PhD, 1995). He now lives in upstate New York with his wife and two kids. His work in the horror genre includes Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006) – WINNER, 2006 Bram Stoker Award; Dying to Live: A Novel of Life among the Undead (Permuted Press, 2007); and Dying to Live: Life Sentence (Permuted Press, 2008). His newest is Valley of the Dead, just out from Permuted Press.
D Harlan Wilson
Award-winning novelist, short story writer, cultural theorist, screenwriter, pseudobodybuilder, and associate professor of English at Wright State University-Lake Campus. DHW’s books include Dr. Identity, or, Farewell to Plaquedemia, Blankety Blank: A Memoir of Vulgaria, Peckinpah: An Ultraviolent Romance, Technologized Desire: Selfhood & the Body in Postcapitalist Science Fiction, The Kafka Effekt, Stranger on the Loose and Pseudo-City. Dr. Identity, winner of the Wonderland Book Award, marks the first installment of The Scikungfi Trilogy. Book 2 is Codename Prague. Book 3 is The Kyoto Man. This year Atlatl Press will release DHW’s latest fiction collection, They Had Goat Heads. DHW holds a M.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, a M.A. in Science Fiction Studies from the University of Liverpool, & a Ph.D. in English from Michigan State University.
Steven C. Gilberts
Steven and his lovely wife Becky now live in a spooky Queen Ann cottage within a small Dunwich-esk village of southern Indiana, near the now abandoned ammo plant of his youth. While hiding from the townsfolk, Steven concocts odd illustrations for the small press industry. His work has graced magazines from Apex Digest to Cemetery Dance, Dark Wisdom to Shroud Magazine.
Other guests confirmed so far include:
Sue Dent, Jerry Gordon, Brian J. Hatcher, John C. Hay, Kyle S. Johnson, Michael Knost, Debbie Kuhn, Sara Larson, Lon Prater, Doug Warrick, and Michael West
