Alex Azar is an award winning author bred, born, and raised in New Jersey. He had aspirations beyond his humble beginnings, goals that would take him to the skyscrapers of Metropolis and the alleys of Gotham. Alex was going to be a superhero. Then one tragic day, tragedy tragically struck. He remembered he wasn't an orphan and by law would only be able to become a sidekick. Circumstances preventing him from achieving his dream, Alex's mind fractured and he now spends his nights writing about the darkest horrors that plague the recesses of his twisted mind and black heart. His days are filled being the dutiful sidekick the law requires him to be, until he can one day be the hero the world (or at least New Jersey) needs.

Alex was first published in 2010, and he's since published over a dozen short stories, including his award winning collection "Nightmare Noir." Alex is a two time winner of the Preditors & Editors Best Horror Short Story of the year. Alex lives with his wife and their two cats, Leonidas and Miles Davis.

Runner-up in the Wicked Young Writer Awards: Gregory Maguire Award, Laurence Sullivan's creative writing has appeared in such places as: Londonist, The List, NHK World-Japan, Fish Publishing and Popshot Quarterly.

Sullivan became inspired to start writing during his studies at the universities of Kent, Utrecht and Birmingham – after being saturated in all forms of literature from across the globe and enjoying every moment of it. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Northumbria University in the Medical Humanities, exploring literary portrayals of women's domestic medicine during the eighteenth century. When not writing, he can probably be found playing video games whilst feeding his pathological addiction to tea.

More of his work can be found online at www.laurencesullivan.co.uk and on Twitter @LozzySullivan

Marc Sorondo lives with his wife and children in New York. He loves to read, and his interests range from fiction to comic books, physics to history, oceanography to cryptozoology, and just about everything in between. He's a perpetual student and occasional teacher.

For more information, go to MarcSorondo.com.

Addison Smith is an author and laborer living in upstate New York. His fiction can be found in Fantasy Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Daily Science Fiction and others. He has recently discovered the joys of brewing coffee in numerous ways, and will gladly talk your ear off @AddisonCSmith.

Eric Fomley is a short fiction writer from Garrett, Indiana. His fiction has been published in places like Galaxy’s Edge, Daily Science Fiction, Flame Tree Press, and The Black Library. You can follow Eric on his website ericfomley.com or on Twitter @PrinceGrimdark.

Alyson was spent her adolescent years in the southwest of the United States, going to high school in Arizona.

She moved to Maryland where she got married, had her only daughter, and began her writing journey.

When not writing she enjoys watching movies, reading, and playing games.

Writer of short stories in the fantasy and horror genres.

Rob D. Smith is an editor for Rock and a Hard Place Press. His work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Shotgun Honey, The Arcanist, Pyre Magazine, Thriller Magazine, Bristol Noir, Rock and a Hard Place Magazine, and Tough, plus several other crime, horror, and speculative print and online publications. He is a common man attempting to write uncommon fiction out of Louisville, KY. Find more about him at https://robdsmith.carrd.co/

Marc Criley spent decades writing software for pay and for fun, all the while avidly reading fantasy and science fiction. In his early 50s he decided to cut back on the former and try his hand at writing the latter. After a couple years of rejections Marc sold his first story to semi-pro market Abyss & Apex, and a few months later made his first pro sale to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He has gone on to sell additional stories to publications such as Galaxy's Edge, Cossmass Infinities, Shoreline of Infinity, and several others. Marc is a member of SFWA and the Codex writers group. He and his wife live in the hills of North Alabama where they "manage" a houseful of cats. Marc maintains a blog at kickin-the-darkness.com, which includes a bibliography of his published stories and haiku. He is very noisy on Twitter as @That_MarcC, foisting all manner of art, archaeology, politics, computers, space, Alabama, and cat pics onto an unsuspecting Twitterverse.

Scholar | Writer | Artist

*imagining and enacting better futures*

I’m continually searching for radical futures, reflecting over the racial and colonial legacies of our pasts, and laboring to enact justice in the present. My academic work critically examines aid, development, and volunteer work in Africa. My creative work aims to open imaginative possibilities. I hail from Southwest Michigan, and am currently Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Critical/Cultural Studies in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

A graduate student once called me a “badass fairy.” I attempt to live up to the title.

Kai Delmas loves creating worlds and magic systems. He is a winner of the monthly Apex Microfiction Contest and his fiction can be found in Martian, Tree and Stone and several Shacklebound Books' anthologies. Connect with him on Twitter @KaiDelmas.