Alice Archer grew up as the black sheep of a large, working-class evangelical family in rural Wisconsin and North Carolina. She now lives in Gainesville, Florida with seven rescued cats, a variety of snakes and lizards, and about 3,000 books. She is self-educated, self-employed, and neurodivergent, having received a formal diagnosis of autism only at the age of 40 (which she says explained quite a lot). Although Alice has been writing nearly her entire life, beginning with stories illustrated with Crayolas and handbound in cardboard at age 6, she only recently began sharing her work. In addition to “Tayden’s 2!”, which is her first published work of fiction, her short story “Hot Guy From Photography Class” is forthcoming in the Summer 2023 issue of Streetlight Magazine. She’s still getting comfortable with the whole idea of social media, but can be reached by email at archera738@ yahoo.com.

 

S.A. Cosby is the international award-winning author of the New York Times bestsellers Razorblade Tears and Blacktop Wasteland, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, Library Journal, and many other media outlets. Both novels have been optioned for films. His other work includes his debut novel, My Darkest Prayer, as well as short fiction that has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. He is the winner of two Anthony Awards, one for Best Novel (Blacktop Wasteland in 2021) and another for Best Short Story (The Grass Beneath My Feet in 2019). His fourth novel, All the Sinners Bleed, is scheduled for release in June of 2023 by Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan.

 

Kevin A. Brown’s publications include his novel, The Running Horse of Santa Teresa and a Pushcart Prize-nominated short story in Oxford American. His work has been anthologized in Maple Leaf Rag IV, as well as Literary Austin (alongside O. Henry and Katherine Ann Porter). His screenplays have received recognition at the Austin Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival, and the Oaxaca Film Festival. (aka) Kevbro spent a decade in higher education, where he taught writing at the University of Alabama, and at Middle Tennessee State University, where he also assisted with Writer Corps, a creative writing group for US military veterans.

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Recita L. Clemons was born in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana and spent her early years moving from one Air Force base to another. She received her B.A. from Howard University and holds a degree in Legal Studies from the University of Maryland. She is the author of the Jonelle Sweet mystery series, which includes the award-winning novel Gone Missing. She is a member of Sisters In Crime and International Thriller Writers. A Maryland resident, she has been a horse owner and riding competitor for over three decades. Her books are available at amazon.com. Learn more at www.rlanierclemons.com.

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Joseph Hirsch’s short fiction has been published by many outlets, including Zahir: A Journal of Speculative Fiction, Unsettling Reads, and The Western Online. He has also sold several short stories to Underground Voices, which published his novel, My Tired Shadow. His fiction has also appeared at Retreats from Oblivion: A Journal of NoirCon and Terror House. More stories are slated to appear this year from various publishers, including Vanishing Point and Lovecraftiana. He is the author of more than ten published novels, most recently The Phone in the Fishbowl, available from Black Rose Writing. His nonfiction has been featured in Film International and Bull: Men’s Fiction. He previously worked as a staff writer for Fight Hype, covering boxing matches around the globe. His personal website is www.joeyhirsch.com and his Goodreads profile is https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2784412. Joseph_Hirsch He holds an MA in Germanistik from the University of Cincinnati and currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

 

Joseph Labriola is an author, podcaster, and professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Stony Brook University in New York. His most recent work includes "Vegelante" in Twenty-two Twenty-eight; “Blowout Tide” in Elsewhere: A Journal of Place; “The Room Above” in After Dinner Conversation; “Coloring In” in Garo Station; and “And You Realize You Wander With Glasses” in Eastern Iowa Review. His novel American Dreamers is available at amazon.com in both print and eBook formats, as is his non-fiction book Beach Cleaner’s Guide. He often writes his short fiction through an environmental lens with the goal of helping to raise awareness about ocean plastic pollution. He regularly hosts beach clean-up events, presents lectures, and tries to spread awareness about this issue however he can. You can follow his adventures on YouTube, Instagram, and other social media platforms by searching for “Professor Labs.”

 

Preston Lang describes himself as a “small, honest Ontario-based writer.” His short work has been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Thuglit, Best American Mystery Stories 2019, and Best American Mystery and Suspense Stories 2021. He also writes a regular column for WebMd.

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Meagan Lucas is the author of the award-winning novel, Songbirds and Stray Dogs (2019) and the forthcoming collection, Here in the Dark (Shotgun Honey, July 2023). Meagan’s short work can be found in places like Santa Fe Writers’ Project, Still: The Journal, Bull Magazine, Cowboy Jamboree, and Pithead Chapel. Meagan is Pushcart, Best of the Net, Derringer, and Canadian Crime Writers’ Award of Excellence nominated, won the 2017 Scythe Prize for Fiction, and Songbirds and Stray Dogs was North Carolina’s selection for the Library of Congress Center for the Book’s 2022 Route 1 Reads program. She teaches at Robert Morris University and is the Editor-in-Chief of Reckon Review. Find her online at: www.meaganlucas.com; Twitter: @mgnlcs; Facebook: Meagan Smith Lucas; and Instagram: @meaganlucasauthor.

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Warren Moore is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Newberry College in Newberry, SC. His work has appeared in a number of anthologies, along with online and little magazines, and his crime novel Broken Glass Waltzes was reissued by Down & Out Books in 2017. Most notably, his short stories have been published in seven of Lawrence Block’s original anthologies, alongside such authors as Stephen King, David Morrell, Jeffrey Deaver, and Joyce Carol Oates. His work has received positive attention in USA Today and the New York Times. His story “Bowery Station, 3:15 A.M.” (from Block’s Dark City Lights anthology) was an honorable mention in Otto Penzler’s Best American Mystery Stories in 2016. He blogs at www.profmondo.wordpress.com and tweets as @profmondo.