AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Recita Clemons was born in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana and spent her early years moving from one Air Force base to another with her family. She majored in journalism and received her B.A. from Howard University. Always an avid reader, one day she decided to sit down and write the kind of fiction she wanted to read. Her first short story, “Wheelies” appeared in Dark Yonder: Issue 2. She is a member of Sisters In Crime, Crime Writers of Color, and the Maryland Writers Association.

Bradley Harper, MD, is a retired US Army pathologist. His 2018 debut novel, A Knife in the Fog, placed a young Arthur Conan Doyle on the hunt for Jack the Ripper. Knife was a 2019 Edgar's Finalist, winner of Killer Nashville's Silver Falchion Award, is a recommended read by the Arthur Conan Doyle Estate, and the audiobook won Audiofile Magazine's Earphone Award. A short film based on the book is currently in post-production. Queen's Gambit, the sequel to his first novel, won the 2020 Silver Falchion for Best Suspense and Book of the Year. His poetry, essays, and short stories have been published in various magazines. A short animation, Dark Tryst, won the Best Super Short Film Award at the 2023 Paris Film Festival. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Napier U. in Edinburgh and is currently pitching his thesis project, an art heist aboard The Titanic. You can subscribe to his monthly newsletter at http://www.bharperauthor.com. 

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Zakariah Johnson plucks banjos and pens thrillers, horror, and crime fiction on the banks of the Piscataqua. He is the author of the short-story collection Egg on Her Face: Stories of Crime, Horror, and the Space in Between and the novel Mink: Skinning Time in Wisconsin, a splatter-filled eco-terrorism mystery about the battle between the Animal Liberation Front and midwestern fur farmers in the early '90s.

Charlie Kondek is a marketing professional and short story writer from metro Detroit. His work has appeared in Black Cat Weekly, Hoosier Noir, The Saturday Evening Post, BULL, and elsewhere. Learn more at charliekondekwrites.com.

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Meagan Lucas is the author of the Anthony-nominated collection Here in the Dark and the award-winning novel, Songbirds and Stray Dogs. She has been nominated for the Pushcart, Best of the Net, Derringer, and Canadian Crime Writer’s Award of Excellence multiple times, and won the 2017 Scythe Prize for Fiction. Her short stories “The Monster Beneath” and “You Know What They Say About Karma” were listed as Distinguished in the 2023 and 2024 Best American Mystery and Suspense. Her novel manuscript Soft Animals is currently long-listed for the Bakwin Award. Meagan teaches Creative Writing at Robert Morris University and in the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC Asheville. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Reckon Review. Born and raised on a small island in Northern Ontario, she now lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Stanton McCaffery is from Central New Jersey, right off the Turnpike, where he lives with his wife and Jack Russell Dachshund mix Cookie. His short stories have been featured in Mystery Tribune, Vautrin, Shotgun Honey, and more. He has stories forthcoming in Reckon Review and Tough. He has published two novels: Into the Ocean and Neighborhood of Dead Ends, and is querying a third. His short story, “Will I See The Birds When I Am Gone,” which originally appeared in Dark Yonder 4, is featured in Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Rock and a Hard Place Press.

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Sarah Smith is a professor and poet living in Hillsborough, North Carolina. This is her first published work of fiction.

Casey Stegman lives in North Carolina. His fiction has been published by Tough, Shotgun Honey, Dark Yonder, Cowboy Jamboree, Bristol Noir, and Punk Noir Magazine. He also writes the article series “Murder in the First" over at Mystery Tribune. When he’s not typing up stories about miscreants and malefactors, he rescues and rehabilitates dogs with his wife. So, if you’re looking to adopt, hit him up. For more details, visit: www.caseystegman.com.

Ed Teja is a full-time writer and martial artist. A former magazine editor, he lived on board a former British warship in the Caribbean for ten years. That resulted in his six-book series of Caribbean thrillers (Martin Billings Stories). Although he tends to write stories about the darker side of life (crimes and criminals are often the focus of his thriller novels and short stories) he enjoys taking walks into the surreal, where he researches urban fantasy stories. His recent short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including: Thrill Ride, Wyldeblood 13, Anotherealm, Mystery Tribune, Crimeucopia, Black Cat Weekly, Mystery Magazine, Tales of Mystery: The Gravity of Death (Inklings Press), and Black Petals. His flash fiction also featured in a recent issue of Punk Noir. Learn more at www.edteja.com.