Jo Anderton writes speculative fiction for anyone who likes their worlds a little different. She sprinkles a pinch of science fiction to spice up her fantasy, and thinks horror adds flavour to everything. She has won the Aurealis, Ditmar and Australian Shadows awards. [Twitter]

Octavia Cade is a New Zealand writer who likes baking cakes (but not cakes like Berta’s). Her stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Shimmer, and Asimov’s, amongst others. She’s currently writing a series of interlinked fantasy shorts about a strange street of crabs and magic, which she is having a ridiculous amount of fun with. She attended Clarion West 2016. [Twitter]

John Chu is a microprocessor architect by day, a writer, translator, and podcast narrator by night. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming at Boston Review, Uncanny, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and Tor.com among other venues. His translations have been published or is forthcoming at Clarkesworld, The Big Book of SF and other venues. His story “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.  [Twitter]

Lee Cope is a fantasy writer who occasionally eyes off science fiction for ideas. They studied literature and linguistics and still haven’t managed to tear themself away from university yet. They are the author of a serialised novel, The Ferryman’s Apprentice. [Twitter]

Elizabeth Fitzgerald is a freelance editor and owner of Earl Grey Editing. She runs an award-nominated book blog, and writes reviews for the Skiffy and Fanty Show. Her fiction has appeared in Next and Burley, among others. She lives in Canberra, Australia. An unabashed roleplayer and reader of romance, her weaknesses are books, loose-leaf tea and silly dogs. [Twitter]

Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal writer and illustrator from the Palyku people. The homeland of her people is located in the dry, vivid beauty of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Ambelin has written and illustrated a number of award winning picture books as well as writing a dystopian series – ‘the Tribe’ – for Young Adults. When not writing or illustrating, Ambelin teaches law and spends time with her family and her dogs.

Stephanie Lai is a Chinese-Australian writer and occasional translator. She also helps people prepare for our climate change dystopia. Her thinkpieces can be found in the Toast, the Lifted Brow, Overland and Pencilled In. Her recent short fiction can be found in the anthologies Cranky Ladies of History, Behind the Mask and In Your Face. [Twitter]

Rosaleen Love has published two collections of short fiction with the Women’s Press, UK, The Total Devotion Machine and Evolution Annie. Her most recent books are Secret Lives of Books, Reefscape: Reflections on the Great Barrier Reef, and The Traveling Tide. She is honoured to be a recipient of the Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in Australian science fiction.

E.H. Mann lives and writes in Melbourne, Australia; “Arguing with People on the Internet” is her first professionally published work. By day she works as a park ranger, volunteers as an asexuality advocate, and struggles as an amateur brain-weasel wrangler. She wants to be a writer when she grows up. [Facebook

Sandra McDonald is a former military officer, recovering Hollywood assistant, and perennially patient instructor who writes romance, history, fantasy, science fiction, BLGTQA, and young adult fiction. Her first collection of short fiction, Diana Comet and Other Improbable Stories, won a Lambda award for LGBT Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror. Her stories have been published in several dozen magazines, anthologies, and novels. She currently resides in Florida. [Twitter]

Seanan McGuire is an American author, living on the West Coast (where the rattlesnakes are) and spending most of her time dreaming of rain. She writes a lot of books. When not writing, Seanan enjoys travel, visiting the haunted cornfields of the world, spending time with her enormous Maine Coon cats, and collecting creepy dolls. [Twitter]

Lev Mirov is a disabled mixed race Filipino-American medievalist, composer, and fabulist who writes novels with his husband, fellow writer Aleksei Valentín. His fiction has appeared in the anthologies Myriad Lands and Sunvault. His Rhysling-nominated poetry is in many fine venues. [Twitter

D.K. Mok is a fantasy and science fiction author whose novels include Squid’s Grief and Hunt for Valamon. DK has been shortlisted for four Aurealis Awards, two Ditmars and a WSFA Small Press Award. DK lives in Sydney, Australia, and her favourite fossil deposit is the Burgess Shale. [Twitter]

Soumya Sundar Mukherjee is an admirer of engaging speculative fiction. A bilingual writer from West Bengal, India, he writes about stuff strange dreams are made of. His works have appeared or will appear in Mother’s Revenge (Scary Dairy Press), Occult Detective Quarterly and Hidden Animals (Dragon’s Roost Press). He spends his leisure time in writing, studying the myths and legends of different cultures around the globe and drawing monsters both horrifying and cute.

E.C. Myers was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts. He has published four novels and short stories in various magazines and anthologies, most recently 1985: Stori3s from SOS. His first novel, Fair Coin, won the 2012 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult SF and Fantasy. [Twitter]

Justina Robson sold her first novel in 1999; it also won the 2000 amazon.co.uk Writers’ Bursary Award. Her eleven books have been variously shortlisted for most of the major genre awards. An anthology of her short fiction, Heliotrope, was published in 2012. Her novels and stories range widely over SF and fantasy, often in combination and often featuring AIs and machines who aren’t exactly what they seem.  [Twitter]

Nisi Shawl wrote the Tiptree Award-winning collection Filter House and the Nebula finalist and Tiptree Honor novel Everfair, an alternate history of the Congo.  Her stories have appeared in Analog and Asimov’s magazines, among other publications.  She’s a founder of the Carl Brandon Society and a Clarion West board member. [Twitter]

Cat Sparks is a multi-award winning Australian science fiction and fantasy author. Cat grew up in Sydney, has a BA in Visual Arts and is finishing a PhD examining the intersection of science fiction and climate fiction. She was Fiction Editor of Cosmos magazine for five years and managed Agog! Press from 2002 to 2008.  Seventy of her short stories have been published in various magazines and anthologies including The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, Year’s Best SF 16, Loosed Upon the World, Solaris Rising 3 and Lightspeed Magazine. Lotus Blue, her debut novel (Skyhorse, 2017), is set in a far future war and climate-ravaged Australia. [Twitter]

Meryl Stenhouse lives in subtropical Queensland where she curates an extensive notebook collection and fights a running battle with the Lego models trying to take over the house. Her work has appeared in Shimmer, Metaphorosis and The Fantasist. [Twitter]

Bogi Takács (e/em/eir/emself or they pronouns) is a Hungarian Jewish agender trans person currently living in the US as a resident alien. E writes both fiction and poetry, and eir work has been published in a variety of venues like Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons and Apex. E is currently editing the anthology Transcendent 2: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction 2016 for Lethe Press. Bogi talks about books with a focus on diverse authors at Bogi Reads the World, and eir Patreon features many goodies, art, sudden poems and more. [Twitter]

Kaaron Warren has been publishing horror and science fiction for more than 20 years. She’s sold over 200 stories and has six short story collections and four novels in print. Her most recent novel, The Grief Hole, won the Canberra Critics Award, the Aurealis Award and the Australian Shadows Award. [Twitter]

Jen White is an Australian writer who finds inspiration in the vibrancy and mystery of the Australian environment. Jen’s stories have appeared in magazines such as Andromeda Spaceways, Aurealis and Dimension6; and in anthologies including Dead Red Heart and Future Lovecraft. She has twice been a finalist in the Aurealis Awards. [Twitter]