Richard Bowes has published five novels, two collections of short fiction, and over fifty stories, winning two World Fantasy Awards, the Lambda Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the Million Writers Award. Recent and forthcoming stories appear in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Icarus, Bewere the Night, Naked City, Nebula Awards Showcase, Supernatural Noir, Wilde Stories, and Blood and Other Cravings. Rick lives in New York City, and can be found online at www.rickbowes.com.
Sarah Rees Brennan was born and raised in Ireland, by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic), but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. She began working on her debut novel, The Demon’s Lexicon, while doing a Creative Writing MA and library work in Surrey, England. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. Her most recent books are The Demon’s Covenant and The Demon’s Surrender; she also contributed to The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games Trilogy. You’ll find her online at www.sarahreesbrennan.com.
Cecil Castellucci is the author of YA novels including First Day on Earth, Rose Sees Red, Beige, The Queen of Cool, and Boy Proof, and The Year of the Beasts (forthcoming). She has published a picture book, Grandma’s Gloves; two graphic novels, The Plain Janes and Janes in Love (illustrated by Jim Rugg), and numerous short stories published in Strange Horizons, Teeth, The Eternal Kiss, Geektastic (which she coedited), and Interfictions 2, among other places. Cecil also writes plays, operas, makes movies, does performance pieces, and occasionally rocks out. You’ll find more information on Cecil and her work at www.misscecil.com.
Carolyn Dunn is an American Indian writer of Cherokee, Muskogee Creek, and Seminole descent on her father’s side, and is Cajun, French Creole, and Tunica-Biloxi on her mother’s. Primarily a poet and a playwright, Carolyn began telling and writing stories at a very young age, being exposed to storytelling traditions from all aspects of her very Southern and very Western background. Her books for adult readers include Through the Eye of the Deer, Hozho: Walking in Beauty, and Outfoxing Coyote. She has also published YA short fiction in The Green Man, and a book for children, Coyote Speaks. Her plays have been produced all over the country, the most recent being The Frybread Queen. Carolyn and her family live in a redwood forest in California, where she’s at work on a dystopian novel related to the story in this anthology. To learn more about her books, plays, poetry, and music, visit her online at www.carolyndunn.com.
Carol Emshwiller grew up in Michigan and in France and now divides her time between New York and California. Her stories have appeared in literary and science fiction magazines for over forty years, and have been published in a number of critically acclaimed collections—most recently, The Collected Stories of Carol Emshwiller and In the Time of War & Master of the Road to Nowhere. Carol’s work has been honored with two Nebula Awards and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Fantasy Convention.
She’s also been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and two literary grants from New York State.
Jeffrey Ford is the author of the novels The Physiognomy, Memoranda, The Beyond, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, The Girl in the Glass, and The Shadow Year; and his short fiction has been published in three collections: The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant, The Empire of Ice Cream, and The Drowned Life. He has won the World Fantasy Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the Gran Prix de l’Imaginaire. Formerly a college teacher in New Jersey, Jeff now lives in Ohio with his wife and two sons, and writes full-time. You can learn more about his work at www.wellbuiltcity.com.
Steven Gould is the author of the novels Jumper (which was made into a feature film), Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, Jumper: Griffin’s Story, 7th Sigma, and the upcoming Impulse. His story for this anthology is set in the early days of the metal bug infestation detailed in 7th Sigma. Steven is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction, and his short fiction has appeared on both the Hugo and Nebula ballots, but his favorite “honor” was being on the American Library Associations Top 100 Banned Books list 1990–1999. He lives in New Mexico with his wife, writer Laura J. Mixon, and their two daughters. His blog, An Unconvincing Narrative, can be found at http://eatourbrains.com/steve.
Nalo Hopkinson was born in Jamaica and has lived in Canada since 1977. She is the author of five novels (Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber, The Salt Roads, The New Moon’s Arms, and The Chaos), one story collection (Skin Folk), and has also edited several anthologies. She is a recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Award, the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award for emerging writers, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the Locus Award for Best New Writer, the World Fantasy Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, the Aurora Award, the Gaylactic Spectrum Award, and her work received an Honorable Mention in Cuba’s Casa de las Americas literary prize. Visit Nalo online at www.nalohopkinson.com.
N. K. Jemisin is a Hugo and Nebula nominee for her debut novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as well as for her short fiction, and has been published in such diverse venues as Postscripts, Clarkesworld, and the Escape Artists podcasts. “The Trojan Girl,” published in Weird Tales, was set in the same dystopian milieu as “Valedictorian”; and she is (slowly) working on a young adult novel also set there. Her fourth and fifth novels, The Killing Moon and The Shadowed Sun, will be published in mid-2012. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and can be found online at nkjemisin.com.
Caitlín R. Kiernan is the author of several novels, including Low Red Moon, Daughter of Hounds, and The Red Tree, which was nominated for both the Shirley Jackson and World Fantasy awards. Her latest novel, The Drowning Girl: A Memoir, will be released by Penguin in 2012. Since 2000, her shorter tales of the weird, fantastic, and macabre have been collected in several volumes, including Tales of Pain and Wonder, From Weird and Distant Shores, To Charles Fort, With Love, Alabaster, A is for Alien, and The Ammonite Violin & Others. In 2012, Subterranean Press will release a retrospective of her early writing, Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan, vol. 1. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her partner Kathryn. She is currently working on her next two novels, Blood Oranges and Blue Canary.
Matthew Kressel’s fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld magazine, Interzone, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Electric Velocipede, Apex magazine, GUD magazine, and the anthologies The People of the Book, Naked City, and Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, as well as other markets. He runs Senses Five Press, which publishes the magazine Sybil’s Garage and published the World Fantasy Award-winning Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy. He cohosts the long-running Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in Manhattan. And he has been a longtime member of the Altered Fluid writers group, where he regularly builds and shatters worlds. His Web site is www.matthewkressel.net.
Katherine Langrish is the author of several young adult fantasy novels inspired by folklore and legends, including a trio of historical fantasies set in the Viking age: Troll Fell, Troll Mill, and Troll Blood (republished in 2011 in an omnibus version as West of the Moon), and The Shadow Hunt (UK title: Dark Angels), a tale of ghosts and faeries on the Welsh border in the twelfth century. Her latest book, Forsaken, is a short reimagining of Matthew Arnold’s classic poem “The Forsaken Merman.” Katherine lives in Oxfordshire, England, and is at work on a YA dystopian fantasy featuring the characters and world of “Visiting Nelson.” You can visit her Web site at www.katherinelangrish.co.uk or join the chat about fairy tales on her blog, Seven Miles of Steel Thistles, at http://steelthistles.blogspot.com.
Gregory Maguire is the author of several dozen books for adults and children. His best known titles for children include What-the-Dickens and Leaping Beauty. His adult novel, Wicked, inspired the Broadway musical of the same name, and was followed by two New York Times best-selling sequels in the Wicked Years sequence, Son of a Witch and A Lion Among Men. The final volume in the series, Out of Oz, was published in November 2011. He has also written and performed pieces for NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Selected Shorts.” Gregory lives in New England and in France with his husband, the painter Andy Newman, and their three children.
Garth Nix is the award-winning author of fantasy novels beloved by young adult readers (including the Old Kingdom series, the Seventh Tower series, and the Keys to the Kingdom series), and the YA dystopian science fiction novel Shade’s Children. His story for this anthology is set in the universe of Shade’s Children, and takes place about ten years prior to the events in the novel. Garth’s books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, and The Australian, and his work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. He lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children. Visit him online at garthnix.com.
Before writing her New York Times best-selling novel, Life as We Knew It, Susan Beth Pfeffer didn’t know what a dystopian novel was. She still doesn’t know how to spell dystopian, but that hasn’t prevented her from writing two more novels, The Dead and the Gone and This World We Live In in the same genre. Her most recent book, Blood Wounds, is a realistic YA novel, perhaps because she has no trouble spelling realistic. She lives in New York State, and you can fine her online at http://susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com.
Beth Revis’s debut novel, Across the Universe, is the first book in a science fiction trilogy for young adult readers. Like her story for this anthology, the novel explores life on the spaceship Godspeed under Eldest rule. The second book of the trilogy, A Million Suns, is forthcoming. Beth lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dog, and believes space is nowhere near the final frontier. You’ll find her online at www.bethrevis.com, and on the dystopian blog, The League of Extraordinary Writers http://leaguewriters.blogspot.com
Carrie Ryan is the New York Times best-selling author of several critically acclaimed short stories and novels, including The Forest of Hands and Teeth, The Dead Tossed Waves, and The Dark and Hollow Places. Her first novel was chosen as a Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association, named to the 2010 New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age List, and selected as a Best of the Best Books by the Chicago Public Library. A former litigator, Carrie now writes full-time and lives with her husband, two fat cats, and one large dog in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can find her online at www.carrieryan.com.
Genevieve Valentine is the author of Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed, and others, and in the anthologies Teeth, The Living Dead 2, Running with the Pack, Armored, The New Adventures of John Carter of Mars, and more. Her nonfiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Tor.com, and Fantasy Magazine, and she is the coauthor of the pop-culture book Geek Wisdom. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her Web site, genevievevalentine.com.
Jane Yolen, winner of two Nebulas and a bunch of other awards, just counted up her books published—and under contract to be published—and the astonishing number is over 330. Of course if you counted her single poems, the count would be much higher. Her first love has always been poetry. The poem in this book was written on a gray day in Scotland (or as they write it there, “grey”), about the aftermath of some unnamed worldwide disaster. Though of course, even on extremely gray/grey days in Scotland, everything is green. Jane lives in Massachusetts and Scotland, and can be found online at www.janeyolen.com.