A teacher, a stand-up comic, former cement packing factory worker and graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Snorri Kristjánsson also writes things. Sometimes they are books (mainly about Vikings), sometimes they are films (mainly not about Vikings) or silly stage plays (you probably don’t want to know, to be honest).

He now spends his days working with words, eating cakes and teaching Drama.

Taran Matharu is the New York Times bestselling author of the Summoner series, which has been translated into 15 languages and has sold over a million copies in English. He was born in London in 1990. Taran began to write the Summoner series in November 2013 at the age of 22, taking part in “Nanowrimo 2013” and sharing his work on Wattpad.com. The shared sample of the story went viral, reaching over 3 million reads in less than six months. In addition to Dragon Rider, he is also the author of the Contender series, out now.

Find Taran on X at @taranmatharu1, on Instagram at @@taranmatharu1 and on his Facebook Page

Elizabeth May is a Sunday Times bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy novels, including Seven Devils, Seven Mercies, and the Falconer Trilogy, and historical romances under the pen name Katrina Kendrick. She writes about monsters and monster slayers, empire destroyers and rebellions, assassins and spies. Sometimes they live in palaces, and sometimes they live in the stars, and some of them fall in love.

Mark Stay is a novelist and screenwriter. His Witches of Woodville series is published by Simon & Schuster, and his new film Unwelcome premiered at the Sitges Festival, and was released by Warner Bros. in 2023. Mark Stay got a part-time Christmas job at Waterstone’s in the nineties (back when it still had an apostrophe) and somehow ended up working in publishing for over 25 years. He would write in his spare time and sometimes those writings would get turned into books and films. Mark was also co-presenter of the Bestseller Experiment podcast, the award-winning podcast* which has inspired writers all over the world to finish and publish their books. Born in London, he lives in Kent with Youtube gardener Claire Burgess and a declining assortment of retired chickens.

Follow Mark x at @markstay and on Instagram @mark.stay

Charles Stross is a full-time science fiction writer and resident of Edinburgh, Scotland. The author of seven Hugo-nominated novels and winner of three Hugo awards for best novella, two of which are part of the Laundry Files series, Stross’s works have been translated into over twelve languages. As the owner of degrees in pharmacy and computer science, he graduated as the world’s only academically qualified cyberpunk writer just as cyberpunk died. Today he describes his job as telling lies for money and tormenting his imaginary friends. Follow his blog at http://www.accelerando.org/

Susan Dennard is the award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Luminaries trilogy, the Witchlands series (now in development for TV from the Jim Henson Company), and the Something Strange and Deadly series—in addition to various other fiction published online. Before becoming an author, she got to travel the world with her M.Sc. in marine biology. She also runs the popular newsletter for writers, the Misfits and Daydreamers. When not writing or teaching writing, she can be found reading, playing with her toddler, or mashing buttons on one of her way too many consoles.

Vic/V.V. James is the author of the SANCTUARY universe books, now a major AMC streaming series. SANCTUARY is a tale of secrets, twisted friendship, and a modern-day witch-hunt when a small town spins out of control following accusations of murder by magic. The followup, BITTERSHORE, is out this autumn. James also wrote the Dark Gifts trilogy, beginning with GILDED CAGE, which was a Radio 2 Book Club and 2018 World Book Night pick, and won the Prix Imaginales, Europe’s foremost SFF award. When not writing, she makes political documentaries for the BBC. 

Joma West is a third culture writer whose work straddles both fantasy and science fiction. Growing up bouncing between countries has given her work a certain displaced flavor and you can see many African and Asian influences in her writing. Joma's novella, Wild, won the 2016 MMU novella award and her 2022 debut novel, Face, was met with acclaim. She lives in Glasgow.

Her latest book is Twice Lived.

Follow Joma on X @JomaWest

Em Reed is a writer and researcher currently based in Glasgow. Their background includes art history, museum studies and creative writing but they also enjoy experimenting with small game tools in their spare time. Their work on science fiction, technology, and art history has previously appeared in Real Life, The Serving Library and Murdered Futures: A Cronenberg Zine. Originally from Central Pennsylvania, they now work as an editor in Glasgow, where they also publish zines through Plaintext Distro, and online interactive fiction through the digital art collective Domino Club.

Visit Em on X dayofthemutants and on their website

Lorraine Wilson is a third culture Scot, conservation scientist and award-winning author of speculative fiction influenced by folklore and the wilderness. She has published two novels with Luna Press - the dystopian thriller This Is Our Undoing, and the dark folkloric mystery, The Way The Light Bends. Her third book, Mother Sea, published in 2023 by Fairlight Books, is an exploration of motherhood, climate change and belonging. Her new novella The Last to Drown was published by Luna Press in February 2024.

Follow Raine on X @raine_clouds, on Instagram @raine_clouds_writes and on Bluesky @rainewilson.bsky.social

Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson is the Sunday Times Bestselling author of The Order of Legends trilogy. Inaugural winner of Future Worlds Prize Award in 2020, her debut novel, The Principle of Moments, was published in January 2024 , by Gollancz. She holds a BA in English Literature and Classical Studies from the University of Exeter, where she enjoyed writing essays on Disney villains and reading Greek lyric poetry in the same day. As an author of Nigerian, Jamaican, and British-Australian heritage, her work primarily focuses on people who live at the intersection of identities, whether that’s here on Earth, or in far away galaxies of her own creation.

William Letford published his first collection of poetry while working as a roofer. Since then, his work has been adapted into film, projected onto buildings, carved into monuments, adapted for the stage, written onto skin, cast out over the radio, and performed by orchestras.

He has helped restore a medieval village in the mountains of Northern Italy, taught English in Japan, fished with his bare hands in Indonesia, been invited to perform in Iraq, South Korea, Lebanon, Australia, Germany, India, Palestine, and many more countries. 

Follow William on X @BillyLetford

E. J. Swift is the author of speculative fiction novels including The Osiris Project trilogy, a series set in a world radically altered by climate change, and Paris Adrift, a tale of bartenders and time travel in the City of Light. Her novel The Coral Bones was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Kitschies Red Tentacle and the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) Award for Best Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies and has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award.

Follow E.J. on X, Instagram and Bluesky @catamaroon

C J Cooke (Carolyn Jess-Cooke) lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. C J Cooke's works have been published in 23 languages and have won many awards. She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen's University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. Two of her books are currently optioned for film.

Tim Lebbon is the New York Times bestselling author of Eden, Coldbrook, The Silence, and the Relics trilogy. He has also written many successful movie novelizations and tie-ins for Alien and Firefly. Tim has won a World Fantasy Award, four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, a Shocker, a Tombstone and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards. The Silence is now a gripping Netflix movie starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka.

Follow Tim on X and Instagram @timlebbon

Ally Wilkes grew up in a succession of isolated—possibly haunted—country houses and boarding schools. After studying law at Oxford, she went on to spend eleven years as a criminal barrister, learning how extreme situations bring out the best (or worst) in human nature. Ally now lives in Greenwich, London, with an anatomical human skeleton and far too many books about Polar exploration. When she isn't writing or reading horror, she's usually to be found hanging upside-down (like a bat) from her aerial silks. 

Oliver K. Langmead writes speculative fiction. His new verse-novel, Calypso, will be published by Titan Books in 2024. Glitterati, was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award in 2023, and named one of New Scientist’s best Science Fiction books of 2022, and the French edition of Birds of Paradise, Les Oiseaux du Paradis, was published summer 2023. He is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and in late 2018 he was the writer in residence at the European Space Agency’s Astronaut Centre in Cologne.

Ken MacLeod is the author of 20 novels. The Sky Road and The Night Sessions won the BSFA Award, and his various books have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Campbell Memorial awards on multiple occasions. Prior to becoming a novelist, MacLeod studied biology and worked as a computer programmer. Ken has been chosen as a Guest of Honor at the 82nd Worldcon taking place in Glasgow in August 2024.

Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading before becoming a professional author in 2007. He is a keen role-player and board gamer and is trained in stage-fighting. Adrian primarily explores deep themes, such as artificial intelligence and alien awareness within epic galactic and fantastical settings. He has a deep interest in the animal world specifically insects from his studies in Zoology and has a particular penchant for spiders.

Elle Nash is the author of the novel Animals Eat Each Other (Dzanc Books), which was featured in O Magazine and hailed by Publishers Weekly as a “complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.” Upon publication of her novel in the UK, she appeared at the Edinburgh International Book Festival to present the work of under-represented voices with Amnesty International, and to speak about sex, death and feminism in literature. Her work appears in Guernica, Adroit, The Creative Independent, Hazlitt, Literary Hub, Cosmopolitan, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine. She currently lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

Kaaron Warren is the author of the novels Slights, Walking the Tree, Mistification, Tide of Stone and The Grief Hole and the short story collections Through Splintered Walls, The Grinding House, and Dead Sea Fruit. Her short stories have won her a Shirley Jackson Award, as well as multiple Australian Shadows Awards, Ditmar Awards and Aurealis Awards. She lives in Canberra, Australia.

Johanna grew up in the Netherlands together with her two sisters. The three of them are triplets, though her sisters are identical to each other and she’s different, a fact she didn’t discover until she was five years old; at least, unlike most people, she can pinpoint the exact moment she became self-aware.

She has received an MA in English Literature with a specialisation in early modern literature, as well as an MA Book and Digital Media with a specialisation in early modern book history, both of them at Leiden University. She currently works as an editor for a big company that sends a lot of reports and letters out every day, all of them requiring a lot of love and attention to make sure that every comma is where it should be. This job gives her enough time to write (mostly queer gothic) novels. When she isn’t doing any of those things, she enjoys spending time with her girlfriend, her sisters, and her dog, though not necessarily all at the same time. My Darling Dreadful Thing is her debut novel.

Born in New Zealand, Sarah A. Parker now lives on the Gold Coast with her husband and three young children. When she’s not reading or tapping away at her keyboard, she’s spending time with her friends and family, her plants, and enjoying trips to the snow. Sarah has been writing since she was small, but has only recently begun sharing her stories with the world. When the Moon Hatched is her debut.

Chloe C. Peñaranda is the USA Today bestselling author of The Nytefall Trilogy and An Heir Comes to Rise Series.

 A lifelong avid reader and writer, Chloe discovered her passion for storytelling in her early teens. Her stories have been spun from years of building on fictional characters and exploring Tolkien-like quests in made up worlds. During her time at the University of the West of Scotland, Chloe immersed herself in writing for short film, producing animations, and spending class time dreaming of far off lands. 

 In her spare time from writing in her home in scenic Scotland, Chloe enjoys digital art, graphic design, and down time with her three little dogs. When the real world calls...she rarely listens.

Originally self-published, The Stars are Dying is Chloe’s traditionally published debut.

Amy Goldsmith grew up on the south coast of England, obsessed with obscure 70s horror movies and antiquarian ghost stories. She studied Psychology at the University of Sussex and, after gaining her Postgraduate Certificate in Education, moved to inner London to teach. Now, she lives back on the south coast where she still teaches English and spends her weekends trawling antiques shops for haunted mirrors. She is the author of Those We Drown and the forthcoming YA horror novel Our Wicked Histories.

T. L. Huchu has been published previously (as Tendai Huchu) in the adult market, but the Edinburgh Nights series is his genre fiction debut. His previous books (The Hairdresser of Harare and The Maestro, The Magistrate and the Mathematician) have been translated into multiple languages and his short fiction has won awards. Tendai grew up in Zimbabwe but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life.

Frances White is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Voyage of the Damned, a fantasy murder mystery at sea. Born in Leicester and now a Nottingham resident, Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. She has a soft spot for writing unlikely, flawed, messy heroes and loves mixing humour and heartbreak. Frances is passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation and fat positivity into fantasy. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes for comic conventions or researching obscure historical facts. She also loves to perform on stage, with a fondness for musicals and Shakespeare. 

Lauren Beukes is the award-winning author of six novels, a collection of short stories, a pop history about South African women, and New York Times best-selling comics. Her work has been translated into 26 languages and won prizes across genres from the Arthur C Clarke Award to the Strand Critic’s Choice award and the University of Johannesburg Prize. Her novel, The Shining Girls, about a time-travelling serial killer and the survivor who turns the hunt around is now a major AppleTV series with Elisabeth Moss. Her latest novel, Bridge, about a young woman’s search for her mother across realities is out now. She lives in London with a teenager and two cats.

Find Lauren on socials @laurenbeukes and on TikTok @lauren.beukes

Nikhil Singh is a South African artist, writer and musician. Former projects include the graphic novels: Salem Brownstone written by John Harris Dunning (longlisted for the Branford Boase Award, Walker Books 2009) as well as The Ziggurat (Bell-Roberts 2003) by The Constructus Corporation (now Die Antwoord). His work has also been featured in various magazines including Dazed, i-D Online, Creative Review, as well as Pictures and Words: New Comic Art and Narrative Illustration (Laurence King, 2005). His debut novel Taty Went West was published by Kwani? Trust in 2015, Jacaranda Books (UK) in 2017, and Rosarium (US) in 2018. The book was released with an accompanying soundtrack and was shortlisted for Best African Novel in the inaugural Nommo Awards. His new novel Dakini Atoll is a sequel to his 2020 novel Club Ded  which was shortlist for the BSFA and Nommo Awards.

Maud Woolf is a Scottish speculative writer with a particular focus on horror and science fiction. While completing an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, her unpublished novel was shortlisted for the North Lit Agency Prize. Her work has appeared in a variety of online magazines, including Metaphorosis Magazine where her short story ‘The Stranding’ was selected to appear in the Best of Metaphorosis 2020. Thirteen Ways to Kill Lulabelle Rock is her debut novel.

Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French author, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.

Lucy Holland aka Lucy Hounsom has a BA Hons in English & Creative Writing and an MA in Creative Writing, both from the University of London, and four books published with Pan Macmillan. She has twelve years of bookselling experience at Waterstones Booksellers, and co-hosts the award-winning intersectional feminist podcast, ‘Breaking the Glass Slipper’.

Shona Kinsella is the author of epic fantasy, The Vessel of KalaDene series, dark Scottish fantasy Petra MacDonald and the Queen of the Fae and British Fantasy Award shortlisted industrial fantasy The Flame and the Flood as well as the non-fiction Outlander and the Real Jacobites: Scotland’s Fight for Freedom. She was editor of the British Fantasy Society’s fiction publication BFS Horizons for four years and is now Chair of the British Fantasy Society. Shona is an avid reader with a love for language and is most often to be found with her nose in a book. She has worked in varied industries, from acting to the civil service, and has a degree in law from the University of Strathclyde.

Camilla Grudova lives in Scotland where she works as an usher in an old cinema. She holds a degree in Art History and German from McGill University, Montreal. Her fiction has appeared in The White Review and Granta..Her debut collection The Doll’s Alphabet was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017. Her first novel, Children of Paradise, was published by Atlantic Books in July 2022 and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Granta named her one their Best Young British Novelists list. Her short story collection The Coiled Serpent was published by Atlantic to critical acclaim in November 2023.

Teika Marija Smits is a UK-based writer, freelance editor and mother-of-two. Her poetry, short fiction and non-fiction have been widely published. Teika was formerly the managing editor of Mother’s Milk Books and is now an Editor-at-Large at Valley Press alongside running The Book Stewards – a writers’ support site that she manages with her husband. In her spare moments she likes to doodle, draw and paint. She is delighted by the fact that ‘Teika’ means fairy tale in Latvian (she is half-Latvian; the other half is Russian). She was born in Windsor, Berkshire, in the 1970s and can still remember a time before the internet and smartphones. (In the eyes of her children, that makes her ancient!)

Follow Teika on X at @MarijaSmits

Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body through writing, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Too Hot to Sleep, is published by Written Off Publishing and was shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s 2023 Poetry Book of the Year Award. Her debut novel, These Mortal Bodies, is forthcoming with Simon and Schuster in 2025. She can usually be found in or near the sea.

Gareth Brown has been writing novels since he was a teenager. Most of those books were not very good, and thankfully were never published. His first published novel - The Book of Doors - will be released in the UK (Bantam) and USA (William Morrow) in February 2024. Foreign language rights for The Book of Doors have also been sold to nearly twenty other territories including Germany. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Hungary. 

When not working or writing Gareth loves travel, barbecues, playing bass guitar and watching snooker. He also enjoys falling asleep in front of the television like an old man.  Gareth lives with his wife and two Skye terriers near Edinburgh in Scotland.

Follow Gareth on X @garethjohnbrown and Instagram @garethjbrown13

Mark Lawrence was born in Urbana–Champaign, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the UK at the age of one. He went back to the US after taking a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College to work on a variety of research projects including the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence programme. Returning to the UK, he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory. He says he never had any ambition to be a writer so was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, THE BROKEN EMPIRE, has been universally acclaimed as a ground-breaking work of fantasy. Following The Broken Empire is the related RED QUEEN’S WAR trilogy. THE BOOK OF THE ANCESTOR trilogy is set on a different world and is followed by the related BOOK OF THE ICE trilogy. There is also THE IMPOSSIBLE TIMES trilogy, a D&D/sci-fi work set in London in the 80s. All of these trilogies can be read in any order. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol.

Follow Mark on X @Mark__Lawrencem, on Instagram @mark___lawrence and on his facebook page MarkLawrenceBooks

Having secured a First Class Honours degree in Classical Literature and Civilisation at the University of Birmingham, Rosie Hewlett has studied Greek mythology in depth and is passionate about unearthing strong female voices within the classical world. Her self-published debut novel, Medusa, won the Rubery Book of the Year award in 2021. Medea is her first traditionally published book.

Ionna Papadopoulou is a Greek by descent and Scottish by residence author. Other than writing, she is passionate about art history and museology. She has been published at Hexagon Magazine, Idle Ink, Piker Press and The Future Fire. Ioanna’s novel, Winter Harvest, was published by Ghost Orchid Press in November 2023.

Follow Ionna on X and Instagram @IoannaP_Author and on Bluesky ay ioannapauthor.bsky.social

Alex Penland is a former museum kid - they spent their childhood running rampant through the Smithsonian Institution. Alex has worked in the field with NASA scientists, linguists and acclaimed photographers and is a Pushcart-nominated author. They currently live in Scotland while studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Edinburgh. Their short stories have been published in Interzone, Metaphorosis and beyond.

Jane Flett is a Scottish writer based in Berlin. Her fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4, featured in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and awarded the New Orleans Writing Residency. Her poetry features in the Best British Poetry and received the Berlin Senate Award for non-German literature. She is represented by Marina de Pass of the Soho Agency and her debut novel Freakslaw is forthcoming from Doubleday (Penguin Random House) in June 2024.

Kelly Link is the author of the collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, Get in Trouble, and White Cat, Black Dog. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. She was a 2018 MacArthur Fellow and has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She and Gavin J. Grant have co-edited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the co-founder of Small Beer Press and co-edits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is the owner of Book Moon, an independent bookshop in Easthampton, MA.
Link was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her family, dog, and chickens in Northampton, Massachusetts.