Catherynne M. Valente

Catherynne Valente lives in Ohio. Her short fiction and poetry has appeared in The Pedestal Magazine, Fantastic Metropolis, The Women's Arts Network, NYC Big City Lit, Jabberwocky, Fantasy Magazine, Electric Velocipede, Cabinet des Fees, and Star*Line, and has been featured in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror #18. Her novels include The Labyrinth, Yume no Hon: The Book of Dreams, The Grass Cutting Sword, In the Night Garden, and In the Cities of Coin and Spice.

Garth Upshaw

Garth lives in Portland, Oregon with his brilliant, gorgeous wife, Katrina, and his three super-genius children: Chris, Kami, and Luken.  He's had jobs ranging from foundry drudge, bell packer, and tarantula minder to .com CEO, and has recently embarked on a guinea pig breeding project.  Garth is an avid biker, refusing to remove his feet from the pedals even in the icy rain that mars the Mediterranean climate of the Pacific Northwest only six to nine months a year.  This is his first sale to Clarkesworld Magazine.

Jason S. Ridler

Jason S. Ridler has been a punk rock musician, cemetery groundskeeper, and bookstore clerk. He writes in as many genres as possible because all his heroes do the same. His fiction has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, The Harrow, Dark Recesses, and the anthologies Dead in the Water and Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy. His non-fiction has appeared in War, Literature, and the Arts, the Internet Review of Science Fiction, and Fearzone.com. A graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, Mr. Ridler lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, where he is finishing his Ph.D. in War Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada, and writing as much short fiction as his arms will allow.

Justin Howe

Justin Howe was born and raised in Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Spacesuits & Sixguns, and The Internet Review of Science Fiction. His story "Skillet and Saber" will appear in the anthology Fast Ships, Black Sails available from Night Shade Books in October 2008. He is a graduate of the Odyssey Writers workshop, works for an architectural preservation company in New York City, and belongs to the Homeless Moon. (http://homelessmoon.com/wordpress/)

Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning writer with books published in over 20 countries. VanderMeer has collaborated on short films with rock groups like The Church, has had his fiction adapted for promotional purposes by Playstation Europe (by filmmaker Joel Veitch), and writes for the Amazon book blog, io9, and The Washington Post, among others. Stories are forthcoming in Black Clock, Extraordinary Engines, and several others. He is working on a surreal noir novel called Finch.