GUESTS OF HONOR

Nancy Collins
Nancy A. Collins is the award-winning author of numerous urban fantasy, multi-genre, and Southern Gothic tales, as well as several graphic novels. She was the first woman to write Swamp Thing for DC Comics and the first author published under the Vertigo imprint. She is also the first woman to write for Vampirella. Her works include Sunglasses After Dark, Knuckles and Tales, The Golgotham series, and Blade Runner: Black Lotus. A native of Arkansas, she currently resides in the state of Georgia.

Joe Hill
Joe Hill is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of King Sorrow, The Fireman, and Hunger. His first collection, 20th Century Ghosts, and his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, both won Bram Stoker Awards; the story which closes 20th Century Ghosts, "Voluntary Committal," notched a World Fantasy Award. He earned the Eisner Award for Best Writer for his work on his long running comic book series, Locke & Key, co-created with artist Gabriel Rodriguez. Much of his work has been adapted for film and television. Netflix aired three seasons of Locke & Key, while AMC produced two seasons of NOS4A2. "The Black Phone" from 20th Century Ghosts has been adapted into two Blumhouse smash hits directed by Scott Derrickson.
Joe lives in New Hampshire and in Sevenoaks, Kent, with his wife, Gillian Redfearn, the Deputy Publisher at Gollancz. He likes Bob Seger on vinyl, Keith Rosson in hardcover, and horror movies in a packed theater.

R. J. Joseph
Rhonda Jackson Garcia, also known as R. J. Joseph, is a preeminent voice in the horror academic field, leading the discourse on the genre as it intersects with gender, race, and class. Her work has a place in both pop culture and academia, straddling those lines in a way that unites rather than separates.
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With two short story collections under her belt, R.J. Joseph is also an engaging storyteller weaving tales that incorporate motherhood and visceral horror within the Southern Gothic landscape.

T. Kingfisher
Ursula Vernon, aka T. Kingfisher is the author and illustrator of far more projects than is probably healthy. She has written over fifty novels for both children and adults, an epic webcomic called “Digger” and various short stories and other odds and ends.
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The daughter of an artist, she spent her youth attempting to rebel, but eventually succumbed to the siren song of paint (although not before getting a degree in anthropology.) Ursula grew up in Oregon and Arizona, went to college at Macalester College in Minnesota, and stayed there for ten years, until she finally learned to drive in deep snow and was obligated to leave the state.
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Having moved across the country several times, she eventually settled in New Mexico, where she works full-time as an artist and creator of oddities. She lives with her husband, her garden and his chickens.

Hailey Piper
Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, A Game in Yellow, Teenage Girls Can Be Demons, She Isn't Herself Tonight, The Worm and His Kings, and other books of horror. She is also the author of over 130 short stories appearing in Weird Tales, Pseudopod, The End of the World As We Know It, and many more publications. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where the cosmic rituals are secret. Find her at haileypiper.com.

Chet Williamson
Chet Williamson has written horror, SF, and suspense since 1981. Among his many novels are Second Chance, Ash Wednesday, Reign, and Psycho: Sanitarium, the authorized sequel to Robert Bloch's classic. Over a hundred of his short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, Esquire, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and many other magazines and anthologies.
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His work has won the International Horror Guild Award and the Splatterpunk Award, and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, the HWA's Stoker, and the MWA's Edgar.
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He has also narrated nearly a hundred audiobooks by such authors as Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, and many others. He has appeared in several films, and has had a number of original plays produced.
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His archive was recently acquired by the University of Pittsburgh's Horror Studies Collection, and a new novel, Shift, will appear in 2027.