South American born, immigrant to the United States without a clue about the language. I learned to speak English, worked my way through university, and received my degree. Printer’s ink courses through my veins, as my mother and father both were journalists for a time. In my twenties, I wrote a novella and put it aside. In my forties, I started publishing erotica online. Honing my plots, characters, and pacing. Early stories were, um, awful in my opinion. But still scored in the 4’s. I’ve been writing for twenty years and now I’m ready to plunge into novels.

Lauren Jane K. is a designer, photographer, and writer from Toronto where they live with their little black cat. They like books, cameras, black sweaters, and 24 hour anything. They put oat milk and sugar in their coffee and create erotic stories & images at eveunleashed.com

Christina Bagni is the chief editor at Wandering Words Media and a writer on the Captain Bitcoin comic book series. She loves mythology, rock climbing, buying far too many books to ever actually read, and writing the kind of queer-led stories she wished she had as a teenager. My Only Real Friend is the Easter Bunny at the Mall is her first novel. She lives in Massachusetts.

Find more about her at linktr.ee/christinabagni

Jenn Storey, née Treado, (she/they) is a storyteller who uses genre as a framework for exploration. She has studied under faculty from Alverno College, Northwestern University, Texas State University, and holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell. Her poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction/experimental writing have been published in various digital and physical journals. Tilting Gravity is her first novel-length work. Learn more at www.jennstoreybooks.com.

Kenla Nelson is a West Texas native currently located in Central Texas. Before moving back to Texas, she spent twenty years traveling and studying. She graduated with a dual B.A.S. from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Kenla then moved to Washington, D.C., where she attended Howard University School of Law ’05. She has lived in Japan, Virginia, Alaska, New York, North Carolina and is back in Texas. If she isn’t writing, she spends her time playing video games, chasing her children, watching anime, or being buried in books, models, and legos. Dragon’s Breath: Black Flame is her debut novel. You can follow her on her website at www.harbingersrest.com for updates.

Joe Baumann’s fiction and essays have appeared in Passages North, Third Coast, Electric Literature, and many other journals. His debut short story collection, Sing With Me at the Edge of Paradise, was chosen as the inaugural winner of the Iron Horse/Texas Tech University Press First Book Award. He possesses a PhD in English from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and lives outside St. Louis, Missouri. He can be reached at joebaumann.wordpress.com.

TreVaughn Malik Roach-Carter is a Queer Black writer and editor, born in Modesto, California. He holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and education, and a master’s degree in creative writing with a focus on comics and screenwriting from San Francisco State University. His work has been featured in Ramblr Magazine, Tayo Magazine’s special issue: SOFT, Transfer Magazine, BAD EGG Magazine, Borderless Magazine, The Ana Magazine, and Stellium Magazine. He is a recipient of the Leo Litwalk Literature Award and a Browning Society Award. He is a Fiction Editor for The Ana Literary Magazine and the author of the Young Adult novel The Marked Ones: Uprising.