INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: CRAFT, MAGIC, AND THE MIND MADE TANGIBLE

Ken Liu is an American author of speculative fiction. A winner of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, he wrote the Dandelion Dynasty, a silkpunk epic fantasy series (starting with The Grace of Kings), as well as short story collections The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He also penned the Star Wars novel The Legends of Luke Skywalker.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Liu worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. Liu frequently speaks at conferences and universities on a variety of topics, including futurism, cryptocurrency, history of technology, bookmaking, narrative futures, and the mathematics of origami.

INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: HOW TO CRAFT A RICH WORLD FULL OF WELL FLESHED OUT CHARACTERS

Sarah is an international bestselling autho​r who​ grew up on a farm in New Zealand, where she spent her days getting lost amongst the rolling pasture, building forts in the hedge, climbing trees, and exploring the forest pathways—making up elaborate stories that never lost their grip on her.

​She now lives in Australia with her husband​, dog, three children, and countless plants, and spends her days pouring her stories onto paper rather than throwing them to the wind.

Her genre of choice is epic fantasy romance, and she thrives off dreaming up​ real, ​​complex characters​​ and immersive worlds to get lost amongst.

INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: HOW TO TORTURE YOUR CHARACTERS

Stacey McEwan is the best-selling author of the Glacian Trilogy. Her debut fantasy romance novel - Ledge, has been translated into three languages. Not to brag, but her high school English teacher once called her writing "above year level standard." Stacey received a bachelor's degree in education in 2012 and remains a school teacher by day. She is a book reviewer and content creator on multiple platforms, including Tiktok and Instagram. Stacey first published after book lovers of the internet encouraged her to share her story ideas. She was born and raised on the Gold Coast, Australia, and still resides in her hometown with her husband, two children and one questionable dog.

INSTRUCTOR

COURSE: PRACTICAL LANGUAGE: CREATING LANGUAGE SKETCHES FOR A FICTIONAL WORLD

David Peterson is a language creator and author. David is best known for having created the Dothraki and High Valyrian languages for HBO’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Since then, he has gone on to create languages for many television series and films, including Syfy’s Defiance, Netflix’s The Witcher, Legendary’s Dune, and the CW’s The 100. He is the author of Penguin’s The Art of Language Invention, an intensive introduction to language creation, and the creator of Duolingo’s High Valyrian course. He received a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from UC Berkeley, and a master’s degree from UC San Diego.

INSTRUCTOR

COURSE: PRACTICAL LANGUAGE: CREATING LANGUAGE SKETCHES FOR A FICTIONAL WORLD

Jessie Peterson has a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a professor of linguistics at Stephen F. Austin State University for 13 years, where she created a conlanging course in which she taught students how to construct a language from the ground up. She is now a full-time professional conlanger and works with her husband, David Peterson. Her work appears in a number of TV shows and films, including Pixar’s Elemental, Legendary’s Dune: Part Two, Peacock's Vampire Academy, Netflix’s Shadow and Bone, and Freeform's Motherland: Fort Salem. With her husband she co-hosts the weekly live stream LangTime Studio on YouTube, where they create new languages from scratch and share the process.

INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: CREATING A STORY OR SERIES BIBLE

Leslye Penelope’s debut novel Song of Blood & Stone was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. The novel also won the inaugural award for Best Self-Published Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association before it was picked up for publication by St. Martin’s Press. Her novel The Monsters We Defy won the 2023 Audie Award for Best Fantasy Audiobook.

Equally left and right-brained, she graduated from Howard University, where she studied film production and computer science, and sometimes dreams in HTML. Leslye is also an alumna of VONA/Voices and Hurston/Wright Writers Workshop. She has spoken, taught, and given keynotes at conferences and festivals around the country, including the National Book Festival, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Writer's Digest Annual & Novel Writing Conferences, and the Historical Novel Society to name a few.

She hosts the My Imaginary Friends podcast, co-hosts the Ink & Magic podcast, and lives in Maryland with her feline dependents. Visit her online at http://www.lpenelope.com.

INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: FAFO: THE NO-THOUGHTS HEAD-EMPTY GUIDE TO TWISTY POLITICS IN FANTASY INTRIGUE AND POLITICS IN FANTASY

Hannah Whitten has been writing to amuse herself since she could hold a pen, and sometime in high school, figured out that what amused her might also amuse others. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, making music, or attempting to bake. She lives in an old farmhouse in Tennessee with her husband, children, two cats, a dog, and probably some ghosts.

INSTRUCTOR

COURSE: FIGHT WRITE: WHAT TO CONSIDER BEFORE WRITING FIGHT SCENES, BATTLES, AND BRAWLS

COURSE: FIGHT SCENES 101

Carla Hoch is the author of the Writer’s Digest book Fight Write: How to Write Believable Fight Scenes as well as Fight Write, Round Two: Crafting Chaos, Combat and Crime. Carla has been teaching the craft of writing fight scenes, action and violence since 2017 and is an instructor for both Writer’s Digest University and Writing Mastery Academy.  Her award-winning blog, FightWrite.net, has been named in Writer’s Digest 100 Best Sites for Writers five years in a row. 

Carla is a world champion jiujitsu player and has experience in almost a dozen fighting styles. She lives outside Houston, Texas with her family and judgmental cats.

INSTRUCTOR AND PANELIST

COURSE: THE ANATOMY OF A SPICE SCENE: WRITING COMPELLING SPICE IN ROMANTASY

EMILY RATH is a USA Today, Amazon, and international bestselling author of romance and fantasy. Her sex-positive, queer-inclusive books include the Second Sons Regency romance series, the Tuonela fantasy duet, and the Jacksonville Rays hockey romance series. Emily started her career as an indie author, self-publishing books with little more than a hope and prayer. Now, on Amazon alone, she’s had over 500 million pages read of her books. Her works have been translated into twelve languages and counting.

A former university professor, Emily holds PhDs in political science and peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. Now a full-time author, she currently lives in Florida with her husband, son, and cats. They regularly comb the local beaches looking for shark teeth.

INSTRUCTOR

COURSE: THE MORALLY GREY DILEMMA: HE'S A KILLER...WHY DO I THINK THAT'S HOT?

Summer is a debut author who enjoys writing all things cozy, spicy, and utterly cottagecore. When she's not typing away, you can find her on stage as a professional classical actress or online, where she tells awkward stories of her life and love.

INSTRUCTOR

COURSE: THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF(CARE) EDITING

Noah Sky is a full-time wordsmith with a love of fantasy and fitness, invested in preserving form without sacrificing function. 

After one fateful stint in a writing group, Noah has spent the last several years professionally editing romantasy/fantasy. He is passionate about helping writers grow, and continuing to deepen his own understanding of writing in the process. Voted Most Likely to argue that, sometimes, commas are a stylistic choice, and to wish that he was Aragorn, Son of Arathorn.

Noah is often found guessing movie twists, climbing fake rocks, and muttering darkly about dialogue tags in a greenhouse.

PANELIST

Amber V Nicole is a dark fantasy writer with a touch of horror added into the mix. When she is not writing new and fantastic ways to devastate her readers she is probably playing video games or obsessing over anime. Amber loves morally gray characters with their flaws and all and is always dreaming of far off places with dragons, magic, and swords. She loves a good villain and plans to tell many stories showcasing them in the spotlight.

PANELIST

SHEENA KAMAL holds an HBA in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and was awarded a TD Canada Trust scholarship for community leadership and activism around the issue of homelessness. Her critically acclaimed adult thriller series (The Lost Ones, It All Falls Down and No Going Back) was published internationally by HarperCollins and won her a Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, a Strand Magazine Critics Award and Macavity Award. The Lost Ones has been sold in fifteen countries and was a Globe and MailBestseller, a Time Magazine Recommended Read, an iBooks Best Book, a Bustle Best Book and a Powell's Pick. Fight Like a Girl, her debut YA novel published by Penguin Teen was nominated for the Arthur Ellis and Forest of Reading awards.

Her short fiction has appeared in The Perfect Crime (2022, HarperCollins), Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica, 2020), and Vancouver Noir (2018, Akashic). Additionally, her essays have been featured in The Guardian, Bustle, The Irish Times, Writer’s Digest, and Entertainment Weekly.

Sheena was born in the Caribbean and immigrated to Canada as a child. Prior to writing novels, she was a researcher and development coordinator for film and television. She has a background in acting and martial arts, and has worked as an actor and stunt double for other South Asian actors, including Rekha Sharma.

PANELIST

Angela Montoya lives in Northern California with her family. When she isn’t with her partner, two children, goats, chickens, and dogs, you can find Angela co-hosting the podcast, Of the Publishing Persuasion. Her debut novel, Sinner's Isle, has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly and trade reviews from Booklist and The Bulletin.

SPECIAL GUEST: Founder of WeaponUP & sword-yoga fusion instructor

Sabina Storberg is the founder of WeaponUP, an innovative online studio that blends vinyasa yoga and the Kung Fu straight sword. She is a martial artist and yoga teacher with a unique journey that has taken her from the mountains of China, where she studied Kung Fu in a Shaolin and Wudang Tai Chi academy to the mountains of Rishikesh, India, where she became a certified Ashtanga Vinyasa teacher (RYT200). Over the past twelve years she has been combining these disciplines culminating in the creation of the sword yoga practice entitled WeaponUP. This is where she brings together kung fu, yoga, dance and intuitive movement to the modern fitness experience.

SPECIAL GUEST: Meditation guide

After a near-fatal car accident, Julia sustained several injuries including post traumatic vision syndrome and a brain injury. Losing the ability to read made her more determined than ever to write. She dedicated herself to learning about the brain and mindfulness as well as her craft through many courses, therapies, and practices. Mindfulness was a game changer for her own writing and recovery, and now she helps others unlock their own mindful writing.

Julia studied fiction at the University of Toronto, teaches mindful writing at Kristin Dwyer's Breaking the Story Retreats and to the online community, and is an alumnus of Adrienne Young's Writing with the Soul. Her writing is featured in international horror anthologies, as well as various municipal publications. She is a Communications Coordinator by day, and lives in a small farming community north of Toronto with her husband, who is a special education teacher, their free spirited seven year old, Nova, and two boston terriers, Nucky and Eli.

Founder and CEO of Storybeast Inc.; Co-host and Producer of Storybeast Podcast

Ghabiba Weston is a South African novelist and poet. She has a PhD in neuroscience but the most interesting thing she uses her brain for is dreaming up fantastical tales full of wicked characters and invented snacks. You can find her co-hosting the STORYBEAST podcast, hiking with her pup Zuko, or not find her at all because she's probably Hiding From PeopleTM.

Writing advice: Write for the part of you that needs the story most. Never stop working on your craft. 

Favorite snack: It is a crime to pick only one and I shan’t do it. Salted almonds; dark chocolate; cardamom coffee; pistachio friands.

Founder and CEO of Storybeast Inc.; Co-host and Producer of Storybeast Podcast

Courtney Shack spends her time reading and writing about darkness, swoon-worthy heroes, scorching kisses, and magical lands. You can hear her gabbing about all of this and more on STORYBEAST, a podcast she co-hosts about the transformative power of story. Currently, she is working on her Empire of Wolves series in the company of her beloved canine, Sweet P, and patient husband in southern Virginia. She loves snacks, a sexy villain, and has likely had too much coffee. She’s represented by Brower Literary Agency.

Writing advice: Firstly, my advice is to take any writing advice with a grain of salt. Not everything works for everyone. Secondly, find a friend you can cry to about why you do this to yourself. Thirdly (do I get a thirdly?), don’t forget why you started.

Favorite snack: Buffalo cauliflower dip with Tostitos scoops

Media Manager

Alexa Lach is a storyteller at heart and a fervent participant in the vibrant writing community. She loves diving deep into stories, understanding their emotional core, and helping fellow writers polish their ideas. Her journey in the literary world has been diverse–from working as a virtual author assistant and media manager, to planning and organizing many book events. These experiences have given her a unique insight into the industry, from the joy of connecting authors with their readers, to the behind-the-scenes work that makes a book successful. At home, she navigates the delightful chaos of raising three littles, and endures the Minnesota winters her husband loves, while trying to write stories of her own.

Marketing Manager

After more than three years working in marketing and communications for a non-profit, Taylor Sorenson is excited to return home to the bookish world. A former author’s assistant and an author herself, Taylor brings a vision geared to help authors hone their craft, grow their passions, and tap into their personal brand. Majoring in German and Anthropology at university cemented a life-long love of language and culture, which she now showcases in her novels. Off the clock, she can be found watching a Thai drama and sipping a warm cup of tea. An Alabama native, she lives with her daughter, dog, and four cats.

Storybeast Mascot

Zuko (all hail ATLA fans), joined the Storybeast Team at 8 weeks old in 2023. Smart and sassy, Zuko has perfected charming unsuspecting writers into taking breaks and giving him treats. Don't be fooled though--touch his human, and...well, you know the trope!

Writing advice: Break the rules, be charming about it.

Favorite snack: I will eat absolutely anything as long as it’s not my very expensive kibble.

Storybeast Mascot

Sweet P, formally known as Sweet Potato, has been a committed member of the Storybeast Team since its formation in 2022. A veteran of making things up, you can find Sweet P barking at unseen specters and well-meaning neighbors from her bench in the window or curled up at Courtney’s feet while her human writes. 

Writing advice: It’s important to take breaks with your loved ones, but it's also important to promise violence to your enemies. Never compromise on either and you will always succeed. 

Favorite snack(s): Pasta, rice, chips, popcorn, and the occasional dental stick.