AUTHOR

A.D. SUI is a Ukrainian-born, internationally raised speculative writer. They are a Nebula winner, and an Aurora, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist.

They are the author of The Dragonfly Gambit (2024), The Iron Garden Sutra (2026), and more than two dozen short stories. A failed academic and retired fencer, they spend most days wrangling their two dogs and tending to their myriads of tropical plants.

AUTHOR

VAJRA CHANDRASEKERA is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. His novels The Saint of Bright Doors and Rakesfall have between them won the Le Guin, Nebula, Ignyte, Locus, Crawford, and Otherwise awards, been selected as New York Times Notable Books of 2023 and 2024, and been nominated for many others, including the Hugo. He is one of the 2025-2026 Fellows of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

AUTHOR

PASCALE LACELLE is the New York Times bestselling author of Curious Tides and Stranger Skies. A longtime devourer of books, she started writing her own at the age of thirteen and quickly became enthralled by the magic of words in both French and English. She lives in Ottawa, Canada with her loving dog and an ever-growing library of books waiting to be read. You can find her online at PascaleLacelle.com or on Instagram.

AUTHOR

RUTH MCKELL writes haunting and hopeful tales she hopes will make your heart ache, just a little bit. Her debut, Honey In Her Veins, has been described as "cottagecore with teeth." Steeped in Celtic folklore and set in the hills of Appalachia, this second-chance romance (releasing April 2026) stars a magical beekeeper with volatile magic and the death-touched man who broke her heart.

When she's not channeling her passion for mental health awareness into magic-touched worlds on the page, you can find McKell in the mountains, thrifting second-hand treasures, or sipping on tea from her novice apothecary.

AUTHOR

PREMEE MOHAMED is a Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ursula K. Le Guin, British Fantasy, British Science Fiction, and Crawford awards. In 2024, she was the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence. She is the author of the ‘Beneath the Rising’ series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on her website at www.premeemohamed.com.

AUTHOR

Born in Vancouver, B.C., ZEYNEB HOLDRIDGE was raised to embrace her Turkish Iraqi heritage, which has informed her passion for infusing her lifelong love of storytelling with elements of Turkic culture. Growing up in an immigrant family and always on the move, she often found her imagination running wild, and books became for her a home and getaway. Her experiences as a neurodivergent Muslim woman have further fueled the direction of her writing to include a variety of misunderstood characters with complex identities.