StokerCon® 2023

Our wives always did as they were told. (Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle)In darkness he did live and die (Dark Shadows)What you ask is Against Regulations. (Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun) 

Father, husband, writer, musician, sound engineer. Writer of Tinseltown from Alterna Comics and The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade. Writer/Producer of the award winning play, Doctor Zomba's Ghost Show of Terror! and Writer/Director of the award winning play,  Crude.

Melanie R. Anderson is an associate professor of English at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. In addition to academic publications related to horror and the supernatural, she is the coauthor of Monster, She Wrote. She also cohosts The Monster, She Wrote and Know... Read More →

Author of WASPS IN THE ICE CREAM (Raw Dog Screaming Press), TABOO IN FOUR COLORS (Cemetery Gates), LURE (Tenebrous Press, HEARTS STRANGE AND DREADFUL (Off Limits Press)

Erika T. Wurth’s novel WHITE HORSE is a New York Times editors pick, a Good Morning America buzz pick, and an Indie Next, Target book of the Month, and Book of the Month Pick. She is both a Kenyon and Sewanee fellow, has published in The Kenyon Review, Buzzfeed, and The Writer’s... Read More →

A.C. Wise's fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, Apex, and several Year's Best anthologies, among other places. Her work has won the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, as well as twice being a finalist for the Sunburst Award, twice being a finalist... Read More →

Horror writer. Author of MONSTER, SHE WROTE and TOIL AND TROUBLE. Cohost of the Know Fear Cast and The Monster, She Wrote podcast.

Tom Deady's first novel, HAVEN, won the 2016 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. He has since published several novels, novellas, a short story collection, and the first book in his middle grade horror series. He has a Master's Degree in English and Creative... Read More →

Author, financial planner, former psychologist, husband, and father. That pretty much sums it up.

Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, Boneset & Feathers, and Pretty Marys All in a Row, among others. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in outlets including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Best American Science... Read More →

I’m the author of the horror anthologies Hell at the Way Station (Winner of the African Literary award for Best Anthology)and Hell at Brooklyn Tea. My works have been featured in Under Twin Suns, Even in the Grave, New York State of Fright and Hells Malls. I have also been a featured... Read More →

Meghan Arcuri is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author. Her work can be found in various anthologies, including Borderlands 7 (Borderlands Press), Madhouse (Dark Regions Press), Chiral Mad, and Chiral Mad 3 (Written Backwards). She served over two terms as the Vice President... Read More →

Eric J. Guignard is a writer and anthologist of dark and speculative fiction, operating from the shadowy outskirts of Los Angeles, where he also runs the small press Dark Moon Books. He’s twice won the Bram Stoker Award, won the Shirley Jackson Award, and been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and International Thriller Writers Award.He has over 100 stories appearing in publications around the world and has edited and published nine anthologies, most... Read More →

Writer of dark fiction (horror, S/F, fantasy). HWA Mentorship Program Manager. Editor at large. Talk to me about horror, writing, books, editing, movies, guitars, bourbon, or just about anything except politics!

Linda D. Addison is an award-winning author of five collections, including How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award, HWA Mentor of the Year and SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry.

Cynthia Pelayo is an International Latino Book Award winning poet and author.She is the author of Loteria, Santa Muerte, The Missing, Poems of My Night, Into the Forest and All the Way Through, Children of Chicago, Crime Scene, The Shoemaker’s Magician, as well as dozens of standalone... Read More →

K.P. KULSKI is a Hawaii-born Korean-American author, historian, and career vampire of patriarchal tears. Channeling a lifelong obsession with history and the morose she’s managed to birth the gothic horror novel, Fairest Flesh, and novella, House of Pungsu. She bartered nine years... Read More →

Rhonda Jackson Garcia, AKA RJ Joseph, is a Stoker Award™ nominated, Texas based academic and creative writer/professor whose writing regularly focuses on the intersections of gender and race in the horror and romance genres and popular culture. She has had works published in various... Read More →

Nicole Cushing is a Bram Stoker Award® winning novelist and a two-time nominee for the Shirley Jackson Award. Cemetery Dance will be publishing her new novella, The Plastic Priest, this December.

Brandon McNulty is the author of the horror novel BAD PARTS, which won both Pitch Wars (2017) and RevPit (2018). He gives weekly writing advice on his Youtube channel Writer Brandon McNulty.

Zoje Stage is the author of BABY TEETH, WONDERLAND, GETAWAY, THE GIRL WHO OUTGREW THE WORLD, and MOTHERED. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

Owl Goingback has been writing professionally for over thirty years, and is the author of numerous novels, children's books, short stories, screenplays, comics, and magazine articles. He is a HWA Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, and has received the Bram Stoker Award for Novel... Read More →

Daniel Kraus is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty novels and graphic novels, including his latest,Whalefall (August 2023). He coauthored The Living Dead with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. With Guillermo del Toro, he coauthored The Shape of Water, based... Read More →

Wesley Southard is the 2× Splatterpunk Award-Winning & Imadjinn Award-Winning author of over ten books, some of which have been translated into Italian and Spanish. He and his wife and son live in Pennsylvania. Visit him online at www.wesleysouthardhorror.com

Jessi Ann York’s stories have been featured at several professional rate horror markets, including PseudoPod, Vastarien, Cemetery Gates Media, Love Letters to Poe, and more. Her first two stories, “Phases of the Shadow” and “Women of the Mere,” were mentioned as standouts... Read More →

I write absurdist horror. Author of TENTACLEHEAD (Bear Creek Press 2022), THE MOLD FARMER (Six Gallery Press 2020), and LEECH GIRL LIVES (Spaceboy Books 2017). Work described by Nick Mamatas as "If China Mieville wrote Saturday morning cartoons." He/him.

Michelle Renee Lane holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University and is an instructor for Speculative Fiction Academy. She writes dark speculative fiction about identity politics and women of color battling their inner demons while fighting/falling in love with... Read More →

Mark Matthews is a graduate of the University of Michigan and a licensed professional counselor who has worked in behavioral health for over 20 years. He is the author of On the Lips of Children, All Smoke Rises, and Milk-Blood, as well as the editor of (and contributor to) Lullabies... Read More →

Sonora Taylor is the award-winning author of several books and short stories. Her books include Seeing Things, Little Paranoias: Stories, Without Condition, The Crow’s Gift and Other Tales, and Wither and Other Stories.  She also co-edited Diet Riot: A Fatterpunk Anthology with... Read More →

Christi Nogle is the author of the Bram Stoker Award® nominated novel Beulah (Cemetery Gates Media, 2022) and the short story collections The Best of Our Past, the Worst of Our Future (Flame Tree Press, 2023) and Promise (coming soon!).She is co-editor with Willow Dawn Becker of... Read More →

With a love of scary stories and folklore, Amanda Headlee spent her entire life crafting works of dark fiction. She has a fascination with the emotion of fear and believes it is the first emotion humans feel at the moment they are born. Most of her work focuses on dark fiction associated... Read More →

KC Grifant is a Southern Californian author who writes internationally published horror, fantasy, science fiction and weird west stories for podcasts, anthologies and magazines. Her tales have appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, Unnerving Magazine, Cosmic Horror Monthly, Dark... Read More →

C.R. Langille spent many a Saturday afternoon watching monster movies with their mother. It wasn't long before they started crafting nightmares to share with their readers. They are a retired, disabled veteran with a deep love for weird and creepy tales. This prompted them to form... Read More →

James Aquilone is the owner of Monstrous Books, writer of the Dead Jack Zombie Detective series, and editor of the anthologies Classic Monsters Unleashed, Shakespeare Unleashed, and the 50th anniversary Kolchak: The Night Stalker graphic novel. This year, he's nominated for the Best... Read More →

Gordon B. White is a Shirley Jackson Award and Bram Stoker Award nominee, as well as  the author of the weird horror collection As Summer’s Mask Slips and Other Disruptions, as well as the novellas Rookfield and And In Her Smile, The World (with Rebecca J. Allred).  A graduate... Read More →

Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, No Gods for Drowning, The Worm and His Kings, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, Benny Rose the Cannibal King, and Your Mind Is a Terrible Thing. She is an active member of the Horror Writers Association, with... Read More →

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, a Nebula and Locus Award finalist, and an immigrant from Fujian. She is a member of HWA, SFWA, and Codex. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, Uncanny, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop's 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship... Read More →

Maxwell I. Gold is a Jewish American multiple award nominated author who writes prose poetry and short stories in cosmic horror and weird fiction with half a decade of writing experience. Five time Rhysling Award nominee, two time Pushcart Award nominee, and author of the Bram Stoker... Read More →

I'm an author and a performer and a good time party dude. I eat a lot of soup. I am soup.

Author of What Kind of Mother, Ghost Eaters, Whisper Down the Lane, The Remaking, and others.

Bio: Rebecca Cuthbert is the author of IN MEMORY OF EXOSKELETONS, a dark poetry collection (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Forthcoming publications include the hybrid collection SELF-MADE MONSTERS (ABP, 2024) the sonnet "No Rest Nor Relief For You With Me Dead" (SHAKESPEARE UNLEASHED... Read More →

Eric LaRocca (he/they) is the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of the viral sensation, Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. A lover of luxury fashion and an admirer of European musical theatre, Eric can often be found roaming the streets of his home city, Boston, MA, for inspiration... Read More →

Brian McAuley is a WGA screenwriter with six produced film credits, including the award-winning thriller DISMISSED. He wrote an episode of the Netflix sitcom FULLER HOUSE and sold his horror series pitch AFFLICTION to Syfy Network in a pilot development deal. Brian's debut horror... Read More →

J.A.W. McCarthy is the Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson Award nominated author of Sometimes We’re Cruel and Other Stories (Cemetery Gates Media, 2021) and Sleep Alone (Off Limits Press, 2023). Her short fiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The Best Horror... Read More →

Nat writes horror for the page, stage, and screen. He's the author of the horror novels Mary: An Awakening of Terror and Nestlings, both published by Nightfire. His critically-acclaimed, award-winning horror plays have been produced across the United States, as well as Off- and Off-Off-Broadway... Read More →

Clare Castleberry grew up in the swamps of Louisiana and lived behind her family's neighborhood bar, which fueled her imagination for southern gothic stories, often with erotic, horrific, or crime-laden themes. She has worked as a librarian, model, phone sex operator, ghostwriter... Read More →

I’ve published over fifty novels and seven collections of dark fiction as well as media tie-ins. I’m a three-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, and I teach creative writing at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. People can talk to me about anything! But anything horror-related... Read More →

Robert P. Ottone is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of THE TRIANGLE. His other works include HER INFERNAL NAME & OTHER NIGHTMARES (an honorable mention in THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR VOLUME 13) as well as the suburban folk horror novel, THE VILE THING WE CREATED.His short stories... Read More →

I am a novelist from Columbus, Ohio specializing in horror and dark fantasy. I have published four books and have a fifth releasing in 2023.

With over 40 publications, Sheldon Higdon’s work has appeared in anthologies and magazines such as In Darkness, Delight: Fear the Future, Rue Morgue magazine, Tales from the Lake, Vol. 4, MADHOUSE, Writers on Writing, Vol. 4, and The Portland Monthly magazine among others. He is... Read More →

Jason A. Wyckoff is the author of two short story collections published by Tartarus Press, Black Horse and other Strange Stories (2012) and The Hidden Back Room (2016). His work has appeared in anthologies from Haverhill House, Plutonian Press and Siren’s Call Publications, as... Read More →

Stephen Kozeniewski (pronounced "causin' ooze key") is a two-time winner of the World Horror Grossout Contest. His published works have been nominated for several Splatterpunk, Voice Arts, and Indie Horror Book Awards, among other honors. He lives in Pennsylvania with his girlfriend... Read More →

Paul has lived all over the country before settling in Appalachia over fifteen years ago with his wife Leslie and their son. He also has two adult children living in his native Pennsylvania. He has written numerous horror comedy novels, and he has no idea at this point how many short... Read More →

Andrew F. Sullivan is the author of The Marigold (ECW Press) a novel about a city eating itself. The Handyman Method, a novel cowritten with Nick Cutter about home improvement gone wrong, is forthcoming from Gallery Books / Saga Press in August 2023. Sullivan is also the auth... Read More →

Ally Wilkes is the author of ALL THE WHITE SPACES (Atria/Titan, 2022), the upcoming WHERE THE DEAD WAIT (Atria/Titan, 2023) and JAMIE HALLOW AND THE END OF THE WORLD (Cemetery Gates, 2023). Her short fiction has been published in magazines including Nightmare, and anthologies including... Read More →

Writer, lawyer, weirdo

Paula D. Ashe (she/her) is an author of dark fiction. Her debut collection We Are Here to Hurt Each Other (Nictitating Books) is a Bram Stoker Award Finalist for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection. She is also an associate editor for Vastarien: A Literary Journal. She lives... Read More →

Ally Malinenko is the author of several poetry collections as well as Ghost Girl and the Stoker nominated This Appearing House both from Katherine Tegen Books/Harper Collins

Willow Dawn Becker is the CEO and Editor-In-Chief for Weird Little Worlds Press. She likes eating blueberries and looking at butterflies when ah is not reading scary stories and watching (or making) scary movies. She lives in Utah with her daughters, husband, dogs and ghosts.

I am a twenty-plus year veteran of the video game industry, and have extensive experience in tabletop RPGs as well. I've published eight novels and one short story collection (soon to be two), as well as short fiction, book reviews, and academic papers in the dim and distant past... Read More →

ER Doc and writer who loves all things horror. Her debut novel The Broken Heart with Winding Road Stories will be out this fall. NJ Gallegos has two novellas available: Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires with Alien Buddha Press and Just Desserts with Black Hare Press. Short stories... Read More →

Vaughn A. Jackson is an author and editor of dark speculative fiction, often blending elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror into one unholy abomination. His published works include UP FROM THE DEEP, a kaiju thriller, and TOUCHED BY SHADOWS, a novel of cosmic horror. The... Read More →