Leon Kemp
Leon Kemp was born and raised in rural Australia among a maze of grape vines and citrus orchards, perfect for wayward explorers. Presently, they live in Melbourne, where they achieved a bachelor of arts with a major in creative writing.
They hope to continue weaving stories about queer kids surviving both the kindest and cruelest extremes the world has to offer.
When not writing, Leon spends most of their time watching, playing, and reading all things horror, as well as doting on their cats, Midnight and Mayhem, and their dogs, Casper and Lady. Trespass Against Us is their debut novel.
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Justine Pucella Winans
Justine Pucella Winans (they/she) is a critically acclaimed and award winning author of queer fiction. They have written a variety of funny and/or scary books across age ranges, receiving accolades such as a Stonewall Honor, Indies Introduce, Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections, and multiple starred reviews. When not writing, she can be found taking too many photos of her cats, training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, actively avoiding real life scary situations, and working their true goal of becoming a Pokémon trainer.
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Josh Winning
Josh Winning is a nostalgia nut, book/film lover and author of The Shadow Glass , which is like Labyrinth meets Stranger Things, and Burn the Negative , which is like Scream meets My Best Friend's Exorcism.
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He is senior film writer at Radio Times, writer at Total Film, SFX and Den of Geek, and the co-host of movie podcast Torn Stubs. He has been on set with Kermit the Frog (and Miss Piggy), devoured breakfast with zombies on The Walking Dead, and sat on the Iron Throne on the Dublin set of Game of Thrones.
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Wen-yi Lee
Wen-yi Lee is the author of YA horror The Dark We Know and forthcoming adult historical fantasy When They Burned the Butterfly. Her writing has appeared in venues like Lightspeed, Uncanny, Reactor, and Strange Horizons, as well as various anthologies. She is based in Singapore and is a graduate of University College London, and likes writing about girls with bite, feral nature, and ghosts. Find her on socials @wenyilee_ and otherwise at wenyileewrites.com.
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Mary E. Roach
Mary E. Roach is an author of thrillers and romance for both the young adult and adult audiences. When Mary is not writing stories about powerful girls and women, she can be found teaching martial arts, baking an unreasonable amount of cookies, or taking off on thru-hikes through the wilderness of northern Minnesota.
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She can be found on Instagram at @maryeroachauthor (YA), @maryeroachwrites (Adult), or online at maryeroach.com.
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Kevin Christopher Snipes
Kevin Christopher Snipes is a New York-based writer who was born and raised in Florida. He spent his early career in the theater writing such plays as A Bitter Taste, The Chimes and Ashes, Ashes. Later, for Gimlet Media, he created the queer fantasy podcast The Two Princes. He can generally be found watching reruns of Doctor Who and The Golden Girls in his spare time. Milo and Marcos at the End of the World is his first novel.
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Nita Tyndall
Nita Tyndall is a queer author and literary translator from North Carolina. Their YA novels from HarperTeen received critical acclaim, and their debut Who I Was with Her won the Bisexual Book Award in 2021. Their translations from the German have appeared in World Literature Today and New Books in German. When they’re not writing, they’re playing D&D or listening to European musicals. They split their time between Germany and North Carolina with their partners.
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Andrew Joseph White
Andrew Joseph White is the trans, autistic, and bestselling author of Hell Followed With Us, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth, Compound Fracture, and You Weren't Meant to be Human. Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, he received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University, and lives in Virginia with his wife and their antisocial cat.
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He can be found at andrewjosephwhite.com or on Twitter and Instagram at @AJWhiteAuthor. -
Courtney Gould
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Nita Tyndall
Nita Tyndall is a queer author and literary translator from North Carolina. Their YA novels from HarperTeen received critical acclaim, and their debut Who I Was with Her won the Bisexual Book Award in 2021. Their translations from the German have appeared in World Literature Today and New Books in German. When they’re not writing, they’re playing D&D or listening to European musicals. They split their time between Germany and North Carolina with their partners.
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Diana Urban
Diana Urban is a bestselling, award-winning author of dark, twisty thrillers, including All Your Twisted Secrets and Under the Surface, an Indie Next Pick and Junior Library Guild selection, and her novels have been published internationally. When she’s not torturing her fictional characters, she freelances in video game narrative writing and previously worked in digital marketing for startups. She lives with her husband and cat in Boston and enjoys reading, playing video games, fawning over cute animals, and looking at the beach from a safe distance. Connect with her on Instagram, Threads, or TikTok.
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(Diana doesn't use Goodreads, but you can contact her here.) -
C.G. Drews
CG Drews is the award-winning author of The Boy Who Steals Houses and NYT Bestseller Don’t Let The Forest In, which is also a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, Indie Next Pick, and Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Pick. Their next YA horror, Hazelthorn, is out October 28th, 2025, with debut adult horror, You Did Nothing Wrong, coming in 2026. Their work has been translated into six languages, received a nomination for the 2020 CILIP Carnegie Medal, and won the 2020 CBCA Honour Award. CG lives in Australia, never sleeps, and is forever buried under a pile of unread books. Find on Instagram as @paperfury, TikTok as @cgdrews, and at cgdrews.com.
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Rory Power
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Melanie Sumrow
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K. Ancrum
K. Ancrum, is an author of award winning speculative contemporary YA notably THE WICKER KING, DARLING and most recently the critically acclaimed ICARUS. K. is a Chicago native passionate about diversity and representation in young adult fiction. She currently writes most of her work in the lush gardens of the Chicago Art Institute.
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Sami Ellis
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Derek Milman
Derek Milman was born in New York City, but grew up in Westchester, NY, where he wrote and published a successful underground humor magazine that caught the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a profile on him at the age of 14.
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Derek studied English, Creative Writing, and Theater at Northwestern University. He began his career as a playwright (his first play was staged in New York City when he was just out of college), and earned an MFA in acting at the Yale School of Drama.
Derek has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award winning film directors.
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F.T. Lukens
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Amanda Linsmeier
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Jan Gangsei
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Samantha Mabry
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she spends as much time as possible in the west texas desert.
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Scarlett Dunmore
Scarlett studied English and Creative Writing, eventually finding a love for YA literature. When she’s not writing, she can often be found watching scary films or exploring abandoned abbeys, old cemeteries and ruined castles in Scotland for inspiration.
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Logan-Ashley Kisner
Logan-Ashley Kisner is a Vegas-born author who writes about trans kids surviving the horrors (supernatural or otherwise).
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His socials are usually @transhorrors, or you can find him on his website, loganashleykisner.com -
Kara A. Kennedy
Kara A. Kennedy has been telling ghost stories—and sometimes living them—since childhood. She holds a BA in Professional Writing from Penn State University, where she worked as a writing tutor and cultivated a love of coffee. She lives in a historic and possibly haunted home in Pennsylvania with her wife and their two cats. I Will Never Leave You is her debut novel.
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M.K. Pagano
MK Pagano is the author of GIRLS WHO BURN, a YA Thriller out 7/16/24 from Penguin Teen, and 7/18/24 from Hachette UK.
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She is represented by Barbara Poelle and Sydnie Thornton of Word One Literary.
When she’s not busy pondering the angst of the fictional people in her stories, she can be found reading (from her own TBR and that of her children), dreaming of restoring an old French chateau, and wandering the weirder parts of New Jersey, where she currently resides with her family. -
Kelsea Yu
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Photograph: ©Katy Weaver Photography -
Derek Milman
Derek Milman was born in New York City, but grew up in Westchester, NY, where he wrote and published a successful underground humor magazine that caught the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a profile on him at the age of 14.
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Derek studied English, Creative Writing, and Theater at Northwestern University. He began his career as a playwright (his first play was staged in New York City when he was just out of college), and earned an MFA in acting at the Yale School of Drama.
Derek has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award winning film directors.
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Sarah Hollowell
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Sarah spends an awful lot of her non-writing time listening to podcasts, needle felting cryptids, and replaying the same five video games.