Grant Carrington is the author of 4 sf books from Brief Candle Press, Beaverton, Ore., 2 CDs of original songs, 5 plays given full productions, and 40-50 stories, mostly sf (including a Nebula finalist), most recently in Dreamforge. Member Clarion 68-69, Tulane 71. Associate editor Amazing/Fantastic 1972-74. BA (NYU) and MA (Univ. of Fla.) in mathematics.
Ken Chiacchia’s bio reads like a random sampling of events from different people’s lives. He has been a biochemist, a public relations writer, a freelance newspaper reporter, a science fiction author, a search-and-rescue dog handler, a firefighter, and a hobby farmer. Ken’s short fiction credits include stories in Cicada, Oceans of the Mind, Paradox, and the Triangulation anthology series. His poem “Casualty” garnered a 2007 Rhysling Poetry Award nomination. In addition to writing speculative fiction, Ken is a science journalist with experience in public relations feature writing, radio commentaries for WESA 90.5 FM’s The Allegheny Front, and reporting in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Pittsburgh City Paper. His nonfiction writing and editing have won the 2008 Carnegie Science Center of Pittsburgh Journalism Award; three Golden Quill Awards from the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania; and multiple platinum Hermes Creative Awards from the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals. Ken lives with his wife, dog trainer and writer Heather Houlahan — who assures him she is indeed the boss of him — and an assorted cloud of canine partners and fosters, barn cats, chickens, turkeys, and goats, on a 27-acre farm in Harmony, Pa.
Lawrence C. Connolly’s books include the Veins Cycle novels Veins (2008), Vipers (2010), and Vortex (2014). His collections include Visions (2009), This Way to Egress (2010), and Voices (2011), which feature his stories from Amazing Stories, Cemetery Dance, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, Year’s Best Horror, and other top magazines and anthologies of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Voices was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. His screenplay “This Way to Egress,” co-authored with director David Slade (executive producer of Hannibal and American Gods) and based on Connolly’s original story “Traumatic Descent” (first published in Borderlands 3, reprinted in Voices and This Way to Egress) is featured in the anthology film Nightmare Cinema (2019). He is also the writer of Mystery Theatre, a podcast produced by Prime Stage. His adaptation of Frankenstein, produced by Prime Stage, premiered at Pittsburgh’s New Hazlett Theatre in November 2022. He is currently developing a new science-fiction film with brother Christopher Connolly and producers M. Jones and Jonathan Sanger, whose most recent film Cabrini opened in theatres in March 2024. Also a musician, his music can be heard on Bandcamp and Spotify.
Susan Dexter: Well, I know we need to keep these short, so…you can get the details from my website http://www.CalandraEsdragon.com, and my blog there Take Up the Quest. Or my Wikipedia page!
Since bringing the last of my backlist up on KDP, I’ve been busy reading all the books recommended on the “Best of Recent Fantasy” panel in 2022, and indulging in the guilty pleasure of following up with my characters’ lives through vignettes written for my blog “Take Up the Quest” on http://www.CalandraEsdragon.com—like “Honeymoon Before the Wedding: the Love Story of Leith and Kess Continues.” And ask me about spinning wool on a Scottish Drop Spindle–by Confluence time I’ll know how I did during Spin Together week.
M. C. Benner Dixon (Christine) lives, writes, and grows things in Pittsburgh, PA. She is quick to make a pun and slow to cut her grass. Her debut novel, The Height of Land, is the 2022 Orison Fiction Prize winner and will be released by Orison Books. Her poetry and prose have appeared in Reckoning, Literary Hub, Funicular, Fusion Fragment, Appalachian Review, and elsewhere. Millions of Suns, a collection of craft essays co-authored with Sharon Fagan McDermott, is out now from the University of Michigan Press. Find her at bennerdixon.com.
Barbara Doran is a New Pulp Writer with Airship 27. Her books draw on Chinese myth and folklore and are heavily influenced by wuxia (martial arts) and xianxia (fantasy) genres.
Frederic Durbin’s first novel, DRAGONFLY, was published by Arkham House in 1999. His most recent, A GREEN AND ANCIENT LIGHT (Saga Press) received the Realm Award in Fantasy and was named a Reading List Honor Book by the American Library Association. His work has appeared in FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION, CRICKET, WEIRD TALES, and various anthologies. A co-editor of the COLD HARD TYPE fiction anthology series (Loose Dog Press), he teaches creative writing at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School.
Timons Esaias is a satirist, writer and poet living in Pittsburgh. His works, ranging from literary to genre, have been published in twenty-two languages. He has been a finalist for the British Science Fiction Award, and he won the Winter Anthology Contest, the SFPA Poetry Contest, and the Asimov’s Readers Award (twice). People who know him are not surprised to learn that he lived in a museum for eight years.
Kacey Ezell
Donald Firesmith is a multi-award-winning author of speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, paranormal horror, and modern urban paranormal novels and collections of short stories. Because of his strong background in software/system engineering and science, his science fiction is well-researched, and he relies on numerous science, technology, and military technical advisors to ensure that the non-speculative aspects of his stories are realistic and believable.
Clif Flynt has been active in convention fandom since the 1970s. He’s best known as a filker and author with sales to Unidentified Funny Objects and Parsec Ink. His first novel, Promised Rewards, was published by Dark Myth in spring of 2023.
Bram-Stoker-Award-nominated author and editor Douglas Gwilym has been known to compose a weird-fiction rock opera or two. His short story “Poppy’s Poppy” was a finalist for a Stoker Award in 2023. “Year Six” is on Ellen Datlow’s recommended reading list for Best Horror 14. He edits The Midnight Zone—first edition, Novus Monstrum, a collection of never-before-seen monsters, featuring greats and new talent in strange, dark fiction. He reads classics of the proto-Weird on YouTube and has been guest staff at Alpha Young Writers workshop. His short fiction appears in LampLight, Lucent Dreaming, Dark Horses, Shelter of Daylight, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Penumbric, Creepy podcast, and Tales to Terrify. Former adjunct professor, background investigator, radio DJ, factory worker, audiobook narrator, singer-and-bassist in rock bands, and strawberry farmer. Taught at Alpha Young Writers workshop alongside N.K. Jemisin and Mary Robinette Kowal. Edited five anthologies: Triangulation: Harmony & Dissonance, Triangulation: Appetites, Triangulation: Beneath the Surface, Triangulation: Dark Skies, and the brand-spanking-new NOVUS MONSTRUM. Was on five panels at StokerCon 2023, and that was probably too many.
Elektra Hammond emulates her multi-sided idol Buckaroo Banzai by going in several directions at once. She’s been involved in publishing since the 1990s— now she writes, concocts anthologies & edits science fiction for various and sundry. When not freelancing or appearing at science fiction conventions, she travels the world judging cat shows. You can find her expounding on all things genre, writing, comics, TV, and Supernatural at Con-Tinual (the Con that Never Ends) on Facebook and Youtube. Look for her alternate history story, “Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln . . .” in ZNB Presents. Elektra is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and a member of SFWA. She lives in Delaware with her husband, Mike, and more than the usual allotment of felines.
Bernadette Harris, MD is general internist boarded in Internal Medicine with Extra Qualifications in Geriatric Medicine. In 2015 she was nominated as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and holds a clinical faculty appointment at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. She has practiced in Pittsburgh’s east end for 35 years.
Alan Irvine is a Pittsburgh-based Storyteller, performing ghost stories, folk tales, and celtic legends throughout Pennsylvania. He also plays in the theater world where he is a director, playwright, and co-founder of Brawling Bard Theater. Sometimes he even teaches classes in Sociology and History, as well as various folk lore, literature, and Shakespeare related topics. You can read his thoughts on, and reactions to, stories in many forms at his blog: http://www.storystuff.blog.
Richard Kadrey
Herb Kauderer is a retired factory worker/truck driver who grew up to be an associate professor of English at Hilbert College with a PhD, an MFA, and a lot of other degrees. He has written film, drama, non-fiction, and plenty of short fiction, but is most noted for his poetry. His writing has won the Critters Readers’ Award (2021), Asimov’s Readers’ Award (2017), the Ewaipanoma Sonnet Contest (2008), the WorldCon Poetry Slam (1998), and the Sycamore Award (1992), received a third place Dwarf Star Award (2021), a third place Elgin Award (2020), and placed fourth in the Analog AnLab Readers’ Awards (2017), as well as receiving honorable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror (1996). He is assistant editor (slush reader) at Amazing Stories, co-edits “SpecPo Reviews”, and was the poetry editor of the 2021 Parsec Ink anthology Triangulations: Habitats. One of his favorite hobbies is getting physicists drunk so he can understand them. More about him and his writing can be found at www.HerbKauderer.com
Brandon Ketchum is a speculative fiction writer and licensed clinical social worker from Pittsburgh, PA who enjoys putting a weird spin or strange vibe into every story, dark or light. He is a member of SFWA and the Horror Writers Association, and his work has been published with Air and Nothingness Press, Perihelion, Mad Scientist Journal, and many other publications, including the short story collection Legio Damnati. Brandon is a therapist in the mental health field and provides treatment for veterans with addictions, as well as conducts trauma therapy for veterans with PTSD. He is also a disabled veteran.
Jamie Lackey lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and their cats. She has had over 200 short stories published in places like Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine, and Escape Pod. She has a novella and two short story collections available from Air and Nothingness Press, and she’s created five successful crowdfunding campaigns to self-publish two novellas, a novelette, and three short story collections. In addition to writing, she spends her time reading, playing tabletop RPGs, baking, mushroom hunting, and hiking. You can find her online at http://www.jamielackey.com.
Michelle Renee Lane is a speculative fiction writer born and raised in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. She misspent her youth consuming vampire fiction, climbing into strangers’ cars, exploring abandoned buildings, reading Tarot cards, dropping acid, befriending skaters and skinheads, and consulting the dead with a Ouija board. Michelle writes cautionary tales about the perils of falling in love with monsters. Her short fiction appears in several anthologies, and her Bram Stoker Award nominated debut novel, Invisible Chains (2019), is available from Haverhill House Publishing. The Spanish language translation, Cadenas Invisibles (2022), is available from Dilatando Mentes Editorial. Book one of her erotic paranormal romance series, The Courtship of Nora Fagan (2022), is available from Stardust Romance. She holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.
Barton Paul Levenson has a degree in physics. Happily married to poet Elizabeth Penrose, he confuses everybody by being both a born-again Christian and a liberal Democrat. He has 70 published short stories, poems, and essays. His novels “The Celibate Succubus,” “Another Century,” “Recovering Gretel” and “The Argo Incident” are available from amazon.com. Barton was banned from entering the Confluence Short Story Contest again after winning first prize two years in a row.
Laurie Mann has been in fandom for 50 years.
Jim Mann
Brandon McNulty grew up loving monsters, demons, and the thrill of a great scare. Now he writes supernatural thrillers, horror, and other dark fiction. He is a graduate of Taos Toolbox Writers Workshop and a winner of both Pitch Wars and RevPit. He runs the popular YouTube channel Writer Brandon McNulty.
Scot Noel is a Writers of the Future winner (Vol VI), with stories in Algis Budry’s Tomorrow Magazine, two Eden Studios’ zombie anthologies, and in various small press venues. He has written novellas and interaction text for a variety of computer games, as well as being a project manager of game development in the late 90’s. These days he works with his wife Jane at their digital marketing agency Chroma Studios, and in his spare time has fun as the editor and publisher of DreamForge Magazine.
Charles Oberndorf has been a regular Confluence guest since 1993. A graduate of Clarion East (1987) he is the author of three books (all Bantam Spectra) and six works of short fiction. “Another Life” appeared in the 60th Anniversary Issue of F&SF, Harwell & Cramer’s Year’s Best SF #15, and Horton & Wallace’s War and Space: Recent Combat. His novella “The Cottage in Omena” appeared in F&SF and Kaster’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction on Earth. Charlie is also working on a biographical novel about Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran Abe Osheroff (1915-2008). Charlie lives in Cleveland with his wife. He has just retired after 40 years of teaching 7th grade English.
Amabilis (Bili) OHara
Heidi Pilewski
Nelson W Pyles is an author, musician, podcast creator and voice actor living in Pittsburgh. He has written two novels and is working on his third. His next collection All These Steps Lead Down will be released from Cold War Radio Press in 2024. For more information, please visit http://www.whatnelsonwrites.com
Susan Kaye Quinn is an environmental engineer/rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopepunk climate fiction to gritty cyberpunk to steampunk romance. Her short fiction can be found in DreamForge, Grist, Reckoning, and more. All her novels and short fiction can be found on her website: http://www.susankayequinn.com.
Darrell Schweitzer is author of THE SHATTERED GODDESS, THE MASK OF THE SORCERER, THE DRAGON HOUSE, and about 350 published short stories. A career retrospective, THE MYSTERIES OF THE FACELESS KING and THE LAST HERETIC appeared in PS Publishing in 2020, and he has had a new collection since, THE CHILDREN OF CHORAZIN (Hippocampus, 2023) which features several stories set in imaginary parts of Pennsylvania. He is a critic, poet, anthologist (most recently COLD WAR CTHULHU, from PS Publishing) and former editor of WEIRD TALES.
R. K. Thorne writes optimistic fantasy and space opera adventures that bubble over with romance, action, and humor. The independently published author of over ten novels, she’s writes about fierce women, men of honor, sweeping battles, epic worlds, and delicious food. A long-time gamer and dungeon master, she’s fueled by her addiction to notebooks, yoga, and computer games. Too much coffee, RPGs, and really good books all keep her awake.
Albert Wendland teaches at Seton Hill University and co-founded its MFA in Writing Popular Fiction. His science-fiction “space-noir” novel, “The Man Who Loved Alien Landscapes,” was a starred pick-of-the-week by Publisher’s Weekly. A prequel, “In a Suspect Universe,” came out two years later. He’s published a collection of poetry, “Temporary Planets for Transitory Days,” supposedly written by the protagonist of both novels. “Haunted Stars,” also in the “Mykol Ranglen universe” and released last year, mixes revenge, treasure-hunting, and cosmic horror. He’s also published a study of science fiction, several articles on SF, and a chapter in the writing text, “Many Genres, One Craft.” He enjoys landscape photography, astronomy, geology, graphic novels, and the “sublime.”
Hazel Zorn is an SFF and Horror writer. Her nonfiction criticism “No Excuses for AI Art” can be found in Blood Knife. She’s been published in many short fiction outlets, the most recent of which is in Dark Matter INK’s- The Off Season: An anthology of Coastal Weird. (Oct 2024)