From the Bronx, New York, Wen Wen Yang is the eldest child of Chinese immigrants. She has gaps in her Wenzhounese that charades cannot overcome. In exchange for her first language, she earned an English, Creative Writing degree from Barnard College, Columbia University. There, she also studied Mandarin for three years, then did not speak it again. All her stories are in English. An up-to-date bibliography is on WenWenWrites.com.

Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer, Ignyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula Award winner, and Hugo, Astounding, Locus, Aurora, and BFSA Award finalist from Changle, Fujian currently residing in Toronto, Ontario. Her work can be found in F&SF, The Dark, The Masters Review, among others. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of A Palace Near the Wind, Linghun, and I AM AI. Find her at www.aijiang.ca.

Jay McKenzie’s work appears in adda, Maudlin House, The Hooghly Review, Fahmidan Journal, Fictive Dream, and others. She has won, placed or shortlisted in the Exeter Story Prize, Henshaw, Quiet Man Dave, Edinburgh Short Story Award, Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, Exeter Novel Prize, Tom Grass Prize, Alpine Fellowship, Bath Short Story Award, Bath Flash Fiction Award, Aesthetica, Bridport Prize and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Recent wins include the 2025 Fish Short Story Prize, the Danahy Prize for Fiction and the Midway Journal 1000 Below. Her novel, How to Lose the Lottery, will be published with Harper Fiction in March 2026.

MM Schreier is a classically trained vocalist who took up writing as therapy for a mid-life crisis. She has authored two short story collections—Monstrosity, Humanity and Bruised, Resilient—and is published in a wide range of speculative and literary venues. A firm believer that people can be both left- and right-brained, in addition to creative pursuits, she’s in leadership for a robotics company, and tutors math and science to at-risk youth. Follow at: mmschreier.com.

Caspian Darke is a Black speculative fiction writer and creative director from Detroit, Michigan, a city whose ruins and resilience echo through his stories. He conjures Black futures, haunted landscapes, and myths born from love and loss. He is the author of TALYN: Seed of Darkness (Black River Comics) and is completing Ghostpunk, his first dark science-fantasy novel.

Erin Brandt Filliter lives, works and plays in unceded Wolastoqey territory. She is a public relations professional, a busy Mom, and most at peace when creating watercolour paintings and writing fiction. She has published stories with The Last Girl’s Club, The Other Stories (podcast), Elegant Literature, and 101 words, and placed in a number of writing competitions. She was recently awarded the 2025 Douglas Kyle Prize for Short Fiction from the NB Writers’ Federation.

Jessie Roy is a half-Korean writer of speculative fiction, and a graduate of Viable Paradise. Her work deals with myth, memory, and the border where history frays into story. She currently lives in Oakland, where she parents two small children and writes around the edges. Find her on Bluesky at @jessieroywrites, or visit her website at jessieroy.com.

Shane Inman’s work appears in Consequence, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Journal, The Forge, Bourbon Penn, Mud Season Review, and elsewhere. He received his MFA in the southwest and lives in Philadelphia.

Cressida Roe is a multiracial writer with work appearing in Apex, Fusion Fragment, Lightspeed, and elsewhere. Recent stories have appeared on the Wigleaf Top 50 and nominated for the Best Small Fictions. See more at cressidaroe.wordpress.com.