Authors

Franklin Ard is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine and the Clarion West Writers Workshop. His fiction and poetry blurs many genres, from science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery to slipstream and Southern gothic. His writing has appeared in numerous venues, such as Nightmare Magazine, Marrow Magazine, Tales, Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine, Suspense Magazine, and Deep Magic, among others. He and his wife and son live in northwest Georgia, where they enjoy traversing the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Elizabeth Beechwood is your typical scarf-knitting, bird-feeding tree hugger who lives on the fringes of Portland, Oregon. Her Pushcart-nominated fiction has been published in Nightscape Press’s award-winning anthology Nox Pareidolia, Third Flatiron’s Hidden Histories, Not a Pipe Publishing’s The Year of Publishing Women’s Short Stories series, and others. She earned her MFA in Popular Fiction at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program, is an associate member of SFWA, and doesn't think that talking mountains are strange at all.

Joseph Carro holds an MFA from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. He coauthored the Little Coffee Shop of Horrors anthology and serves as Community Manager for Headless Hydra Press, a publisher of tabletop roleplaying game supplements. Most recently, he co-edited After the Burn, an anthology of post-apocalyptic short stories (Rogue Owl Press). Additionally, he has served as an editor and proofreader for the Glyphs Productions line of comic books since 2015 and has written for itcherMag. When not writing or editing, he can generally be found engaging in some sort of geeky/nerdy activity throughout the day. Oh, and he was also in a movie with Kelsey Grammer (and will say that every chance he gets). He currently resides in Woodford, Vermont inside the infamous Bennington Triangle, although he'll always be a Mainer at heart.

Paul Carro was born and raised in Maine, where he was published at an early age in an anthology of Maine authors alongside one of his horror icons. After college, he left the lakes of Maine for the oceans of California, where he toiled for years in the film/TV industry before recently returning to his literary roots. A longtime comic book and horror nerd, he now writes novels featuring both his passions. When not writing, he can be found hiking all over California.

Shane R. Collins is a fiction writer who has published dozens of stories over the last fifteen years in publications such as The Masters Review and Straylight Literary Magazine. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast and still spends a week every summer with the best group of writers he knows. In 2015, he attended the Sewanee Writer's Workshop, where he was permitted to stalk his writing hero, Tim O'Brien. Shane lives and writes in Bennington, Vermont, with his wife, Chloe Viner, and an assortment of pets and children. His debut novel, a neo-noir mystery titled This is Not Your Place, is forthcoming from Rogue Owl Press in 2024. You can learn more about Shane at www.shanercollins.com.

Renee S. DeCamillis is a dark fiction/horror author and editor and the author of the psychological thriller/horror novella The Bone Cutters. She is currently a novel editor for Wicked House Publishing and is a former editorial intern for Crystal Lake Publishing. Her short fiction appears in After the Burn (Rogue Owl Press), Wicked Women (NEHW Press), Northern Frights: The Journal of Horror Writers of Maine, Deadman’s Tome, Siren’s Call eZine, and The Other Stories Podcast. Her poetry appears in The Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Volume IV, and she has a comic book forthcoming through Phi 3 Comics. She is also a former gravedigger; she can get rid of a body fast without leaving a trace, and she is not afraid of getting her hands dirty. Renee lives in the woods of southern Maine with her husband, their son, and a house full of ghosts.

Devin Gaither lives on the Mar-Lu Ridge of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Jefferson, MD with her dog, Pippa. She is a Business Analyst by trade and is also the Aerial Arts Program Director for Luna Aerial Dance & Performing Arts in Frederick, MD. Additionally, she enjoys making time for creating stained glass artwork (Mar-Lu Glassworks) and laboring over math puzzles. Devin earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine. In 2022, she was selected as one of the Top 50 Young Professionals Under 40 by the Frederick County Office of Economic Development.

Rachel Halpern is a graduate of the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers and the Stonecoast MFA program. At her day job, she writes and edits children’s books, from original picture books like Unicorns Have Bad Manners to licensed books for Disney, Marvel, Sesame Street, and more. Her short fiction for adults has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Daily Science Fiction, and Liminal Stories. She also helps administer the Alpha Young Writers Workshop. Rachel lives in the Chicago area with her parents and a cuddly, slightly evil dog named Grendel. In her free time, she enjoys doodling, watching home renovation shows, sharing octopus facts, and taking pictures of interesting clouds.

Derek B. Hoffman is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. He is a freelance author, editor, and tutor. For over thirty years, he’s authored works ranging from slipstream poetry, to stories supporting abused children, to inspiring young adult and transmedia odysseys. He also leverages his writing skills as CEO of Veracity by Design, LLC, where he composes, edits, and designs award-winning websites, translates technology into understandable user tutorials, and publishes in peer-reviewed medical journals as part of research projects performed at leading universities. During the day, he resides with his wife and three boys in Austin, TX. At night, he ventures into the fifth corner of his mind, crafting an ever-growing collection of multiverse tales and adventures.

Rebecca McKenna teaches English literature and writing to high school students, whom she finds quite interesting and engaging. She has been a professional mapmaker for almost two decades and has spent a lifetime loving maps and creating them for her enjoyment. A graduate of the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine and a charter member of the Tiny Chair Writing Cooperative, she lives in eastern Maine with her husband and misses her kids, who have grown up.

Karen Menzel (née Bovenmyer) earned an MFA in Creative Writing: Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine. She teaches and mentors students at Iowa State University. She has served as the Assistant Editor of the Pseudopod Horror Podcast Magazine. She is the 2016 recipient of the Horror Writers Association Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Scholarship. Her poems, short stories, and novellas appear in more than 40 publications and her first novel, Swift for the Sun, debuted from Dreamspinner Press in 2017.

John Christopher Nelson's youth was split between ninety-four acres of chaparral in East County San Diego and a mining town in the Nevada high desert. He lives with his cat, Proulx. He earned his BA in American Literature from UCLA and is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing. His work can be found in DUM DUM Zine, The Real Story, The New Guard, Chiron Review, Able Muse, Indicia, The Matador Review, BE ABOUT IT Zine, and elsewhere.

Sarah Parke holds an MFA in Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA Program. She has been published in The Writer and Speculative City, and her fiction plays with alternate historic timelines and magical circumstances. Earlier in her own timeline, she spent five years helping authors polish their prose as an acquiring editor at a regional trade publisher. She currently works at Wesleyan University where she writes stories about the campus community for the magazine and newsletter. A New England native, Sarah lives in Connecticut with her husband, Sean.

Cristina Perachio’s stories have appeared in Narrative, EPOCH, Zyzzyva, and more. In 2013, she was named a finalist in  Narrative's 30 Below Contest. Narrative also named her story “Nightstands” a Top 5 Story of the Year in 2014. She received an MFA from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. Perachio lives in South Philadelphia with her husband and two-year-old daughter.

Richard Squires is a writer, editor, and musician living in New Jersey. His fiction has appeared in North American Review, The MacGuffin, Jewish Literary Journal, BigCityLit, Rogue Owl Press’s post-apocalyptic anthology After the Burn, and other places, and he has book reviews forthcoming in American Book Review. Richard is the owner of LifeStory, a company that writes people’s memoirs for them, creating legacies their families cherish for generations. A proud member of the Tiny Chair Writing Cooperative, Richard earned his MFA from Stonecoast at the University of Southern Maine.

Chloe Viner was born in Louisiana and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Bates College with a B.A. in philosophy. Chloe attended Vermont Law School, where she graduated with a J.D. and Master's degree in Environmental Law and Policy. Her passion for helping others led her away from the legal system and into social work, and she now works as the Executive Director at Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless. In her spare time, Chloe is a poet and artist. She has authored four books of poetry, and two of her murals are on display at the Saint Albans Museum. Chloe lives in Woodford, Vermont with her husband, twin four-year-olds, and assorted pets.

Genevieve Williams' work has appeared in Asimov's, Strange Horizons, and several anthologies. She lives in Seattle.