Margaret St. Clair (17 February 1911 – 22 November 1995) was an American science fiction writer. Beginning in the late 1940s, St. Clair wrote and published, by her own count, some 130 short stories. St. Clair wrote that she “first tried [her] hand at detective and mystery stories, and even the so-called ‘quality’ stories,” before finding her niche writing fantasy and science fiction for pulp magazines. “Unlike most pulp writers, I have no special ambitions to make the pages of the slick magazines. I feel that the pulps at their best touch a genuine folk tradition and have a balladic quality which the slicks lack.” (more…)

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Carlie St. George is a writer and Shirley Jackson Award finalist from Northern California. Her speculative fiction and poetry has been published in Uncanny, Nightmare, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, and several other anthologies and magazines. Her debut short story collection You Fed Us to the Roses is available from Robot Dinosaur Press. Find her talking about television, horror movies, fanfic, writing, and other nerdy things on Bluesky or at her blog mygeekblasphemy.com.

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ARTHUR STAAZ is a relatively newly published writer. He has been writing for many years, but finally, at mid-life, has decided to get serious about it. In various incarnations, Arthur has been a songwriter, laborer, lawyer, teacher, father, husband, and victim of suppressed unconscious desires. He is fascinated by dark philosophies, the absurdity of human existence, and the black mysticism to be found in a Thomas Ligotti story. He has a blog/web site at by COLD, DARK, EMPTY.

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Abra Staffin-Wiebe loves dark science fiction, cheerful horror, and futuristic fairy tales. Dozens of her short stories have appeared at publications including Tor.com, Escape Pod, and Odyssey Magazine. She lives in Minneapolis, where she wrangles her children, pets, and the mad scientist she keeps in the attic. When not writing or wrangling, she collects folk tales and photographs whatever stands still long enough to allow it.

She also speaks regularly on panels at writing/SF conventions and teaches at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.

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Author of Care and Feeding: A Collection of Hot-Blooded Horror Stories

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David Steffen writes video processing algorithms for traffic control systems by day, and writes fiction at other times. He lives with his wife and three dogs in Minnesota.

He is the co-founder of the Submission Grinder, and co-edits the non-fiction zine Diabolical Plots. His fiction has been published in many great venues including Escape Pod, Daily Science Fiction, Bull Spec, AE, and Pseudopod, as well as Tina Connolly’s Toasted Cake podcast.

David has been running periodic “Best Of” podcast fiction lists for many years.

• Diabolical Plots Best of
• The Best Podcast Fiction of 2014 for SF Signal
• a mega-list of The Best Podcast Fiction of All Time, also for SF Signal

He has also created the Long List Anthology, which is a self-publishing anthology project collecting stories from the longer Hugo Award nomination list. (Info and vendors here.) Among other points of interest, it includes several stories that have been previously published in Escape Artists casts: “Makeisha in Time“, “The Truth About Owls“, “When It Ends, He Catches Her”

David has been a dedicated listener to all the Escape Artists podcasts for years, and you can find him on the forum as “Unblinking”.

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Ferrett Steinmetz lives in Cleveland with his wife, a well-worn copy of Rock Band, two boxes of bees, and a friendly ghost. He’s been nominated for the Nebula, much to his continued astonishment, and has published over twenty-five stories since rebooting his writing career five years ago. Ferrett blogs regularly about puns, polyamory, and politics at his blog FERRETT – that’s two “R”s, and two “Ts”. He usually has a few upcoming stories, so if you liked this one, there’s probably more like it at his site.

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Pippa Alice Stephens is an actress and voiceover artist. She is soon to be seen in ‘The Invisible War’ playing Rose Berkeley and ‘Spiralling’ playing Natalie.

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