Thomas Hardy  (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England.

While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of such novels as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). During his lifetime, Hardy’s poetry was acclaimed by younger poets (particularly the Georgians) who viewed him as a mentor.

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Richard Harland was born in England but now lives in Australia, sixty miles south of Sydney between the green Illawarra escarpment and a string of golden beaches. He has been a folk-rock musician, a university lecturer and a poet who once did a poetry reading at the Sydney Opera House. He has won six Aurealis Awards (Australia’s nearest equivalent to the Nebulas) for his horror and fantasy novels and his short stories; also the prestigious Tam Tam Je Bouquine Award for “Worldshaker” in France. His website is at www.richardharland.net

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Leigh Harlen is a queer, non-binary writer who lives and works in Seattle with their partner, a mischief of rats, and a very goofy dog named Anya. Their non-writing hobbies include petting strangers’ dogs and enthusing about bats. Their writing has appeared in Shoreline of Infinity, Aurealis, and Capricious.

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Nika Harper is a writer and performer who spends long, solitary nights on the internet because her brain won’t shut up. She lives in Los Angeles, CA, where she houses her collection of magic wands and an overwhelming stockpile of empty journals. You can check to see if she got any new tattoos recently at ThisisNika.com and chat about horror on Twitter @NikaHarper.

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C.M. Harris attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and The Loft Literary Center of Minneapolis. She is a copywriter and graphic designer for marketing firm, Carbon Creative. She lives in Uptown Minneapolis with her partner, their twins and two miniature pinschers.

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Imogen Harris is a writer and performer, who by day administrates data for a faceless bureaucratic institution, and by night is the Librarian for The Library of Rejected Beauty, a site which seeks to promote artistic works which have been unfairly rejected by an uncaring world. One of her many side hustles is as a ghostwriter, and she is responsible for over 75 non fiction ebooks, on titles as diverse as urban survival, Japanese cooking and turning a shipping container into a home (TL:DR don’t). She played Helen Richardson in The Magnus Archives and I.M.O.G.E.N. in Stellar Firma.

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Joanne Harris (OBE, FRSL) is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, plus novellas, cookbooks, scripts, short stories, libretti, lyrics, articles, and a self-help book for writers, TEN THINGS ABOUT WRITING. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her hobbies are listed in Who’s Who as ‘mooching, lounging, strutting, strumming, priest-baiting and quiet subversion of the system’. She is active on social media, where she writes stories and gives writing tips as @joannechocolat; she posts writing seminars on YouTube; she performs in a live music and storytelling show with the #Storytime Band; and she works from a shed in her garden at her home in Yorkshire.

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S.L. Harris is a writer, educator, and sometime archaeologist who can be found digging in gardens, libraries, tea cabinets, and ancient houses. Originally from Appalachia, he currently lives in the Midwest with his wife, two children, and many books.

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