Speakers
XIA JIA (China)
she | her
Xia Jia (A.K.A.Wang Yao) is Associate Professor of Chinese Literature at Xi’an Jiaotong University. So far she has published a fantasy novel Odyssey of China Fantasy: On the Road (2010), three science fiction collections The Demon Enslaving Flask (2012), A Time Beyond Your Reach (2017) and Xi’an City Is Falling Down (2018), as well as an academic work on contemporary Chinese science fiction Coordinates of the Future: Discussions on Chinese Science Fiction in the Age of Globalization (2019). Recently she has been working on a science fiction fix-up, entitled Chinese Encyclopedia. Her first English collection A Summer Beyond Your Reach: Stories was published in 2020. She is also engaged in other science fiction related works, including academic research, translation, screenwriting, editing and creative writing teaching.
LAVANYA LAKSHMINARAYAN (India)
she | her | they
Lavanya Lakshminarayan is a speculative fiction writer from India. She's the award-winning author of "Analog/ Virtual: And Other Simulations Of Your Future", which won the Times of India AutHer Award for Best Debut, and was a Locus Award finalist for Best Collection. Her novel was also long-listed for the BSFA Award for Best Novel, and is currently on the shortlist for the Valley of Words Award. Her forthcoming work includes short fiction in various anthologies, and she is currently working on her next novel.
Lavanya has also spent the better part of a decade as a game designer. She's built worlds for Zynga Inc.’s FarmVille and Mafia Wars franchises, among a ton of other games.
Twitter: @lavanya_ln
Instagram: @lavanya.ln
TLOTLO TSAMAASE (Botswana)
she | her
Tlotlo Tsamaase is a Motswana writer of fiction, poetry, and architectural articles. Her work has appeared in The Best of World SF Volume 1, Futuri uniti d'Africa, Clarkesworld, Terraform, Strange Horizons, Africanfuturism Anthology and other publications. Her poem "I Will Be Your Grave" was a 2017 Rhysling Award nominee. Her novella, The Silence of the Wilting Skin, is a 2021 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Her short story, Behind Our Irises, was shortlisted for the 2021 Nommo Awards. You can find her on Instagram and Twitter at @tlotlotsamaase and at www.tlotlotsamaase.com.
KAREN ANDREA REYES BARRERA (Colombia)
she | her
Karen Andrea Reyes (1995). Social communicator and journalist, Master in Literary Creation and student of the Master in Humanities: contemporary art, literature and culture at the Open University of Catalonia. She is the author of Zen'nō, a science fiction novel published by Ediciones Vestigio.
Twitter & Instagram: @unanavedepapel
Facebook: /dawadr
IANA A. (Brazil)
she | her
Iana is a teacher, translator, writer and editor based in Recife, Brazil. She is an assistant editor at Pretérita Revista, a magazine focused on Brazilian historical fiction, and Editor-in-Chief at Eita! Magazine, publishing Brazilian SFFH authors in English. She is usually found surrounded by cats and a pile of to-be-read books.
Twitter: @ianatxt
TONI MORAES (Brazil)
ele | dele
Toni Moraes é um homem latino-americano que escreve, edita e pesquisa Literatura. É autor de "O ano em que conheci meus pais", "Eu estou morto" e "Morto não me serves de nada", pesquisador da obra de Milton Hatoum no programa de Literatura Brasileira da FFLCH-USP e editor da Monomito Editorial.
Twitter: @Tonimoraesjr
Instagram: @tonimoraesjr
Facebook: /toni.moraes
PEPE ROJO (Mexico)
he | him
Pepe Rojo practices interference in the California border zone both in Mexican and English as there is no other way to go at it in Tijuana, where he has spent most of his life for a decade and a half. He has published 5 books and more than 200 texts dealing with fiction, media, and contemporary culture, while exploring hybrid formats and genres from sf interventions at the border crossing, speculative theory and fiction to a philosophical dictionary of Tijuana. He is currently raising "Tierra y Libertad" flags, while trying to survive a Communication’s PhD at UCSD. Online, he sometimes is a rugby field, but mostly dwells at https://en.peperojox.xyz/.
Instagram: @pp_rojo
FRANCESCO VERSO (Italia)
he | him
Francesco Verso is a multiple-award Science Fiction writer and editor. He has published: Antidoti umani, e-Doll, Nexhuman, Bloodbusters and I camminatori (made of The Pulldogs and No/Mad/Land). Nexhuman and Bloodbusters – translated in English by Sally McCorry – have been published in the US by Apex Books, in the UK by Luna press and in China for Bofeng. He also works as editor and publisher of Future Fiction, a multicultural project, dedicated to scouting and publishing the best World SF in translation from more than 25 countries and 11 languages with authors like Ian McDonald, Han Song, Ken Liu, Liu Cixin, Vandana Singh, Chen Qiufan, Xia Jia and others. From 2019 he’s the Honorary Director of the Fishing Fortress SF Academy of Chongqing and in 2020 he co-organized the first edition of the FutureCon, an online SF Con with more than 60 guests from 25 countries. He may be found at www.futurefiction.org.
Twitter: @Francesco_Verso
Instagram: @futurefiction1
Facebook: /francesco.verso.31
SAMIT BASU (India)
he | him
Samit Basu is an Indian SFF novelist. His most recent book, Chosen Spirits, a near-future anti-dystopian Delhi novel, was shortlisted for the JCB Prize, India's biggest lit award, and is to be published next year by Tordotcom as The City Inside. He's also known in India for the bestselling Gameworld trilogy of fantasy novels (Penguin) and the Turbulence duology of superhero novels (also published in the US/UK by Titan Books). Samit is also the co-writer/director of a Netflix film, a comics writer, columnist, short story writer and children's writer.
Twitter & Instagram: @samitbasu
Facebook: /samitbasu
BODHISATTVA CHATTOPADHYAY (India/Norway)
he | him
Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay is Associate Professor in Global Culture Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. He leads the international research group CoFUTURES. Chattopadhyay is the leader (PI) of two major research projects funded by the European and Norwegian Research Councils, which explore contemporary global futurisms movements from a transmedial perspective, including literature, film, visual arts, and games. Chattopadhyay runs the Holodeck, a state of the art games research lab at UiO. He is also an Imaginary College Fellow at the Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University. He has formerly been Editor-in-Chief of Fafnir: Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research, and editor at the Journal of Science Fiction. He is also founding co-editor with Taryne Taylor of the Routledge book series Studies in Global Genre Fiction. As editor, translator, fan, and critic, Chattopadhyay is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, including the World Fantasy Award (2020), the Johannes H Berg Memorial Prize (2019), the Foundation Essay Prize (2017), and the Strange Horizons Readers’ Poll Award (2013). His research website is: https://cofutures.org
Twitter & Instagram: @co_futures
Facebook: /cofutures
RACHEL CORDASCO (USA)
Rachel Cordasco is a writer, editor, and translator and runs the website SFinTranslation.com
Twitter: @Rcordas
Facebook: /sfintranslation
SÉRGIO MOTTA (Brazil)
he | him
Sérgio Motta is a Black Brazilian author from São Paulo and this city is his muse. He already published the short story "Spider" at Strange Horizons, the novelette "Ciberbochicho" at Brazilian SFF magazine Mafagafo, and a novella called "Aline na Avenida das Paulistas".
Lastly, he's the editor-in-chief of Revista Afroliterária [Afro-literary Magazine], the magazine of Resistência Afroliterária [Afro-literary Resistance], a project focused on promoting Black literature and culture in Brazil, and editor of Mafagafo editor as well.
Twitter & Instagram: @sergiomotta18
KHADIJAH ALJABRI (Saudi Arabia)
she | her
Dr. Khadijah Aljabri is an assistant professor of English whose area of specialty is twentieth century fiction and the interaction between literature and evolution. She holds a PhD degree in English studies that was awarded by Durham University in 2016. Her thesis was focused on exploring the biocultural dimension to the Fall in William Golding’s fiction and how Golding’s understanding of Darwin’s theory of evolution shaped his perception of intelligence and the notion of progressive evolution. Her research interests include trauma theory and post-war fiction, cognitive literary studies, bio-cultural literary theory, and the history of science in literature.
Twitter: @AljabriKhadijah
MARTÍN FELIPE CASTAGNET (Argentina)
he | him
Martín Felipe Castagnet was born in Argentina in 1986. He holds a PhD in Literature from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata and is currently co-editor of the Orsai magazine. His debut novel, Bodies of Summer, was translated into English and French. In 2017, he published his second book, Los mantras modernos. He was named by Bogotá39 and Granta magazine as one of the best young Spanish-Language writers.
Twitter & Instagram: @mobymartin
MAME BOUGOUMA DIENE (US/Senegal/France)
he | him
Mame Bougouma Diene is a Franco–Senegalese American humanitarian living in Brooklyn, and the US/Francophone spokesperson for the African Speculative Fiction Society. You can find his work in Strange Horizons, Omenana, Fiyah! EscapePod, Tor.com, AfroSFv2 & V3, Dominion and others. He was nominated for two Nommo Awards and his debut collection “Dark Moons Rising on a Starless Night” (Clash Books) was nominated for the 2019 Splatterpunk Award.
Twitter: @mame_bougouma
ALLISON MILLS (Canada/United States)
she | her
Allison Mills is a Ililiw/Chapleau Cree writer, archivist, and researcher who loves all things ghost-related. Her debut novel, The Ghost Collector, won the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and other publications, including Apex Magazine and CICADA. Although born in Canada, she currently lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Website: https://allisonmillswrites.com
Twitter: @sometimesal
S.B. DIVYA (United States)
she | any
S.B. Divya is a lover of science, math, fiction, and the Oxford comma. She is the Hugo and Nebula nominated author of Machinehood (Saga), Runtime (tordotcom), and the short story collection, Contingency Plans For the Apocalypse and Other Possible Situations (Hachette India). Divya is the co-editor of the weekly science fiction podcast Escape Pod, with Mur Lafferty. She holds degrees in Computational Neuroscience and Signal Processing and worked for twenty years as an electrical engineer before becoming an author. Find her on Twitter @divyastweets or at www.sbdivya.com.
CHIARA CIGARINI (Italy)
she | her
Chiara Cigarini got a PhD at Beijing Normal University, with a research project focused on contemporary Chinese science fiction.. In China, she collaborates with the Research Center for Science and Human Imagination of the Southern University of Science and Technology and in Italy with the independent publishing house Future Fiction.
REGINA KANYU WANG (China/Norway)
she | her
Regina Kanyu Wang is a writer, researcher and editor born in Shanghai, China and currently pursuing her PhD under the CoFUTURES project at the University of Oslo. Her research interest lies in Chinese science fiction, especially from the gender and environmental perspective. She writes science fiction, nonfiction and academic essays in both Chinese and English. She has published two story collections in Chinese, among which Of Cloud and Mist is published in Italy and The Seafood Restaurant is forthcoming in Germany. She has won six Chinese Nebula Awards, been translated into around 10 languages, resided in Writing in Downtown Las Vegas Residency, been supported by Shanghai Culture Development Foundation, and been a contracted Writer of Shanghai Writers’ Association. She has also co-edited the Chinese SF special issue of Vector, a critical journal of British Science Fiction Association, and The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, an all-women-and-non-binary anthology of Chinese speculative fiction, and worked as the English version editor of The Routledge Handbook of The Wandering Earth: Behind The Scenes and Film Production.
Twitter: @Regina_Kanyu
Facebook: /regina.kanyu.wang
SALIK SHAH (India)
he | him
Salik Shah is the founding editor and publisher of Mithila Review, the journal of international science fiction and fantasy.
Twitter: @salik
EMAD EL-DIN AYSHA (Egypt)
he | him
Emad El-Din Aysha is a member of the Egyptian Writers' Union and the Egyptian Society for Science Fiction, is an academic researcher, freelance journalist and literary translator.
Twitter: @AngloEgyptJour
Instagram: @em14aysha
Facebook: /emad.aysha
EMILY XUENI JIN (China)
she | her
Emily Xueni Jin (she/her) is a science fiction and fantasy translator, translating both from Chinese to English and the other way around. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2017, and she is currently pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literature at Yale University. As one of the core members of the Clarkesworld-Storycom collaborative project on publishing English translations of Chinese science fiction, she has worked with various prominent Chinese SFF writers. Her most recent Chinese to English translations can be found in “AI2041: Ten Visions For Our Future”, a collection of science fiction and essays co-written by Dr. Kaifu Lee and Chen Qiufan (scheduled to publish September 2021) and “The Way Spring Arrives” co-published by Tor and Storycom, the first translated female and non-binary Chinese speculative fiction anthology (scheduled to publish April 2022). Her essays can be found in publications such as Vector and Field Guide to Contemporary Chinese Literature.
Twitter & Instagram: @emilyxnjin
DIEGO CEPEDA (Colombia)
he | him
Translator and editor. Founder and Editor in Chief of Ediciones Vestigio, and translator of a multiple fiction and poetry books, including All Hail The House Gods, I Will Rot Without You and Crazy Equóides.
Instagram: @dcepeda_
DILMAN DILA (Uganda)
he | him
Dilman Dila is a writer and filmmaker from Uganda, author of the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, A Killing in the Sun, and three novellas. He was shortlisted for the BSFA Awards (2021) and for the Nommo Awards (2021), as well as for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (2013). His films have won multiple awards and you can watch them on patreon.com/dilstories
Twitter: @dilmandila
TANG FEI (China)
Tang Fei is a China author of speculation fiction and a member of SFWA. Her works have been published Chinese literary magazines, some part of which have been translated and published in Clarkesworld, Apex, Paper Public and have been included in The Year's Best Science Fiction in the United States. She is the author of Odsscyber as well as The Person Who Sees Cetus and The Unknown Feast, which described as a fascinating mixture, tell one post-human saga after another by Professor David Der-Wei Wang. She has won Shanghai Literature Award, Chinese Readers' Choice Awards (Gravity Awards),and Speculative Fiction in Translation’s Most Popular Short Story silver medal. She is involved in different art forms such as literary criticism, poetry, installation, and photography.
Instagram: @caramelfei
FAN ZHANG 张凡 (China)
Mr.
Ph.D. in Science Fiction Studies, MFA in Creative Writing; Founding Dean of FFSFC. Facebook: Fan Zhang.
MAZI NWONWU (Nigeria)
he | him
Chiagozie Fred Nwonwu, who writes under the pen name of Mazi Nwonwu, is a Lagos-based journalist and writer. While journalism and its demands take up much of his time, when he can, Mazi Nwonwu writes speculative fiction, which he believes is a vehicle through which he can transport Africa’s diverse cultures to the future. His work has appeared in Lagos 2060 (Nigeria’s first science fiction anthology), AfroSF (the first Pan-African science fiction anthology), Sentinel Nigeria, Brittle Paper, African Writer, Saraba Magazine, "It Wasn’t Exactly Love", an anthology on sex and sexuality published by Farafina in 2015, The Brittle Paper African Futurism Anthology, Afrosfv.3, Jalada 09 among others, Mazi Nwonwu is the co-founder and Managing Editor of Omenana, a web-based speculative magazine that accepts submission from writers from Africa and the African diaspora.
Twitter: @mazinwonwu
Instagram: @mazi_nwonwu
Facebook: /Chiagozie.Fred.Nwonwu
SERAN DEMIRAL (Turkey)
she | her
I am a children’s literature and sci-fi writer from Istanbul, Turkey. As a teenager, I published two fantastic novels, Münzevi [Hermit] and Hissizleşme [Numbing] in the 2000s. After I graduated from architecture at Mimar Sinan University, I studied sociology for my master degree and tried to adapt social issues to my fiction writing. My first science-fiction novel, Hayat Üretim Merkezi [Life Production Centre] was published in 2015. This novel is about cyberspace called ‘production centre’ where people can realize anything they desire and decide to create, owing to their imagination levels. For now, Parmak Uçları [Fingertips], Likya’nın Şarkısı [Likya’s Song], Hatırla [Memento], Benden Bize [Me to Us] and Bizden Dünyaya [Us to the World] are my published novels for children and adolescents. As long as I have written for children more, I carried my experience with children to academic works of mine. I studied the subjectivity of adolescents through their interaction with digital technologies for my PhD dissertation. I am interested in changing childhood experiences within online environments, and I teach digital childhoods, children's literature, creative writing and sociology at several universities. I conduct workshops for different children groups as a P4C trainer (philosophy for children) and write stories and plays. In 2019, I also wrote a non-fiction book about the life and literary works of Ursula K. Le Guin, published in Turkish. Nowadays, I am continuing to work on new writings.
Twitter: @serandemiral
Instagram: @serandem
Facebook: /serandem
RODRIGO BASTIDAS PÉREZ (Colombia)
he | him
Rodrigo Bastidas Pérez (Pasto, Colombia) PhD in Literature and Master in Literary Studies. He has been a professor at universities in Colombia and Mexico. With Editorial Planeta he published the Colombian science fiction anthologies "Relojes que no marcan la misma hora" (2017) and "Cronómetros para el fin de los tiempos" (2017); and the Latin American science fiction anthology "El tercer mundo después del sol" (2021). Winner of the Idartes Literature Research Scholarship 2020, obtained for the writing of the critical history of Colombian science fiction "Una prehistoria nueva". He is general editor of "Ediciones Vestigio", a Colombian and independent press house that focuses on the publication of science fiction, new weird and bizarre. He writes for various digital media among which is the Magazine "Afuera".
Twitter: @RutiloBastidas
Instagram: @totoptero
YouTube: /Estereoscopio
CRISTINA JURADO (Spain)
she | her
Cristina Jurado is a bilingual author of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other hybrid genres, as well as editor, translator, and sf promoter.
Twitter: @dnazproject
Instagram: @jurado_cristina
Facebook: /cristina.jurado
LEONARDO ESPINOZA BENAVIDES (Chile)
he | him
'Leo' is a Chilean physician-writer & editor specialized in science fiction. As a doctor, he is a specialist in dermatology and venereology. As a writer, he is best known for his short story cycle "Más espacio del que soñamos" (2018), set for a cinematographic adaptation by filmmaker Jorge Zavala, and "Adiós, loxonauta" (2020), recognized as a ‘book worth your consideration’ by the International Latino Book Awards. He’s currently serving as director of the Chilean SF&F Association (ALCIFF) and is an associate member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). From 2008 to date, his short stories have been published in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, and the United States. Publishers Weekly highlighted his story "Octobers/October," anthologized by Crystal Huff, calling it 'vivid' and rooted in Chilean history. As an editor, he works at Sietch Ediciones and has overseen the SF anthologies "COVID-19-CFCh" & "Pacífica".
He has also studied General Astronomy at the Andrés Bello University and is a member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Studies in Biology and Astrobiology (AMEBA). He currently lives in Santiago de Chile with his wife Daniele and their little dog Hulky.
Instagram: @leonardoespinozabenavides
Facebook: /leonardo.espinozabenavides
Youtube: /c/LeonardoEspinozaBenavides
CHEN QIUFAN 陈楸帆 A.K.A. STANLEY CHAN (China)
Chen Qiufan (Stanley Chan) is a Chinese speculative fiction author, translator, and curator. His major works include "Waste Tide" (Locus Best New Novel Finalist), as well as short story collections "Future Diseases" and "Algorithms for Life," which have won him three Chinese Galaxy Awards and fifteen Chinese Nebula Awards. Based in Shanghai, Chen Qiufan is currently working on a new book entitled "AI 2041" (with Dr. Kai-Fu Lee), forthcoming in 2021 with Crown at Penguin Random House. Website: www.chenqiufan.cn
Twitter: @chenqiufan
VANDANA SINGH (United States/India)
she | hers
Vandana Singh was born and raised in India and currently inhabits the Boston area, where she is a physics professor at a small and lively state university. Her academic work is in the transdisciplinary scholarship of climate science and pedagogy. Several of her science fiction short stories have been reprinted in Year’s Best volumes, and shortlisted for awards. Her second short story collection, Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories, came out in 2018 from Small Beer Press in the US and Zubaan in India, and was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick award. For more about her, please see http://vandana-writes.com.
Twitter: @singhvan
DANIELA L. GUZMÁN (Mexico)
she | her
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, Daniela L. Guzmán is a writer, translator, and part-time elf at medieval festivals. She attended Clarion West in 2021 and is the author of the short story books "Un tlacuache salvó este libro del fuego" (Odo Ediciones, 2021), and "Noche de pizza con mi villano" (Editorial Dreamers, 2019). You can find her work in her website www.danielalguzman.com
Twitter & Instagram: @tsunderedany
ALIETTE DE BODARD (France)
Aliette de Bodard writes speculative fiction. She has won three Nebula Awards, a Locus Award, a European Science Fiction Society award, a British Fantasy Award, four BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) Awards, and was a double Hugo finalist. She lives in Paris, France. Website: https://aliettedebodard.com/
VICTOR OCAMPO (Singapore/Philippines)
he | him
Victor Fernando R. Ocampo is the author of the International Rubery Book Award shortlisted "The Infinite Library and Other Stories" (Math Paper Press, 2017) and "Here be Dragons" (Canvas Press, 2015), which won the Romeo Forbes Children’s Story Award in 2012. His play-by-email interactive fiction piece "The Book of Red Shadows" debuted at the Singapore Writers Festival in 2020. His writing has appeared in many publications including Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Likhaan Journal, Strange Horizons, Philippines Graphic, Science Fiction World and The Quarterly Literature Review of Singapore, as well as anthologies like The Best New Singapore Short Stories, Fish Eats Lion: New Singaporean Speculative Fiction, LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, Maximum Volume: Best New Philippine Fiction, and the Philippine Speculative Fiction series. He is a fellow at the Milford Science Fiction Writers’ Conference (UK) and the Cinemalaya Ricky Lee Film Scriptwriting Workshop, as well as a Jalan Besar writer-in-residence at Sing Lit Station (2020/2021).
Visit his blog at vrocampo.com or follow him on Twitter @VictorOcampo
ANA RÜSCHE (Brazil)
(Brazil, 1979). She is a writer and researcher. "A telepatia são os outros" ("Telepathy is other people") is her last book, a science fiction novelette published by Monomito, 2019. She has four published poetry books. She holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies with the thesis "Utopia, feminism and resignation" (University of Sao Paulo, FFLCH-USP), is a member of the editorial board of Fantástika 451 magazine and contributes to newspapers and specialized magazines such as O Estado de S. Paulo, Quatro Cinco Um, and Suplemento de Pernambuco. Website: www.anarusche.com
Twitter: @anarusche
Instagram: @anarusche
DAVID BOWLES (United States)
he | him
David Bowles is a Mexican American author and translator from south Texas, where he works as an associate professor of literature and Nahuatl. Among his two dozen award-winning books are Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico; Chupacabra Vengeance; Rise of the Halfling King and the series Clockwork Curandera, The Path, Garza Twins, and 13th Street. His work has also been published in venues such as The New York Times, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, The Dark, Rattle, School Library Journal, and Translation Review. David is one of the co-founders of #DignidadLiteraria, a grassroots activist campaign for greater Latinx representation in publishing. In 2017, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters and now serves on its governing council. Website: http://davidbowles.us
Twitter & Instagram: @DavidOBowles
FADI ZAGHMOUT (UAE/Jordan)
he | him
Fadi Zaghmout is a Jordanian author and gender activist. He holds an MA in Creative Writing and Critical Thinking from Sussex University in the UK, and has published four novels including two speculative fiction. His work has been translated into both English and French. Website: www.fadizaghmout.com.
Twitter: @fadizaghmout
Facebook: fadizaghmoutauthor
Instagram: @FadiZaghmout
UWE POST (Germany)
he | him
Uwe Post, born in 1968, is games developer, software quality consultant and trainer. He writes programming books and science fiction. His novel "Walpar Tonnraffir und der Zeigefinger Gottes" was awarded the German SF Prize and the Kurd-Laßwitz Prize in 2011. Post lives with his family on the southern edge of the Ruhr area. Website: https://uwepost.de
Twitter: @uwepost
Instagram: @upostbot
JANA BIANCHI (Brazil)
she | her
Jana Bianchi is a Brazilian writer, translator, editor at Mafagafo magazine, cohostess of the Curta Ficção writing podcast, and werewolf walker. Besides her novella Lobo de Rua (2016), her fiction has appeared, in Portuguese, in several Brazilian collections and magazines. In English, her work has been published before or is forthcoming at Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, and Fireside. She also attended Clarion West in 2021.
Twitter & Instagram: @janapbianchi
JAY SPRINGETT (UK)
he | him
Jay Springett is a consultant strategist and writer currently specialising in the distributed web, metaverse, and world running. He works with individuals and organisations to create cohesive worlds. Hybrid environments made up of places, people, and technology. Jay has been an admin on solarpunks.net Since 2014. Solarpunk is an emerging sci-fi genre that seeks to answer and embody the question “what does a sustainable civilisation look like, and how can we get there?”. He has previously described Solarpunk as a memetic engine – a tool to power the ‘refuturing’ of our collective imaginations. His Solarpunk short story with Andrew Dana Hudson ‘In The Storm, A Fire’ was long listed for the BSFA Award for Short Fiction. In 2019 he was selected as one of WeAreEurope’s 64 Faces of Europe and is a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts. He also co-founded the decentralised creative exchange guild.is and is a member of the Global Regeneration CoLab. Jay has spoken about the future, technology and regenerative cultures at events such as Unsound Festival (PL), Sonar+D (ES), Fiber Festival (NL), Theorising the Web (US), and Transmediale (DE). Jay also hosts a weekly 301 second podcast which can be found at www.permanentlymoved.online. Website: https://www.thejaymo.net
Twitter & Instagram: @thejaymo
OGHENECHOVWE DONALD EKPEKI (Nigeria)
he | him
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor from Nigeria. He won the Nommo award for best short story for an African in 2018, was longlisted for the 2019 Nommo award and won the 2020 Horror Writers Association diversity grant. His novella Ife-Iyoku, Tale of Imadeyunuagbon is a finalist in the Nebula, Nommo, British Science Fiction Association and Sturgeon awards. The Dominion anthology where it is published and which he co-edited is a finalist in the Locus and British Fantasy and This Is Horror awards. His written works, fiction and non-fiction have appeared in TorDotCom, NBC, Strange Horizons, Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Galaxy's Edge and others. He is co-editor of the Year's Best African speculative fiction anthology and Africa Risen forthcoming from Tor. He's a member of the African speculative fiction society, the Horror Writers Association, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Twitter: @penprince_
Instagram: @penprince
RENAN BERNARDO (Brazil)
he | him
Renan Bernardo is a science fiction and fantasy writer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He writes in Portuguese and English. He is published in English, Portuguese, Italian and soon in Chinese. His fiction appeared or is forthcoming at Dark Matter Magazine, Three Crows Magazine, Simultaneous Times Podcast and Life Beyond Us anthology. His short story “A Norma Aqui de Cima” was a finalist for 2020 Odisseia Award and 2020 Argos Award, two Brazilian SFF awards. In 2021, he published "O rio que passou em minha vida" (Editora Dame Blanche), a climate fiction novelette set in Rio de Janeiro.
He is also a Computing Engineer and works in a project that one day might cast the Earth in a black hole. Website: www.renanbernardo.com.
Twitter: @RenanBernardo
CONGYUN 'MU MING' GU (China/US)
she | her
Congyun (a.k.a Mu Ming) Gu is a Chinese speculative fiction writer and a programmer from Beijing, currently living in New York, US. She was born in 1988 in Chengdu, China, and has published short stories and novellas in Chinese since 2016. Her stories can be found in Science Fiction World, Non-Exist Daily, Flower City, Chinese Literature Selection, and various writing contests and anthologies. She has won multiple awards since 2017, including three Douban Read's Novella Writing Contest Awards, first prize for The 7th Masters of Future SF Writing Contest, the Best Short Story at the 31st Galaxy Awards, the Silver Award for the Best New Writer Award in the 10th Global Chinese Sci-Fi Nebula Award and the Golden Award in the 11th one. She is also nominated for a 2021 IGNYTE Award for Best Short Story for her first English publication in Samovar. Her first collection Colora il Mondo has been published in Italian by Future Fiction and will be followed by her first Chinese collection The Serpentine Band in 2022. Website: https://metamin.me/
Twitter: @congyun
GAUTAM BHATIA (India)
he | him
Gautam Bhatia is the Co-Ordinating Editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly, award-winning SFF magazine. He also reviews SFF for the magazine. His debut novel, The Wall (HarperCollins India), was a Locus recommended read for 2020. The sequel, The Horizon, is due to be published in October 2021.
Twitter: @gautambhatia88
Instagram: @gautam_bhatia_books
LIBIA BRENDA (Mexico)
she | her
Libia Brenda is a writer, editor, and translator based in Mexico City. She writes speculative fiction as well as nonfiction and criticism about science fiction and fantastic literature. Her work has been translated from Spanish into English, Italian, and Portuguese. She is one of the co-founders of the Cúmulo de Tesla collective, a multidisciplinary working group that promotes dialogue between the arts and sciences, with a special focus on science fiction; and Mexicona: Imagination and Future, a series of Spanish-language conversations about the future and speculative literature from Mexico and other planets. She was the first Mexican woman to be nominated for a Hugo Award for the bilingual and bicultural anthology A Larger Reality/Una realidad más amplia. After that, she was so excited that she edited A Timeline in Which We Don't Go Extinct, another bilingual anthology that is also a video game, which is free to download and play. She edited the Mexico special issue of the speculative fiction magazine Strange Horizons, published in November 2020. She launched the Indie, non-profit Publishing house Odo Ediciones in April, 2021. Website: odoediciones.mx
Twitter: @tuitlibiesco
Instagram: @libia_brenda_
CHERYL S. NTUMY (Ghana/Botswana)
she | her
Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian freelance writer. Her work includes short stories and novels in various genres, as well as news articles and scripts. Her latest novel, They Made Us Blood and Fury, was published in January 2021.
Twitter: @ntumy_s
Instagram: @litchickbw
CÉSAR SANTIVAÑEZ (Peru)
he | him
César Santivañez is a professional writer and scriptwriter based in Lima, Perú. He participated as a panelist in Worldcon 75 (Finland) and talked about South American Fantasy and Sci-Fi in Italy and Estonia. As a writer, he collaborated in the anthology Steampunk Writers Around the World (Luna Press Publishing, Scotland, 2017). He translated the novelette “El Vampiro de la Ciudad Muerta”, from italian writer Alda Teodorani (Perniciosa Ediciones, Buenos Aires, 2020). As an editor, he published “Llaqtamasi”, a Peruvian speculative fiction anthology (Pandemonium Editorial, Lima, 2021). As a scriptwriter, he has written several sci-fi and fantasy comic books for the Peruvian market, as well as the animated short “Lulu” (Best Animation - Filmapalooza, Orlando, 2019) and the animated series Zoe (Animation Ventana Sur 2020 – INCAA/ Marché du Film de Cannes). Currently, he is co-directing his first full-length animated feature.
Instagram: @santivanezcesar
Facebook: /santivanezt
LAUREN BEUKES (South Africa)
she | her
Lauren Beukes is the award-winning and internationally best-selling South African author of Broken Monsters, Zoo City and Afterland, among other works. Her novels have been published in 24 countries, won several awards including The Arthur C Clarke Award and The University of Johannesburg Prize. The Shining Girls TV series is currently being filmed in Chicago with Elisabeth Moss, Wagner Moura and Jamie Bell. She also writes short stories, screenplays and comics and lives in Cape Town with her daughter. Website: https://laurenbeukes.com
Twitter & Instagram: @laurenbeukes
GU SHI (China)
she | her
Gu Shi is an speculative fiction writer and a senior urban planner. She has been working as a researcher at China Academy of Urban Planning and Design since 2012. She is a winner of Galaxy Award for Chinese Science Fiction and Chinese Nebula (Xingyun) Award. Her stories have been translated in English, Japanese, Italian, Romanian and some other languages. She published her first story collection Möbius Continuum in 2020.
Twitter: @gushidoc
Weibo: @bessie-顾
FÁBIO FERNANDES (Brazil)
Fabio Fernandes is a Brazilian writer currently based in Italy. He has published several books, among which the novels Os Dias da Peste and Back in the USSR (in Portuguese) and the collection L'Imitatore (in Italian). Also a translator, he is responsible for the translation to
Brazilian Portuguese of several SF novels, including Neuromancer and A Clockwork Orange. His short stories have been published online in Brazil, Portugal, Romania, the UK, New Zealand, and USA, and also in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded, The Apex
Book of World SF, Vol 2, Stories for Chip. Co-edited (with Djibril al-Ayad) the postcon anthology We See a Different Frontier, and, with Francesco Verso, the anthology Solarpunk - Come ho imparato ad amare il futuro. Graduate of Clarion West, class of 2013. Formerly reviewer
for SF Signal and slush reader for Clarkesworld Magazine. His first book in English, the collection Love. An Archaeology, was published in March by Luna Press Publishing. A steampunk novella, Under Pressure, will be published by NewCon Press later this year, and a weird SF novel, Love Will Tear Us Apart (in Portuguese) will be published by Uboro Lopes Editora in 2022.
HUGO ESPINOZA (Peru)
he | him
Based on Lima, Perú, Hugo Espinoza is a designer, illustrator and comic book artist with a degree in architecture, urbanism and arts. He has participated as a panelist in several sci-fi conferences around his home city and pushed forward the Peruvian comic-book landscape through publishing and workshops.
As a comic book artist he co-developed the post-apocalyptic sci-fi fantasy Panóptica: the last days of the future, and several other comic-book works for the Peruvian market.
As an architect he has developed projects and thesis for Parque de las Leyendas, an archeological zoo in Lima and, besides a variety of building designs, he helped launch and served as a jury in the contest “Science Fiction Design for Architects and Graphic Artists”. He has special interest in mythology and futurism. Currently he works as a senior architect and graphic designer for a Peruvian firm.
Twitter: @Huguex00
Instagram: @auriim.1316
NICOLETTA VALLORANI (Italy)
Nicoletta Vallorani (b. 1959) is Professor of Contemporary English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Milan and a translator (from English). Her first novel, Il cuore finto di DR (Mondadori, 1993, published in French by Rivages) was awarded the Premio Urania 1993, and she is still the only woman who ever won it. Her dystopian novel Eva was published by Einaudi in 2002, and her noir novel Le madri cattive (Salani, 2012) was awarded the Premio Maria Teresa Di Lascia in 2012. She has published novels and short stories, often blending science fiction and crime fiction. She is published in France by Gallimard.
MALKA OLDER (United States)
Malka Older is a writer, aid worker, and sociologist. Her science-fiction political thriller Infomocracy was named one of the best books of 2016 by Kirkus, Book Riot, and the Washington Post. She is the creator of the serial Ninth Step Station, currently running on Serial Box, and her short story collection And Other Disasters came out in November 2019. Her opinions can be found in The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and NBC THINK, among other places. Follow her on Twitter at @m_older or visit her website at https://malkaolder.wordpress.com/
Photo credit: Allana TarantoArs Magna
GABRIELA DAMIÁN MIRAVETE (Mexico)
she | her
Mexico City native Gabriela Damián Miravete writes fiction and essays that embody her passion for fantasy and science fiction. She teaches film and literature; works in the Under the Volcano Writing Program; is a founding member of the art and science collective Cúmulo de Tesla and Mexicona, a Speculative Literary Festival in Spanish. Her stories have been translated to English, French, Portuguese and Italian, and published in World Fantasy Award and Hugo Award Finalists Projects. She won the 2018 Otherwise Award with her short story "They Will Dream in the Garden."
Twitter: @gabrielintica
Instagram: @miradavaga
Facebook: /lachicadelsiglopasado
ELIANA GONZÁLEZ (Paraguay)
Born and raised in Asunción, Paraguay, Eliana González wrote her first and only picture book fanfiction in 1995, titled Frog and Toad go to the Zoo, as a second-grade class assignment. Spoiler: everyone gets eaten in the end. She has won over ten short story awards in Paraguay, and one for a short screenplay. In 2017 she co-wrote the screenplay for Alas de Gloria, an animated film about the Chaco War that is currently in production. She’s published two Litrpg books in the Vindication 2.0 series under her pen name, Morgan Díaz.