Michael Bracken is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. He is an Edgar Award and Shamus Award nominee, and has received three Derringer Awards for short fiction as well as the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer Award for lifetime achievement in short mystery fiction. He is the author of several books and more than 1,300 short stories; has edited or co-edited three-dozen crime fiction anthologies, including three nominated for Anthony Awards; and was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters in 2024 for his contributions to Texas literature. You can learn more about him and his work at crimefictionwriter.com.

Wes Browne lives within the Kentucky River Basin in Madison County, Kentucky and is known for his ability to capture the spirit of Appalachian noir. He has practiced law as a criminal defense attorney, prosecutor, and public defender in Appalachia for over 24 years. His 2020 debut Hillbilly Hustle was named one of Merriam-Webster's Best Lockdown Reads. His follow-up novel They All Fall the Same was named one of The Best Books of 2025 (So Far) by Book Riot, and one of 2025's Biggest Mysteries and Thrillers by Goodreads. When he’s not writing, he helps run his family's pizza shops. Learn more at wesbrowneauthor.com.

Victor De Anda is an author living and writing in the Philadelphia area. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Dark Waters Vols. 1 & 2, Shotgun Honey, Yellow Mama, Guilty Crime Story Magazine, and Punk Noir Magazine. His story “Bad Man Down” has been included in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025, edited by Don Winslow and Steph Cha. He is also an acquisitions editor for Shotgun Honey and Rock and a Hard Place Press. He is currently working on a novel. You can find him on most social media platforms as @victordeanda or on the web at www.victordeanda.com.

Harry Hunsicker was born in Dallas and is sixth generation native of Texas. His first novel, Still River, was nominated for a Shamus Award and he has published eight more crime thrillers since, including The Life and Death of Rose Doucette, which was recently nominated for a 2025 Thriller Award. Hunsicker lives in Dallas with his wife Alison, an attorney. Learn more at harryhunsicker.com.

Billie Livingston is a fiction writer, poet, and sometime essayist. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, she grew up in Toronto and Vancouver, and lived all around the world before returning to Vancouver, where she lives with her husband, actor Tim Kelleher. She is the author of four novels and one short story collection, all published by Random House: The Crooked Heart of Mercy, One Good Hustle (longlisted for the Giller Prize), Greedy Little Eyes ( winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the CBC Bookie Award), Cease to Blush, and Going Down Swinging. Although her earlier work was classified as "literary," criminals have always played a strong role in her fiction and she has focused lately on crime and mystery, her stories appearing in such publications as Ellery Queen, Black Cat Weekly, and the Saturday Evening Post. Most recently, she was a Best Short Story finalist for the 2025 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence and was selected by John Grisham to appear in the 2025 edition of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year. Livingston was the winner of the Writer’s Trust Engel Findlay Award and has been nominated for a National Magazine Award, the Journey Prize for fiction, and the Pat Lowther Award for best book of poetry, among many other honors. Learn more at www.billielivingston.com.

Karen Ovér is back in Texas after more than a decade in New York City. Her latest works appear in the anthologies The Book of Carnacki, The Legion Press, Dark Yonder #6, and Arkham Institutions. When not in the midst of wrestling the cat for the keyboard (and dealing with persistent feline editing), she can sometimes be found clinging to a ballet barre as she attempts to realign the vertebrae sent in all directions by hours of maniacal word processing. Learn more about the author at balletsandbogeys.weebly.com/golemwerks and www.facebook.com/KarenOverAuthor/. 

Mariah Jane Robinson is a writer, educator, and current PhD student in English at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where she teaches first-year writing. A Midwest native, she earned a BA in International Studies from the University of Miami as well as an MA in Arts Politics and an MA in Dance Education, both from New York University. She spends her free time overanalyzing novels, crying for no reason, and staring lovingly at photos of her dog. 

H.K. Slade is a North Carolina-based writer who grew up in Virginia Beach and is no stranger to the city’s transformation from a bright, kitschy resort to a small, very noir town once all the tourists have gone home for the winter. His stories have been published in Black Cat Mystery Magazine, Black Cat Weekly, Dark Horses Magazine, The Yard, Mystery Weekly, and Tales of Music, Murder, and Mayhem: Bouchercon Anthology 2024. Check out more of his work, including other stories featuring Casey Burton, at hkslade.com.

Joseph S. Walker’s stories have appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies, including Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and three consecutive editions of The Best Mystery Stories of the Year. He has been nominated numerous times for the Edgar, Shamus, and Derringer awards. He is also a member of Mystery Writers of America and serves as the current president of the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Learn more at jswalkerauthor.com.

Steve Weddle is the author of The County Line, an Amazon First Reads selection. His previous book, Country Hardball, is a collection of connected short stories that was called “downright dazzling” by The New York Times. A former newspaper editor, he is the cofounder of the crime fiction collective Do Some Damage, the cocreator of the noir magazine Needle, and has taught short story writing. He grew up on the Louisiana and Arkansas line and holds an MFA in creative writing from Louisiana State University. He currently lives in Virginia with his family. Find out more at steveweddle.com.