Rick Claypool is the author of Leech Girl Lives (Spaceboy Books 2017), a pulp sci-fi novel about a leech-armed heroine who joins a revolution against her art-loving yet hyper-exploitative society.  Fellow leftist author Nick Mamatas has described the book as “if China Mieville wrote Saturday morning cartoons.” Claypool is a Pittsburgh DSA member and a research director for the D.C.-based advocacy organization Public Citizen.

Samantha L. Barrett received her BA from the University of Pittsburgh and her MFA from Carlow University. Her work has appeared in 365 Tomorrows, GeekSmash.com, and The Chaffey Review; been anthologized in Voices from the Attic, 10/ten, and Cities of Dust, Planes of Light; and performed by Carlow University Theatre.Her collection of short stories, The Bus to Adventure City, is forthcoming from Air & Nothingness Press. Samantha has also written and produced murder mystery dinner parties for almost ten years. She has been an instructor for the Madwomen in the Attic fiction workshops and is a workshop co-facilitator for Girls Write Pittsburgh. She has guest-lectured and served on MFA defense committees at Carlow University. She has also served as a judge in the writing competition for the Pennwriters Annual Conference. Samantha is currently an Adjunct Professor of English at Carlow University. She lives in Pittsburgh and writes about the city as often as possible.

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for over twenty years. She writes both fiction and poetry, and has won the Rhysling Award and the Elgin Award. Her credits include American Scholar, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and 119 haiku in Science. She has an antiquated website at http://www.marysoonlee.comat tweets at @MarySoonLee.

Patrick J. Ropp writes about robots, mathematics, and speculative biologies. He works as a cyber security engineer, is a classically trained computational biologist, and really likes the noises cats make. Patrick is an alumnus of the Clarion UCSD workshop and administrates the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers. You can follow him on twitter at @PJRopp.

Diane Turnshek is a faculty member in the Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University. She publishes short science fiction, mostly in Analog Magazine.  In Pittsburgh, she started the Write or Die crit group in 1996, Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers in 2002, the Parsec Ink Triangulation anthology series in 2003, and the CMU student club’s Speculative Fiction Lecture Series in 2014. She taught, “How to Write SF/F/H” at St. Vincent’s and CMU, and was a mentor in the MFA program for Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University for nine years. She served on the BoD of SFWA, ran the 2007 Nebula Award Weekend, and is active on the BoD of Parsec, Pittsburgh’s premier, literary, non-profit organization, teaching literacy and science through the enjoyment of science fiction.  

Jennifer Hykes lives with her husband and two cats just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.  She can frequently be found with a cup of tea or a pair of knitting needles in hand.  She has often felt the pull of strange paths, and enjoys telling stories in order to find out where they go. In addition to Triangulation, her stories have appeared in Apex Magazine, PodCastle, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and most recently in Cast of Wonders.  She blogs about stories, the writing life, and generally being a weirdo atwww.jenniferhykes.com.

Frank Oreto is a writer and editor of weird fiction living in Pittsburgh, PA with his wife and many children. His work has appeared in numerous publications including Metaphorosis, Owl Hollow Press, and Pseudopod.  You can follow his exploits both literary and otherwise on twitter @FrankOreto or check out his author page at fb.me/FrankisWriting.

Douglas "Pete" Gwilym likes to burrow at the boundaries of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and the Weird. He writes stories about giant engineers, puppets of power, and occult dental surgeons. When it’s permitted, he likes to read his stories aloud, out in the world, and plays his own girlfriend in a rock opera about the impending psychic apocalypse. He edits a long-running, illustrated, international anthology of speculative fiction called Triangulation, and was on staff at Alpha Young Writers this year.

Carrie Ann DiRisio is a YA writer and creator of @BroodingYAHero. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with one large fluffy cat, and is currently pursuing her masters in Digital Marketing, although her true dream is to become a Disney Villainess, complete with a really snazzy gown.
​
In addition to writing and plans for world domination, she also enjoys running, coffee, Krav Maga, and knitting. ​

Megan Lynch has been stirring up stories since the age of six, when her grandmother gave her her first journal. Since then, Megan has worked as an English teacher in Beijing, a Kindergarten teacher with Teach for America in Nashville, a CPR trainer, and a yoga instructor. Notice a theme?

Education is a big deal to Megan, and she enjoys sharing the connection to readers who love expanding their awareness through books. 

She is the author of Unregistered and Unafraid. ​

Satvika Neti is the Women and Girls Foundation’s resident Digital Social Justice Advocate, working to bridge the gap between tech and social impact.Her favorite color is lime green, she has a lot of feelings about the constitution, and can usually be found in line for Chipotle.

Tom Sweterlitsch is the author of the novels The Gone World and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.  He has also co-written several short films with director Neill Blomkamp for Oats Studios: Rakka, Firebase and Zygote, as well as Adam: The Mirror and Adam: The Prophet.  He lives in Pittsburgh. 

​Jamie Lackey lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and their cat.  Her short fiction has appeared in Apex Magazine, Daily Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Escape Pod, and Cast of Wonders.  Her debut novel, Left-Hand Gods, is available from Hadley Rille Books, and she has two short story collections available from Air and Nothingness Press.