Author: admin

McNeil, Gretchen

Awards:

Mentor of the Year Award, 2024

BIO: Gretchen McNeil is the author of thirteen young adult novels for Disney*Hyperion and HarperCollins including the horror/comedy #MURDERTRENDING—the #1 YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick for 2019—TEN, which was adapted as the film Ten: Murder Island for Lifetime, and the Get Even series which was adapted as the series Get Even and Rebel Cheer Squad: a Get Even series for the BBC and Netflix. Gretchen’s adult horror debut THEY FEAR NOT MEN IN THE WOODS hits shelves on September 9, 2025 from DAW Books.  

Lees, Jonathan

Awards:

Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award, 2024

BIO: In addition to creating strategies and video series for media outlets, ranging from Complex Media to TIDAL, Jonathan Lees has spent decades championing independent cinema and filmmakers through his work with the New York Underground Film Festival, Troma, Tribeca Film, Anthology Film Archives, and now with the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition at StokerCon. After twenty-five years working in NYC, he has apparated to the Hudson Valley to explore more personal rituals by inscribing arcane texts for grimoires such as Long Division [Bad Hand Books], Fear of Clowns [Kangas Kahn Publishing], Even In The Grave [eSpec Books], The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors [Bad Hand Books],and Other Terrors [Harper Collins].

Denning, Lila

Awards:

Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award, 2023

BIO: Lila Denning is the acquisitions coordinator for the seven libraries of the St. Petersburg (FL) Library System. Lila has worked in circulation and reference and has done programming for children, teens, and adults. Beyond her current role in her library, she trains librarians nationwide on passive reader advisory. Her long, rambling road to the library included stops as a manager of a comic book store, a manager at Barnes and Noble, and a stint at a brokerage firm, among other adventures. In addition to her MLIS, Lila has an MA in Religious Studies with a focus on Holocaust Studies. 

Goblirsch, Paul

Awards:

Specialty Press Award, 2023

BIO: Paul Goblirsch established Thunderstorm Books in 2008. Specializing in collectible signed limited edition hardcover books, our goal is to showcase authors’ works in beautiful limited editions. From both new, up-and-coming authors to veterans of the genre, we publish some of the best in the field including: Brian Keene, Joe Lansdale, Christopher Golden, Philip Fracassi, Tyler Jones, Ross Jeffery, Chad Lutzke, Cynthia Pelayo, Jeff Strand, Hailey Piper, Paul Tremblay, Edward Lee, Kealan Patrick Burke, Jonathan Janz, Samantha Kolesnik, Gabino Iglesias, Adam Cesare, Kristopher Triana, Richard Chizmar, Gwendolyn Kiste, Wrath James White, and Ronald Kelly.   With approximately 40 titles released per year, we fulfill the desires of both hardcore book collectors and those who want to pick up the occasional special edition.

Kurtz, Nicole Givens

Awards:

Specialty Press Award, 2024

BIO: Nicole Givens Kurtz is the founder and publisher of Mocha Memoirs Press, a traditional publishing specializing in amplifying marginalized voices in speculative fiction. Her press has published groundbreaking anthologies such as SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire and Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead. Mocha Memoirs is renowned for their progressive work in Black women in horror and continues to push the boundaries of intersectionality in speculative fiction.

Mocha Memoirs Press aims to create opportunities for voices that have traditionally been shut out of mainstream publishing. Our team is also primarily women and non-binary people, and we strive to foster an inclusive environment for both staff and authors. She’s a member of both the African-American and LGBTQIA+ communities. Nicole seeks to provide stories unavailable when she was a child. Overall, Mocha Memoirs Press is driven by a determination to increase representation one story at a time.

Hill, Susan E.

Awards:

Lifetime Achievement Award, 2024

BIO: Dame Susan Elizabeth Hill, Lady Wells DBE is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include The Woman in Black, which has been adapted for stage and screen, The Mist in the Mirror, and I’m the King of the Castle, for which she received the Somerset Maugham Award in 1971. She also won the Whitebread Novel Award in 1972 for The Bird of Night, which was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2012 Birthday Honors and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honors, both for services to literature.