Kemi Ashing-Giwa grew up on a steady diet of sci-fi and fantasy. She enjoys learning about the real universe as much as she likes making ones up. After studying integrative biology and astrophysics at Harvard University, she joined the Earth & Planetary Sciences department at Stanford University as a PhD student. Her debut novel, THE SPLINTER IN THE SKY, will be published in July 2023. Her debut novella, THIS WORLD IS NOT YOURS, will be published in 2024.

Susan Breen is the author of the novel The Fiction Class, and the Maggie Dove series of mystery books. She has published short fiction in American Literary Review, Chattahoochee Review, Nebraska Quarterly, North Dakota Quarterly, anderbo, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. 

Mike Chen is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Brotherhood, Here and Now and Then, Light Years From Home, and other novels. He has covered geek culture for sites such as Nerdist, Tor.com, and StarTrek.com, and in a different life, covered the NHL. A member of SFWA, Mike lives in the Bay Area with his wife, daughter, and many rescue animals.

Naomi Davis is a literary agent at BookEnds Literary Agency. Naomi seeks dynamic, character-driven adult and young adult titles in fantasy, sci-fi, and romance. LGBTQ+ elements and diversity in all fiction are a particular plus. Naomi is particularly passionate about finding new fantasy and sci-fi settings with unique magical structures that surprise the reader and change the rules readers associate with those worlds.

Nicky Drayden is a Systems Analyst who dabbles in prose when she’s not buried in code. She resides in Austin, Texas where being weird is highly encouraged, if not required. Her award-winning novel THE PREY OF GODS is set in a futuristic South Africa brimming with demigods, robots, and hallucinogenic hijinks, and with her new novel ESCAPING EXODUS, she’ll be taking her weirdness off-world to a civilization living inside the gut of moon-sized space beast. See more of her work at http://www.nickydrayden.com or catch her on twitter @nickydrayden.

Ken Liu is a Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award winning author of Science Fiction and Fantasy. His story, “The Paper Menagerie,” is the first to win all three awards. He is also the author of the Dandelion Dynasty fantasy series and has had numerous stories adapted to television.

Cameron McClure is an agent at the Donald Maass Literary Agency. She specializes in fiction and is looking for all types of science-fiction and fantasy or anything with a speculative element. She's especially looking for projects that combine genre style plotting with literary quality writing, and provide us with a new perspective.

James McGowan is a literary agent and author of the picture book GOOD NIGHT, OPPY! He began at BookEnds as an intern and has worked in all departments at the agency, now a full-time literary agent. He represents illustrated projects for young readers (board books, picture books, chapter books, and middle grade) as well as adult nonfiction and upmarket, mystery and suspense novels. To learn more about James, his wishlist, or upcoming client books please visit the BookEnds website or his personal website. To send a query, please use QueryManager. And to find a growing archive of thoughts no one asked for, follow James on Twitter and Instagram.

Sharon Pelletier joined Dystel, Goderich & Bourret in 2013 after working for Europa Editions and Barnes & Noble. While her interests are broad, Sharon is especially seeking upmarket fiction, including unexpected suspense fiction and smart, complex women’s fiction. On the nonfiction side Sharon is eager for compelling, fierce narrative nonfiction by journalists, experts, and emerging voices with a growing platform. In all categories she particularly welcomes marginalized voices.

Peng is the bestselling author of The Cartographers and The Book of M. Her second novel, The Cartographers, was a USA Today, LA Times, and a national Independent Bookstores bestseller, and was named a Best Book of 2022 by The Washington Post and a Pick of the Month by Good Morning America. Her first novel, The Book of M, won the 2019 Neukom Award for Debut Speculative Fiction, and was chosen as a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Elle, and The Verge, a Best Book of the Summer by the Today Show and NPR On Point, and was optioned for television. She was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, London, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, and Mexico City.

Josh Sippie is Gotham’s Director of Publishing Guidance and host of Inside Writing. He is the Fiction Editor at The Razor magazine, an associate editor at Uncharted Magazine, has served as a developmental editor and proofreader for Del Sol Review and Writers Clearinghouse, and was a literary assistant at Talcott Notch Literary.

Eric Smith is a literary agent and author living in Philadelphia. An agent with P.S. Literary, he's worked on New York Times bestselling and award-winning books. He's actively looking for Young Adult novels, genre-blending literary fiction, select sci-fi and fantasy, and all kinds of non-fiction (especially cookbooks and memoir!). You can learn more about him at his website, www.ericsmithrocks.com.

Paul Tremblay has won the Bram Stoker, British Fantasy, and Massachusetts Book awards and is the nationally bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland, and the short story collection, Growing Things and Other Stories. His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Entertainment Weekly online, and numerous year’s-best anthologies. He has a master’s degree in mathematics and lives outside Boston with his family.