Guests of Honor
Tim Waggoner
Tim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then he's published nearly sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, Grimm, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest, The Writer, and The Writer’s Chronicle. He’s the author of the acclaimed horror-writing guide Writing in the Dark, which won the Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction in 2021. The follow-up, Writing in the Dark: The Workbook, also won a Stoker in the same category in 2023. He won another Stoker in 2021 in the category of Short Nonfiction for his article “Speaking of Horror,” and in 2017 he received the Stoker for Long Fiction for his novella The Winter Box. In addition, he’s won the Scribe Award, given by the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. He's also been a multiple finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. His fiction has received numerous Honorable Mentions in volumes of Best Horror of the Year, and he’s had several stories selected for inclusion in volumes of Year’s Best Hardcore Horror. His work has been translated into Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Turkish. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio. His papers are collected by the University of Pittsburgh's Horror Studies Program.
​
Paula Guran
Editor, anthologist, and reviewer Paula Guran has edited more than fifty science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies and more than fifty novels and collections featuring the same. She was senior editor for Prime Books for seven years. Previously, she edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. Guran edits the annual Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series (first ten volumes with Prime; now published by Pyr). (See Books for a list of anthologies, novels, and collections edited.) In an earlier life, she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, Volume Two was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in 2022. Guran’s been reviewing for Locus: The Magazine of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field on a regular basis for more than seven years.
​
Gaby Triana
GABY TRIANA is the Cuban-American author of 24 books for adults and teens, including Moon Child, Island of Bones, River of Ghosts, City of Spells, Wake the Hollow, Cubanita, and Summer of Yesterday. Her short stories have appeared in Classic Monsters Unleashed, A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, A Conjuring for All Seasons, Novus Monstrum, and Weird Tales Magazine. She has co-authored ghosthunters Sam & Colby’s horror novel, Paradise Island, and edited the ghost anthology series, Literally Dead (Tales of Halloween Hauntings; Tales of Holiday Hauntings. As a ghostwriter, Gaby has penned 50+ novels for bestselling authors in every genre. Her own books have won the IRA Teen Choice Award, ALA Best Paperback, and Hispanic Magazine's Good Reads Awards, and she writes under several pen names, including Gabrielle Keyes for her paranormal women’s fiction. She lives in Miami with her family and the four-legged creatures they serve, currently at work organizing the 2025 I HEART HORROR Book Festival.
​