Elle Ire writes romantic speculative fiction featuring kickass women who fall in love with each other. She has ten novels in publication from DSP and Bywater Books including Vicious Circle, the Nearly Departed trilogy (which won two Goldie Awards and the first in the series was the runner-up for the Florida Writers Association's Book of the Year), the Storm Fronts trilogy, Reel to Real Love, Harsh Reality, and her most recent release, Speak EZ.

Elle grew up being influenced by powerful fictional women: Princess Leia, Athena, Tasha Yar, Ro Laren, Ripley, Xena, and the Galactica reboot of Starbuck to name a few. She gravitated toward books by women authors such as Elizabeth Moon, Anne McCaffrey, Tanya Huff, and Linnea Sinclair because she could count on these authors to let their female characters do the saving rather than wait to be saved. Once she began writing her own novels, it made sense to follow in her heroes' footsteps with strong, independent women having adventures of their own.

José Pablo Iriarte is a Cuban-American writer, high school math teacher, and parent of two. Their fiction has been finalist for the Nebula, Hugo, Locus and Sturgeon Awards, longlisted for the Otherwise Award, and reprinted in various Year’s Best compilations. Their debut novel, Benny Ramírez and the Nearly Departed was published in 2024 by Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House. Their follow up, AJ Torres and the Treasure of Captain Grayshark came out in 2025. Learn more (but frankly not much more) at www.labyrinthrat.com, or follow José on facebook, instagram, or bluesky.