Aaron Jura is a historian, educator, and writer based in New Orleans whose work explores the intersections of World War II, identity, memory, and community. Drawing on extensive archival research and personal correspondence, he focuses on recovering overlooked stories that illuminate how ordinary people navigated extraordinary moments in history.

His current projects include Vice and Virtue, which examines how LGBTQ people in wartime New Orleans built community, resisted persecution, and laid the foundations for activism decades before the Stonewall uprising and Compton’s Cafeteria riot, and The Lives They Wrote, a narrative history built from a remarkable collection of wartime letters exchanged among a network of gay servicemen and civilians. Through these works, Aaron seeks to bring hidden voices to the forefront and demonstrate how personal stories can deepen our understanding of the past. He works with educators nationwide through The National WWII Museum, helping connect audiences with history through storytelling, inquiry, and primary sources.

Caroline Kwara is a queer, Black Ghanaian American fiction writer. She is an avid fantasy writer and reader. She graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in English and public relations. She currently lives in Florida and is a social media and marketing professional. When she is not writing, you can find her making social media content or in the kitchen cooking foods from different cuisines.

David Ahlvers writes LGBTQIA+ young adult fiction, coming-of-age non-fiction, and plays. Based in the Pacific Northwest, by way of Minnesota, he delves into stories of self-discovery, uncovering the human experience and bringing light even to the darkest times and moments. His current project, Finding Forest Grove, explores the story of a young, introverted high school Freshman in Northern Wisconsin and what it’s like to discover your true inner self. David has also written several plays, including the 2015 Lavender Magazine Best New LGBT Play of the Year award for Getting to Ellen, and several more that have had staged readings through Edmonds Driftwood Players community theatre company’s First Draft reading series. A lawyer by training and now leading marketing for a streaming entertainment provider, David is constantly crafting stories that maybe, one day, will make it to the page or stage!

Gemma Cleary is a speculative and fantasy author currently living in the rainy Pacific Northwest. You can always find yearning, angst, overthrowing tyrannical governments, societal critiques, mental health, creepy medieval vibes and kind-hearted girls against the world in her books. When she isn't writing, you can find her walking along the beach, rewatching Requiem for a Dream for the millionth time, making sourdough bagels, or drinking a strawberry rose matcha at her favorite cafe.

Jared Edgar is a queer science fiction writer who grew up in a small Appalachian town and now lives in San Francisco. Though new to fiction writing, Jared is an experienced writer and storyteller in his professional life. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, he has spent more than two decades as an intellectual property litigator, honing a talent for crafting compelling narratives for a wide range of audiences, from juries to judges. When he isn’t writing or reading, Jared can usually be found diving into a new RPG on PC or Switch, binging sci-fi and fantasy television, traveling to a new corner of the world, or working with his longtime boyfriend on a wild new project for Burning Man.

Jillian Abby (she/her) is a neurodivergent lesbian storyteller who loves observing and writing about human nature. Her unconventional career path, including roles as a Big Four CPA, craniosacral therapy practitioner, craft beer bar owner, black belt martial artist, homeschooling parent, and corporate ghostwriter, has allowed her to experience life in many different arenas. She has lived in Buffalo, Boston, Cochabamba, Santo Domingo, and now calls Tampa Bay home.

Jillian's memoir, Perfectly Queer was published by Hay House in 2023 and was featured by Good Morning America in their 2023 list of recommended spring reads.

Her business, Storyteller Soul, LLC, offers collaborative ghostwriting and book coaching, and was awarded LGBTBE Certified Business of the Year for 2026 by the Tampa Bay LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, Jillian is an editorial columnist with Watermark OUT News and writes a weekly Substack called Reframe with Jillian Abby.

Jillian lives with her wife, Jen, their two wacky teenager children, and their rescue pets. She spends much of her free time tending to the banana and mango trees in her yard, with aspirations to add “suburban fruit farmer” to her already diverse resum

As a microbiologist, Katherine Moccia has spent over a decade fascinated by the tiny organisms that live in humans, plants, and water systems across the planet. Her fiction writing blends real science with imaginary concepts to create worlds that seem much like our own, at least on the surface. The world she built for Snake Speak, from the emerald rivers to the iridescent snakes, has been inspired by the invisible microbial world that lives around us and within us every day. When not writing, she spends as much time as possible with a much larger creature: her young son!

Letizia Firmani is an Italian neurodivergent author of fantasy, romance, and speculative fiction. A Photography graduate and lifelong storyteller, she began writing novels during the pandemic after years of creating fan fiction and songwriting. She divides her time between Italy and Canada with her partner and three cats, and can usually be found dreaming up fictional characters, adding hot sauce to foods that don't need it, and crafting her next book adventure.

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