Horror Writing 101
Anticipation, Confrontation Point, and What Comes Next
Writing the Taboo
Things I Wish I Knew Before I Debuted
Meet the speakers
Nicole Givens Kurtz
Nicole Givens Kurtz has been called “a genre polymath who does crime, horror, and SFF (Book Riot).” They’ve named her as one of the 6 Black SFF Indie Writers You Should be Reading, 30 Must-Read SFF Books by Black Authors, and The Best of the West: 8 Alternative History Westerns (Sisters of the Wild Sage). She’s a two-time Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award winner, an HWA Horror Diversity Grant Recipient (2020) and a Ladies in Horror Grant Recipient. With over 20 years in publishing, she’s written for Pseudopod, Fiyah, Apex Magazine, White Wolf, The Realm (formerly Serial Box), Subsume, and Baen. Nicole has over 50 published short stories and is the author of the Cybil Lewis and Death Violations cybernoir series as well as the Kingdom of Aves fantasy mystery series. She’s written the critically acclaimed, weird western anthology, Sisters of the Wild Sage: A Weird West Collection. Nicole has conducted workshops for Clarion and is an active instructor at Speculative Fiction Academy. She is the owner of Mocha Memoirs Press. She’s the editor for the groundbreaking SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire anthology and Blackened Roots: An Anthology of the Undead with Tonia Ransom. Nicole is professional level member of SFWA and HWA.
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Kailee Pedersen
Kailee Pedersen writes haunted, unsettling speculative fiction. She graduated with a B.A. in Classics from Columbia University, specializing in ancient Greek. Kailee was adopted from Nanning in 1996 and grew up in Nebraska, where her family owns a farm. Her writing on LGBTQ+ and Asian American themes was awarded an Artist Fellowship by the Nebraska Arts Council in 2015.
When not scribbling down her next book, you can catch her singing opera, playing video games, or working as a software engineer in New York City.Â
Her debut novel, Sacrificial Animals, was released in August 2024 by St. Martin’s Press (US) and Titan Books (UK).Â
Her debut poetry chapbook, Pastorale, was released by Burnside Review Press in April 2025.
She is represented by Paul Lucas at Regal Hoffmann.
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Richard Thomas
Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of eight books—Disintegration and Breaker (Penguin Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, Spontaneous Human Combustion (Turner Publishing), and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 165 stories in print include The Best Horror of the Year (Volume Eleven), Cemetery Dance (twice), Behold!: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders (Bram Stoker winner), PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Shallow Creek, The Seven Deadliest, Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad (numbers 2-4), PRISMS, Pantheon, and Shivers VI. He was also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards. In his spare time he is a columnist at Lit Reactor. He was the Editor-in-Chief at Dark House Press and Gamut Magazine. For more information visit www.whatdoesnotkillme.com or contact Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.
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Tim Waggoner
Tim Waggoner’s first novel came out in 2001, and since then he’s published over fifty novels and seven collections of short stories. He is a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner, as well as a multiple-finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award, and others. In addition to writing, he’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
View WebsiteLiterary agents
Keir Alekseii
Keir Alekseii's career started as Jen Azantian's mentee in 2021 at Azantian Literary Agency. After a year of mentorship, she became an associate agent with Azantian. She is an educator and anti-GBV activist born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, a twin island country in the West Indies. Keir is a writer, gamer, lover of folklore, and former research scientist. As a neurodivergent, queer person of color, Keir is invested in discovering engaging work with similar representation, and passionate about creating space for voices not often recognized. They are especially interested in stories from BIPOC who are born and raised in the Global South. Keir still lives in T&T with their partner and five rambunctious felines.
Jared Johnson
Jared Johnson is an associate agent with Olswanger Literary. He is looking for fiction across a variety of genres, as well as platformed nonfiction. He loves narratives that highlight relationships and that encourage him to think about the world in a new way. Bold and adventurous styles of writing will always grab his attention. Jared is particularly drawn to off-kilter stories with unique hooks and that use unexpected lenses to explore human connection.
Eloy Bleifuss
Eloy Bleifuss is a literary agent at Neon Literary representing both fiction and nonfiction. On the fiction side, Eloy is especially interested in literary fiction along with character-driven, elevated genre fiction. His favorite novels are ones that bridge the high and the low, the real and the imaginary, the trashy and the serious. Prior to joining Neon, Eloy worked at Janklow & Nesbit Associates and Simon & Schuster. Born and raised in Chicago, he is a graduate of Vassar College and lives in Brooklyn.
