Virtual Can*Con

Claudie Arseneault is an easily-enthused aromantic and asexual writer with a never-ending cycle of obsessions but an enduring love for all things cephalopod and fantasy (together or not!). She writes stories that centre platonic relationships and loves large casts and single-city settings, the most notable of which are the City of Spires series (2017-2023) and Baker Thief (2018).

In addition to her own fiction, Claudie has co-edited Common Bonds (2021), an anthology of aromantic speculative short stories. She is a founding member of The Kraken Collective, an alliance of self-publishing SFF authors, and the creator of the Aromantic and Asexual Characters Database.

‘Nathan Burgoine is a tall queer writer of (mostly) shorter queer fictions. His stories live somewhere in the Venn of Romance, YA, and Spec-Fic. He grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His debut novel, Light, was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award and his debut YA Novel Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks was a Prix Aurora Award finalist.

Nino Cipri is a trans and queer writer, editor, and educator. Nino is a graduate of the University of Kansas MFA in creative writing, and has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, Lambda, Nebula, and Hugo Awards. Their most recent book is the YA horror novel Dead Girls Don't Dream. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer.

One time, an angry person on the internet called Nino a verbal terrorist, which was pretty funny.

Dominique Dickey is a speculative fiction writer and game designer. As the creative director of Sly Robot Games, they’ve created Plant Girl Game and Tomorrow on Revelation III. They contributed to the Nebula Award-winning Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and the ENNIE Award-winning Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. Their short fiction has appeared in venues including Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine, and Nightmare Magazine. They live in the DC area, where they’re always on the hunt for their next idea. You can find their work at dominiquedickey.com.

Diana Dima is a writer and neuroscientist living in Canada. Her speculative fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, khōréō magazine, The Deadlands, and elsewhere. You can find her online at www.dianadima.com or as @dimafic on Bluesky.

Jay Dragon (she/her) is a queer trans game designer, editorial director at Possum Creek Games, and author of Wanderhome and Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast, among many other award winning and critically acclaimed TTRPGs. She thinks games are art, play is creation, and that fairies are often real.

Faye Gabriel (she/he|Mx.) is a writer, parent, sewist, and bard/barbarian multiclass from Baltimore, MD. Find her on AO3 @13th_blackbird; on Bluesky @faye-gabriel and at fayegabriel.com.

Naseem Jamnia (they/them) is the Judith A. Markowitz Award-winning and Astounding Award-nominated author of the queernormative, Persian-inspired fantasy novella THE BRUISING OF QILWA (Tachyon Publications, 2022), which was a finalist for the Crawford, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. Their middle grade fungal horror debut THE GLADE releases May 27, 2025, from Aladdin (Simon & Schuster). Find out more at their website www.naseemwrites.com or join their newsletter at naseemwrites.kit.com.

Georgina Kiersten is an author known for their wide range of LGBTQ+ romance novels that center around the stories of Black queer and trans individuals. As a Black-disabled trans person who was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to having dyslexia, being autistic, and having ADHD. They have a unique perspective on writing romance. It also drives their passion to create a diverse and inclusive romance genre for everyone.

When they’re not writing (which is rare), they can often be found reading a good book, watching bl dramas, drinking their body weight in tea, and co-parenting their five children, two dogs, and their growing horde of stray cats.

Jason Krawczyk has written and ghostwritten several screenplays, novels, and novellas, with his first publication, "An Earth That Knows Magic," released in 2022 by Black Hare Press, with "It Looks Like Dad," "Roots Run Deep," and “Reality Squall,” released in 2023 and 2024. His passion for writing has emboldened him to co-own, with his spouse Chris Krawczyk, the genre book store Little Ghosts Books in Toronto, an inclusive cafe and book store that offers readers horror books from sterling classics, LGBTQ authors, and burgeoning indie publishers.

Jordan Kurella is a trans and disabled author who has lived all over the world (including Moscow and Manhattan). In his past lives, he was a photographer, radio DJ, and social worker. His work has been nominated for the Nebula Award and long-listed for the British Science Fantasy Award. He is the author of the fantasy novella, I NEVER LIKED YOU ANYWAY, the short story collection, WHEN I WAS LOST, and the climate fiction novella, THE DEATH OF MOUNTAINS. Jordan lives in limbo with his perfect dog and practical cat.

Marissa Lingen writes science fiction, fantasy, poems, and essays. Her work has been translated into seven languages and used as the basis for interpretive dance and puppet theater. She lives in Baja Canada (Minneapolis area) with her family.

Born and raised in India, Rati Mehrotra now lives and writes in Toronto, Canada. She is the author of the science fantasy novels Markswoman (2018) and Mahimata (2019) published by Harper Voyager, and the YA fantasy novels Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove (2022), and Flower and Thorn  (2023) published by Wednesday Books. Her short fiction has been shortlisted for The Sunburst Award, nominated for the Aurora Award, and has appeared in multiple venues including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Lightspeed Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, The Deadlands, Apex Magazine, Podcastle, Cast of Wonders, and AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review.

Tiffany Morris is an L’nu’skw (Mi’kmaw) writer from Nova Scotia. She is the author of the Ignyte, Indigenous Voices, Shirley Jackson, and Aurora award-nominated Green Fuse Burning (Stelliform Press, 2023) and the Elgin Award-winning horror poetry collection Elegies of Rotting Stars (Nictitating Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in the Indigenous horror anthology Never Whistle At Night, as well as in Nightmare Magazine, Uncanny Magazine, and Apex Magazine, among others.

Brandon O’Brien is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and game designer from Trinidad and Tobago. His work has been short-listed for the 2014 and 2015 Small Axe Literary Competitions and the 2020 Ignyte Award for Best in Speculative Poetry, and is published in Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, among others. He is the former poetry editor of FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. His debut poetry collection, Can You Sign My Tentacle?, available from Interstellar Flight Press, is the winner of the 2022 Elgin Award.

Suyi Davies Okungbowa is an award-winning author of fantasy and science fiction. His latest books include Lost Ark Dreaming, Warrior of the Wind and Son of the Storm (the Nameless Republic epic fantasy trilogy) and The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, a Black Panther novel (forthcoming 2025). He lives in Ontario, where he is a professor of creative writing at the University of Ottawa. Find him online at @suyidavies and SuyiAfterFive.com.

Suzan Palumbo is a Trinidadian-Canadian dark speculative fiction writer, editor and essayist, whose work has been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus and Aurora Awards. She is also the cofounder of the Ignyte Awards along with L.D. Lewis.

Her work centers her Trinidadian diaspora heritage and grapples with questions exploring race, immigration, gender, sexuality and equity. She is the author of Countess, a Caribbean space opera novella and the short story collection, Skin Thief: Stories.  She lives in Ontario where she enjoys gardening, exploring local forest trails and all things gothic. Her full bibliography can be found at: suzanpalumbo.carrd.co

Yukari is a multidisciplinary creative based in Victoria, BC, on the traditional lands of the Lekwungen-speaking people, also known as the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, with a passion for bridging Japanese and Canadian cultures. She is a writer, interpreter, podcaster, sensitivity reader and Japanese Cultural Consultant, and has been helping to connect the two cultures since moving from Nagasaki, Japan in 1998. As the owner of Lucid Communication, she provides interpreting and consulting services to Japanese and Canadian clients, including the local government, the government of Japan, and film and TV productions. Yukari was the Director of Communications for the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society for 10 years and is currently the Chair of the Arts, Culture and Education (ACE) Committee for the National Association of Japanese Canadians.

A.D. Sui is a Ukrainian-born, queer, disabled science fiction writer, and the author of THE DRAGONFLY GAMBIT and the forthcoming Erewhon novel, THE IRON GARDEN SUTRA (2026).

She is a failed academic, retired fencer, and coffee enthusiast. Her short fiction has appeared in Augur, Fusion Fragment, HavenSpec, and other venues. When not wrangling her two dogs you can find her on every social media platform as @thesuiway or through her NEWSLETTER.

Wendy N. Wagner is a hiker, trail runner, and nature lover. She’s the author of the horror works Girl in the Creek (forthcoming July 2025 from Tor Nightfire), The Deer Kings, and The Secret Skin, and the SF thriller An Oath of Dogs. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards, and her short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in more than seventy venues. She serves as the editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine (for which she was nominated for the Locus award), and is part of the Hugo award-winning editorial team behind Lightspeed Magazine. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a large cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog.