The Authors of Stygian

Holly Rhiannon is a writer and small press founder originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Now based in Montreal, she champions literature and creativity through her press, The Stygian Society, and supports fellow writers via her YouTube channel, Discord community, and advocacy for human-made art.

After spending eight years camping without a tent and spending time in a small town outside Detroit, Pae returned to Canada to study literature and philosophy. He debuted with his collected works 'Searching for Marilyn Monroe' and is currently working on multiple projects with the hope of having at least one of them see the light of day.

"One crisp spring evening, on a remote island in the Yellow Sea, a Korean gangster kidnapped me and forced me to drink tree alcohol with him. We ended up singing John Denver songs until sunrise. That’s when I knew—I needed to start writing."

Matt Poll, a migratory Montréaler, has a background in academia but found new pursuits in birds, writing, proofreading, and Karaoke.

Pamela Kat Johnson lives in a secret treehouse in Montréal, writing and illustrating faerie tales for children and adults. She offers proofreading, hybrid copy, and developmental editing services to help writers bring their stories to life, creating magical experiences for readers of all ages.

Adrienne Adams is an Treaty 7 artist, poet, and gardener. She curates Woolf’s Voices. Publications include fillingStation, FreeFall, M(O)thering, and her chapbook Red Heads, forthcoming in NōD and Fire Season 3.

Akis is a writer of strange things, a biomedical AI scientist, and maybe human. Read him at Apex, Gamut, Heartlines Spec, and more.

Allen Mahan was educated at Kent State University; University College, Dublin, Ireland; and Arizona State University. He lives and works in Portland, Oregon.

André Narbonne’s stories have won the Atlantic Writing Competition and been anthologized in

Best Canadian Stories. Lucien & Olivia (Black Moss Press, 2022) was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Anna Quercia-Thomas is a Hispanic American writer and academic based in Western Australia. She writes poetry and speculative fiction about found family, queer romance, and connection in dark times.

Bonsart Bokel is the creator of Radio Retrofuture on Youtube. After discussing Steampunk for nearly a decade, he thought it was time to write example stories that go beyond the typical tropes of the Steampunk genre.

This became a short story series called the Association of Ishtar: a multiverse of Loveholmesian adventure and Steampunk-inspired horrors.

His submission for The Stygian Collection is from this very universe!

Bree Buonomo is a writer of many genres, most notably fantasy, horror, and poetry. By day, she works as a mental health counselor where the interactions with her clients lend to the realism in her fantastical worlds. She hopes that one of her several novels in progress will be the one to break through the query trenches and into traditional publishing. Bree lives in Northeast Pennsylvania where the weather is unpredictable and the coffee is constant.

Brian Bruce is a retired history teacher who taught high school students and community college students for thirty-one years. He is the author of Thomas Boyd: Lost Author of the Lost Generation and MacArthur's Bloody Butchers.

Carella is a Pushcart Prize nominated writer and digital artist who splits her time between the ethereal world of dreams, and Toronto, Canada, depending on the weather.

Poetry is like math for Charlotte Blair; she loves the feeling she gets when the perfect word completes the equation and things are suddenly absolutely right. Charlotte (and friends) can be found at we4.ca.

Christine Lucas is a Greek author, a retired Air Force officer and mostly self-taught in English. Her work appears in several print and online magazines, including Future SF Digest, Pseudopod and Strange Horizons. She was a finalist for the 2017 WSFA award and the 2021 Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award For Disability In Speculative Fiction. Her collection of short stories, titled “Fates and Furies” was published in late 2019 by Candlemark & Gleam.

C. M. Lockhart writes stories about Black girls who aren't all that nice. Her debut novel, We Are the Origin, was released in June 2022 and its sequel, We Are Dying Gods, will be released August 2023. She is the founder of Written in Melanin LLC, which encompasses a podcast and YouTube channel of the same name, and the Melanin Library, an online database of books written by Black authors.

Connor Johnstone splits his seasons between Montreal and Northern Ontario. He was exposed to Beowulf at an inappropriate age and grew up fascinated by monsters and mythology. His work often explores satirical twists on horrifying history and classical high fantasy. A survivor of several moose attacks, he also writes old-fashioned Canadiana.

Raised in the deserts of the United States, Cory has been reading and making her own science fiction and fantasy stories since she was old enough to distrust school lunches. Which was immediate. She currently lives outside Tokyo, writing whenever she can between teaching English and learning about obscure deep sea creatures that often inspire the aliens found in her work. You can also find her on YouTube, discussing editing and why she finds smooth paper infuriating.

Dave is an IP laywer, which means he spends half of his time writing about inventions and the other half writing legal briefs. Writing fiction has always been a dream of his, but there never seemed to be enough time to finish his numerous works in progress. Recently, he finally finished and published a story in the horror anthology Lurking in the Dark. You can find Dave and his very opinionated maltipoo, Olive, at their BookTube channel, Book Blather.

Desiree M. Ortega is a writer, reader, ghostwriter, and lover of all thing’s coffee. If she’s not drinking a Colombian brewed latte, she can be found pursuing one of her many passions including theater, dance and music. Ask her to play the guitar sometime.

Her writing spans poetry, plays, screenplays, lyrics, and adventure fiction with a dose of romance.

There must be romance. Always.

Find her on YouTube under Coffee Reading Writing where she documents her publishing journey.

Diana Murphy is a graduate of Morehead State University. While holding a degree in studio art, she has always kept a passion for storytelling in her back pocket. From her early writing days of Harry Potter fanfiction to now working on her future novel, she’s always had a soft spot for any story where romance is involved. She currently lives in Northern Kentucky where she is constantly chasing the end of her ever growing to be read pile.

Donovan King is a Montreal-based actor, teacher, historian, and tour guide. Founder of Haunted Montreal, he leads ghost tours with professional actors and publishes monthly ghost stories. King is also a performance activist and experimental theatre artist, blending acting, teaching, and directing to challenge systemic oppression. He helped establish the Montreal Fringe Festival in 1991 and founded the Montreal Infringement Festival in 2004. King remains dedicated to education, community, and innovative theatre.

E.B. Sommer has been writing her whole life, but only recently has she been willing to share her work. She can be found online at ebsommer.com

Hananya le Clercq is a serial story writer, who has yet to publish her first full-length novel, a content creator, who shares her writing journey online, and a writing friend, who loves brainstorming story ideas.

Hoping to one day live off of her creative endeavors, she doesn't shy away from working towards those dreams and being part of the writing community.

Ian Kirkpatrick is an award-winning author and YouTuber, dedicating her channel to the modern writing world and critiquing contemporary authors. Using her experience in theater, she performs weekly readings of indie or odd books. Her stories mix satire, absurdity, and casual mysticism, often touching on themes of family and inevitability. She can drop-kick a giraffe but since she is nice, she will not do so. Her origins are not well known, but some say she operates behind a skittle factory.

Ivy L. James wrote her first story on Post-it notes as a child. Since then, she has graduated to regular paper and enjoys writing LGBTQ+ fiction in both short and long forms. She has three queer romances published with NineStar Press and is excited to be part of the Stygian Collection. She lives in Maryland with her wife and their corgi, cat, and two snakes. 

John Oughton is a retired college teacher in Toronto who has been publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction since 1973. His latest poetry collection is The Universe and All That (Ekstasis Editions).

J. A. Collignon (AKA: Jenna, but you can call her Jenn) is a Canadian author based out of the prairies, who loves everything fantasy. You name it: fantasy books, movies, TV shows, TTRPG podcasts, and she even runs her own piratey Dungeons and Dragons campaign for her friends. Most often, she can be found on her couch with a thick fantasy book in hand.

Jenna Streety is a hybrid science-fiction and fantasy author located in Southern California. She's one half of The Writing Craft Podcast, and spends her daylight hours as a marketing project manager. At night, she spins stories of the dark, twisted, and witchy variety. Her long form novels always include angst-ridden romance inspired by her obsession with video games and fanfiction.

Jeremy Fee is a reader, writer, and teacher. Originally from Louisiana, he calls Texas his home. He has survived multiple near-death experiences and now treasures every day of life. Some of his best days have included performing slam poetry, travelling the world to see various art museums, and celebrating the success of his students via creative writing publications and multiple state championships in mock trial and speech.

John Doyle is an Irish-born author, poet & playwright in Toronto. He used to work for the Globe and Mail, and wrote two well-received non-fiction books about his adventures.

Jolene Smith was born and raised in northern British Columbia. After living in Ontario for over thirty years, she moved back home to the mountains and currently lives in Calgary, Alberta.

She has a genuine love of literature and reading. A favourite childhood memory is reading the newspaper with her Dad and making up languages. She’s dabbled in some poetry and short story writing which are, as her literary friend Anne Shirley would say, more scope for the imagination.

Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland, Ohio with a penchant for Pendleton shirts, Ethiopian coffee, and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs.

Kimöra Seiðra is a poet and prose writer whose themes span dark romanticism, archetypal psychology and occultism. She is the founder of Open Medicine, a community open mic event in downtown Toronto. 

Larry Oakley was born in the east end of Toronto and is a retired accountant living in Kingston, Ontario. He is the author of Inside The Wild and Inside The Wild 2.

Leslie Cradler was raised on horror movies and fantasy novels. She never escaped the corn maze that is the American Midwest. She lives there still with her husband and their many pets. When she’s not working as a pharmacy technician, she’s at her local library looking for her next good read and writing with friends.

Linda Peli is an Italian poet and horror author.

Her debut short story “Zero Good Things” can be found in The Stygian Collection.

LindaAnn LoSchiavo, a spooky Scorpio, has dwelt in the dark realm for decades, penning poetry and fiction. YouTube hosts her poetry videos.

Lovern Kindzierski lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba. After establishing himself as one of comics’ most influential colourists, he

switched his focus to his passion for writing. Having written for Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Heavy Metal Magazine, and Renegade Arts Entertainment, he is best-known for his ongoing series of fantasy books based around the character Shame. Lovern is also recognized for his graphic novel, Underworld.

Mackenzie Hofmann believes writing is magic. Before she could spell, she tried to make words by scribbling symbols down on paper. As she got older, books provided her with a sanctuary and writing helped her to find her unfiltered truth. Now, she writes fiction and fantasy novels and short pieces in the hopes that readers may feel as comforted by her work as she has by others'. She has published poetry in The Chaffey Review Literary Journal and received her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in English literature.

Some days, Marc André Bélanger is not too sure what he is, but he is pretty much convinced he is not an Al. So, there's at least that. He appears to be a middle-aged human, although sometimes he could be mistaken for a cat. When he's not sneaking away to some alternate Victorian future, this Montreal-based writer likes to what-if scenarios, delving into the ramifications of simple changes or events. Simple, though not always probable.

Marcus A has always been literary adjacent throughout his life, from the moment he became valedictorian, to engaging advanced English courses, to writing history for over a decade in attempt to summarize our incredible transitional historical moment. In the summer of 24 Marcus began once again his creative foray into self-titled Celestial Fiction. À hybrid of science fiction and faith-based literature building his Trilogy of Life. This will be followed by the novel Danum: The Satirical Scourge, à comedy of genocidal proportions. This is merely the beginning. 

Margaret Pinard is a historical fiction and fantasy writer based in Portland, OR. Her historical works explore stories of struggle and intrigue in the 19th century, while her latest short story collection, Fabled Passages, plays with historical and fantasy genre expectations. Margaret co-founded Jolabokaflod PDX, an indie book festival, and has been a BookTuber, AuthorTuber, and Blazer since 2020.

Mister Morningstar is the son of Satan. He is a handsome and lovable psychopath who retired from torturing souls in the Underworld to pursue his writing.

He hosts a booktube channel and loves to paint with human blood. He reads late at night—mostly horror, crime and other disturbing literature.

He is a cruelty-free cannibal and has an adorable pug named Paimon.

"Along Comes a Stranger" is Mister Morningstar’s second short story.

Nicholas Siu-ting Lee is a non-binary Chinese writer based in Vancouver, Canada. They have been published and writing professionally since 2023.

O.G. Rose is a pen name consisting of Michelle’s maiden, middle, and their shared last name. While at UVA, Rose worked collaboratively with other artists at Eunoia, a creative community Rose helped develop. Rose now lives on a farm, manages a wedding venue named Mead Lake, and teaches piano using a visual pattern method. A finalist for the UNO Press Lab Prize and Pushcart Nominee, Rose’s creative works appear at The Write Launch, Allegory Ridge, Ponder, Iowa, Toho, William and Mary, Assure, West Trade, ellipsis, Poydras, O:JA&L, Burningword, and Broken Pencil.

Olivia Van Guinn is a Vietnamese-Canadian writer living in Calgary, with many short stories and poems published and forthcoming in Canadian journals.

Rich Stahnke is author of the suspense novella "Cornered" and creator of the P.U.N.C.H. and Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey comic book series. 

Saige Severin is a 4th year undergraduate majoring in English. She is a writer, editor, artist, and lover of all things magic. 

If puzzling princesses

wandered like rivers at dawn,

pondered on masked mysteries

in the place where stars belong,

one would find it is only

a little note in her song.

EW Shelley is the author of short stories, poetry, essays, and a fantasy novel series called The Man Who Would Not Be King. Her latest project is a speculative fiction novel called Unburied. As Shelley Wright she has also published many articles and three books on issues to do with human rights, international law, and climate change.

Wren Vopni is a bestselling author, telepathic channeler, psychic development guide, and singer songwriter.

Sheratan Mortis is an extravagant Montréal-based interdisciplinary artist, writer, and storyteller whose work flows between the realms of darkness, light, and the mysteries of the unseen. Xer narratives evoke deep emotions, inspiring reflection and inviting others to delve into the duality of existence with themes of transformation, psychology, paranormal, metaphysics, spirituality and folklore.

​​

In July 2023, Sheratan celebrated xyr first traditional publication of xyr short story, Styx and Her River, featured in The Stygian Collection anthology by The Stygian Society.

Xan van Rooyen is an autistic, nonbinary storyteller from South Africa, now living in Finland. They've had short stories, novels, novellas, nonfiction essays, and poems published in various places. Find them online @xanvanrooyen or @xan_writer.