Nicole Balsamo is a Creative Writing MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida. She is a fiction writer, and often writes fantasy, science fiction, and supernatural fiction/urban fantasy. She takes an interest in the weird and unknown as a consumer and a creator. The weirder, the better. When not writing, she can be found playing with Luna, her mini Dachshund, replaying Final Fantasy X until the end of time, and being scolded by her boyfriend for pausing television shows and movies to give an unsolicited forty-five minute lecture on the character arc and story progression established in a two-minute scene.

Audi Barnes is a poet and essayist living in Orlando, Florida. When not grappling with the intersection of identity and pain in her writing, she studies creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida and works as a technical writer. In her free time, she can often be found drinking too much at theme parks and trying unsuccessfully to walk her cat.

Madison Brake is an illustrator and fantasy writer interested in animals and the underlying darkness of fairy tales. Her short stories have appeared in The Blackwater Review and Chomp. In 2019, she graduated from Ringling College with a BFA in Illustration and an appreciation for writing. A continual nomad, Madison currently lives in an undisclosed location with her family, pets, and twenty skulls. She works as a freelance artist while pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Central Florida.  

Follow her on Twitter: @MadBrake

Rebecca Fox writes short fiction and novels about memory, belonging, and the narratives that shape us, usually through the lenses of fabulism and fairy tale. She also works as a freelance writer, editor, and communications consultant. Rebecca created the Write 100 Challenge, a program that encourages and equips writers of all ages and stages with the community, accountability, and resources to reach their writing goals.  

Rebecca received her B.A. from Wheaton College where she studied English – Writing and Biblical & Theological Studies. She currently studies creative writing at the University of Central Florida as a candidate in the MFA program.

Nicole Pendleton writes essays, memoir, and short fiction. In 2019, she received the Outstanding Thesis: Literary Nonfiction from the University of Central Florida for her essay collection about being raised as a latchkey kid. She also received the Outstanding Writer in the Community award for the Write Your Story Workshop. Her poetry has been published in the inaugural issue of the literary journal, Egg.

Nicole is a retired application developer and failed domestic engineer living with her family in Florida. She is an MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, and a member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs and The Academy of American Poets.  Follow her on Twitter: @ncballarini.

Marelize Roets is a born-and-bred South African with a soft British lilt in her voice. She is an MFA candidate in fiction at the University of Central Florida. She primarily writes flash fiction, short stories, and screenplays. Her favorite genres include psychological horror, historical fiction, and the undermined dramatic suspense between strangers. She has been published in Scarlet Leaf Review and is rapidly gaining her ten thousand hours of experience writing. She lives her life by making bad decisions until someone comes from the future to stop her. 

Follow her on Twitter @MRoetsWritrix and Instagram @marelizeroets 

Rebecca Rowell is a DC-born cat owner that is interested in writing and reading light psychological horror with fantasy elements. She has work published in Boned: A Collection of Skeletal Writings and The Charles Carter: A Working Anthology under her pen name, Eli Rowell. She is a current MFA candidate at the University of Central Florida, where she studies creative writing and collects novelty mugs that have swear words on them.

Find her on Instagram @rowellings and on Twitter @elirowell_.