Tag: Webster Nominee

Mike Allen

April 3, 2026 / ravenchair

Mike Allen writes spooky things—a Publishers Weekly reviewer once called his stories “nightmare fuel.” Two of his collections of horror tales, Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, were nominees for the Shirley Jackson Award, named after the author of The Haunting of Hill House.

To Mike’s delight, his newest novel, Appalachian horror yarn Trail of Shadows (Broken Eye Books, 2025), has been named a finalist for the 2026 Webster Award—an award that honors the memory of his dear departed friend Bud Webster.

His other novels include the post-apacolyptic swarming-undead sidearms-and-sorcery adventure The Black Fire Concerto (re-released by Ruadán Books in 2025) and its forthcoming sequel The Ghoulmaker’s Aria. He’s also the author of two more unnerving story collections, The Spider Tapestries and Slow Burn, and six books of poetry, among those the Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection Strange Wisdoms of the Dead.

His stories and poems have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Best Horror of the Year, Interzone, Nebula Awards Showcase, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, and many other magazines and anthologies.

With his wife Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, home to numerous award-winnning and award-nominated sci-fi and fantasy volumes that defy categories and expectations, including the five books in the Clockwork Phoenix anthology series. As an editor and publisher, Mike has twice been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award.

Follow him on Instagram @mythicdelirium and Bluesky @mythicdelirium.bsky.social.

Steve Grant

March 29, 2026 / ravenchair

Steve Grant has spent over twenty-five years as a marketing consultant and behavioral economist, working with Fortune 500 companies including Puma, IBM, Prudential, Jaguar Cars, and Burger King. He ran the Applied Behavioral Science Lab at Prudential and received a Gold Lion from Cannes for his brand strategy work. He served as an industry expert in financial security at the Aspen Institute and led the rebranding effort that transformed the Boy Scouts of America into Scouting America.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop with an MFA in Poetry and Fiction, Grant was part of the film collective that created the 1998 indie film The Delicate Art of the Rifle. He lectures as an Adjunct Professor of innovation and consumer behavior for the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. Born in New Orleans and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Grant is an Eagle Scout who returned to his hometown of Blacksburg, VA, where he lives with his family. He is an avid fly-fisherman—and controversially believes that the New River may be the greatest Smallmouth Bass water on the planet.

Jason Hansa

March 29, 2026 / ravenchair

Always interested in science fiction, Jason Hansa began writing while serving on active duty in the U.S. Army. Retiring from the Army in 2018, he currently has multiple published science fiction stories set in the BattleTech (MechWarrior computer game) universe, most of them in collected anthologies available on Amazon or the Catalyst Game Labs store. Originally from Illinois and an eternal Cubs fan, Jason now lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Dennis M. Myers

March 22, 2026 / ravenchair

Originally from Minnesota, Dennis M. Myers developed a serious reading habit early in life due to the influence of his grandmother. In high school he read one particularly “awful” book and, with all that teenage hubris, decided he could do better.

He joined the US Navy in 1982. An avid roleplayer, he sold his first adventure to Challenge Magazine in 1990. While serving on submarines, he compiled ideas for what became the Automated Empire universe; a timeline spanning 4,000 years.

In 2017, the opportunity came to write full-time for several months. With the full support of his wonderful wife, May, he began the book that is now known as Final Assembly, the first in his series, Rise of the Automated Empire.

His latest novel, Secret of the Ombax, was published in October, 2025. Fifth in the Automated Empire Universe, first of a new series.

He can be found at AutomatedEmpire.com.

Bishop O’Connell

March 22, 2026 / ravenchair

Bishop O’Connell is author of the American Faerie Tale series and the award-winning Two-Gun Witch series, as well as a consultant, writer, blogger, lover of kilts and beer, as well as a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Born in Naples Italy while his father was in the Navy, Bishop grew up in San Diego, where he fell in love with the ocean and fish tacos. After wandering the country for work and school (absolutely not evading mind controlling bunnies), he settled in Richmond VA, where he writes, collects swords, revels in his immortality as a “visionary” of the urban fantasy genre, and is regularly chastised for making up
things for his bio. He can also be found online at A Quiet Pint (aquietpint.com), where he muses philosophical on life, the universe, and everything, as well as various aspects of writing and the road to getting published.