Alissa Burger is an Associate Professor of English and Director of Student Success at Culver-Stockton College. She teaches courses in research, writing, and literature, specializing in gender, horror, and the Gothic. She is the author of The Quest for the Dark Tower: Genre and Interconnection in the Stephen King Series (McFarland, 2021), Teaching Stephen King: Horror, The Supernatural, and New Approaches to Literature (Palgrave, 2016) and The Wizard of Oz as American Myth: A Critical Study of Six Versions of the Story, 1900-2007 (McFarland, 2012).
Joseph Hsin-Shun Chang is a first-year Ph.D. student in the English Department at Lehigh University. His research interests include the horror and Gothic genre, especially works of the Victorian era.
Katherine Cottle, Ph.D., is the author of The Heart of Charm City: Baltimore Letters and Lives (2019, Nonfiction), I Remain Yours (2015, Creative Nonfiction), Halfway (2010, Memoir), and My Father’s Speech (2008, Poetry), all published by AH/Loyola University Maryland. She is an assistant professor of writing at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
Josh Grant-Young is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Guelph. As a horror fan and person who experiences various mental health conditions, his thesis work explores the theme of mental health within the horror genre. In his spare time, he also writes horror fiction.
Erin Harrington is Senior Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Theory and programme coordinator of the Cultural Studies programme at the University of Canterbury Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the author of Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror (Routledge 2018), writes extensively about arts and culture, and is currently writing a book about space, place, transnational horror and mockumentary form in the What We Do in the Shadows expanded universe.
Zack Kruse, PhD., is the author of Mysterious Travelers: Steve Ditko and the Search for a New Liberal Identity (University of Mississippi Press, 2021). Currently Assistant Professor of English at Albany State University, he is a scholar of comics, film, and American literature. His scholarly work can also be found in publications such as INKS, Studies in Comics, Source: Notes on the History of Art, and in Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, as well as multiple book chapters, including a contribution to Attack of the New B Movies, edited by Justin Wigard and Mitch Ploskonka. As a comics creator, his strip, Mystery Solved!, appeared in Skeptical Inquirer Magazine, and he was the founder and sole-operator of the Appleseed Comics and Art Convention in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He has previously served as the panel coordinator for the Michigan State University Comics Forum and as the managing editor for The Journal of Popular Culture. He is also the former marketing director for the largest comics retailer in the U.S, and his voice can be heard on numerous comics and academic podcasts, including Pictures Within Picture, Prerequisites, and his weekly radio program, The Mutant Graveyard.
Aíne Norris is a doctoral student at Old Dominion University and a college instructor of literature and writing. Her research primarily focuses on forgotten or misrepresented women of American circus history and the archival examination of lore and superstition. Her research uncovering new information about turn-of-the-century circus aerialist, Eva Clark, was featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer, The News Virginian, and as a special feature on WHSV TV-3 in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She is on Twitter @a1ne.
Jessica Parant, also known as Spinster # 1 of the Spinster of Horror and the co-host of the podcast, I Spit on Your Podcast. When not working her day job as a Security Compliance Specialist for an IT company, she is busy following her love and passion for horror with writing, researching, and podcasting. As well, she has a Masters of Arts degree in History with a heavy focus on 20th century European international policy and diplomacy. Website: www.spinstersofhorror.com; Facebook: Spinsters of Horror; Facebook Group: The Spinsters of Horror Coven; Instagram: @spinstersofhorror; Twitter: @horrorspinsters.
Justin Wigard, PhD., is a University Distinguished Fellow in the Department of English at Michigan State University, where he works and teaches in the areas of popular culture, game studies, comic studies, children’s literature, and digital humanities. He is co-editor of Attack of the New B Movies: Essays on SYFY Original Films (McFarland Press, 2022), the first academic treatment of the SYFY Channel’s original films, including Sharknado (2013), 2 Lava 2 Lantula (2016), and even a feature by his esteemed co-author, Dr. Zack Kruse. Justin’s favorite horror movies include Paranorman (2012), Troll 2 (1990), and The Mummy (1999), which tell you just about everything you need to know about him. More of his academic, professional, and pedagogical work can be found at http://justinwigard.com/.
Margaret J. Yankovich is a public librarian who has a BA in English and Cultural Studies from Chatham College for Women and a Master of Information in Library Science from Rutgers University. She is the manager of the Cherry Hill Branch at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland. Her life outside the library is spent researching and writing scholarship about horror literature and film, with particular areas of interest in disability studies, monster theory, body horror, and queer studies. She has presented her research at various conferences, including PCA/ACA (2021, 2022), SWPACA, and the UVA-Wise Medieval Renaissance Conference. Her work has been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Fantasy and Fan Cultures and will next have her writing featured in the edited collection, Encountering Pennywise: Critical Perspectives on Stephen King’s IT, forthcoming from the University Press of Mississippi.
