Lance Robinson is an environmental social scientist who often works closely with mobile peoples. He is a sporadic nomad himself, having lived variously in countries such as Ghana, the Gambia, Colombia, and Kenya. His stories have often explored how our relationship with the natural world is intertwined with our spiritual journeys. Lance is also an avid astronomy and space-travel nut, and he found the germ of his story “Five Days Until Sunset” at the intersection of pondering the spiritual search that never ends and wondering what life might be like on a tidally locked, “eyeball” planet. The story also asks what it means to live in harmony with a world that is ready to kill you, and what it means to have faith in the face of inconvenient truths.

Mark Morton is the author of The Headmasters, a thrilling and thought-provoking YA dystopian novel set in the Canadian Shield. The Winnipeg Free Press has called The Headmasters “a worthy companion to books such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids in contemplating humanity and freedom.” Mark now lives in Kitchener-Waterloo with his wife Melanie Cameron, also a writer. They have four adult children in various stages of geographic dispersal, four dogs, and one rabbit.

Brad Anderson lives with his wife in Vancouver, Canada, and they own the cutest dog on planet earth. Previously, he worked in the biotech industry in areas such as drug manufacturing, regulatory affairs and business development. In addition to writing, he currently teaches at a local university.