Jeremy L. C. Jones is a freelance writer, editor, and lecturer. He contributes regularly to the third-party role-playing game magazine Kobold Quarterly. He also writes for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites.

Jones is a board member for The Hub City Writers Project and The South Carolina Academy of Authors. Along with collaborators at the Alzheimer's Association, The Hub City Writers Project, and the Department of Psychology at Wofford College, Jones helped create Living Words, a creative writing program for people diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers.

Jones is a shameless fan of shared world fiction in general and Forgotten Realms in particular, which lead to his creating a pilot of the shared worlds program at a high school in Lexington, KY. His favorite fantasy novelists are R. A. Salvatore, Greg Keyes, and David Gemmell. He prefers Robert E. Howard to J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings, and is still not convinced that one day he won't find the magic doorway to Narnia. He's pretty fond of Greek drama, southern literature, Vietnam War novels, and American nature writing, too.

Website:www.jeremylcjones.com

Jeff VanderMeer's NYT-bestselling Southern Reach trilogy has been translated into over 37 languages. The first novel, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award, and was made into a movie by Paramount in 2018. Recent works include Hummingbird Salamander, Bliss, and A Peculiar Peril, in addition to Theo Ellsworth's graphic novel adaptation of his short story Secret Life. Dead Astronauts, Borne (a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award), The Strange Bird, set in the Borne universe, are being developed for TV by AMC and continue to explore themes related to the environment, animals, and our future.

Over a 35-year career, VanderMeer has been a four-time World Fantasy Award winner and 20-time nominee. For eleven years, VanderMeer served as the co-director of Shared Worlds, a unique teen SF/fantasy writing camp he helped found, located at Wofford College in South Carolina.

VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and spent six months traveling through Asia, Africa, and Europe before returning to the United States. These travels have deeply influenced his fiction, which he started writing at age eight, publishing his first short story at age 14. Early on, he wrote and published poetry and short fiction extensively, in addition to running a publishing house, the Ministry of Whimsy, and holding literary events featuring National Book Award winners like Richard Wilbur and other major poets at the Thomasville Center in Gainesville, Florida. The Ministry became the first small press to have a book win the Philip K. Dick Award. (Stepan Chapman’s The Troika) and he edited the award-winning Leviathan series, which published writers such as Rikki Ducornet, Brian Evenson, and Michael Moorcock.

VanderMeer also co-edited (with wife Ann VanderMeer) ground-breaking anthologies such as Best American Fantasy 1 and 2, Steampunk 1 and 2, New Weird, The Weird, The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities, The Time Traveler’s Almanac, The Big Book of Science Fiction, The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, and The Big Book of Modern Fantasy.

Website: www.jeffvandermeer.com

Tim is Professor of History and Associate Provost for Administration at Wofford. He spent twelve summers working for the Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth (CTY) summer academic program as a history instructor and as a site director. In 2008, CTY selected him to direct the inaugural year of the CTY International site in Spain, which was held at the European University of Madrid.

In addition to his administrative duties, Tim teaches European history at Wofford. His research interest is the intersection of state power and religious reform in sixteenth-century Spain. He has worked directly with Shared Worlds since 2008.

Joseph Alfred Spivey is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Wofford College. He earned a PhD in mathematics from Duke University. He specialized in algebraic topology, which is basically the study of "stretchy spaces." His thesis concerned the shape of a special 6-dimensional space. He often uses inquiry based learning in his classes.

Dr. Spivey loves to read fantasy novels. Among his favorite fantasy series are Song of Fire and Ice, Duane's Young Wizards series, the Sabriel trilogy, and Wheel of Time. He also enjoys baking and playing video games. When not teaching, reading, or playing video games, you'll probably find Dr. Spivey working in the yard or spending time with his wife and kids.