Steve Niles – Media Guest of Honor

In 2002, Steve Niles reinvigorated the realm of horror comics with his series 30 Days of Night. Since that time, Niles has been the most recognizable name in horror comics, scripting such projects as 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Wake the Dead, City of Others, and Freaks of the Heartland. He has worked with such talents as Rob Zombie, Thomas Jane, and the legendary Sam Raimi, who produced 2007’s film adaptation of 30 Days of Night. Currently, Niles is working for the four top American comic publishers: Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse. He is also working on several film projects. You can learn more about Steve at his website: www.SteveNiles.com. Steve Nile’s appearance at the 2011 World Horror Convention is sponsored by Austin Books & Comics.

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Joe Hill – Writer Guest of Honor

The author of the critically acclaimed Heart-Shaped Box and the comic book series Locke & Key, Joe Hill is a two-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award and a past recipient of the Ray Bradbury Fellowship. His stories have appeared in a variety of journals and “Year’s Best” collections. His next novel, Horns, will be published in February 2010 by William Morrow. He calls New England home.

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Sarah Langan – Writer Guest of Honor

Sarah Langan’s first novel The Keeper was a New York Times “Editor’s Pick”. Her second novel The Missing won the Bram Stoker Award for outstanding novel, was a Publisher’s Weekly favorite book of the year, and an IHG outstanding novel nominee. Her third novel, Audrey’s Door, about
a woman who moves into a haunted apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is due out from HarperCollins in October, 2009, and has sold to the Weinstein Company for film. She’s currently at work on her fourth novel, Empty Houses, and lives in Brooklyn with her husband, daughter, and rabbit.

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Vinny Chong – Artist Guest of Honor

Vincent Chong is an award-winning freelance illustrator and designer.
Currently living and working in the UK, his art and design has been published internationally and can be seen on book covers, magazines, CD packaging and websites. He has worked for clients around the world including HarperCollins and Little, Brown and has illustrated the works of authors such as Ray Bradbury and Stephen King. Vincent has received the British Fantasy Award for ‘Best Artist’ three years running in 2007, 2008 and 2009. You can learn more about Vincent at his website, www.vincentchong-art.co.uk and blog, vincentchongart.wordpress.com.

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Brett Alexander Savory – Editor Guest of Honor

Brett Alexander Savory is the Bram Stoker Award-winning Editor-in-Chief of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words (which has been in operation since 1997), Co-publisher of ChiZine Publications, has had nearly 50 short stories published, and has written two novels. In 2006, Necro Publications released his horror-comedy novel, The Distance Traveled. September 2007 saw the release of his dark literary novel, In and Down, through Brindle & Glass. His first short story collection, No Further Messages, was released in November 2007 through Delirium Books. He is now at work on his third novel, Lake of Spaces, Wood of Nothing. Savory is represented by The Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency. He lives in Toronto with his wife, writer/editor Sandra Kasturi.

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Sandra Kasturi – Editor Guest of Honor

Sandra Kasturi is a poet, writer, and editor, as well as co-creator of a kids’ animated TV series. In 2005, she won ARC magazine’s annual Poem of the Year award. She is the poetry editor of ChiZine: Treatments of Light and Shade in Words and the Co-Publisher of ChiZine Publications. Sandra has written three poetry chapbooks and has edited the poetry anthology, The Stars As Seen from this Particular Angle of Night. Her work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including Prairie Fire, Contemporary Verse 2, TransVersions, On Spec, Taddle Creek, several of the Tesseracts series, 2001: A Science Fiction Poetry Anthology, and Northern Frights 4. Her cultural essay, “Divine Secrets of the Yaga Sisterhood” appeared in the anthology Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Slayers, Mutants and Freaks. Sandra is a founding member of the Algonquin Square Table poetry workshop and sporadically runs her other imprint, Kelp Queen Press. She managed to snag an introduction from Neil Gaiman for her first full-length poetry collection, The Animal Bridegroom (Tightrope Books). She is represented by the Anne McDermid Agency, and is currently working on her first novel, a mythological noir. She enjoys single-malt scotch, red lipstick, and Viggo Mortensen.

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Joe R. Lansdale – Toastmaster

Joe R. Lansdale is the multi-award winning author of thirty novels and over two hundred short stories, articles and essays. He has written screenplays, teleplays, comic book scripts, and teaches creative writing and screenplay writing occasionally at Stephen F. Austin State University. He has received The Edgar Award, The Grinzani Prize for Literature, 7 Bram Stoker Awards, and many others. His stories “Bubba Ho-Tep” and “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” were both filmed. He is the founder of the
martial arts system Shen Chuan, and has been in the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame four times. He lives in East Texas with his wife, Karen.

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Brian Keene – Special Guest

BRIAN KEENE is the author of over twenty books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town, A Gathering of Crows, Urban Gothic, Castaways, Ghost Walk, Dark Hollow, Dead Sea, Ghoul, Kill Whitey, Unhappy Endings and many more. He also writes comic books for many different publishers. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, French, and Taiwanese. Several of his novels and stories have been optioned for film, one of which, The Ties That Bind, premiered on DVD in 2009. The winner of two Bram Stoker awards, Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. Keene lives in Pennsylvania with his wife, son, dog, and cat. You can communicate with him online at www.briankeene.com or on Twitter @BrianKeene.

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Del Howison – Special Guest

Del Howison is an award-winning editor, journalist, fiction author and actor. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award three times (and won it once), for the Black Quill Award twice, for the Shirley Jackson Award and for the Rondo Hatton Award. Along with his wife Sue, he founded and has operated Dark Delicacies (America’s Home of Horror) in Burbank for 17 years (as of this convention). His short story The Lost Herd was retitled The Sacrifice scripted by Mick Garris and directed by Breck Eisner and used as the premiere episode on NBC’s anthology show Fear Itself. He has co-edited four books including all three of the Dark Delicacies anthologies and The Book of Lists Horror. His latest book is When Werewolves Attack from Ulysses Press. He also co-wrote (under the pseudonym of D. H. Atrial) Vampires Don’t Sleep Alone with Elizabeth Barrial. His film acting appearences include Dahmer Vs Gacy, The Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula, Blood Scarab, and The Crystal Lake Massacres Revisted.

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