John Joseph Adams, called "the reigning king of the anthology world" by Barnes & Noble, is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as EPIC, OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE, ARMORED, UNDER THE MOONS OF MARS: NEW ADVENTURES ON BARSOOM, LIGHTSPEED: YEAR ONE, BRAVE NEW WORLDS, WASTELANDS, THE LIVING DEAD, THE LIVING DEAD 2, BY BLOOD WE LIVE, FEDERATIONS, THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and THE WAY OF THE WIZARD. He is a four-time finalist for the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award. He is also the editor and publisher of LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is the co-host of Wired.com's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. Forthcoming anthologies include THE MAD SCIENTIST'S GUIDE TO WORLD DOMINATION (Tor Books, 2013), WASTELANDS 2 (Night Shade Books, 2013), and ROBOT UPRISINGS (Doubleday, 2014). Find him online at johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.

INTRODUCTION
BY JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS

When Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars in 1912 (originally published as a serial in the magazine All-Story, as Under the Moons of Mars), he gave birth to the iconic character John Carter and his wondrous vision of Mars (or as the natives call it, Barsoom). With this setting and character, Burroughs created something that has enthralled generation after generation of readers. Now, a hundred years after the series first debuted in print, new generations of readers—thanks, in part, to the new Disney/Pixar film—are still finding and discovering the adventures of John Carter for the first time.

Edgar Rice Burroughs—who also authored the Tarzan and Pellucidar series, and dozens of other books—wrote only ten Barsoom novels (plus one collection of two stories). Yet anyone who’s read the novels cannot help but imagine the plentiful adventures of John Carter and his ilk that were never cataloged by Burroughs. The last Barsoom story written by Burroughs (“Skeleton Men of Jupiter”) was published in the magazine Amazing Stories in 1943, intended to be one of a series of short stories that would later be collected into book form. It was the last ever published by Burroughs, however, and legions of fans have been left waiting for the new adventures of John Carter ever since.

Until now.

This anthology depicts all-new adventures set in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s fantastical world of Barsoom. Some of the stories in this volume, such as Joe R. Lansdale’s “The Metal Men of Mars” and “The River Gods of Mars” by Austin Grossman, imagine the new or lost adventures of John Carter, while others focus on the other characters and niches not fully explored by Burroughs. So if you’ve ever wanted to find out what happens to the villainous Thark Sarkoja after her encounter with John Carter, Robin Wasserman’s tale “Vengeance of Mars” delivers. Or if you’ve ever wanted to know more about John Carter’s calot companion Woola, then Theodora Goss’s “Woola’s Song” fills in those gaps. Catherynne M. Valente’s story “Coming of Age on Barsoom,” unveils some hidden truths about the Green Men of Mars, and details how John Carter might not have understood their culture as well as he thought he did.

Some of the stories, meanwhile, deal with John Carter and Dejah Thoris’s descendants . . . such as Genevieve Valentine’s tale, “A Game of Mars,” which has John Carter’s daughter Tara playing Barsoom’s deadliest game—Jetan! We also have two tales exploring the adventures of the children of Llana of Gathol and the Orovar Pan Dee Chee; L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s, story, “The Bronze Man of Mars,” has one of John Carter’s great-grandsons returning to the ancient city of Horz, while S. M Stirling’s story, “The Jasoom Project,” has another great-grandson endeavoring to find a way to travel to Earth (Jasoom) via spaceship.

Authors David Barr Kirtley and Tobias S. Buckell deliver plenty of action and adventure in their tales; in “Three Deaths,” after losing a duel with John Carter, Kirtley’s Warhoon warrior Ghar Han swears revenge, and in “A Tinker of Warhoon,” Buckell presents us with a Green Martian like we have never seen—one whose greatest weapon is his brain, not his brawn.

Two of our stories examine what would happen should John Carter encounter new visitors from Earth on Barsoom. Peter S. Beagle’s story, “The Ape-Man of Mars,” speculates what might have happened if John Carter had encountered Tarzan, Burroughs’s other most famous literary creation, in the sands of Barsoom. Garth Nix’s tale, “A Sidekick of Mars,” imagines the possibility that John Carter had an irascible sidekick throughout most of his adventures who was never mentioned in any of the write-ups of Carter’s adventures published by Burroughs. Chris Claremont’s story, “The Ghost That Haunts the Superstition Mountains,” meanwhile, imagines John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Tars Tarkas are instead transported to Earth, and there encounter not only the great Indian chief Cochise, but weapons of mysterious origin as well.

And then we have “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha,” which shows us a distant future in which John Carter is poised to finally bring an end to the endless cycles of warfare that have rocked Barsoom . . . but gives us one last epic battle for the ages to remember it by.

Whether you’re a longtime fan, or you’re new to Barsoom, I hope you enjoy these all-new adventures of John Carter of Mars.

In the novel The Gods of Mars, John Carter finds himself transported to the Valley Dor, which the Barsoomians believe to be a heavenly paradise, a place to which they willingly travel at the end of a long, full life. He finds instead that the place is a fiendish trap, and he is immediately set upon by hordes of monstrous plant-men—savage, faceless creatures who bound after their prey and strike with wicked tentacles. And this is hardly an isolated incident. Carter just seems to have a knack for stumbling upon hidden corners of Mars in which undreamt-of horrors lurk. Many of these horrors involve wondrous Martian technology, which is far advanced beyond what we know on Earth. The most visible examples of Martian technology are the fliers and airships of the Red Men of Mars, but more grotesque examples abound. Perhaps the most vivid example of Martian science occurs in the novel The Master Mind of Mars, in which we are introduced to the mad scientist Ras Thavas, who runs a business transplanting the brains of wealthy clients into healthy young bodies. In Synthetic Men of Mars, Carter visits Morbus, city of Ras Thavas, where the scientist is engaged in other strange experiments, such as growing men from a single cell. So it would seem that with Martian science, anything is possible. In the tale that follows, John Carter once again stumbles upon a secret realm, and finds himself face-to-face with some new technology that’s visceral and terrifying even by Barsoomian standards.

© 2012 John Joseph Adams

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS

John Joseph Adams (johnjosephadams.com) is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Brave New Worlds, The Way of the Wizard, and Lightspeed: Year One. BarnesandNoble.com named him “the reigning king of the anthology world,” and his books have been named to numerous best-of-the-year lists. He is also the editor of Lightspeed magazine and is the cohost of io9’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Forthcoming anthologies include The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination and Armored. He has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo Award.

DAREN BADER

For the past seventeen years, Daren has been an art director for the video game and entertainment industry, working with a large variety of companies, including Disney, Nintendo, and Capcom. Currently he is the Senior Art Director for Rockstar San Diego where he recently finished art direction for the critically-acclaimed Red Dead Redemption. On the weekends, Daren is a freelance illustrator for various trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft, amassing well over two hundred cards in the field. He has also done the occasional book cover, including a series of covers for fan-favorite R. A. Salvatore. Daren lives in northern San Diego with his wife and son.

JEREMY BASTIAN

Jeremy Bastian lives with his wife, Emily, and their menagerie of livestock and poultry in Plymouth, Michigan. He has lived in Michigan all his life minus the two years he spent attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He is currently working on his creator-owned comic Cursed Pirate Girl for Olympian Publishing and has had work published through Dark Horse and Archaia comics. His love of an antique world of illustration has warped his artistic integrity into a slow-paced battle against a minimalistic streamlined world. He revels in the most microscopic detail and challenges himself with every page to dig even deeper into the bizarre abyss of his imagination.

PETER S. BEAGLE

Peter S. Beagle was born in 1939 and raised in the Bronx. Thanks to classics like The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place, and “Two Hearts,” he is a living fantasy icon. He also wrote the episode “Sarek” for Star Trek: The Next Generation and the animated Lord of the Rings. His nonfiction book I See By My Outfit is considered a classic of American travel writing, and he is also a gifted poet, lyricist, and singer/songwriter. He currently makes his home in Oakland, California.

Peter has vivid memories of entertaining himself during slow elementary school classes by writing original adventures of the Lone Ranger, the Shadow, and different characters created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Getting invited to contribute to this anthology felt, he says, “like a golden ticket back to my childhood.”

TOBIAS S. BUCKELL

Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean born SF/F author and New York Times bestseller who now lives in Ohio. He is the author of Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, Sly Mongoose, Halo: The Cole Protocol, and over forty short stories in various magazines and anthologies. His next novel, Arctic Rising, is due out sometime soon from Tor, and he’s working on his next book. Find him at tobiasbuckell.com.

JEFF CARLISLE

Jeff Carlisle is a graduate of the prestigious Columbus College of Art and Design. A year or so after graduating, Jeff submitted art to the Star Wars fan site TheForce.net, which resulted in a dedicated fan art gallery there. In the year 2000 he met acclaimed fantasy artist and children’s book author Tony DiTerlizzi. DiTerlizzi encouraged Jeff to “get in the game,” which led Jeff to the 2000 GenCon game fair, and his first industry job: drawing starships, droids, and aliens for Star Wars Gamer magazine. After six years of freelance illustration and concept design, Jeff has worked with a number of clients, including: Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), COSI Studios, Decipher, Goodman Games/Sword and Sorcery, Green Ronin Publishing, Lucasfilm Ltd., Paizo Publishing, Poop House Reilly, Presto Studios/Microsoft Game Studios, The Scarefactory, Inc., Topps, and Wizards of the Coast. Jeff currently lives in Columbus, with his wife, Lisa, and their white hellcat, Snow.

MIKE CAVALLARO

Mike Cavallaro is originally from New Jersey, where he attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. He began working in the New York comics and animation industries in the early 1990s. His clients include Valiant Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, First Second Books, IDW Publishing, MTV Animation, Warner Brothers Animation, Cartoon Network, and others. Mike is a member of the online webcomics collective, ACT-I-VATE.com, where he contributes free weekly webcomics, including the superhero-sci-fi epic, LOVIATHAN, and the true-life historic memoir, Parade (with fireworks). Other graphic novels include The Life and Times of Savior 28, a collaboration with writer J. M. DeMatteis, and Foiled, the first graphic novel by legendary author Jane Yolen. Mike is a member of the National Cartoonists Society and a founding member of Deep 6 Studios in Brooklyn, where he currently resides.

CHRIS CLAREMONT

Chris Claremont is best known for his award-winning, ground-breaking work on Marvel Comics’ The Uncanny X-Men series. Chris’s work has served as the foundation material for the X-Men movies, including X-Men: First Class and the forthcoming second Wolverine movie. Chris is currently putting the finishing touches on a young adult novel, Wild Blood; working on an adult novel, The Winter King; and a screenplay, Hunter’s Moon.

MOLLY CRABAPPLE

Artist and comics creator Molly Crabapple has been called “a downtown phenomenon” by The New York Times and “the artist of our time” by comedian Margaret Cho, using her hyper-detailed Victorian pen for graphic novels, giant nightclub murals, and for clients like D.C. Comics, Marvel Comics, SXSW, Red Bull, and the Wall Street Journal. She is the creator of The Puppet Makers (D.C. Comics) and Straw House (First Second Books).

TOM DALY

Both Tom Daly and the modern maraschino cherry hail from the same beautiful small town in the heart of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Both ventured out of the valley, Mr. Daly going on to New York to study art, and the cherry going on to pretty much every bar on the planet. Mr. Daly has been making drawings for books, magazines, and comics since graduating from Parsons School of Design, way back in the twentieth century. When not drawing, Mr. Daly enjoys playing in the park with his sons, reading, long walks, and writing about himself in the third person. Mr. Daly lives in New York City. More of his work can be seen at TomDalyArt.com.

THEODORA GOSS

Theodora Goss was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Although she grew up on the classics of English literature, her writing has been influenced by an Eastern European literary tradition in which the boundaries between realism and the fantastic are often ambiguous. Her publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; and Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, and Mythopoeic Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List, and has won the World Fantasy and Rhysling Awards.

AUSTIN GROSSMAN

Austin Grossman is a video game design consultant and a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible. His second novel, You, is forthcoming from Mulholland Books in 2012, and his short fiction is also slated to appear in John Joseph Adams’s anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.

MEINERT HANSEN

Meinert has a long list of credits in film, television, and games. He has worked in animation, visual effects, and production design, in both traditional and digital media. He worked as production illustrator and concept artist on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Leatherheads, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and 300. As a visual effects concept artist and matte painter, he worked on such films as Silent Hill, Across the Universe, and Stranger Than Fiction. Meinert also worked as an art director on the computer game Myst: Revelation. His television credits include The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Inside the Space Station, and Alien Planet. As an animation director, Meinert’s credits include Bad Dog, Bob Morane, and his own cartoon short for Hanna-Barbera, The Adventures of Captain Buzz Cheeply. He is currently the senior concept artist at Warner Bros. Games in Montreal.

MICHAEL WM KALUTA

Michael Wm Kaluta began his career in comic book illustration, working for Charlton Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and some smaller firms. He later illustrated for science fiction magazines such as Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories. During his early professional years, he was knee-deep in art for the Mystery comics—House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and the like—and began doing covers for both Detective Comics and Batman. In 1973 he illustrated the DC Comics revival of The Shadow. Along with various Shadow projects through the years, his career highlights include: the comic book adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus for DC Comics, the art for the 1994 J. R. R. Tolkien calendar, illustrating two Robert E. Howard books (The Lost Valley of Iskander and The Swords of Shahrazar), and his dream project, illustrating Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis, the novelization of Fritz Lang’s famous silent science fiction film. The pinnacle of his science fiction/adventure/comics efforts is the ongoing comic Starstruck.

DAVID BARR KIRTLEY

David Barr Kirtley’s short fiction appears in books such as New Voices in Science Fiction, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, The Dragon Done It, The Living Dead, and The Way of the Wizard, and in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Lightspeed. He’s the cohost (along with John Joseph Adams) of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast on io9, for which he’s interviewed dozens of authors and scientists, including George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Robert Kirkman, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. He holds an MFA in fiction and screenwriting from the University of Southern California, and for the past eight summers has taught at the Pittsburgh-area Alpha Young Writers Workshop. He lives in New York.

JOE R. LANSDALE

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty-five novels and twenty short story collections. He is also an editor and coeditor of several anthologies of fiction and nonfiction. He has sold numerous screenplays and comics. He has received the Edgar Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, the British Fantasy Award, and numerous others. Two of his stories, “Bubba Ho-Tep” and “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” have been filmed. He writes regularly for The Texas Observer and is Writer in Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is also a member of The Texas Institute of Letters.

RICHARD A. LUPOFF

Richard A. Lupoff first discovered the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs at the age of nine when he came across a copy of Tarzan and the Ant-Men. That was all it took, although it was many years before he found himself, at Canaveral Press in New York, working with the previously unpublished manuscripts of the famous author. After editing Tarzan and the Madman, Tarzan and the Castaways, Tales of Three Planets, and John Carter of Mars, Lupoff wrote two of the earliest and most important books about ERB—Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure and Barsoom: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Martian Vision—as well as editing and publishing The Reader’s Guide to Barsoom and Amtor. Lupoff has written many novels and short stories. His recent books include The Emerald Cat Killer, Rookie Blues, Killer’s Dozen, and the trilogy Terrors, Visions, and Dreams.

JONATHAN MABERRY

Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. His novels include Rot & Ruin, Dead of Night, Patient Zero, Dust & Decay, The King of Plagues, Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song, Bad Moon Rising, and The Wolfman. His nonfiction books include They Bite, Zombie CSU, Wanted Undead or Alive, Vampire Universe, and The Cryptopedia. He is the cofounder of the Liars Club and founder of the Writers Coffeehouse. Jonathan is also a career martial artist specializing in Jujutsu and Kenjutsu, and has worked as a bodyguard and chief-instructor for a company that provided advanced defense workshops to all aspects of law enforcement including SWAT. In 2004, he was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Visit him online at jonathanmaberry.com.

GREGORY MANCHESS

Creating a moment that communicates emotionally with the viewer is the essence of Gregory Manchess’s artwork. He combined his love for fine art and science fiction and began his freelance career painting for OMNI magazine. His versatility and broad range of interests allowed him to cross over to mainstream illustration. There he was able to expand his work to include covers for Time, Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic; spreads for Playboy, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and Smithsonian; and numerous book covers, including sixty covers for Louis L’Amour. He is one of a few illustrators to have a painting on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Widely awarded within the industry, Manchess exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York, where he won the coveted Hamilton King Award. He painted the Oregon coast for the 2009 Oregon Statehood Stamp for the USPS, and a 2011 portrait stamp of Mark Twain. Gregory is included in Walt Reed’s latest edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860–2000.

L. E. MODESITT, JR.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the author of more than sixty science fiction and fantasy novels, including the Saga of Recluce, the Corean Chronicles, and the Spellsong Cycle, a number of short stories and technical and economic articles. He has the unusual distinction of never having been nominated for a SF/F award, despite numerous starred reviews in many review publications, and five nominations and two awards from romance-oriented reviewers even if in only one of his books did he even write a semi-graphic sensual scene. His novels have been translated into German, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and Swedish. He has been a U.S. Navy pilot; a market research analyst; a real estate agent; director of research for a political campaign; legislative assistant and staff director for U.S. Congressmen; Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues. His first story was published in Analog in 1973, and his latest book is Princeps (Tor, November 2011), the fifth book of The Imager Portfolio.

GARTH NIX

Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth’s books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen; and the cult favorite young adult SF novel Shade’s Children. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. His most recent book is Troubletwisters, cowritten with Sean Williams. More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world, his books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, and The Australian, and his work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. He lives in a Sydney beach suburb with his wife and two children.

JOHN PICACIO

John Picacio is one of the most prolific American cover artists for science fiction, fantasy, and horror of the last ten years. His body of work includes covers for books by Dan Simmons, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Mark Chadbourn, Ian McDonald, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Ford, Frederik Pohl, James Tiptree, Jr., and many, many more. He has produced acclaimed artwork for franchises such as Star Trek and the X-Men, as well as major epics such as George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga. Accolades include the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, four Chesley Awards, and two International Horror Guild Awards, two Asimov’s Poll Awards for Best Cover Art, and seven Hugo Award nominations in the Best Professional Artist category. His website is www.johnpicacio.com.

TAMORA PIERCE

Tamora Pierce is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and has written over two dozen fantasy novels for teenagers. Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales, her most recent book, was published in February of 2011. Tammy was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania into a long, proud line of hillbillies. While her family didn’t have much money, they did have plenty of books, and books continue to be the main yardstick by which she measures true wealth.

Crediting her fans with her success, Tammy loves the chance to go on tour and thank them in person. “Struggling along as a kid and even through my twenties, it’s the kind of life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. And I never take it for granted.” She hopes her books inspire her readers with the feeling that they, too, can do anything if they want it badly enough.

Tammy now lives in Syracuse with her beloved Spouse-Creature Tim Liebe, and their numerous cats, two parakeets, and whatever freeloading wildlife takes up residence in their backyard.

MISAKO ROCKS!

Misako Rocks! is a Japanese graphic novelist from New York City. Her first break came when The Onion decided to use her illustrations for their now famous “Savage Love” column, which runs every week. Shortly thereafter, Misako scored a two-book deal with Hyperion, a three-book deal with Henry Holt, and a writing gig for Archie comics. Recently Misako published a Japanese children’s book, Kodomo Eigojuku, with Japanese publisher Meijishoin. Also, she is now running a monthly comic column in Aera English Magazine in Japan.

S. M. STIRLING

S. M. Stirling was born in France in 1953, to Canadian parents—although his mother was born in England and grew up in Peru. After that he lived in Europe, Canada, Africa, and the U.S., and visited several other continents. He graduated from law school in Canada but had his dorsal fin surgically removed, and published his first novel (Snowbrother) in 1984, going full-time as a writer in 1988, the year of his marriage to Janet Moore of Milford, Massachusetts, who he met, wooed, and proposed to at successive World Fantasy Conventions. In 1995 he suddenly realized that he could live anywhere and they decamped from Toronto, that large, cold, gray city on Lake Ontario, and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He became an American citizen in 2004. His latest books are The Council of Shadows (May 2011) and The Tears of the Sun (Sept. 2011), from Roc/Penguin. His hobbies mostly involve reading—history, anthropology, archaeology, and travel, besides fiction—but he also cooks and bakes for fun and food. For twenty years he also pursued the martial arts, until hyperextension injuries convinced him he was in danger of becoming the most deadly cripple in human history. Currently he lives with Janet and the compulsory authorial cats.

JOE SUTPHIN

Illustrator and designer Joe Sutphin has been drawing creatures and creating stories about them since he was very young. He spends as much time as possible in nature observing and picking up little critters to draw in his sketchbook. He is an avid collector of kids’ books and possibly addicted to black licorice and root beer. Joe does not live on the Red Planet, but he does live in a big red barn along with his family in Carroll, Ohio. You can visit him at joesutphin.com.

CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

Born in the Pacific Northwest in 1979, Catherynne M. Valente is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, Deathless, and the Andre Norton Award-winning, crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. She also is the winner of the Tiptree Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Spectrum Awards, and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2007 and 2009. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner and two dogs.

GENEVIEVE VALENTINE

Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: a Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, was published by Prime Books in 2011. Her short fiction has appeared in Running with the Pack, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Teeth, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and more. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog at genevievevalentine.com.

CHARLES VESS

Charles Vess was born in 1951 in Lynchburg, Virginia. His award-winning work has graced the covers and interior pages of many comic books from publishers including Marvel (Spider-Man, Raven Banner) and DC (Books of Magic, Swamp Thing, Sandman). His recent work is found more in book illustration, such as The Ladies of Grace Adieu, The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, A Circle of Cats, and Peter Pan. Charles’s awards include the Inkpot Award, three World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, two Spectrum Annual Awards—a Gold and a Silver—two Chesley Awards, a Locus Award for Best Artist, and two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Charles’s most recent publications include two New York Times bestselling picture books penned by Neil Gaiman, Blueberry Girl and Instructions. He has resided on a small farm in Washington County, Virginia, since 1991, and works from his studio, Green Man Press, in Abingdon. For visual treats and updates, visit his website: greenmanpress.com.

ROBIN WASSERMAN

Robin Wasserman is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Book of Blood and Shadow, Hacking Harvard, and the Cold Awakening Trilogy (Frozen, Shattered, and Torn). She lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York, and is impatiently awaiting the day she wakes up on Mars.

CHRISSIE ZULLO

Chrissie Zullo is an artist and illustrator best known for her cover work on DC/Vertigo’s Eisner-nominated Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love and Cinderella: Fables are Forever. She has also done work for Topp’s Star Wars trading cards, a variant cover for Hack/Slash, and interior work on DC/Vertigo’s Madame Xanadu and Fables. She is currently working on interior work for the upcoming Womanthology comic book. Her work has been featured twice in Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. Chrissie currently resides in New York City, a city quite far from Barsoom. Her weekly progress in art can be found at her blog: chrissiez.blogspot.com.

© 2012 John Joseph Adams