Krystal A. Smith

A North Carolina native, Krystal A. Smith (i.e. K.A. Smith) is a Black lesbian writer of poetry and speculative fiction. Her poems have appeared in Tulips Touching (2011) and recent short stories have appeared in Ladylit Publishing’s Summer Love: Stories of Lesbian Holiday Romance (2015) and Lez Talk: A Collection of Black Lesbian Fiction (2016). Krystal’s debut collection of speculative fiction, Two Moons: Stories, was recognized as a top five favorite in the short stories category on the 2019 Over the Rainbow Recommended Book List and was a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalist in Lesbian Fiction. Her debut collection of poetry, This is Not About Love, was released in April 2021.

Krystal holds an M.A. in English from Western Carolina University, and a B.A. in English from Appalachian State University.

Twitter: @authorkasmith
Website: krystalasmith.com

Penny Mickelbury

Penny Mickelbury is a pioneering newspaper, radio and television journalist, based primarily in Washington, DC, who also is a teacher of both children (at a Los Angeles Charter Middle School) and adults (in the Los Angeles Public Library’s Adult Literacy Program.) She is an award-winning writer of stage plays and a co-founder of Alchemy: theatre of Change, a young people’s acting company. She is the recipient of the Audre Lorde Estate Grant and she was a resident writer at the Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat.

Her new collection of stories, God’s Will and Other Lies, joins her catalog of eleven published mystery novels in three successful series: The Mimi Patterson/Gianna Maglione Mysteries (two-time Lambda Literary Award finalists); the Carole Ann Gibson Mysteries (winner of a Gold Pen Award by the Black Writers Alliance); and the Phil Rodriquez Mysteries; and the novel of historical fiction, Belle City.

Stephanie Andrea Allen

Stephanie Andrea Allen, Ph.D., is a native southerner, writer, scholar, and educator. She founded BLF Press in 2014 while she was still in graduate school, realizing that the challenges that women faced in regards to publishing still existed, (lack of diversity in publishing; the [false] notion that lesbian literature was now “mainstream;” lack of access to agents, editors, and other publishing professionals; and more than anything, the notion that our stories were somehow unworthy or had no literary merit), and decided that she could do something about that.

Her work can be found in various online and print publications, including Star*Line, Inkwell Black, Big Echo: Critical Science Fiction Magazine, Sinister Wisdom, Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing, and in her collection of essays and short fiction, A Failure to Communicate. Her collection of speculative short fiction, How to Dispatch a Human: Stories and Suggestions, was released on March 2, 2021. She is currently working on her first novel and a new collection of short stories.

Twitter: at @S_Andrea_Allen

Instagram: stephanie.andrea.allen

Jewelle Gomez

Jewelle Gomez, (Cabo Verdean/Wampanoag/Ioway) is a playwright, novelist, poet and cultural worker who was born and raised in Boston, MA. She is the author of eight books including the first Black Lesbian vampire novel, THE GILDA STORIES, which has been in print continuously for more than 30 years. She was commissioned by the Urban Bush Women Company (NYC) to adapt the novel for a full dance piece with music by Toshi Reagon; it toured 13 US cities (1997). The book was recently optioned by Cheryl Dunye (“Watermelon Woman” “Lovecraft Country”) for a television mini-series.

Her essays, poetry and short fiction have been published in more than 100 anthologies notably: HOME GIRLS: A Black Feminist Anthology; DARK MATTER: A Century of Speculative Fiction by African Americans; LUMINESCENT THREADS: Connections to Octavia Butler; STORIES FOR CHIP: A tribute to Samuel L. Delany; NO POLICE=KNOW FUTURE; BEST AMERICAN POETRY OF 2001; HEIRESSES OF RUSS; and RED INDIAN ROAD WEST.

Her trilogy of plays, ‘Words and Music’ explores the mythology and sustaining hope of African American artists in the first half of the 20th century. WAITING FOR GIOVANNI, the first in the trilogy, is about an imagined moment of indecision for James Baldwin (1924-1987) and was developed and premiered by New Conservatory Theatre Center in San Francisco, where she was playwright-in-residence (2011-2021). It had its New York City premiere in 2018 produced by TOSOS. The second play, LEAVING THE BLUES, is about internationally known singer/songwriter Alberta Hunter (1895-1984) and her struggle with surviving as a lesbian artist. It premiered in 2017 in San Francisco and in New York City in 2020. The third play, UNPACKING IN P’TOWN, about a group of retired Vaudevillians takes place in 1959, and will premiere in 2022 at New Conservatory Theatre Center’s 40th anniversary season. (Pandemic permitting)

She was on the original boards of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Astraea National Lesbian Foundation. She worked as a grant maker for 30 years—New York State Council on the Arts; the San Francisco Arts Commission and Horizons LGBT Foundation. She has also served as president of the San Francisco Public Library Commission and remains on the Endowment Committee for the James C. Hormel Center at the SFPL.

Her novel, THE GILDA STORIES, won two Lambda Literary Awards. She was the recipient of a Legacy Award from Horror Writers of America (2021); a Trailblazer Award from the Golden Crown Literary Society (2016); the Barbary Coast Vanguard Award from LitQuake (2016); and was a Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshall for the San Francisco 2019 PRIDE Parade.

Her upcoming collection of poetry, Still Water: Poems, is forthcoming from BLF Press on June 7, 2022.

Follow her on Twitter and Instagram: @VampyreVamp.