The Seers Table!

Tom Calen, Diverse Works Inclusion Committee Chair

Whew! How about that StokerCon 2016? I hear Vegas is considering the new nickname “Stoker City.” Congratulations to all the winners and the amazing coordinators who set the bar extremely high for future StokerCons! As June is traditionally celebrated as Pride Month, the Diverse Works Inclusion Committee has assembled a collection of writers from the LGBT community (and its allies). Some names you’ve likely come across before, while others will be new introductions. In both cases, these writers have substantial bodies of work and have made significant literary and advocacy contributions to both the LGBT community and the world of horror/dark fantasy. So, with summer kicking off, we invite you to explore the books and films of these six individuals. Sean Abley Sean Abley was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He dropped out of the University of Montana Drama program, then moved to Chicago to start his career. After studying at Players Workshop, Second City and Improv Institute, and more extra work and children’s theater than he’d care to admit, he joined forces with a handful of other actor/writers and founded the Factory Theater company. While there, he wrote, directed, and appeared in over 20 shows, including “Reefer Madness” (non-musical version), “Bitches,” “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” “The Musical,” “Nuclear Family,” “Corpse Grinders,” and “P.” Now in its fifteenth year, the Factory Theater has added a Los Angeles branch, where Sean’s Garland Award-winning play “Attack of the Killer Bs” was recently produced. (Source: iMDb) Sean is the author of Out in the Dark: Interviews with Gay Horror Filmmakers, Actors and Authors. For more on Abley, visit his iMDb page at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0008814/. Jorge Ameer Prolific screenwriter Jorge Ameer began his professional career while in his late teens. At the age of 18, he was selected to participate in the Walt Disney College Program. He worked in the marketing departments of New Line Cinema, Paramount, and Columbia Pictures. After noticing a lack of recognition of foreign and independent gay-themed films released theatrically, he founded the International Gay Film Awards, the Glitter Awards (2001-2008). He also produced and arranged the publication of the historical and award-winning first-ever Guide to Gay & Lesbian Film. Jorge’s latest film is the 2015 gothic horror, MEDUSA. (Source: iMDb) For more on Ameer, visit his iMDb page at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0024521/. Charlie Jane Anders Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky. She’s the organizer of the Writers with Drinks reading series, and she was a founding editor of io9, a Web site about science fiction, science, and futurism. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies. Her novelette, Six Months, Three Days, won a Hugo award. (Source: author’s site) For more on Anders, visit http://allthebirdsinthesky.tumblr.com/. Ingrid Jungermann Ingrid is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker known for THE SLOPE, the WGA-nominated F TO 7TH and WOMEN WHO KILL. She was one of Filmmaker Magazine‘s 25 Faces of Independent Film, Out Magazine‘s 100 People of the Year and Go Magazine‘s 100 Women We Love. She earned her MFA at NYU Graduate Film School, where she received the Spike Lee Production Grant and the King Screenwriting Award. WOMEN WHO KILL was selected for the Tribeca All-Access Program and the IFP Emerging Narratives Lab. (Source: iMDb) For more on Jungermann, visit her iMDb page at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1742910/. Christopher Rice By the age of 30, Christopher Rice had published four New York Times-bestselling thrillers, received a Lambda Literary Award, and been declared one of People Magazine‘s Sexiest Men Alive. His two novels of dark supernatural suspense, The Heavens Rise and The Vines, were both finalists for the Bram Stoker Award®. He recently entered the erotic romance genre with three works in an all-new series called The Desire Exchange. They include The Flame, The Surrender Gate, and Kiss the Flame. His debut novel, A Density of Souls, was published when the author was just 22 years old. A controversial and overnight bestseller, it was greeted with a landslide of media attention, much of it devoted to the fact that Christopher is the son of famed vampire chronicler, Anne Rice. Christopher also co-hosts the podcast The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice & Eric Shaw Quinn. (Source: Amazon) For more on Rice, visit http://www.christopherricebooks.com/. Lee Thomas Lee Thomas is the Bram Stoker Award and two-time Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Stained, The Dust of Wonderland, The German, Torn, Ash Street, and Like Light for Flies. His latest novel, Butcher’s Road, was released to critical praise from Publishers Weekly, Locus Magazine, and Out in Print. Lee currently lives in Austin, TX, where he’s working on his next novel. (Source: Amazon) For more on Thomas, visit http://www.leethomasauthor.com/.