The Best British Fantasy 2014

Steve Haynes is an editor whose subtle approach to his chosen profession has earned him the epithets "Hacker Haynes" and "The Butcher of Bodmin". He was born in Walsall in 1964. He read for a BA in English and Film Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, and was an English teacher at Secondary level for 25 years. He is a prolific and lifelong devourer of science fiction, fantasy, horror, science writing, contemporary philosophy and graphic novels.

Nina Allan's fiction has featured in numerous magazines and anthologies, including The Year's Best Fantasy And Science Fiction 2012, The Mammoth Book Of British Crime #10 and Best Horror Of The Year. Her most recent books include the novella Spin (Winner of the this year's BSFA award for Best Short Fiction.) and the story collection Stardust: The Ruby Castle Stories. She was the Winner of the Aeon Award (2007) and has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award (2006, 2010, 2013) and the British Science Fiction Award (2006, 2010, 2011, 2013). This year, her story, `The Gateway', has also been nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award in the Best Novella category. Her novel, The Race, is forthcoming August 2014 with NewCon Press.

Sarah Brooks has lived in China, the far south of Italy, and the far north of Japan, but is now settled West Yorkshire. She has recently completed her PhD on classical Chinese ghost stories, and teaches in the East Asian Studies department at the University of Leeds. She's a graduate of the 2012 Clarion West Writers' Workshop, and has had stories published in Interzone, Shimmer and the Journal of Unlikely Entomology.

Georgina Bruce was born in Birmingham and now lives in Edinburgh, where she works as a lecturer in further education. Her fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines. `The Art of Flying' was longlisted for the Bridport Prize 2011 and Mslexia Short Story prize 2012. In 2014, she was shortlisted for the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award. She is currently working on a novel about mothers, daughters, music and suicide.

Chris Butler has published two books, the science fiction novel Any Time Now and the fantasy novella The Flight Of Ravens, which was shortlisted for the BSFA Award for short fiction in 2013. His short stories have been published in magazines and anthologies including Asimov's Science Fiction, Interzone and Nature. Chris is currently hard at work on new novels and short fiction, including a sequence of stories set in the same world as `The Animator'.

After a career writing about science fiction and fantasy on the magazines SFX, Death Ray and White Dwarf, Guy Haley now writes it. He believes this to be a preferable state of affairs. Guy is the author of Reality 36, Omega Point, Champion Of Mars, Crash and numerous titles for the Black Library.

Jim Hawkins' first SF story, Play Back, was published in New Worlds in 1969. Since then he has been a teacher, a BBC Producer, a screenwriter with a long list of credits, and software developer. Two of his four novelettes for Interzone have been republished in `Year's Best' anthologies. His BBC screenplay Thank You Comrades was nominated for a BAFTA award.

Jess Hyslop currently lives in Cambridge, where she works, writes, and daydreams, but will soon be relocating to Chichester to train as a book conservator. She studied English at the University of Cambridge, and was there awarded the Quiller-Couch prize for creative writing upon her graduation in 2010. Since then, her short fiction has appeared in venues such as Interzone, Daily Science Fiction, and Mirror Dance.

Helen Jackson likes making stuff up and eating cake. She is a short story writer and a Scottish BAFTA-nominated animation director. She's lucky enough to live in Edinburgh, her favourite city. Her stories have been published in various magazines including Interzone, and in the anthologies Rocket Science and ImagiNation: Stories Of Scotland's Future. She was a winner in the 2011 Scottish Wave of Change short story competition with `Power of Scotland'.

Carole Johnstone is a Scot living in Essex. Her short stories have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Her work has been reprinted in Ellen Datlow's Best Of Horror Of The Year series and Salt Publishing's Best British Fantasy 2013. Her debut short story collection, The Bright Day Is Done, is forthcoming from Gray Friar Press, and she has two novellas in print: Frenzy, published by Damnation Books and Cold Turkey, which is part of TTA Press' novella series. She is presently at work on her second novel while seeking fame and fortune with the first - but just can't seem to kick the short story habit.

V. H. Leslie's stories have appeared in Black Static, Interzone, Weird Fiction Review and Strange Tales IV. She has also had fiction and non-fiction published in Shadows and Tall Trees and writes a monthly column for This is Horror. Her story `Namesake' was recently selected for Best British Horror and 2013 also saw her win a Hawthornden Fellowship and the Lightship First Chapter Prize.

Tim Maughan is a British writer currently based in Brooklyn, using both fiction and non-fiction to explore issues around cities, art, class, and technology. His debut short story collection Paintwork received critical acclaim when released in 2011, and his story `Limited Edition' was shortlisted for the 2012 BSFA short fiction award. He sometimes makes films, too.

Priya Sharma is a doctor in the UK who writes speculative fiction. Her work has appeared in Interzone, Black Static, Albedo One, Alt Hist and on Tor.com, amongst others. She has been reprinted in various Best of anthologies.

E. J. Swift is an English writer who lives and works in London. Her short fiction has previously been published in Interzone magazine. Her debut novel OSIRIS was published by Night Shade Books and Del Rey UK, and is the first in a trilogy, The Osiris Project. Book 2 - Cataveiro - was also published this year and Book 3 is forthcoming in 2015. Saga's Children was shortlisted for this year's BSFA short fiction award.

David Turnbull is the author of a children's fantasy novel The Tale Of Euan Redcap. Born in Edinburgh, but having lived and worked in London for over thirty years, his short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. Recent anthologies include Dandelions Of Mars, a Whortleberry Press tribute to Ray Bradbury, Astrologica The Alchemy Press and A Chimerical World Vol 11 - Tales Of The Unseelie Court Seventh Star Press. He is member of the Clockhouse London group of genre writers.