Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Reno, Nevada, but received her MA in English from Penn State. She currently lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and son. She’s known for her Edda-Earth novels, Rhysling-nominated poetry, and increasing number of short-story publications. For more about her work, please see edda-earth.com. 

A fetch is a spirit known in Irish folklore that's similar to a doppleganger, in that it resembles a living person. If you meet yourself, or see your double, it's a sign of impending death. I wonder, however, how the fetch feels about the arrangement. Are they angry at being summoned? Are they lonely? Do they long for the touch of a human hand that doesn't cringe away from theirs? Or are they just hungry for a little warmth, no matter the cost?

John C. Mannone has work in Blue Fifth Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Peacock Journal, Gyroscope Review, Panoply, Inscape Literary Journal, Baltimore Review, Pedestal, and Pirene's Fountain. He’s the winner of the 2017 Jean Ritchie Fellowship in Appalachian literature and the recipient of two Weymouth writing residencies. He has three poetry collections: Apocalypse (Alban Lake Publishing), nominated for the 2017 Elgin Book Award; Disabled Monsters (The Linnet’s Wings Press) featured at the 2016 Southern Festival of Books; and Flux Lines (Celtic Cat Publishing). He’s been nominated for several Pushcart and Rhysling awards, and two for the 2017 Best of the Net from Eye To The Telescope. He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other venues. He’s a professor of physics living near Knoxville, TN. http://jcmannone.wordpress.com

“Ghoul Cloud” is a 100-word prose poem stimulated by a smoke cloud from a 2017 4th of July fireworks display in north Knoxville, TN.

Ashley Dioses is a writer of dark fantasy, horror, and Gothic poetry from southern California.  Her debut collection of dark formal poetry, Diary of a Sorceress, is forthcoming from Hippocampus Press in October.  Her poetry has appeared in Weird Fiction Review, Spectral Realms, Weirdbook Magazine, and elsewhere.  Her poem “Carathis,” appeared in Ellen Datlow’s full recommended Best Horror of the Year Volume Seven list. She has also appeared in the HWA Poetry Showcase 2016 for her poem “Ghoul Mistress.”  She is an Active member in the HWA and a member of the SFPA.  She blogs at fiendlover.blogspot.com. “The Skull Beneath the Skin” will be published in Ravenwood Quarterly Issue 5 by Electric Pentacle Press.

K. A. Opperman is a poet of horror and fantasy influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Edgar Allan Poe, and David Park Barnitz.  His debut collection, The Crimson Tome, was published by Hippocampus Press (2015).  His poems, “In Fits of Wildest Dreaming” and “The Blood Garden” appeared in Ellen Datlow's full recommended Best Horror of the Year Volume Eight list.  His poem “The Lady in White,” appeared in the HWA Poetry Showcase 2016.

"The Jack-o'-Lantern Trail" is written both as a description of my spiritual summons to the realm of eternal Autumn, and the land of death beyond, and as a solemn love-letter to the ineluctable black path we all tread toward Halloween. It was first published in Ravenwood Quarterly, Issue 2.