Pre-Quill Faculty

Alex Jay Lore (he/they) is a queer author of science fiction and fantasy with LGBTQ+ protagonists. When not writing queerness with a chance of explosions, Alex is a high school English teacher, waging epic battles against comma splices and misused apostrophes. His debut science fiction novel, EMPIRE OF LIGHT, written as Alex Harrow, is out now from NineStar Press.

Aminah Mae Safi is the author of four novels, including Tell Me How You Really Feel (Feiwel & Friends) and Travelers Along the Way: a Robin Hood Remix (Feiwel & Friends). She’s an erstwhile art historian, a fan of Cholula on popcorn, and an un-ironic lover of the Fast and the Furious franchise. Her writing has been featured on Bustle and Salon and her award-winning short stories can be found in Fresh Ink (Crown Books) and the forthcoming First Year Orientation (Candlewick Press, 2023) and Out of Our League (Feiwel & Friends, 2024).

Ashley earned degrees in theatre and film from Weber State University and The University of Utah. Ashley has worked for Hale Centre Theatre Sandy, KSL TV, Voodoo Theatre Company, and was even the assistant producer for an Off-Broadway play in NYC. Ashley writes under the pen name Jen Ellwyn and served on the Board and Conference Committee for the League of Utah Writers as their Volunteer Chair and Tech Coordinator. She is the owner of AudioBee Productions, a brand-new Utah local audiobook production company.

Bryan Young (he/they) works across many different media. His work as a writer and producer has been called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and was the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! IN 2014, he wrote the critically acclaimed history book, A Children’s Illustrated History of Presidential Assassination. He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG has written two books in the BattleTech Universe: Honor's Gauntlet and A Question of Survival. He teaches writing for Writer’s Digest, Script Magazine, and at the University of Utah. Follow him on Twitter @swankmotron.

Caryn Larrinaga is an internationally best-selling mystery and horror author, a freelance editor, and the League of Utah Writers Publications Chair. She has won multiple awards for her work, frequently finding inspiration in her Basque and Irish roots. Caryn lives near Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and their clowder of cats. She is an active member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, the Cat Writers Association, and the League of Utah Writers. Visit www.carynlarrinaga.com for free short fiction and true tales of haunted places.

Cassidy Ward is a writer specializing in science and pop culture. He's written for SYFY, StarTrek.com, Observer, The Daily Beast, and more. He's had short stories published in a number of anthologies and you can find his shortest writings, by virtue of character limits, on Twitter.

Christina Allen (publishing as C.W. Allen) is a Midwestern transplant to rural Utah, where she serves as the League of Utah Writers newsletter editor and the president of the West Desert Wordsmiths chapter. She writes fantasy novels for tweens, picture books for children, and short stories and poems for former children. Her middle grade novels Relatively Normal Secrets and The Secret Benefits of Invisibility are out now, with many more stories waiting in the wings. Follow her latest projects at cwallenbooks.com.

Curtis Moore is an attorney and mediator from Eastern Nevada. He has a law degree and master's in conflict and dispute resolution from the University of Oregon. He has published articles on scientific mediation in Nevada Lawyer and the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Journal, as well as articles on horsemanship in Nicker News. He has written one novel that was bought by a small press, but it went out of business before it was released. Curtis maintains this was not entirely his fault. In his spare time Curtis rides his horse, writes, and makes memes about underrated fantasy novels.

Daniel Yocom writes about geeky things because people say to write what you know. Their love of the geeky, nerdy community dates to the 1960s through games, books, movies, and stranger things better shared in small groups. They’re an award-winning writer and editor of short stories, books, and hundreds of articles published by blogs, magazines, and gaming companies.
They enjoy attending conferences, conventions, festivals, sharing on panels, and presentations. Current serving as the president of the Infinite Monkeys Genre Writers, they want to help others become the writer/author they desire to be.
Join them at www.guildmastergaming.com.

David Rodeback daylights as CMTO of a Utah manufacturing firm. By night he has published several short stories since resolving almost a decade ago to learn to write fiction, and he has his first novel back from beta readers. He has worked as a speech writer; a college writing, language, and literature instructor; an editor; a software developer; a database architect; and in digital marketing. He lives in American Fork, Utah.

Elizabeth Suggs is the founder of the LUW Romance Writers Chapter, co-owner of the indie publisher Collective Tales Publishing, owner of Editing Mee, and is the author of a growing number of published stories, two of which were in a podcast and poetry journal. She is also a book reviewer (EditingMee.com), popular bookstagramer, and cosplayer (@ElizabethSuggsAuthor). When she’s not writing or reading, she’s playing video and board games or making cookies.