Guests
Guests for the 2026 Festival will be announced over the next few months. Check back for updates!
Applications for Author Reading spots, Panel Pitches, and Presentations are now open. Please submit your application now!
Featured Guests
Cody Goodfellow has written ten novels and five collections of short stories, and has won three Wonderland Book Awards. His comics work has been featured in Mystery Meat, Creepy, Slow Death Zero and Skin Crawl. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous short films, TV shows, music videos by Anthrax and Beck, and a Days Inn commercial. He wrote, co-produced and scored the Lovecraftian hygiene films "Baby Got Bass" and "Stay At Home Dad," which can be viewed on YouTube.
Kenneth Hite has designed, written, or co-authored 100+ roleplaying works, including Trail of Cthulhu, Bookhounds of London, The Dracula Dossier, the Delta Green RPG, Night’s Black Agents, The Fall of Delta Green, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. His other works include the two-volume Tour de Lovecraft, Cthulhu 101, The Cthulhu Wars for Osprey, the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales, an annotated edition of Chambers’ The King in Yellow, and four Lovecraftian children’s books. Half of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast and an Artistic Associate at Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre, he lives in Chicago with two Lovecraftian cats and his non-Lovecraftian wife, Sheila.
Philip Fracassi is the USA Today bestselling, Stoker and British Fantasy-nominated author of the novels Don’t Let Them Get You Down, A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, and Sarafina. Other work includes the story collections No One Is Safe!, Beneath a Pale Sky (named “Best Collection of the Year” by Rue Morgue Magazine and a finalist for the Bram Stoker award), and Behold the Void (named “Best Collection of the Year” by This Is Horror).
He is also the author of several novellas, including "Sacculina", "Shiloh", "Commodore", and "D7". His short stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, Interzone, Southwest Review, and others. Philip’s books have been translated into multiple languages and have been favorably reviewed in The New York Times, LOCUS Magazine, Rue Morgue and many other magazines, blogs, and review sites. The New York Times called his work “terrifically scary.” As a screenwriter, his feature films have been distributed by Disney Entertainment and Lifetime Television, with several projects in various stages of development.
His short story, “Altar”, has been adapted by film studio A24 for a feature film, and his story, “Fail Safe” is being adapted for a feature film by Sony Pictures, with Oscar winner Brie Larson set to star. He is also the author of a children’s book, The Boy with the Blue Rose Heart, and a book of poetry, Tomorrow’s Gone. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (@philipfracassi).
Sean is a producer, actor, director and writer with the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society which he runs with his nefarious colleague, Andrew Leman. He was intimately involved in the creation of the motion pictures The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness, nineteen episodes of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, and many other Lovecraftian projects. With his work at the HPLHS, he's created many other Lovecraftian entertainments. Sean also produces and directs live theatre in Los Angeles. He plays ice hockey and has four chinchillas.
Over the course of a 26-year career spanning Emmy Award-winning television, cult genre cinema, and Cannes-calibre historical horror, Casey Walker has consistently done things his own way — and consistently come out ahead. His is a filmography defined not by the path of least resistance but by the conviction that the stories worth telling are the ones worth fighting for. He began his filmmaking career with the legendary Frank Oz, working on the Robert De Niro thriller The Score. His many credits include directing Emmy Award-winning children’s series Zoboomafoo, award-winning short film "The Morning After", episodes of Hulu’s The Hardy Boys and Overlord and the Underwoods, producing indie horror phenomenonsThe Void and supernatural thriller Pyewacket, and serving as the sole Executive Producer on In a Violent Nature.
For fifteen years, Walker refused to abandon Ithaqua. A $10 million historical horror set in the winter of 1821 at the fur trade outpost that now bears the name Thunder Bay, where he grew up. The film is shot in English, French, and Ojibwe/Cree, produced in active partnership with the Fort William First Nation on their ancestral lands, and is the first title to relaunch the legendary Hammer Films label under Executive Producer John Gore, multi-award-winning Broadway producer and billionaire. While awaiting Ithaqua’s post-production, Walker directed Home Bodies, produced alongside Karen Harnish (Sleeping Giant, Infinity Pool). Walker resides in the Muskoka region of Ontario with his wife, two dogs, and an impressive collection of broken motorcycles.
Dominique Lamssies is a writer local to Portland, Oregon and is the head necromancer at The House Of Silent Graves, where she makes monsters for people to hug. She strives constantly to have every story she writes involve some form of dead person and sound like it was written a hundred years ago. Her work has been featured in The Horror Zine, Non Binary Review, and Women in Horror Annual. She hopes to someday write a story worthy of having Peter Cushing star in the movie version, were he still with us. She always wants to talk about weird movies and hopes Ed Wood blesses your day.
Mike Dalager is a hybrid mish-mash of talents and nationalities, born and raised at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A childhood spent half on land and half at sea in the Pacific Ocean raises questions of possible cohabitation with Deep Ones. This link to the sea continues today, as he serves the Nation as a member of the Coast Guard Reserve. For the past ten years, Mike has collaborated and contributed to the HP Lovecraft Historical Society's mission of creating solid Lovecraftian content, appearing in The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness, and producing conceptual Mythos music as Ogham Waite in "Live at the Gilman House Lounge", and as Executive Producer of "Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera."
Avant-shamanic and ancient throat singing merged with modern, ethereal, and dark soundscapes, SoRIAH’s live performance is breathtaking—an experience of both organic beauty and artistic ritual. Invoking the very spirits of nature, SoRIAH has studied with masters of his craft and is currently the highest-ranked non-Tuvan throat singer in the world. His efforts have not gone unnoticed. He has shared the stage with legendary artists, including Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, Modest Mouse, Peter Murphy, David J, cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy), Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), The Black Angels, Steve Roach, and Clan of Xymox. He has also collaborated in the studio and is featured on official record releases with the likes of cEvin Key (Skinny Puppy), Modest Mouse, Lustmord, The Dandy Warhols, Thor Harris (SWANS), and Hans Joachim Roedelius (Cluster). https://soriahmusic.com/
Guests
In 1998 Scott Glancy left a perfectly functional career as an attorney to join up with the role-playing game publisher Pagan Publishing, the nerd equivalent of running away to join the Foreign Legion. Today Scott is the man in charge of Pagan Publishing (much in the same sense that the last surviving legionnaire can be said to be in command of Fort Zinderhoff). Pagan’s most recent project is “Horrors of War,” an anthology of scenarios set during the Great War for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Scott is a contributing author on the award-winning Delta Green series of Call of Cthulhu rpg supplements and has had Lovecraftian fiction published in several short story collections including the recent "Book of Cthulhu II," "Shotguns v. Cthulhu," and the upcoming “Swords v. Cthulhu.” You can hear his recorded games sessions on Role-Playing Public Radio, and listen to him bloviate on the Unspeakable Podcast and Podcast at Ground Zero.
Frances Lu Pai Ippolito (she/her) is a Chinese American writer and publisher in Portland, Oregon. Her writing has appeared in several venues including Nightmare Magazine, Flame Tree’s Asian Ghost Stories, Chromophobia, Mother: Tales of Terror and Love, and Unquiet Spirits. She is the founder of game and book publisher Demagogue Press and the award-winning nonprofit, Qilin Press, which focuses on marginalized voices. She is also the co-editor of three cozy horror anthologies through Underland Press. But most importantly, she believes in ghosts. IG: @demagogue_press & @qilin_press
Born among the cornfields of the midwest, Aaron Sauerland is a writer/director with over a decade of experience in the industry. He graduated from Columbia College Chicago and took his thesis film QWERTY to the LA Shorts International Film Festival where it garnered the Silver Award for Best Drama Short. From here, Aaron began script supervising on film and television. In this capacity, he worked alongside some of the greatest filmmakers alive, essentially having a personal masterclass with the likes of David Mamet, Seth MacFarlane, and The Safdie Brothers.
Amit Itelman began his theater career 30 years ago at the HBO Workspace, he is the Founding Artistic Director of Steve Allen Theater (2003-2011) and Trepany House (2011-present). Itelman directed and premiered the live shows Max Maven Thinking in Person, Aye Jaye Carny Trash; Janet Klein and her Borcht Belt Babies, Mary Lynn Spreads her Legs, and the haunted house of Hollywood Hellhouse. He is the writer and director of Bride of Blood, Alien Encounter, Strings, and Theater of the Damned. He is the resident theater writer/director at Titmouse in Hollywood. His horror comedy Grand Guiognol short film, "The Final Kiss," starring Dave Foley and Scott Thompson of the Kids in the Hall, is his first film.
Andrew S. Fuller writes dark and strange stories. His fiction appears in several magazines, anthologies, short films, and the new collection Constellations of Ruin (2023, Trepidatio Publishing). Since 1999, he’s been editor-in-chief of Three-Lobed Burning Eye magazine. He lives in Portland, OR near two rivers, several extinct(?) volcanoes, and is friends with several crows and spiders. Visit him online at andrewsfuller.com.
Anthony returns to H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival with a double feature of Frogman (2023) and his newest feature Frogman Returns (winner audience choice award at Portland Horror Film Festival. He won Best Short in 2016 with "When Susurrus Stirs." Since then he's directed shorts "The Bloody Ballad of Squirt Reynolds" and "Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes."
Lora Friess (Aunt Gore) is a fashion driven artist who enjoys the silly and the macabre. She is co-creator of Trash People from the Dump Productions with her partner Theo “Monstar” Friess and the creator of Horror Movie Cocktails with Aunt Gore on their YouTube channel youtube.com/trashpeople and you can also follow her on her other socials @auntgore
Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen (陳致宇) now writes stories near Portland, Oregon. He's the award-winning author of the bestselling KANGAROO series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and has written for the Realm original podcasts Echo Park, Ninth Step Murders, and Machina. Curtis' shorter works have appeared in Playboy Magazine; the ENNIE Award-winning Kobold Guide to Roleplaying; The Year's Best Fantasy, Volume 2; Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey; and elsewhere. His homebrew cat feeding robot was displayed in the "Worlds Beyond Here" exhibit at Seattle's Wing Luke Museum. Visit him online: https://CurtisCChen.com
D. L. Myers is a writer of Weird poetry in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. His work has appeared in Spectral Realms, Halloween Howlings and K. A. Opperman's The Crimson Tome. He also is an accomplished reader of poetry, and he does a weekly video poetry reading of contemporary and classic Weird poets, as well as his own work, which he posts on his blog vulravin.blogspot.com. He also had his debut live poetry reading at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, San Pedro. He lives in the mist-shrouded Skagit Valley of the Pacific Northwest.
Dustin Little is a writer and filmmaker from sun-bleached Mesa, AZ, whose films make use of puppets, miniature sets, and practical effects to create highly-stylized, atmospheric worlds. His work has screened at film festivals across the US; most recently “A Man in a Castle Loses His Mind,” which is now on Vimeo. He is an 11-year resident of Los Angeles, and a Theater Manager at the Director’s Guild of America.
Evan J. Peterson is a novelist, game writer, monsterologist, and poet. His first novel, Better Living Through Alchemy, won the Small Spec Book Award for fantasy fiction. His newest RPG is Posthuman: Guardians vs PSION (Choice of Games). Other works include Drag Star!, the world’s first drag performer RPG; METAFLESH: Poems In the Voices of the Monster; and The Road to Innsmouth: Arkham Horror. His writing has appeared in Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Queers Destroy Horror, and Nightmare Magazine. Evanjpeterson.com can tell you more.
Gretchen Brooks is a film selection judge for the Portland Horror Film Festival, the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Seattle’s Crypticon Film Festival. A lifelong fan of horror, she has shared her passion for cinema at numerous convention as a panelist and a guest on various podcasts. She co-hosts Gwen and Gretchen Watch Movies and Check the Gate Podcast. Gretchen also lent her voice to the role of Mary Rose in the short film "The Haunted Baby Carriage." She is currently working on a resource book for Tokusatsu Horror films.
North Carolina filmmaker Joe Pellegrino found a natural draw to film after a lifetime of related creative pursuits such as music, photography and writing led to an enthusiasm for marrying them into one medium. Pellegrino cut his teeth in the Asheville, NC indie film scene; and creates with an offbeat, existential voice informed by neurodivergence in the bleak, rural Southeast U.S. environment he grew up in.
Josef B. Wilke is an award-winning author and comic book writer currently living in a catacomb deep beneath Redmond, Washington. His most recent comics are House of Doom and Coffee House of Doom, with Greenhouse of Doom releasing later this year. Josef is a member of the Horror Writers Association, having helped establish the Seattle chapter as co-chair in 2023. A rabid horror fan, Josef collects all things spooky including books, movies, comics, and retro video games. When not writing, Josef can be found in sneaker shops looking for vintage Air Jordans. Follow Josef on Instagram and Bluesky at @Hashtagspooky.
Liv Rainey-Smith's original art is created through xylography, the practice of carving and printing wood. Rainey-Smith draws upon both European and Japanese techniques to create her work and favors working with natural materials as much as possible. She finds inspiration in early European prints, esoteric traditions, folklore, weird fiction, and the natural world. She won the World Fantasy Award for Best Artist in 2025. Rainey-Smith's woodcut art illustrates The Starry Wisdom Library Catalogue of the Greatest Occult Book Auction of All Time, and accompanies her story in The Dagon Collection.
Maquel A. Jacob writes fluid beings in an ocean of stars with a little bit of romance and a touch of gore. Originally from the Windy City of Chicago, she now resides in Oregon. She has three different series and short stories in various anthologies and magazines. Her degrees are in Accounting, Business Administration, and Digital Film and Video. Member of SFWA, PNWA, NIWA, and ALLi. As a strong advocate for diversity, Maquel injects elements into her stories to encourage new ways of thinking through Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, and the Paranormal. She is a HUGE Anime fan, loves a great bottle of wine, and rocks out to heavy metal music while spinning imaginary worlds in her head and daydreaming.
Maxwell Morro is an independent filmmaker whose work spans narrative features, short films, and documentary storytelling. As a director, writer, and producer, he is drawn to complex characters, strange worlds, and emotionally driven genre stories. His latest feature, Valley of the Horntak, reflects his hands-on, multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Nathan began filmmaking at a young age with stop-motion animation, an infinite sandbox allowing him to explore his creative passions for world-building and uncanny storytelling. While studying at the University of Texas at Austin, he created the multi-award-winning science-fiction short CALLISTO’S END. After graduating from UT, Nathan continued his filmmaking career in Los Angeles, working as an assistant for companies including ICM Partners, CAA, and C&I Studios. He has since written and directed the supernatural horror short HEATHEN, and directed and co-wrote the film noir short PLASTIC SOUL and dark comedy FACADE. He is currently writing his second feature film, scheduled for completion by the end of 2026. Nathan is the Co-Founder of Fowl Play Productions and is represented by Adrian Gonzalez and Karen Kirkland of YakYak Mgmt.
When not occupied whispering to insects and cataloging esoteric ephemera, Nick Gucker is typically perched at his art table conjuring up nightmare visions and freakish delights out of ink, charcoal and acrylic media. His art has frequently appeared in the pages of Strange Aeons Magazine, The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction, Dark Discoveries and online publications including theLovecraft eZine. His illustrations embellished the innards of works by authors Cody Goodfellow, David Conyers and a few projects with Spectral Press in the UK. His paintings have been used for covers of books from Blysster Press, Sinister Grin, and others. Nick was the winner of the 2012 Pickman’s Apprentice Iron Artist challenge at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland and has had the honor of creating multiple pieces of artwork for the HP Lovecraft Film Festival posters and T-shirts. Nick has also designed images for Skurvy Ink T-Shirts, honoring the works of various genre authors. Nick was featured in a gallery group show in Ketchikan, AK in Oct. of 2012 and his Lovecraftian pieces were on display in the Providence, RI Art Club in conjunction with NecronomiCon 2013. Recent gallery appearances include group shows at Krab Jab Studio and Cloud Gallery in Seattle curated by Yvette Endrijautzki. In addition to his published work, Nick’s unique, one-of-a-kind custom commission pieces grace the walls and limbs of various and sundry patrons of the arts from near and far.
Niyyah writes middle grade and adult speculative fiction, fantasy and horror, with an emphasis on Muslim American and multicultural characters. Her novella “The Veil” debuted September 2026, and she has published several short stories. She was selected as 2026 We Need Diverse Books Mentee for her middle grade fantasy manuscript “Under.”
Noah Manglapus is an award-winning Filipino-American filmmaker based in Upstate New York, specializing in bizarre and colorful genre films. His work has been featured at the Anomaly Film Festival, the Yale Student Film Festival, and the Hudson Valley Film Festival, including a drive-in screening under the stars.
Sarah Walker is an artist, anthropologist, and writer of horror living in the Pacific Northwest. Her work appears in publications such as Audient Void, Lovecraft Ezine Press, Vastarien, and many more. She co-edited the Folk Horror anthology, A Walk in A Darker Wood with Gordon White, Phil Breach, and Duane Pesice, and A Walk in a City of Shadows: Tales of Urban Legendry, with Nora B. Peevy, Jill Hand, Gordon White, and Phil Breach.
Theoddra Monstar is a creative weirdo who enjoys bringing smiles to people faces through bizarre puppets and music. They are also the creator of The Subterrestrial Society comic, and the co-creator of Trash People from the Dump Productions with their partner Lora Friess (Aunt Gore). You can find them on YouTube at youtube.com/trashpeople and on their other socials @theomonstar
Thomas J Yagodinski is an independent stop motion animator, musician and Art enthusiast. In his sixteen years of animating he has created music videos for artists as varied as John 5, Ghostemane and Four Stroke Baron, two short films, Beyond Ferox(2016) and Demoni Ferox: Night People Stole My Baby(2023) both which have been screened at prominent festivals and two viral fan videos, A Jawa Plays Eruption(2021) and Mastodon: Bedazzled Fingernails(2014). Most recently, Thomas has finished a 46 minute stop motion adaptation of HP Lovecraft's The Beast in the Cave, a project that took over six years to complete and is set to enjoy it's world premiere at the long running and prestigious HP Lovecraft Film Festival. Currently, Thomas is experimenting with new techniques in puppet fabrication, 3D printing and developing his next two stop motion projects.
Tyler Savage’s third feature Oddities is currently on the festival circuit. He also recently expanded his producing efforts, with features Marfa Lights and Iron Jane coming in 2027. A graduate of NYU Tisch, Savage worked as a Story Editor at Warner Bros before going on to work for Terrence Malick on four back-to-back features. Savage’s first feature (Inheritance, 2017) was lauded by genre critics after premiering at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. His second feature (Stalker, 2020) premiered at Fright Fest, won the Dark Matters Award at the Austin Film Festival, and was acquired by Vertical Entertainment.
