J. R. Dawson (she/they) is a writer and educator who has published shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Lightspeed. She lives in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs.
Having earned a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, Dawson works as a teaching artist. Her clients include assorted Midwestern non-profits that teach kids the power of performance and storytelling.
Kill the Beast (2025) Serra Swift "Heartfelt, dark, and yet very fun, Kill the Beast is a fresh fairy tale that pulls apart old tropes and artfully reconstructs itself as a new story about friendship, grief, and forgiveness."
Saltcrop (2025) Yume Kitasei "This is a beautiful book about the people you'd cross oceans for. A brilliant triumph and a heartfelt love letter to the siblings we don't understand but are irrevocably sworn to."
The Edge of Yesterday (2025) Rita Woods "A time traveling vortex in the shape of a book, The Edge of Yesterday is a story that soars through time to both celebrate and mourn the past. Heartbreaking, raw, complicated, and vast, Rita Woods does it again."
The Specimen (2024) Jaima Fixsen "Fixsen's ghost story is the most haunting of all: a tale of the real-life evil that shapes our world and the heroines who dare name these men monsters. With a meticulous hand, Fixsen conjures Edinburgh and its history of music, immigration, murder, ghosts, and above all, love."
The Naming Song (2024) Jedediah Berry "Berry creates both a familiar and unfamiliar landscape in a sweeping epic about the language and love between us, the humanity of the living and the dead, and the raw power of creation."
The Spellshop (2024) (Spellshop, book 1) Sarah Beth Durst "The Spellshop is about believing in the kindness of people, even when you've seen nothing but cruelty. There is beauty in Kiela's building of a new and brighter world. There is courage in the love of this found family."
When Among Crows (2024) (Curse Bearer, book 1) Veronica Roth "Roth's Chicago is one of outcasts, immigrants, secrets, family, and above all, hope. Only an author who knew the soul of the city could write this book."
Someone You Can Build a Nest In (2024) John Wiswell "A beautiful monster story with a heart, Wiswell treats his outcasts as heroes. He is an author the world desperately needs."
Bookshops & Bonedust (2023) (Legends & Lattes, book 2) Travis Baldree "Bookshops & Bonedust takes the world of Legends & Lattes and weaves it into a universe. It does the impossible: showing us a character twenty years before her story, and making us hold our breath to see what happens next. It's the rare prequel that beautifully adds depth, power, and love to the lore. This is a book for those who were once young and pulled between fighting the world with all they had . . . or curling up in a dusty bookshop with a good story."
Camp Damascus (2023) Chuck Tingle "This book is for anyone who thought they were going to hell for being themselves. Chuck Tingle takes that fear and weaves it into a seamless horror that will keep you up at night, not only because it's got monsters but because we've known those monsters. And yet it still proves love is real. Camp Damascus is a big hug to all of us who had to fight to find each other."
