We are delighted to welcome two new blog contributors to the mix—Alex Irvine and Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz.

You may know Alex from his Pushcart nominated Barrelhouse story “The Truth about Ninjas” from Barrelhouse 7. He has written everything from novels to comics to media tie-ins to Alternate Reality Games to pop journalism to scholarly nonfiction. His most recent novel is Buyout and he recently completed an acclaimed run writing Daredevil Noir for Marvel Comics.

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz is the author of five books of poetry: Dear Future Boyfriend, Hot Teen Slut, Working Class Represent, Oh, Terrible Youth, and, most recently, Everything Is Everything. She is also the author of the non-fiction book, Words In Your Face: A Guided Tour Through Twenty Years of the New York City Poetry Slam. Her poetry appears in Barrelhouse Issue 8 (coming soon).

Have good cheer, blog readers, great things are coming your way.