About

Carina Bissett is a writer, poet, and educator working primarily in the fields of dark fantasy and fabulism. Her nonfiction has been published in several venues including Apex Magazine, Writing Poetry in the Dark, and The Evolution of Horror in the 21st Century and Beyond. Her short fiction and poetry have been published in multiple journals and anthologies including Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, The Dark, Into the Forest, Upon a Twice Time, Bitter Distillations: An Anthology of Poisonous Tales, Arterial Bloom, and the HWA Poetry Showcase Vol. V, VI, VIII, IX, and X. She has also written stories set in shared worlds for RPGs at Green Ronin Publishing and Onyx Path Publishing. In addition to writing, she has edited several projects; the most recent is in the role as co-editor of STORYTELLER: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology. She is also the co-publisher, with Nike Sulway, of the literary, fairy tale journal The Orange & Bee.

As an educator, Carina has taught at Pikes Peak Community College, Glendale Community College, and Arizona State University. She also participated in the Colorado Writing Project and works with educators to develop writing instruction in college and secondary school classrooms. She currently offers workshops focused on story generation at The Storied Imaginarium. She is a Shirley Jackson Award nominee for psychological horror. Her fiction has also been nominated for the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and was a finalist for the Ron L. Hubbard Writers of the Future Awards. Her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award. Her nonfiction was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Awards®. In her editorial capacity, she’s received recognition as a co-editor for Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas, as a Winner at the Colorado Book Awards 2022 (Anthology) and as a Finalist in the Fiction: Anthologies category of the 2022 International Book Awards.

AWARDS and NOMINATIONS

• Nominee, Single-Author Collection, Shirley Jackson Awards. Dead Girl, Driving and Other Devastations (Trepidatio Publishing, March 2024).
• Finalist, SHORT NON-FICTION, Bram Stoker Awards®. “Words Wielded by Women,” Apex Magazine, Issue 138. May 2023.
• “Sleeping Beauties,” HWA Poetry Showcase X, October 2023. *Nominated for the Rhysling Award (short form).
• “Between Scylla and Charybdis,” The Future Fire, June 2023. *Nominated for the Rhysling Award (long form).
• Winner, ANTHOLOGY, Colorado Book Awards. Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas, edited by Carina Bissett, Hillary Dodge, and Joshua Viola. November 2021.
• Finalist, ANTHOLOGY, International Book Awards. Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas, edited by Carina Bissett, Hillary Dodge, and Joshua Viola. November 2021.
• “Fairy Tale Prohibition,” NonBinary Review #25 Prohibition, Zoetic Press. September 2021. *Nominated for Best of the Net.
• “Radiant,” NonBinary Review Issue 24: Industrial Revolution, Zoetic Press, June 2021. *Nominated for Best of the Net Award.
• Silver Hammer Award, Horror Writers Association, 2021.
• Finalist, ANTHOLOGY, Colorado Book Awards. “An Authentic Experience,” WILD: Uncivilized Tales from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, RMFW Press. August 2020.
• Finalist, Superior Achievement in an Anthology, Stoker Awards. “Rotten,” Arterial Bloom, Crystal Lake Publishing. March 2020.
• Honorable Mention, NESFA Short Story Contest, 2020.
• WINNER-Fiction: ANTHOLOGY, The 2020 Best Book Awards. “Gaze with Undimmed Eyes and the World Drops Dead,” Terror at 5280’, Denver Horror Collective. November 2019.
• Finalist, Writers of the Future, 1st quarter, 2019.
• Silver Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future, 4th quarter, 2018.
• “C8 : A Tessellation of Faces, Wings, and other Obscure Things,” NonBinary Review Issue 17: A Wrinkle in Time, Zoetic Press, July 2018. *Nominated for Best of the Net Award.
• “The Sweet Sleep of Roses or, After the Fall,” NonBinary Review Issue 15: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Zoetic Press, January 2018.*Nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
• Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future, 4th quarter, 2017.
• Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future, 2nd quarter, 2017.
• Horror Writers Association, HWA Scholarship, 2016.
• “Swimming with the Shark Boys,” Mythic Delirium, May 2016. *Honorable mention in Best Horror of the Year, Vol. 9 by Ellen Datlow.
• “The Yellow Press of an Ancient Power,” NonBinary Review Issue 5: The King in Yellow, Zoetic Press, June 2015. *Nominated for Sundress Best of the Net.
• “Wild Girl,” NonBinary Review Issue 1: Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Zoetic Press, June 2014.  *Nominated for Sundress Publications Best of the Net Award and the Pushcart Prize.