Tantra Bensko is the author of Lucid Membrane, put out by Night Publishing, and the chapbook of short stories, Watching the Windows Sleep, available from Naissance Press as well as the tiny Swinging on the Edge of Day. 10 Pages Press published her e-chapbook, Liminal, and ISMs Press put out her chapbook, The Cabinet of What You Don't See. She has 200 poetry and fiction publications in journals, with just as many non-fiction, including literary criticism and theory in addition. She also has another full-length book of fiction, Collapsible Horizon, out now. Make-Do Publishing will put out a collection called Yard Man, and Dog Horn Publishing will put out a novel, called Unside: a book of closed time-like curves. She has a substantial number of Flash Fictions published in journals, and anthologies, and many appear in her books.
Her writing has won awards, such as from the Iowa Journal of Literary Studies, Academy of American Poet's Award, Editors' Pick, and Journeys Awards from Cezanne's Carrot Magazine, Oblongata Award from Medulla Review, Punkpen's Prize, and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Rose and Thorn, A-Minor, and Metazen, as well as for the Best of the Net. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Surreal South (Press 53), Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts (Paraphilia), North of Wakulla (Anhinga Press), and Women Writing the Weird (Dog Horn) Fast and Loose, and Writing without Walls. She Guest Edited the Lucid Fiction, and co-edited the Prosetry, in an Issue of Medulla Review.
She obtained her BA and MA in English from FSU, and her MFA from the Writing Program at Iowa. She teaches Fiction Writing through www.writerscollege.com, UCLA Extension Program, Writers College, and her own academy online. She promotes innovative writing through the Experimental Writing resource website, reviews, putting out people's work through chapbooks through LucidPlay Publishing, as well as creating this contest.