Nihala

Scott Burdick studied art at Chicago’s American Academy of Art and then film and writing at Columbia College, where his short story “Fear” was published in the Hair Trigger anthology. He subsequently illustrated covers for TSR’s Dungeon and Dragon magazines, as well as working on the development team for Dreamworks’ animated feature film Spirit. Unsatisfied with the prospect of living in Chicago or Los Angeles and working for others, he and his wife, artist Susan Lyon, moved to the foothills of the Appalachians in rural North Carolina, establishing a home base for traveling the world and researching many cultures and indigenous tribes for his artworks, novels, and short stories. Burdick’s paintings are widely shown in galleries and museums across the country, and he has directed three independent documentaries on religion. Many of the themes of his films overlap those of his novels: religion, science, philosophy, morality, and the direction of technology.

Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott Card’s Ender novels, Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie Angier’s Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazine’s Golden Earphones Award. She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.