StokerCon 2026

Justina Ireland is the New York Times bestselling author of numerous short stories and books including Vengeance Bound, Promise of Shadows, Dread Nation and its sequel Deathless Divide, Rust in the Root, and the middle-grade novel Ophie's Ghosts, which won the Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction. She is the creator of the spooky middle grade book series Tales from Cabin 23 with author Hanna Alkaf and penned the flagship title, The Boo Hag Flex.

Justina was a primary story architect of the Star Wars: The High Republic multimedia initiative and has written extensively in the Star Wars galaxy including the books Lando’s Luck, Spark of the Resistance, A Test of Courage, Out of the Shadows, Mission to Disaster, A Vow of Valor, and Acolyte: Wayseeker. She co-authored Star Wars titles Path of Deceit and Defy the Storm with author Tessa Gratton and wrote a number of Star Wars comics including Sana Starros for Marvel.

Justina also regularly writes for Marvel comics, most recently What If…Jessica Jones. She was the first Black woman to write on the mainline Marvel comic The Amazing Spider-Man. Justina also writes for TV and film and her work can be seen on Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher and the Carrie reboot on Amazon/MGM+.

Justina is a founding creator and former editor in chief of FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, for which she won a World Fantasy Award. She has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards and she won the Locus award for Dread Nation. A United States Army veteran, Justina holds a BA in History from Georgia Southern and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University.