The Cabinet of Curiosities: 40 Tales Brief & Sinister

Stefan Bachmann is the author of the internationally bestselling novel The Peculiar and its acclaimed sequel, The Whatnot. He was born in Colorado, spent most of his childhood in Switzerland, and is now studying modern music at the Zürich University of the Arts. When he’s not writing, he can be found traveling to someplace chilly, or holed up beneath his college in the dimly lit labyrinth of practice rooms, which may have inspired the subterranean scenes in A Drop of Night. That... and the Paris catacombs, a weird dream about a golden corridor, and a general interest in history.

Katherine Catmull is an actor, freelance writer, voice-over artist, and sometimes playwright. She lives in Austin, Texas. Summer and Bird is her first book.

Claire Legrand writes the kind of stories that haunt you long after the last page—tales that don’t just unfold, they resonate. With a gift for weaving eerie atmospheres, thorny heroines, and questions that refuse easy answers, she has carved out a singular space in contemporary fantasy and horror. Her worlds shimmer with light and menace, beauty and teeth—perfect for readers who crave emotional intensity wrapped in rich, imaginative storytelling.

Raised in Texas and once a classical pianist, Legrand’s early love of music infuses her prose with rhythm and grace. But it’s her fearless exploration of power, trauma, and the gray spaces between good and evil that sets her apart. From the sweeping, time-bending arcs of The Empirium Trilogy to the unsettling, visceral dread of Sawkill Girls, her books tackle darkness without losing sight of hope.

A New York Times bestselling author and finalist for the Edgar, Bram Stoker, and Lambda Literary Awards, Legrand has never been content to stay in one lane. She moves between middle grade and young adult fiction with the same ease she balances lush fantasy and chilling suspense, always anchoring her work in deep emotion and psychological nuance.

What binds her stories together—whether you're exploring the macabre secrets of The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls or navigating cosmic prophecy in Kingsbane—is a persistent, pulsing question: what do we become when the world demands more than we’re ready to give?

Claire Legrand doesn't offer safe answers. She offers a mirror—and dares us to look.

Emma Trevayne is a full-time writer. She is an avid music collector, a lover of computer code languages, and a photographer. She has written two young adult novels, Coda and Chorus, and a middle grade novel, Flights and Chimes and Mysterious Times. She has lived in Canada, England, and America.