Brigitte Winter

📣 📣 BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! 📣 📣 HAPPY HALLOWEEN, PRECIOUS MONSTERS, CREEPY-CRAWLERS, and QUEER CRYPTIDS! We are monstrously proud to announce another extraordinary book taking its place on the Generous Press timeline. Some day we’ll tell you the story about how this manuscript initially found us (a bit of publishing gossip so sweet, it’s almost scary). Announcing THE NORMAL MONSTER CLUB, a cozy sapphic horroromance set in a cryptid-obsessed small town where two exes - a paranormal podcaster and a stubborn skeptic - must reunite to save a missing child as part of an investigation into an unsolved mystery from their childhood, to Elaina Ellis and Amber Flame at Generous Press, for publication in 2027, by Sara Megibow at Megibow Literary Agency. Author Brigitte Winter @bwinterose is a writer, photographer, award-winning narrative game designer, and the Executive Director of Young Playwerights’ Theater, a DC-based nonprofit dedicated to inspiring young people to realize the power of their voices through creative writing. Her fiction has appeared in PodCastle, City of Weird: 30 Otherworldly Portland Tales, Enter the Apocalypse, Queer Sci Fi: Renewal, and New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention. She is a 2023 alumna of Viable Paradise and a SFWA member. The Normal Monster Club was a 2024 PNWA Literary Awards Finalist.

I have some big, joyful news! This has been a hard secret to keep for the past few months, but I’m thrilled to finally share that my debut novel, The Normal Monster Club, will be published by Generous Press in 2027! A HUGE thank you to my agent Sara Megibow at @megibowliterary and to Elaina Ellis and Amber Flame at @generouspress for believing in this queer genre-bending novel! The Normal Monster Club is a cozy, sapphic horroromance set in a cryptid-obsessed small town. Two exes - a paranormal podcaster and a stubborn skeptic - must reunite to save a missing child as part of an investigation into an unsolved mystery from their childhood, as buried secrets and monsters surface with the summer cicadas. The book will be published just in time for cicada season in spring 2027, and I’m extra pumped that the official announcement dropped today for Halloween. I can’t wait to introduce you to Em, Sid, and June, and share their story with the world.

Happy birthday, @yptdc ✨! Our 30th anniversary gala was a blast last week. We raised $50K to support YPT’s creative writing and theater programs, honored Karen L.B. Evans and Ty’Ree Hope Davis with the Giving Voice Award and Rising Voice Award, enjoyed a surprise visit from Congressman Jamie Raskin to deliver a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for YPT’s 30 years of inspiring young people to realize the power of their voices, and my colleagues, family, and closest buds surprised me with a beautiful moment of recognition for my own 20 years of service to YPT. I was 23 when started my work with YPT in 2006, younger than some of our playwrights. And I was 29 when I became Executive Director in 2012. It has been a great joy to grow up with this organization. I’m so grateful and inspired by the community we’ve built in the last three decades, and I’m feeling energized to continue this important work. ❤️ Event 📸 by @ruruphotos_

Whirlwind NYC visit for @bookcon 📕! A giant, joyful celebration of books and authors, with bonus shenanigans with my buds @natmesnard @patrickdkwatson @margotatwell and @critkituk 🎲, my awesome agent Sara at @megibowliterary and her rad co-agents @helenmasango and @tales.of.tempest 📖, and my @viable_paradise writing family @cmcinnyc @shannonxspiels @traewrites @charlottehelen and @crownedvic 🪼❤️!

@hooraymae was such a delight last night. What a fabulous show. Thanks for visiting DC, Mae! The way you are a canvas for your art is really inspiring.

Maryland friends, @scryptidgames is publishing a spooky little companion zine, Real Cryptids of Baltimore, alongside our forthcoming Tales from the Cryptids anthology. Please send me your true personal accounts of supernatural experiences in Maryland. These testimonials don’t need to be high literary art and we can publish them anonymously if you prefer. Feel free to send them to the email on this flyer, to [email protected], or just DM me here. 👻

Norwescon was a blast. I got to catch up with old friends and make a few new ones. I chatted with my fellow panelists about designing and publishing TTRPGs, building inclusive gaming spaces, and choosing the right writing workshop. I did my first public reading from my forthcoming spooky horror romance novel, The Normal Monster Club, and previewed a chapter of my current manuscript, a first girl/final girl sapphic slasher. I got to hang with @neversaydustin and @alecjmarsh , watch my brilliant friends, @byelsieraymond ✨, @nirele ✨, and @lauracranehill ✨read their work, and celebrate Laura’s gorgeous horror novel, Wife Shaped Bodies, which debuts next week. And I met my rad @generouspress editors, Elaina Ellis and @theamberflame 🔥! My author heart is full.

Wow! We are overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response to our open call for Tales from the Cryptids, our forthcoming anthology of games, fiction, poetry, and other ephemera, and we are very excited by all the weird and wonderful submissions we’ve received so far. (Link in bio to submit.) We already hit our planned cap of 100 submissions in the fiction category, but, frankly, @bwinterose is so delighted by what she’s read that she has decided to break her own rule and keep the portal open until we hit 200 submissions or reach our May 15th deadline. Keep those great flash pieces coming! And the TTRPG, poetry, and weird ephemera categories are also going strong and likely to hit their submission caps soon. TBD on whether Brigitte increases the caps in those categories as well. She’s never been much of a rule follower. We are keen to acquire TTRPGs and other narrative games that embody a sense of the liminal. We love unusual original game systems and mechanics. Send us games that could be poems and poems that could be games. Send us immersive experiences and thoughtful explorations. If we read your game and say, “Wow, is that game actually a cryptid?” you’re probably in. For fiction and poetry, we want cryptid content that prioritizes the agency of liminal beings, places, and experiences. Your work does not need to feature a cryptid protagonist or an optimistic point-of-view, but your monsters must have agency and depth. We are also interested in micro-submissions of uncanny ephemera to literally occupy the margins of this book. Send us cryptid scribbles, doodles, haikus, photographs, and other 2D marginalia. Even we don’t quite know what we want in this category. Surprise us. Submissions will be open until May 15, 2026. 10 cents/word for original fiction and TTRPGs, 5 cents/word for reprints. $50 for original poems, $25 for reprints. $25 for ephemera. We will endeavor to send responses by June 30, 2026.

Grateful for sunshine, friendship, brave joy, and the pure delight of celebrating my birthday weekend at a dog park with so many of my favorite humans and pups. 🐕 🧁 ❤️

Thanks for visiting Baltimore, @awpwriter ✨. You were swell.

We are beyond excited to announce that Tales from the Cryptids, our forthcoming anthology of games, fiction, poetry, and other ephemera is now open for submissions! (Link in bio to submit.) We are keen to acquire TTRPGs and other narrative games that embody a sense of the liminal. We love unusual original game systems and mechanics. Send us games that could be poems and poems that could be games. Send us immersive experiences and thoughtful explorations. If we read your game and say, “Wow, is that game actually a cryptid?” you’re probably in. For fiction and poetry, we want cryptid content that prioritizes the agency of liminal beings, places, and experiences. Your work does not need to feature a cryptid protagonist or an optimistic point-of-view, but your monsters must have agency and depth. We are also interested in micro-submissions of uncanny ephemera to literally occupy the margins of this book. Send us cryptid scribbles, doodles, haikus, photographs, and other 2D marginalia. Even we don’t quite know what we want in this category. Surprise us. Submissions will be open March 1 - May 15, 2026 or until we hit our submission cap of 100 real non-AI submissions in each category. We will endeavor to send responses by June 30, 2026.

Scryptid Games is headed to @awpwriter in Baltimore this week!! We’re thrilled to present two panels alongside a rockstar slate of game designers, authors, and publishers. You can also find us at the Scryptid Games booth in the book fair all week long. Come say hi and learn more about submissions for both Tales from the Cryptids and our companion zine, The Real Cryptids of Baltimore. Scryptid Games’ co-founders @bwinterose and @neversaydustin are Baltimore natives, and they are pumped to share tips for exploring their favorite city! On Friday at 12:10pm, @natmesnard ✨, @sharangbiswas ✨, Erin Roberts ✨, @slickhop ✨, and Brigitte Winter ✨ will present Poetry, Prose, and Play: Game Design as Literary Practice, exploring the literary possibilities of narrative games! And on Saturday at 10:35am, Brigitte Winter, @domsdickey ✨, @nearfutures ✨, Nat Mesnard ✨, and @justinsirois ✨will present Story Game Presses: Pitching, Submissions, and Publishing, sharing a behind the scenes look at the unique world of narrative game publishing, submissions, and distribution. We may even bring donuts for that Saturday morning panel... See you soon!