Steven Gray, with his manuscript-in-progress, Conjurer of Chaos, is a 2024 New Voices writer. Congratulations, Steve. 

Conjurer of Chaos builds a historically resonant myth around the mistakes of a self-conscious Egyptian leader named Amun-Messese, or Messese for short. He isn’t a young Moses (not exactly), nor is he synonymous with the “usurper” known vaguely to Egyptologists as Pharaoh Amenmesse. Messese is both figures and neither. He is a flawed King Arthur running from his own tragic errors while Egypt edges toward civil war. The novel is set during a mostly undocumented period — a sophisticated but unstable time presaging the so-called Bronze Age Collapse. This period’s fuzziness has enabled a secular re-imagining of a famous hero’s origin story told in both Quranic and Biblical sources: it’s the story of an Egyptian leader who must ultimately flee his homeland in fear.

About Steve: A resident of Colorado, Steve Gray has always been inspired by long journeys, especially when walking through remote areas. He has trekked the Himalayas and has traveled the world (including a 7-month sojourn through Egypt, India, Nepal, and Tibet in 1998). Although an art director by trade and a writer by night, his interests vary widely. His musical compositions were once played by the late John Peel on BBC's Radio 1, and he majored in English Literature in college. Most of all, he loves getting away from it all — whether it’s with his wife Anne on an adventurous vacation, or with a good book.