Frogman Festival speakers

  Andrew Peck has his doctorate degree in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Peck is a media scholar and ethnographer whose research focuses on how digital media offer new possibilities for persuasion and everyday communication. His current research examines how online communities circulate and contest knowledge using Internet memes and how hoaxes, rumors, and urban legends develop and circulate across networks. His work has appeared in the International Journal of Communication, the Journal of American Folklore, and in the edited collection Hashtag Publics. Peck recently earned the prestigious Chicago Folklore Prize for his book, Digital Legend and Belief: The Slender Man, Folklore, and the Media. The book explores Slender Man, an urban legend that began on the internet in 2009. He also co-edited, Folklore and Social Media in 2020.

 Erin McGuire-Thompson is a writer, illustrator, and 2023 graduate of the Carnegie Center Author Academy (Lexington, KY) who loves travel, paranormal TV, and stories that linger in the strange and unexplained. With a background in theatre, communications, and animation, she brings a playful sense of storytelling and humor to her creative work, grounded in a deep curiosity about place, mood, and mystery. Her new book,  Cross Country Cryptids: A Road Trip Guide to American Monsters was released in 2026.  This journey through the United States and into Canada celebrates enough creepies and crawlies, howlers and horrifiers, and mysteries in many forms to intrigue even the most ardent skeptic.  Featuring stops at cryptid-related festivals from the Badlands to Bourbon Country and beyond, this book reveals a land teeming with legendary creatures of local lore. 

Ashley Hilt (aka Asherz) brings a fresh perspective on the world of Forteana, which she began to explore fully after attending the Mothman Festival several years ago. She came to realize that she experienced a Mothman encounter. She hosts the weekly podcast "On Wednesdays, We Talk Weird." But she wears many hats, including cryptozoologist, ufologist, author and lecturer. She authored Indrid Cold: Searching for the Man from Lanulos in 2025. In 2026 she published the first volume of Your Strange Guide to Ohio. Ashley will be presenting a topic in the world of high strangeness and also act as our host in the Speaker Room we dub "Croak Lair". 

  My business is called Cryptid Comforts. I make a vast array of Cryptozoology themed products, extraterrestrial and horror on occasion too. My specialty is handcrafted stuffed plushies. For those not familiar with Cryptozoology, it’s the study of hidden creatures, things that have been seen but not proven scientifically, like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Mothman etc.  I have branched into other things like pet toys, tote bags, tumblers, pins, keychains, and more all designed by me. I do some horror work also, but my main subject is Cryptids and Folklore creatures. I even authored and illustrated a children’s book, with my friend Brandi Haile, called Why so sad, Squonk?
 

 Born in the woods and raised by fairies. Sherri Brake is an author, lecturer and paranormal researcher. She owns the award winning "Haunted Heartland Tours" and has instructed classes on the paranormal while finding time to consult on a few paranormal television shows and lead yearly adventure tours to Ireland & Scotland. She is the author of: 

• Haunted Stark County Ohio

• The Haunted History of the Ohio State Reformatory

• The Haunted History of the West Virginia Penitentiary

• Fireside Folklore of West Virginia. Volumes I-4

• The Ghosthunters Guide to the West Virginia Pen 

• The Haunted History of the Trans -Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. 

Sherri is a member of many historical & heritage societies and lives on a "slightly" haunted farm in central West Virginia with her family. Visit her website at www.HauntedHistory.net