Panelists

A. J. Hackwith is a queer writer of fantasy and science fiction living in the cryptid-filled woods of the Pacific Northwest. A. J. is the author of several fantasy novels, including the acclaimed Library of the Unwritten fantasy trilogy and Toto. Her work has been featured in Uncanny Magazine, the Washington Post, and assorted anthologies. You can find A. J. ensconced on Instagram, Patreon, and other dark corners of the Internet as @ajhackwith.
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A. L. Kaplan’s love of books started as a child and sparked a creative imagination. Her most recent works include Star Touched and Mark of the Goddess, which she also illustrated. A. L. is a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, is the past president of Maryland Writers’ Association, and holds an Master of Fine Arts in sculpture. When not writing or indulging in her fascination with wolves, this proud mom is in Maryland with her husband and dog. Learn more at her website.
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A.J. Calvin is a science fiction/fantasy novelist from Loveland, Colorado, known best for The Caein Legacy series and The Relics of War series. By day she works as a microbiologist, but in her free time she writes. She lives with her husband, a turtle, and a saltwater aquarium. When she is not working or writing, she enjoys scuba diving, hiking, and playing video games.
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A. W. Prihandita (she/her) is a Nebula Award-winning author of speculative fiction. She splits her time between the U.S. West Coast, where she earned her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition, and Indonesia, where she grew up and where her home remains. She attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2023 on their Fresh Voices Scholarship, and the Clarion Workshop in 2024 on their Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship. Her stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Cast of Wonders, and khōréō magazines, among others. Besides her Nebula Award win, she has also been a finalist for the Ignyte Award and Eugie Award.
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Dr. Aammton Alias is a practicing family physician and is the manager of the M Content Creations publishing firm. He is author of the award-winning Real Ghost Stories of Borneo series as well as the sci-fi fantasy The Bu Ni An Conspiracy novel series. He is a family man who served as the vice-president of RELA (REading and Literacy Association). He has written over 30 books, mainly in the speculative fiction, sci-fi, supernatural, and horror genres. His works reflect his innate desire to protect nature and wildlife from further devastation by man, and to raise awareness. He regularly visits schools to give inspirational talks about writing and to educate children about the importance of keeping our natural environment safe.
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Aaron comes to publishing from decades of experience within the music, film and photography industries. He’s excited to work on the film/TV side of publishing because he loves books as much as he loves movies. And he’s excited to bring his experience in commercial film, spanning from Hollywood, Chicago, and now Denver.
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Aaron Feldman is a semiconductor engineer, longtime fan, gamer, fic writer, and vidder.
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Aaron Scott is an award-winning science journalist based in Portland. He is the executive producer of the nature TV show Oregon Field Guide from Oregon Public Broadcasting. He previously hosted NPR's science podcast Short Wave and created the hit podcast Timber Wars, about the fight over America’s last old growth forests. His stories have appeared on NPR, Radiolab, This American Life, Reveal, The Indicator from Planet Money, Outside Podcast, OPB, and elsewhere, and they’ve won Emmy, Murrow, Gracie, Society of Progressive Journalists, and other awards. He was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT from 2024–2025.
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Abigail Nussbaum is a Hugo-winning blogger and critic. Her writing has appeared in Strange Horizons, Locus, io9, The New Scientists, and The Guardian. She blogs at Asking the Wrong Questions, and is a contributor to the politics blog Lawyers, Guns & Money. Her review collection, Track Changes, is nominated for a Hugo Award in the best related work category.
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Author and historian Ada Palmer studies radical thought and censorship. Known for her hopepunk series Terra Ignota and her a cappella song cycle Sundown: Whispers of Ragnarok, her most recent book is a pop history titled Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age, which uses Machiavelli to look at the origins of the myth of a bad Middle Ages and good Renaissance, written in the playful style of her blog Ex Urbe. Her next novel series is a Norse myth duology (volume one coming from Tor Books, 2026), focused on the relationship between Loki and Odin.
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Adam-Troy Castro’s books to date include four Spider-Man novels, three novels about his profoundly damaged far-future murder investigator Andrea Cort, and six middle-grade novels about the dimension-spanning adventures of young Gustav Gloom. Adam’s works have won the Philip K. Dick Award and the Seiun (Japan), and have been nominated for eight Nebulas, three Stokers, two Hugos, one World Fantasy Award, and, internationally, the Ignotus (Spain), the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France), and the Kurd-Laßwitz Preis (Germany). The audio collection My Wife Hates Time Travel And Other Stories (Skyboat Media) features thirteen hours of his fiction. His most recent collection is RARITIES. Adam was an Author Guest of Honor at 2023’s World Fantasy Convention. Adam lives in Florida with a pair of chaotic paladin cats.
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Adrian M. Gibson is an award-winning Canadian speculative fiction author, podcaster and illustrator (as well as occasional tattoo artist). In 2021, he created the SFF Addicts podcast, which he co-hosts with fellow authors M. J. Kuhn and Greta Kelly. The three host in-depth interviews with an array of science fiction and fantasy authors, as well as writing masterclasses. He lives in Quito, Ecuador with his wife and sons. Mushroom Blues is his debut novel.
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Agathon McGeachy cut his teeth as a professional sand sculptor on commercial jobs and contests all over North America, and is an award-winning figure sculptor. As Manfred Kriegstreiber in the Society for Creative Anachronism, he made his own costumes and his skills as an armorer were always in demand, and he competed at the elite level in tournaments. His skills include armor, fabrication, machining, and running a backyard foundry. While working in medical research, he designed and built prototypes of the Ames Device, which treats brain injuries. As a writer, he has sold three short stories, the latest of which appears in the 2024 NIWA anthology, Illusion.
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Ai Jiang is a Chinese-Canadian writer; winner of the Ignyte, Bram Stoker, and Nebula awards; and a finalist for the Hugo, Astounding, Locus, Aurora, and BFSA awards. She is from Changle, Fujian, and currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. She is the recipient of Odyssey Workshop’s 2022 Fresh Voices Scholarship and the author of A Palace Near the Wind, Linghun, and I Am AI. Find her at her website.
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AK Llyr has a globe-spanning career, from South Africa, Costa Rica, and Panama, to Washington, D.C., and Europe, mostly for military and government work. His duties included electronics and intelligence analyst, sailor, scuba and sky diver, and other activities. Llyr has experience in counterintelligence, counterterrorism, surveillance, threat assessment, small unit tactics, close quarters battle, survival, computer and telecommunications technology, and construction. Writing and podcasting are now his passion. He also walks dogs.

Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies and how it exacerbates racial, gender, and class inequality. Dr. Hanna co-authored The AI Con (2025), about artificial intelligence (AI) and the hype around it. With Emily M. Bender, she also runs the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience on Twitch and her podcast. She holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science and mathematics, a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Purdue University, and an Master of Science and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Alex Kingsley (they/them) is a writer, comedian, game designer, and playwright. They co-founded Strong Branch Productions, where they write and direct the sci-fi comedy podcast The Stench of Adventure and other shows. Their debut novel, Empress of Dust, was published by Space Wizard Science Fantasy in fall 2024. Their short fiction has appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge, Radon Journal, The Storage Papers, and more. In 2023, they published their short story collection, The Strange Garden and Other Weird Tales. Alex’s sci-fi plays have been produced in LA, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Alex’s SFF-related non-fiction has appeared in Interstellar Flight Magazine and Ancillary Review of Books. Their games can be downloaded pay-what-you-will at their website.
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Alex Mui is a professional artist who studied biology and genetics at Johns Hopkins University. They are the co-founder of the Con History Project, which for over a decade has been researching, promoting, and preserving over 90 years of fannish and convention history for a new generation, as well as focusing on the history of marginalized groups within the fandom community. They are known for lectures and panels covering topics from transformative art to transformation art.
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Alex Pheby is a writer and academic living in Scotland.

Alex Shvartsman (Brooklyn, NY) is the author of Kakistocracy (2023), The Middling Affliction (2022), and Eridani’s Crown (2019). Over 120 of his stories have appeared in Analog, Nature, Strange Horizons, and other outlets. He won the WSFA Small Press Award for Short Fiction and was a three-time finalist for the Canopus Award for Excellence in Interstellar Fiction. His translations from Russian have appeared in F&SF, Clarkesworld, Reactor, Analog, Asimov’s, and others. Alex has edited over a dozen anthologies, including the long-running Unidentified Funny Objects series. Alex’s story “Whom He May Devour” is currently in development as a live-action TV series.
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Alex V. Cruz is a bilingual speculative fiction writer, born in Paterson, New Jersy, and raised in the Dominican Republic. His stories, written in both English and Spanish, are inspired by his time in the DR. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University and an Master of Fine Arts from New York University. A Clarion West and Tin House alum, he’s been nominated for Somos en Escrito’s Extra Fiction Prize and a Pushcart Prize. He’s also the proud parent of two dogs and two cats. His work appears in Fantasy Magazine, SmokeLong, and more. For more about Alex, go to alexvcruz.com.
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Alexandra Nica was born and raised in Chicago as the dramatic only child of dramatic, Romanian-immigrant, only children. Saddled with familial pressure, an expressive temperament, and a name meaning defender of men and victory, only one path made sense for her: becoming a Navy JAG working in criminal justice. After a decade of whirlwind adventures, including three years in Japan and becoming a Krav Maga instructor, Alexandra now lives in Seattle with her husband and two dogs. She escapes her litigation day job by writing contemporary fantasy, and combining world mythology with kickass fight scenes and tackling themes of feeling othered and belonging in a supernatural world.
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Alexis Kaegi is a speculative fiction writer and narrative designer. Her work has been published in Flame Tree Press, Abyss & Apex, and Deep Magic, and she holds an Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Stonecoast. In her stories, you’ll find threads of middle-aged adventurers, ace narratives, and the fruits of invisible labor. Her writing is deeply influenced by the inherent magic of the Pacific Northwest, where she currently resides with her partner and dog.
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While best known as the proprietor of The Stars Our Destination bookstore in Chicago (from 1988–2004), Alice Bentley helped run many sf conventions in the 70s, 80s and 90s. She moved to Vashon Island in 2004 and has been less interesting since then, but still hangs out in social media and goes to the occasional event.

Alice is a 7–12th grade science and art teacher. She grounds herself with leatherwork and wire work, making costuming accoutrements to use and sell.
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Alicia Hilton is an author, editor, attorney, professor, and former FBI Special Agent. Her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award and the Dwarf Stars Award. Her work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, James Gunn’s Ad Astra, Modern Haiku, Mslexia, Strange Horizons, Vastarien, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volumes 4, 5 & 6, and elsewhere. Her website is aliciahilton.com. Follow her on Twitter @aliciahilton01 and Bluesky @aliciahilton.bsky.social.
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Alina Pete (they/them) is a nehiyaw (Cree) artist and writer from Little Pine First Nation in Western Saskatchewan. They grew up urban, but spent summers wandering the Qu'Appelle valley with their cousin from Cowessess First Nation. Alina is best known for their Aurora award-winning webcomic, Weregeek, but they also write short stories, poems, and RPG supplements, and their work has been featured in several comic anthologies, including Moonshot volumes 2 & 3. Alina lives in Surrey with their partner and three very silly parrots who enjoy sitting on their shoulder as they write.
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Alison Belle Bews is the publishing and production coordinator of Skyboat Media, as well as an Audie-nominated director of over 150 Adamant podcasts and over 50 audiobooks. She also specializes in arranging original compilations of classic short stories, is one of the co-producers and hosts of Adamant’s Lightspeed podcast, and has also begun narrating. Alison was the Outstanding Graduating Senior of the English Department at San Diego State University, where she minored in French and in interdisciplinary studies through the Weber Honors College. Alison is also the lead singer, rhythm guitarist, pianist, and co-songwriter for Meteor Street, a four-piece literary rock band based in Los Angeles.
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Alison Clarke is a poet, fantasy author, and visual artist who is the Amazon #1 bestselling author of Phillis: A Poetry Collection (2020). Her The Sisterhood series won her the Diversity Magazine award for 2016 Writer of The Year. She has won numerous awards, including the 2020 Fil Fraser award for contributions to literary and visual art and a fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society for research on a historical fiction trilogy about Harriet E. Wilson, the first woman of color to publish a novel. She enjoys mentoring other writers, as well as creating fantastical worlds. Alison holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Hollins University.
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Allan Dyen-Shapiro is a Ph.D. biochemist, currently working as an educator in Southwest Florida. He’s sold short stories to venues including Flash Fiction Online (where he currently reads slush), Dark Matter Magazine, Small Wonders, Grantville Gazette, Stupefying Stories, B-Cubed Press, and many anthologies. He’s an active member of SFWA and Codex. You can follow him on Facebook, on Twitter/X, on Mastodon, and on Bluesky.
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Alma Alexander is a novelist, anthologist and short story writer from the Pacific Northwest whose life has prepared her very well for her chosen career—born in a country which no longer exists on the maps, lived in seven countries on four continents (and in cyberspace!), dived in coral reefs, flown small planes, swam with dolphins, and touched 2,000-year-old tiles in a gate out of Babylon. For more about Alma and her books, go to her website, her Amazon author page, her Bluesky, or her Patreon.
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Alon Newton is a senior electrical engineer (Canada P.Eng) with over 30 years’ experience in product development and project management, and he volunteers with IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). He is a former mountain climber and former ballet dancer, but is still naturally curious about a lot of strange things.
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Alyssa is an illustrator, animator, and book cover artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she’s not drawing, she spends time experimenting with fruit-based recipes and looking at cookbooks. Her newest hobby is trying to grow purple sweet potatoes from grocery store potatoes.
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Amadin Ogbewe is a writer and a journalist from the ancient city of Benin in Nigeria. He has placed works in Fireside Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Omenana, and others. He’s on the editorial team at Will This Be a Problem? The short horror film Jacob’s Crib is an adaptation of one of his stories of the same name. When he’s not analyzing or reporting on politics and education, he’s consuming all manner of speculative fiction and old sitcoms.
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Amanda Cherry is a Seattle-based queer, disabled nerd who still can’t believe people pay her to write stories. She is the author of six published novels, as well as tabletop role-playing games, screenplays, and short fiction, and a cast member with the Dungeon Scrawlers on Twitch. Her nonfiction writing has been featured on ToscheStation.net, ElevenThirtyEight.com, Journey Planet, and StarTrek.com. Amanda is a member of SAG-AFTRA, SFWA, and Broad Universe. Follow Amanda’s geekery on Twitter/X, BlueSky, and TikTok as @MandaTheGinger or visit her website.
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Amanda M. Helander (pronounced “HELL-ander”) is a romantic fantasy author and paralegal from Seattle, Washington. She likes to write about mental health struggles and hot wizard boyfriends. When she’s not writing, Amanda can be found watching horror movies, learning to crochet, or eating entire blocks of parmesan in one sitting.
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Amir Muhammad is the founder of the publishing company Buku Fixi, which has produced over 300 novels and anthologies in Malay and English since 2011. He is also an independent filmmaker with two documentaries banned by the Malaysian government. In 2018, after reading Roger Corman's memoirs, he started Kuman Pictures for low-budget horror and thriller movies.
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Amy Sundberg is the author of the recently released YA science fiction novel Stars, Hide Your Fires, the second in the Satori Chronicles. She’s also written the Gothic horror novel Gold Diggers and To Travel the Stars, a YA retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in space. Her novels feature intrepid heroines and questions of agency, power, and possibility. She also reports on local news with an emphasis on public safety and the criminal legal system at The Urbanist and Notes from the Emerald City.
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Amy Thomson is the author of Virtual Girl, The Color of Distance, Through Alien Eyes, and Storyteller. She won the 1994 Campbell Award, and she was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award and the Endeavour Award. She lives in West Seattle with her writer husband Edd Vick, five chickens, the obligatory writer’s cat, and a crazy dog.

Amy Wolf has published 17 novels and 38 short stories. She is an Amazon Kindle Scout winner and a seven-time Bookfest Award winner. Amy has an Honors degree in English and is a graduate of Seattle’s Clarion West. She also teaches English/writing. She is a big proponent of self-publishing and direct sales.
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Andi Weilgart is the daughter of aUI’s creator, W. John Weilgart, Ph.D. She learned aUI over the years as an ever-present participant in her father’s evening seminars at a private college. She has spent much of her life further developing the language and is continuously working on teaching materials for the aUI website. Andi has recently incorporated aUI into the basis for a novel entitled The Ersatz Academy.
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Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of theatre and Africana studies at Smith College. She ran away from the physics lab to the theatre as a young thing and has been a scientist, artist, and hoodoo conjurer ever since. Her novels include Archangels of Funk; Will Do Magic for Small Change, an NYT Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise awards; Redwood and Wildfire, Otherwise and Carl Brandon awards winner; Master of Poisons on the Kirkus Review’s Best SF & F of 2020; and Mindscape, coming from Tor, August 2025.
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Andy is a structural engineer, martial artist, and lifelong fan of science fiction, fantasy, and anime. He has been involved in local fandom since the early ’90s and has participated in conventions throughout the Pacific Northwest, including helping found the local anime convention, Sakura-Con.

Born in Santiago in 1977, he currently lives in San Pedro de Atacama. He is the author of Un Mundo Perfecta, La Tienda de Regalos and La Destrucción de Santiago. With Un Mundo Perfecta, he won the award for best science fiction novel of the decade in Chile. He is also a literary reviewer for La Estrella de Valparaíso. He has a YouTube book channel called Cocaine Bear Chile.
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Andrew Penn Romine teaches animation and VFX, following a career working in Hollywood on award-winning films and television. His first novel, The Mosquito Fleet, is available now from Broken Eye Books. His stories have also appeared in Lightspeed, Fungi, Help Fund My Robot Army, and By Faerie Light. He lives in Seattle and enjoys mixing cocktails and watching terrible movies. You can find him at his website.
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Andrew Plotkin has been playing interactive fiction (IF) since there were home computers, and he tried writing some shortly thereafter. He now helps run an IF non-profit foundation and plays with other narrative game ideas.
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Andrew I. Porter is a 25-time Hugo nominee, founded the fanzine Algol (which won a Hugo in 1974), and has won numerous awards for his written works, his editing, and his publications. His Algol Press published The Book of Ellison, and works by Bester, Dozois, Le Guin, Cordwainer Smith, Spinrad, and others. He has published articles and photos in Publishers Weekly, Omni, The New York Times, Guardian, and program books for many Worldcons and World Fantasy Cons. He has an extensive art collection, mainly Richard Powers.
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Andrew Ross is a filker/parody lyricist, political activist, and attorney from Eugene, Oregon.

Andy Peloquin is, first and foremost, a storyteller, and an artist—words are his palette. Fantasy and science fiction are his genres of choice, and he loves to explore the darker side of human nature through heroes, villains, and everything in between. He’s also a freelance writer, a book lover, and a guy who just loves to meet new people and spend hours talking about his fascination for the worlds he encounters in the pages of fantasy and sci-fi novels.
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Angela Acosta, Ph.D. (she/her) is an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of South Carolina. She is a 2022 Dream Foundry Contest for Emerging Writers finalist and 2015 Rhina P. Espaillat Award winner. Her Rhysling and Dwarf Star-nominated poetry has appeared in Star*Line, Apparition Lit, Radon Journal, and Space & Time. She is author of the Elgin-nominated speculative poetry collections Summoning Space Travelers (Hiraeth Publishing, 2022) and A Belief in Cosmic Dailiness (Red Ogre Review, 2023). She has published articles on Spanish modernism in Persona Studies, Ámbitos Feministas, and Feminist Modernist Studies.
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Dr. Angela Hughes, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.S., is a veterinary geneticist who leads a scientific communications team at Mars Pet Nutrition. Over her career, Dr. Hughes has been at the forefront of the pet genetics industry and shared her knowledge of and passion for pets with thousands of veterinary professionals, breeders, and pet owners. She is currently compiling her genetics knowledge into a new textbook which will hopefully reach thousands more. Learn more at her website.
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Angela Liu is a Chinese-American writer/poet who writes about intergenerational trauma and weird things. She is a two-time Nebula Award finalist and Astounding Award nominee. Her work has also been nominated for the Hugo, Ignyte, and Rhysling awards. She used to research mixed reality storytelling at Keio University in Japan and now splits her time between NYC and Tokyo. Her stories and poems are published in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed, and Logic(s), among others. Check out more of her work at her website or find her on Twitter/X, Instagram @liu_angela and on Bluesky @angelaliu.
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Born in Jamaica and raised in Atlanta, GA, Ann Michelle Harris writes crime and fantasy/speculative fiction with diverse characters and social justice themes. She writes for the Hugo Award-winning Nerds of a Feather. She was a finalist for a Maggie Award, the Pages From the Heart contest, and the Eleanor Taylor Bland Award from Sisters in Crime. Her YA fantasy novel North debuted in January 2025, and her crime stories are featured in various anthologies. She has an English degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from Emory University, and she loves anime, donuts, and vacations at the beach. Find her at her website.
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Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction, including the novel Autonomous, which won the Lambda Literary Award, and have written multiple nonfiction books, including Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize for Science and Technology. They have a monthly column in New Scientist and have published in The Washington Post and The New Yorker, among others. They co-host the Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct and have contributed Science Friday, On the Media, KQED Forum, and Here and Now. Previously, they founded io9 and served as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.
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Anne Harlan Prather holds a Bachelor of Music in performance and a Ph.D. in botany/quantitative genetics. She was the first blind student to be mainstreamed into her local public school district and has spent her life balancing substantial limitations with a wide range of interests, including science, music, digital art/photography, and writing science fiction. Her publications include Wings of Joy: Stories and Songs of the Thousand Worlds and Mystic Intersections: An Artist’s Odyssey of Eyesight and Faith. In addition, she has released six music albums.
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Anne Keck writes speculative fiction of many flavors and is published in several short story anthologies. Her first novel, a dystopian sci-fi tale, is in the works. Anne believes in ocean swimming, live music, public libraries, climate action, feminism, inclusivity, and cooking as an expression of love. Originally from Sonoma County, California, she and her husband now call Maui, HI, home. Find Anne in the ocean at Kahekili Beach or at her website.
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Anne Stewart has been a nerd for as long as she's been alive, costuming since she was 13, over-thinking media since forever, and will still be a geek after no one thinks it's chic anymore. Some of her other interests include knitting and other fiber arts, cheering on her beloved Portland soccer teams, slinging mead at ren faires, writing fanfic for her blorbos, and swinging a lightsaber around with her friends. There's no telling where she'll pop up next.

Annie Carl is the author of My Tropey Life: How Pop Culture Stereotypes Make Disabled Lives Harder (Microcosm Publishing, 2020) and Nebula Vibrations (Vertvolta Design + Press, 2022), and she is the editor of Soul Jar: Thirty-One Fantastical Tales by Disabled Authors (Forest Avenue Press, 2023). She has published short stories in anthologies The Take Back (Owl Hollow Press, 2023), Bikes, the Universe, and Everything (Microcosm Publishing, 2024), and The Magic We Miss (Believe in Wonder Publishing, 2024).
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Annie Summerlee is the author of the upcoming lesbian vampire novel The Book of Blood and Roses. She lives in Spain with her partner, two cats, and a rescue dog. Her short stories have been featured in 404 Ink, Litro, So To Speak, as well as other magazines and anthologies. She also writes in Catalan and Spanish.

After growing up on fairy tales and computer games, Anthea Sharp has melded the two in her award-winning, USA Today bestselling Feyland series, a fae fantasy/cyberpunk mash-up that has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. She also writes Victorian spacepunk and fantasy romance. Her short fiction has appeared in Fiction River, DAW anthologies, The Future Chronicles, Beyond the Stars: At Galaxy’s Edge, and many other publications. She has raised over $115,000 on crowdfunding platforms and written the book Kickstarter for Authors. Anthea splits her year between sunny Southern California, where she enjoys fresh tangerines in January, and the novel-inspiring forests of the Pacific Northwest.
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Anthony W. Eichenlaub’s stories have appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, and numerous anthologies. He currently serves as the vice president of SFWA. In his spare time, he enjoys landscaping, woodworking, and long walks with his lazy dog.
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Anuoluwa Ngozi is a literary polymath and thespian whose work interacts with strangeness, Africanness, social justice and mysticism. When not haunted by stories, they can be found daydreaming about brighter days. Their literary works have appeared or are forthcoming in Lolwe, Omenana, Jaylit, Akpata Mag, Brittle Paper and elsewhere. Find them on X and BlueSky @byanuoluwangozi.

Arendse Lund won the 2021 Staunch Prize for a thriller in which no woman was hurt. Her work has appeared in Analog, Ellery Queen, Shotgun Honey, and The Fabulist, among others. You can find her at her website.
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Ariff Adly is the author of four horror-thriller novels from Malaysia, known for mixing dark themes with sharp storytelling. He works full-time as a programmer and writes when the world’s asleep. His stories often blur the line between justice and vengeance, grounded in everyday routines that feel close and relatable to readers. One of his books is currently being adapted into a film—something he still finds a little surreal.

Arley Sorg is an associate agent at kt literary. He is also co-editor-in-chief of Fantasy Magazine, senior editor and film reviewer at Locus, book reviewer at Lightspeed, columnist for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and interviewer at Clarkesworld. He is a 2022 Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award recipient; a 2023 Space Cowboy Award recipient; a 2021 and 2022 World Fantasy Award finalist; a 2022, 2023, and 2024 Locus Award finalist for his work as co-editor-in-chief at Fantasy Magazine; and a 2022 Ignyte Award finalist in two categories. He can be found at his website, Twitter/X @arleysorg, Bluesky, and Facebook.
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Arlin Robins has produced and sold art for over 50 years: jewelry, polymer clay, bronze figures, paintings, tiled mosaics, and interior decoration. Currently she is creating wearable art with colored pencil on worked copper. Honors include: She has won the Chesley Award; she designed the 1993 Hugo Award and the Heinlein Award; and she was an artist guest of honor at WesterCon, World Fantasy Con, BayCon, and others. She is also a songwriter, dancer, costumer, accomplished dog trainer, and entertainer of cats.

Armin Tolentino served as poet laureate for Clark County Washington (2021-2024) and is the author of the collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press). He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele player, and a bumbling but enthusiastic fisherman.
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Arthur Liu (杨枫) is a Chinese SFF writer and translator based in Beijing & Tianjin. His works have been published in Science Fiction World, Non-Exist SF, SF Stave, among other Chinese SF magazines, and have been translated into English, Portuguese, Japanese, and more. As a computer engineer, he founded the Chinese Science Fiction Database, serving as its chief architect. He wishes to be a cyber crawler.
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Ash Charlton wrote the self-help book How to be Fabulously Happy (most of the time!). He is a Daily Mail Short Story Competition winner for “Extensions of Thought.”

Ash Huang is a Chinese American writer. Her fiction appears in Lightspeed, Ecotone, Apparition Literary, Orion’s Belt, Alien Magazine, and elsewhere. In 2022, she won the Diverse Worlds Grant from the Speculative Literature Foundation for her novel-in-progress. She is a grateful alum of the Roots. Wounds. Words. workshop, the Tin House Winter Workshop, and the Periplus Fellowship, and she is currently a Tin House reading fellow.
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Astrid Anderson Bear attended her first Worldcon at the age of six weeks with her parents, Poul and Karen Anderson, and has never been quite the same since. She has served on convention committees, is a master costumer, and with her late husband, Greg Bear, was on the first advisory board for Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum, now called MOPOP.

Atlin Merrick is the commissioning editor for Improbable Press, and writer of two collections: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson: The Day They Met (as Wendy C Fries) and Sherlock Holmes and John Watson: The Night They Met (as Atlin Merrick). She’s the editor of hundreds of short stories as well as Spark: How Fanfiction and Fandom Can Set Your Creativity on Fire. Atlin loves strolling the laneways of London, Melbourne, and Dublin and is a brand-new devotee of South Indian cinema.
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August Clarke is here and queer, etc. He is the author of the Locus-, Andre Norton Nebula-, and Dragon Award-nominated Scapegracers trilogy under the name H.A. Clarke. Metal from Heaven is his most recent title.

Dr. Vani Vaghela is an author and cyberpunk utopian living in San Francisco. She is a professor of computer science who loves brains and codes. She is a 2023 graduate of Viable Paradise and has short stories published in Nature Futures as well as the New Year, New You anthology of speculative fiction.
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B. Morris Allen is a biochemist turned activist turned lawyer turned foreign aid consultant, and now retired. He has lived on five continents, but the best place he's found is the Oregon coast. When he can, he makes his home there to work on his own speculative stories of love and disaster. He was the editor and publisher of Metaphorosis magazine for its nine year run. Find out more at BMorrisAllen.com and on Bluesky @BMorrisAllen.com.
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Barisha Lettermann is half of the musical duo Tunesters Union, along with Carol Ferraro. They've been singing and collaborating in musical compositions and performances together for *ahem* many years, since meeting at a filk circle, hosted by Judy Voros in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Through those years, Barisha has been active in the Midwest SF and filking community as a performer, program participant, and convention staff member.

BE Allatt is a scholar, author, editor, proofreader, and short-film crew member. They hold a master’s in literature with a concentration in science fiction studies. BE introduced the concept of mononormativity to SFF scholarship in the critical anthology Exploring the Fantastic: Genre, Ideology, and Popular Culture. Their academic track presentation at Worldcon76 earned a prize from The Heinlein Society. BE serves as public information officer for the IAFA, as Seattle Worldcon’s lead editor for at-con publications, and as editor-in-chief for its Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow blog. Most importantly as far as the cat is concerned, BE is a dedicated servant to a bossy tuxedo named Eimear.
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Becky Chambers is the bestselling author of the Wayfarers series, the Monk and Robot novellas, and other works of science fiction. She is a two-time Hugo Award winner and a Locus Award winner, and she has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. She is currently working on a new novel in a new setting.
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Ben Francisco (they/them) is a Bronx-born queer Puerto Rican writer who was raised in New Jersey. They remain convinced the original Star Wars imprinted on them in the womb. Their first novel, Val Vega: Secret Ambassador of Earth (2024), is a queer Latinx YA novel affirming the wonder of the stars belongs to us all. Ben’s been published in Strange Horizons and other outlets. They won the 2022 Indiana Review Fiction Prize and appear in several year’s best LGBTQ fiction anthologies. Ben has worked for racial justice and immigrant and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as a church receptionist, middle school teacher, and highly unsuccessful gardener. They live with their husband, Juan, in Brooklyn.

B. Pladek is a writer and literature professor based in Milwaukee. His debut novel Dry Land appeared in 2023 and was short-listed for the Crawford Award. He’s published fiction in Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Slate Future Tense, and elsewhere.
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Ben Thompson is the bestselling author of thirteen books, including the award-winning Badass, Guts & Glory, and Epic Fails series. Writer and creator of the popular history blog Badass of the Week, Ben has been fringe internet famous for over twenty years, and has appeared on television programs for the History Channel, Discovery, AMC, and the American Heroes Channel. He currently hosts the Badass of the Week podcast, writes role-playing game adventure modules for 99 Cent Adventures, and can be found on the Wikipedia “Benjamin Thompson (disambiguation)” page alongside the gunfighter, that Count Rumford guy, and like a dozen Aussie rules football players for some reason.
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Benjamin Wallin is a Los Angeles-based stay-at-home dad and full-time unpaid intern for his wife, the comedian Amber Wallin (@burr_iam). He has performed comedy shows alongside his wife in New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. His followers on TikTok and Instagram as @beynfluencer watch as he goes on comedic adventures with his daughter to mountains, museums, and libraries. He is an avid reader who won’t shut up about science fiction and fantasy.

Benjamin C. Kinney is a neuroscientist, SFF author, and six-time Hugo Award finalist for his time as assistant editor of Escape Pod. More than 30 of his short stories have appeared in Analog, Lightspeed, Sunday Morning Transport, and many other fine magazines. You can learn more and read his stories via his website or on Bluesky.
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Berlynn Wohl is an octopus in a Russian fur hat that sometimes writes fan fiction. No one knows why.
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A 2015 Nebula finalist, Beth Cato is the author of the cozy mystery Cheddar Luck Next Time as well as fantasy works like A Thousand Recipes for Revenge. She’s a Hanford, California native now moored in Red Wing, Minnesota. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. Find out more at her website; follow her on Bluesky @BethCato and Instagram @catocatsandcheese.
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Beth Plutchak’s essays on science fiction fandom and intersectional feminism, Boundaries, Border Crossings, and Reinventing the Future, and her short story collection Liminal Spaces are available through Aqueduct Press. She is currently working on a near-future novel which is a cross between economic thriller and domestic noir. She is also working on a nonfiction economic and political book which uses the science of complexity economics to explain how America got to where we are and propose a methodology for mapping a way out. Her further writings can be found at All Else is Never Constant and Social Justice at the Edge of Chaos.
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Bethany Jacobs is a former college instructor of writing and science fiction. In 2019, she left academia so that she would have more time to write, and it worked. When not furiously scribbling, she is an introvert of predictable habits. She likes reading, cooking, writing fan fiction, and snuggling in bed. She lives in Buffalo, New York, with her wife and her dog. She is the winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award.
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Betsy Aoki is a poet, video-game producer, and speculative fiction writer whose work has been published in Hunger Mountain, Nimrod, The Margins (Asian American Writers’ Workshop), Southern Humanities Review, Poetry Northwest, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and The Deadlands. She is Uncanny Magazine’s poetry editor and, prior to that, served as assistant editor at Terrain.org. Aoki’s debut poetry collection about women in technology, Breakpoint, was a National Poetry Series finalist and winner of the Patricia Bibby First Book Award. Its signature poem, “Slouching like a velvet rope,” was selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown for the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize.
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Betsy Tinney is a Northwest cellist/songwriter whose original cello compositions paint pictures and tell tales, from gentle thunderstorms and skeletal mice to dancing elephants and humpback whales. In addition to her solo work, Betsy also performs with her string improv trio, Ménage à Trio; with the Vixy & Tony band; and with many others. When not behind her cello, Betsy does calligraphy, designs websites, and makes jewelry—and spends an inordinate amount of time catching Pokémon.

Bill Higgins is a physicist recently retired from Fermilab, where he was involved with the transport of high-energy particle beams and with radiation safety. He frequently speaks about spaceflight and planetary exploration as a 26-year volunteer in NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors program. 
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Blaze Ward writes science fiction in the Alexandria Station universe (Jessica Keller, The Science Officer, CS-405, etc.) as well as several other science fiction universes including the Corsac Fox. In addition, he is the editor and publisher of Boundary Shock Quarterly Magazine and Thrill Ride Magazine. You can find out more at his website.
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Blind Lemming Chiffon’s information online is widely scattered and often wildly inaccurate. He has been in organized fandom since the first Penulticon in November, 1977. First book read: The Wizard of Oz, in 1961. He was in the Filk Hall of Fame in 2020. He has been the con chair of Festival of the Living Rooms, a quarterly three-day online filk con, since March 2020. Number 27 is planned for September 2025. He celebrates his 70th birthday on Sunday of this Worldcon. He is a multi-instrumentalist, singer/song re-writer, and amateur comedian.

Bob Brown is the owner of B Cubed Press, a short story writer, political activist, editor, and on occasion a protester. He has edited numerous best-selling anthologies. He lives in Washington State.
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Six years of U.S. Air Force computer programming started Bob Hranek’s career, followed by 34 years as an intelligence analyst, systems engineer, and program analyst. He’s a vocal space-exploitation advocate, reads hard-SF, gives blood six times a year (227 pints), runs and drinks with Hash House Harrier groups, and judges at county, regional, and international science fairs every year since 1999. You can spot him on science panels in his space-kilt. He’s a lifelong avid Wargamer (EPGS.org) and became a U.S. Army Mad Scientist in 2019.

A children’s librarian with over a decade working in public libraries, Bob Taylor incorporates their background in Shakespeare and performance into their public service. An avid reader of comics, graphic novels, and science fiction, some of Bob’s favorite programs are author talks, and Bob has worked to connect more than fifty different authors with the community they serve. Bob enjoys cosplay and video games, and they hold the Twin Galaxies world record for fastest completion time of Chrono Trigger.

A Seattle local, Bookborn is a YouTuber known for her in-depth fantasy book discussions and deep dives, including her popular A Song of Ice and Fire reviews and Brandon Sanderson Cosmere-connection videos.
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Bradford Lyau is a historian by training (with a bachelor’s from University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s and doctorate from University of Chicago) and has taught at universities in California and Europe. He has published academic articles on American, British, European, and Chinese science fiction. His book, The Anticipation Novelists of 1950s French Science Fiction: Stepchildren of Voltaire, received very positive reviews from leading academic SF journals and is a listed reference under the “France” entry in the Science Fiction Encyclopedia. He lives in Woodland, California.

Brandon Ketchum is a speculative fiction writer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who enjoys putting a weird spin or strange vibe into every story, dark or light. He is a member of SFWA and the Horror Writers Association, and his work has been published with Air and Nothingness Press, Perihelion, Mad Scientist Journal, and many other publications, including the short story collections Legio Damnati and its sequel Civili Bellum.

Brandon O’Brien is a writer, performance poet, teaching artist, and game designer from Trinidad and Tobago. His work has been short-listed for the 2014 and 2015 Small Axe Literary Competitions and the 2020 Ignyte Award for best in speculative poetry, and is published in Uncanny Magazine, Fireside Magazine, Strange Horizons, and New Worlds, Old Ways: Speculative Tales from the Caribbean, among others. He is the former poetry editor of FIYAH: A Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction. His debut poetry collection, Can You Sign My Tentacle?, available from Interstellar Flight Press, is the winner of the 2022 Elgin Award.
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Brandon Sanderson grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. His bestsellers include the Mistborn saga, The Stormlight Archive novels, Tress of the Emerald Sea, The Rithmatist, Steelheart, and Skyward. He won a Hugo Award for The Emperor's Soul, a novella set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. Additionally, he completed Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time.
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Brassy Aire is a community leader and advocate for literacy and queer art, and she does it all in heels! With a Midwestern heart and attitude, Brassy is based out of Olympia, Washington, and combines her loves of drag, music, and reading in ways she never before dreamt possible. She is in high demand as a hostess due to her ability to create welcoming spaces for drag storytimes, fundraisers, bingo, and more. Follow her online—@brassyaire—for more information about her upcoming storytimes and performances, which she will always keep classy, sassy, and uniquely Brassy.

With master’s degrees in literature, molecular biology, and creative writing, and a Ph.D. in creative writing, Breeann Kyte Kirby is a master of all trades and doctor of one. She works with scientists and artists facilitating collaborations across disciplines. She is also a professor at Point Loma Nazarene University, where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate creative writing and directs the humanities-based interdisciplinary environmental studies program. Her current projects include a popular science book about viruses in the human microbiome (forthcoming from MIT Press), a science fiction novel, and a climate novel in progress. Some of her shorter works have been published in Diagram, Embark, Orion Magazine's "Place Where You Live," and The Scientist.
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Brenda Cooper is a technology professional, a futurist, a writer, and an editor. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from Stonecoast and is an Imaginary College fellow at the Center for Science and the Imagination (CSI) at Arizona State University. Her fiction has won two Endeavour awards and been short-listed for the Phillip K. Dick Award. Brenda’s most recent work includes the novels Wilders and Keepers, which are stories of climate and robots set in the Pacific Northwest. Brenda lives in Washington state where she can be found riding bikes and walking dogs.
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Brenda W. Clough is the first female Asian American SF writer, first appearing in print in 1984. Her latest work is a first contact novel, His Selachian Majesty Requests. Her historical novel A Door in His Head won the 2023 Diverse Voices Award. Her novella May Be Some Time was a finalist for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards and became the novel Revise the World. Marian Halcombe, first in a series of 12 neo-Victorian thrillers, appeared in 2021. Her complete bibliography is up on her web page.
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Brian Bucklew is a game developer best known as the co-creator of Caves of Qud. With a background in software architecture and a passion for complex, emergent systems, he blends procedural generation, science fantasy, and deep simulation in his work. As part of Freehold Games, he builds intricate worlds that invite players to shape their own myths.

Hailing from sunny Sacramento, California, Brian C.E. Buhl is trying to save the world. Formerly enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, Brian now spends most of his time writing software for the solar industry. When he’s not engineering technical solutions, he can sometimes be found playing saxophone with local community bands. Also, he writes science fiction and fantasy.
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Brian Oberquell is a SPFX technician/pyrotechnician who works with, and is certified to teach courses for, SPFX pyrotechnics and display fireworks. His pyrotechnic credits include 23 years of experience in setting up world-class pyro-musical displays as well as working with Rammstein, KISS, Motley Crue, and the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience. His recent SPFX screen projects include Henry Danger: The Movie, Happy Face, and The Wedding Banquet.
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Brian Grinnell is a leather artist from the Seattle area known as Belsac Leather Art. He specializes in Celtic, medieval, and fantasy leather art mounted on wood.
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Brian Nisbet started running gaming and SF conventions in Ireland in the mid-90s. In 1998 he got involved in the International Discworld Convention that is held in the UK and went on to chair it twice in 2010 and 2012. He co-chaired Shamrokon, the 2014 Eurocon. Since then he’s mostly been on the committees of Worldcons or Worldcon bids in a variety of roles. He has written for a number of published tabletop role-playing games as well as many, many convention scenarios. He’s been a huge fan of fantasy, sci-fi, and gaming for over 30 years and he’s so looking forward to all the things to come!

Dr. Brian Tillotson’s career as a physicist spans 40 years of developing advanced concepts for space and aviation. In that time, he’s used dirt as rocket propellant, levitated water with a magnet, and deflected shock waves with a birthday balloon. He has over 30 technical publications and over 100 U.S. patents.
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Brian U. Garrison (he/him) studied computer science and AI until he realized neuroscience and human intelligence were much more interesting. Now he writes poetry for children, adults, and grand adults. His chapbooks include New Yesterdays, New Tomorrows (self-published) and Micropoetry for Microplanets (Space Cowboy Books). He serves as managing editor for Eye to the Telescope. Find him in Portland, Oregon, or online at his website.
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Bridget Landry was educated as a chemist and planetary scientist, and she worked as an engineer (go fig). She has worked on Earth-orbiting missions as well as deep space missions, including three of the five Mars rovers, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and the Juno mission to Jupiter. Most of her career involved sequencing: putting together commands from instrument and spacecraft teams into a cohesive set to control activity for a set period of time, making sure that the commands did not interfere or conflict with each other. In her technical hat, Bridget has been on science panels at Worldcons and local and regional conventions. She also takes great interest in the advancement of women in technical fields and the helps and bars to their progress, as well as in the problem of sparking and maintaining girls’ early interest in science and math.

Brigitte Winter (she/her) is a writer, photographer, award-winning narrative game designer, and the executive director of Young Playwrights’ Theater, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring young people to realize the power of their voices through creative writing. Her short fiction has appeared in PodCastle; New Year, New You: A Speculative Anthology of Reinvention; and City of Weird: 30 Otherworldly Portland Tales, and her game, Psychic Trash Detectives, won the 2024 CRIT Award for best indie tabletop role-playing game.
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Britt-Louise Viklund is a Swedish fan, conrunner, and avid reader of SFF; and one of the organizers of this year’s SMOFcon in Stockholm.

Brittany Torres is an award-winning fantasy artist with a unique style of digital painting that focuses on luminous, fantastical female portraits. She has a bachelor’s from Mount Holyoke College. To no one’s surprise, she majored in both English literature and in medieval studies. She has a background in publishing and graphic design along with a website and social media marketing business. She has been awarded Norwescon’s People’s Choice Best in Show Award in 2022, 2023, and 2024 in Seattle. When she is not glued to the computer, you can find her with a cup of coffee in hand, living a ridiculously fun life with her growing family in Washington state.
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Brittany Tucker is the author of several whimsical fantasy series that cater to readers of all ages, from middle-grade to adult. She co-authored a story-plotting workbook designed for tweens and teens and is the owner of First Fruit Press, an assisted indie publishing service dedicated to helping writers bring their stories to life. In her community, Brittany frequently teaches writing classes and workshops suitable for all skill levels. She resides on an island off the coast of Washington with her family, cats, and ball pythons.
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Brooks Peck is an independent curator and writer, and he is a former senior curator at the Museum of Pop Culture where he worked for over 17 years. During that time, he curated geek-focused exhibitions including: Battlestar Galactica, Avatar, Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds, Marvel: Universe of Superheroes, and Minecraft. His work focuses on immersive environments, multifaceted interpretation, and hands-on interactives. He strongly believes in accessibility and inclusivity as a way to make museums more equitable and welcoming to all.
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Bruce is the decorator liaison and budget area head for Seattle Worldcon, co-finance division head for LAcon V, and the co-bid chair and facilities lead for Montréal Worldcon bid. He is treasurer for the Worldcon Intellectual Property and the Mark Protection Committee, and on the board for the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Cansmof, World Fantasy, and Space Agency Fan Fund. Bruce has worked about 160 convention positions over the years. He is a certified public accountant in Arizona and California, a book and art collector, and a great fan of fandom in all its forms.

Bryce O’Connor is the CEO of Wraithmarked Creative, a boutique publishing company that specializes in producing deluxe books and merch for the likes of Christopher Paolini, V.E. Schwab, Travis Baldree, and many others. Bryce is also an independent author best known for his Stormweaver series, and he has sold over 500,000 copies worldwide to date.
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Budjette Tan supposedly grew up in a haunted house and was told to go to sleep early, because there were aswang monsters outside their bedroom window. Who would’ve known these stories would later influence and inspire him to write the comic book Trese, co-created with artist Kajo Baldisimo, a three-time winner of best graphic literature of the year in the Philippine National Book Awards (2009, 2011, 2012). In 2021, Netflix launched the anime adaptation of Trese which was in their top 10 shows for a month. Budjette now works in Denmark as one of the creative leads in the LEGO Agency. He lives there with his wife and son, far away from any aswang—or so they think! (By the way, his name is pronounced “budget”, but please don’t ask him any questions about finance.)

C.N. Kuster writes fantasy, but occasionally dabbles in sci-fi and horror. A former Fulbright scholar, she loves to travel. She attained her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Regis University and holds a master’s in secondary education as well. She teaches high school language arts, is an avid collector of fountain pens, and loves spending time outdoors. She lives in the Denver area with her husband, daughter, and a very precocious cat. C.N. Kuster’s debut novel, The Bloodweaver, will be published in June 2026 with Podium Entertainment.
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C.S. Humble is the award-winning American author of the Amid the Vastness of All Else saga (That Light Sublime trilogy and The Peregrine Estate trilogy, Shortwave Books, 2025) and the Black Wells series. His short stories have appeared in multiple publications, including the 2024 Bram Stoker Award-Nominated Human Monsters anthology. His essays have been featured on various publications, including Texas Highways Magazine. He lives in East Texas.
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Caitlin Rozakis has had too many career changes, including mechanical engineering (cut short after the murderous robot incident), finance (amortizing tequila receivables is not as fun as drinking tequila), and the American Museum of Natural History (who knew emus had birth certificates?) She lives in Jersey City with her husband and son. Her short fiction has been featured in multiple anthologies and publications including Cast of Wonders, Aurealis, Daily Science Fiction, Weirdbook, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. Her first novel, Dreadful, is a New York Times bestseller. Her next novel, The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, comes out in May 2025. Visit her online at her website.
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Callie Hills descended on Oregon in 1985 and promptly began making music with anyone who didn’t prudently flee. In the process she founded two Renaissance consorts and two madrigal groups. Callie has gone through piano, flute, music theory and history, and voice teachers, but wore most of them out within two years. Her voice teacher held out through Callie’s time in Oregon but retreated in exhaustion rather than pursue Callie to Seattle, where she has lived since 2007. Her other activities include disguise (particularly as practiced by time travelers), handicrafts that are easy to pick up and run away with, and teaching stones to think, or at least to reason.
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Caren Gussoff Sumption lives in a nest of books, knitting, and rescue cats, south of Seattle, WA. The author of 6 books (most recently, her postcolonial, deep space, far-future comedy of manners, So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion) and more than 100 short stories, Caren received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in 2008, was the Carl Brandon Society’s Octavia E. Butler Scholar at Clarion West. Caren is autistic, Romany, Jewish, and can’t carry a tune (she tries anyway, gods help us all). Find her online at her website.
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Carl Engle-Laird is a Hugo-nominated editor at the Tor Publishing Group, where he edits science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels and novellas. He has worked on books that have won the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards, among many others, and have graced the bestseller lists. Selected titles include Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, and Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk. Carl lives and works in New York City.

Carl Fink was the founding chair of LI-CON, a convention based on Long Island, in New York. He has also worked for several Worldcons in roles including program, IT, and program operations. In real life he is an instructional designer, after periods as a science teacher, programmer, systems administrator, and marketer. Oh, and did he mention the freelance computer journalism?

Carl Horn is a senior editor at Dark Horse Comics in Oregon, specializing in manga, light novels, and art books from Japan. Dark Horse’s titles by Japanese creators include Berserk by Kentaro Miura; Studio Gaga and Kouji Mori, Trigun by Yasuhiro Nightow, Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi; Planetes by Makoto Yukimura; and H.P. Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe. He has worked on English editions of manga since 1997, when he began at Viz Media editing the English edition of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto’s Neon Genesis Evangelion.
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Carol Berg, a former software engineer who lives in the foothills of the Colorado Rockies, never expected to write one fantasy novel, much less eighteen. Nor did she expect to win the Colorado Book Award four times or to hear that her books had been read on the slopes of Denali or underneath the Mediterranean Sea. She certainly never expected to see her name alongside those of her literary heroes like Mary Stewart and JRR Tolkien as winner of the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Carol also writes fantasy adventure under the nom de plume Cate Glass.
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Carol Ferraro is half of the musical duo Tunesters Union, along with Barisha Lettermann. They have been singing together for *ahem* many years ever since Carol attended her first Milwaukee Housefilk. She has been active in the Midwest filking community as a performer, program participant, and convention staff.

Carole’s detail focus works well with her interests in dyeing, costuming, wearable art, upcycling, filking, and working on convention concoms such as Worldcons (Sasquan, Helsinki, San Jose) and other conventions. She has competed in and judged masquerades (regional and Chicon7) plus won numerous workmanship awards for her dyework. Carole likes combining traditional and contemporary dyeing techniques to obtain unusual results. As a long-time filker, Carole has written a few filk songs.

I am a SF fan and conrunner from Stockholm, Sweden. I have been the chair of two Eurocons, and several Swecons and other conventions. I am also the current chair of the European Science Fiction Society. I work as a patent examiner at the Swedish Patent Office.

Caroline M. Yoachim is a three-time Hugo and six-time Nebula Award finalist. Her short stories have been translated into several languages and reprinted in multiple best-of anthologies, including four times in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her short story collection Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World & Other Stories and the print chapbook of her novelette The Archronology of Love are available from Fairwood Press. For more, check out her website.
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Carrie Vaughn’s work includes the Philip K. Dick Award winning novel Bannerless, the New York Times bestselling Kitty Norville urban fantasy series, over twenty novels and upwards of 100 short stories, two of which have been finalists for the Hugo Award. Her latest novel, The Naturalist Society, is about 19th century ornithologists, awkward love triangles, and the magic of binomial nomenclature. An Air Force brat, she survived her nomadic childhood and managed to put down roots in Boulder, Colorado.
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Casey Blair is a bestselling author of hopeful fantasy novels about ambitious women who dare, including the Tea Princess Chronicles, Sundered Realms, and Diamond Universe series. Her own adventures have included teaching English in rural Japan, taking a train to Tibet, rappelling down waterfalls in Costa Rica, and practicing capoeira. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest and can be found dancing spontaneously, exploring forests around the world, or trapped under a cat.
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Cass Morris lives her life at the intersection of storytelling, performance, and education as a writer and editor of novels, short fiction, and immersive experiences. She is the author of The Aven Cycle (Roman-flavored historical fantasy novels) and one-third of the team behind the four-time Hugo Award finalist podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists. Cass works as story editor at Mythik Camps. Previously, she worked in the education department at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. She holds a Master of Letters in Shakespeare studies from Mary Baldwin University and a BA in English and History from the College of William and Mary.
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Cassidy Ellis Salter is a transmasc nonbinary British author living in London. These Shattered Spires, the first book in their debut fantasy trilogy, will be published by Bloomsbury in 2026. They write queer gothic books about bones, blood, longing, and good people doing terrible things while suppressing their feelings and being awfully sarcastic.
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Cassie Alexander is a registered nurse and author, who loves heart, heat, and blood. She’s written numerous paranormal romances, sometimes with her friend Kara Lockharte. She lives in the Bay Area with one husband, two cats, and one million succulents.
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Cat Aquino is the writer of Champion of the Rose, an anti-colonial, young adult epic fantasy manga series co-created and illustrated by Dominique Duran, forthcoming from VIZ Originals, VIZ Media in 2026. Granted the Otherwise Award fellowship for excellence in writing gender in speculative fiction, Cat’s stories and research have been published by Strange Horizons, Routledge, Berghahn Books, and other Southeast Asian literary magazines. Born and raised in Manila, they moved to Glasgow, Aarhus, and Barcelona for their master’s degree in children’s literature. They currently live in London and edit fantasy, science fiction, and horror novels for teens and adults.
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Cat Girczyc writes female-driven stories, usually science fiction or fantasy. She is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada and has sold 15 television episodes, including two episodes of the dark fantasy series The Collector. She’s seen her Cybersix character cosplayed, which was amazing. She is still writing and pitching TV series and features. She has two Aurora awards for her SFF work. Her work has been published in SFF markets including On Spec, Pulp Literature, Polar Borealis, Neo-opsis, The Vancouver Sci-Fi Magazine, The Unhelpful Encyclopedia: MurderBugs, Sally Port Magazine, and Tesseracts.
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Cat Rambo’s 300+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 2020 they won the Nebula Award for the fantasy novelette Carpe Glitter. They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Their most recent works are space opera Rumor Has It (Tor Macmillan, 2024) and Wings of Tabat (Wordfire Press) appearing in 2025.
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Catherine Asaro writes the Dust Knight series, the Skolian saga and other works. She received a doctorate from Harvard in chemical physics and often appears as a speaker or guest of honor at cons. Her most recent book is Gold Dust. Catherine is a two-time Nebula Award winner and has received multiple Hugo Award nominations. She started imagining sf stories at the venerable age of three. Reach her at catherineasaro.net or patreon.com/c/CatherineAsaro.
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Catherine Lundoff is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher. Her books include Silver Moon, Blood Moon, Out of This World, Unfinished Business, and, as editor, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). Her short stories and essays have appeared in such venues as Queer Weird Western Stories, Divergent Terror, Sherlock Holmes and the Occult Detectives, Fireside Magazine, Nightmare Magazine, the SFWA Blog and several World of Darkness anthologies and games. She is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press and teaches writing and publishing classes at the Loft Literary Center, the Rambo Academy and Clarion West Online. Visit her website.
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Cathy is a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, drummer, and arranger originally from Chicago but recently transplanted to the Pacific Northwest. She is half of the performing duo Random Fractions, former drummer for Toyboat, and collaborator with several musicians on their recording projects. She is a fan of Doctor Who, Buffy, Star Trek, and both Battlestar Galactica series and enjoys the outdoors and handcrafting when she’s not writing, recording, or touring.
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Cecilia Eng has been a singer/songwriter since 1984, performing in England, in Canada, and the U.S. She was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2013, won her first two Pegasus Awards in 2022, and won her third Pegasus in 2024. Her song lyrics blog and international filk song circles and events (virtual and in person) calendar is at https://friendsoffilk.org. Cecilia is active in both the filk and folk communities and is an active member of the Portland Folkmusic Society. Other venues performed at include the Northwest Folklife Festival in 2019 and 2024 and as a headliner at the 2021 Tumbleweed Music Festival in Richland, Washington.
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Cecilia Tan is a trailblazer in erotic science fiction and fantasy. RT Magazine recognized her with the Career Achievement Award, and she was inducted into the GLBT Writers Hall of Fame at the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in 2010. Tan founded Circlet Press in 1992. Since then, she has been widely published in sf/f and romance by both the big five publishers and small presses, with over 35 novels to her credit, 100+ published short stories (Asimov’s, Ms. Magazine, Strange Horizons, Best American Erotica), and over 100 anthologies edited.
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Celeste Tyler is an author of the weird, wild, and wonderful. Her stories have (literally) taken her across the Sahara on the back of a camel, sky high on aerial silks, and aboard a replica 18th century tall ship. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, and is a graduate of the 2019 Odyssey Writing Workshop. Her fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Podcastle. She is the creator of The Pressed Flower Tarot, a classically-inspired deck with images made exclusively from over 3,000 pressed flowers. A resident of Colorado, her family consists of a boyfriend, three marvelous children, a bearded dragon named Divine Beast Vah Rudania, and Athena, a Greek goddess currently trapped in the body of a little grey cat.
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Charles Walther is a retired professional engineer who spent over 35 years in environmental projects throughout the southern U.S. This includes environmental assessment, environmental restoration, and environmental forensics. Besides this, he is also knowledgeable in aerospace, ancient history, and writing. He has published three books under Wilbur Arron that are available on Kindle.
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Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster, coming August 2025 from Tor Books. Her other novels include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night, and the young-adult Unstoppable trilogy. She’s also the author of the short story collection Even Greater Mistakes, and Never Say You Can’t Survive, a book about how to use creative writing to get through hard times.
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Charlie Logan is a Seattle-based aficionado of video games, sci-fi, bowling, and karaoke. In 2013, he started construction of a full-sized Dalek after seeing one at the Seattle Pride Parade. Charlie finished it in time for Sasquan (Worldcon 2015), where it made its stage debut, presenting at the Hugo awards.

Charlotte Lewis Brown is a vertebrate paleontologist, a science writer, and a teacher who lives and works in western Washington state. She has written science articles on a wide range of topics for newspapers and magazines and authored three narrative nonfiction books for children, part of the I Can Read! series published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, using stories about dinosaurs and other fossils to draw children into the world of reading. When not writing, Charlotte studies fossil mammals from the last ice age, focusing on mammoths and mastodons. She also teaches college-level geology classes, including a class devoted to dinosaurs and another that examines natural disasters.
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Chi-ming Yang is author of Octavia E. Butler: H is for Horse (2025), an homage to the childhood genius of Black science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. Bringing to view a selection of Butler’s unpublished writings and drawings, this book traces her fascination with human-alien symbiosis to her early empathy with horses and other marginalized creatures. Yang is a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in histories of race, empire, and East-West cultural exchanges. Over the past decade, her scholarship has explored the politics and aesthetics of orientalism, abolition, blackness and Atlantic slavery, and cross-species encounters in poetry and art.
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Chisom is a Nigerian fiction writer and poet. When he's not watching movies or writing about fantastical things, he's tweeting about movies and fantastical things at izom_chisom. His short stories have been featured on Omenana, Apex, Clarkesworld, Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2023, African Ghosts anthology, Isele, Mythaxis, Scifi Shorts, and elsewhere. His short story “Ancestors’s Gift” won the 2024 Tractor Beam short story contest.
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Chris Gerrib has been an avid fan of science fiction and space exploration since he was a child riding his bicycle to his small town’s library where he memorized every book they had on the subject. Since then he spent a tour in the U.S. Navy, got an MBA, and now has a day job with a multi-national software company as a project manager. He lives in the Chicago suburbs and is active in his local Rotary Club. His fourth science fiction novel, One of Our Spaceships is Missing, was recently released.

Chris Kulp is a science fiction author and a professor of physics at Lycoming College. He teaches physics, data analysis, and machine learning. He has written nearly 30 peer-reviewed scientific articles and two textbooks. He won the 2022 Mike Resnick Memorial Award for his “What Would You Pay for a Second Chance?” (which appeared in Galaxy’s Edge). He is the author of Selection (2023) Lost Origins (2025). Chris is an alumnus of the Futurescapes Spring Workshop and a full member of the Science Fiction Writers Association. When he is not writing or doing science, Chris can be found reading science fiction, playing guitar, and writing music. He lives in Montoursville, Pennsylvania.
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Chris M. Barkley attended his first sf convention, Midwestcon 27, in June 1976. Since then he has hosted a sf radio talk show, attempted a career as a stand-up comedian and was a professional bookseller for eleven years before retiring in 2017. He is better known today as a reporter/columnist/news editor for File770.com. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Christine Merrill has been writing since 2005 and is the author of over thirty Regency romances as well as gothic ghost stories, a thriller, and a YA fantasy. She’s also an old school geek whose first Worldcon was in 1980. She loves horror movies of all kinds and is currently writing a comic retelling of Dracula. She and her husband live in a renovated church in a small town in Wisconsin, with their cat and standard poodle.

Christine Sandquist is a 2025 Hugo Award finalist and an NYC-based cultural consultant, sensitivity editor, and developmental editor. They have worked on premier media properties including Critical Role, Queen by Midnight, Candela Obscura, and with authors such as Hugo Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal. Christine is passionate about community building and moderates “r/Fantasy,” “r/AmITheAsshole” and “r/AskReddit” on Reddit. In their spare time, you can find them spinning wool into yarn, knitting Shetland lace shawls, training in martial arts, and spoiling their two black cats.
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Christine Taylor-Butler is the author of more than 95 books and stories for children and young adults. A graduate of MIT, she recently was named a visiting scholar related to literature. She lives in Kansas City with fellow Worldcon alum, Kenneth.
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Christopher Buehlman is a fantasy and horror novelist, playwright, and comedian currently living in Ohio. He is the author of The Blacktongue Thief, Between Two Fires, and The Daughters’ War. From the 1990’s through 2022, his one-man comedy act, Christophe the Insultor, gained a cult following at renaissance festivals across the U.S.
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Jes and Cin Wibowo are award-winning twin Indonesian graphic novelists who work in U.S. traditional publishing, making books for middle grade readers. Their graphic novels include Lunar Boy (Stonewall winning, GLAAD and Harvey nominated) and Weirdo (Eisner nominated).
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CJ grew up in Southern California loving fantasy and science fiction. She is married to her husband of thirty plus years, has four children, and an ever growing number of grandchildren. Adopted at eight months old, she recently found her birth parents. She has a master’s degree in public history from Southern New Hampshire University, and if she’s not writing, she’s quilting, costuming, or traveling to spend time with those she loves. She’s a wannabe dress historian and has worked with museums on historical dress recreation. The Slayer’s Magic and The Traveler’s Magic are the first two books in the The Beads of Bone series.
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CJ Rivera is an adult dystopian author navigating the realms of high-tech turmoil and stark reality. Before diving into speculative fiction, Rivera enjoyed a successful career as a creative producer. She has penned and produced captivating content for media giants such as CNBC, NBC Universal, and the Food Network. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, three daughters, and her hydroponic garden.
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Claire E. Jones is a queer fantasy romance author who is committed to changing the world for the better through inclusive stories & practices. As an internationally-recognized speaker and writer, her novels have sold in six countries, been picked up by bookstores across the U.S., and have ranked in the top 100 of the Ingram Content Group’s romantasy category.
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Claire Jia-Wen is a speculative fiction writer originally from the 626 and has been published in khōréō and Clarkesworld. A Viable Paradise alum, she is currently a student researching algorithmic fairness and human-computer interaction.
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Claire McCague is a Canadian writer, scientist, and musician. She works on sustainable energy systems, plays with words, and collects musical instruments. Her novels, The Rosetta Man and The Rosetta Mind (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing), are first contact thrillers that begin when a pair of mostly-harmless space visitors are found in a tree, in a park, in New Zealand.
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Clara Ward lives in Silicon Valley, California on the border between reality and speculative fiction. Their latest novel, Be the Sea, features a near-future voyage across the Pacific Ocean, chosen family, and sea creature perspectives, while delving into our oceans, our selves, and how all futures intertwine. Their shorter works are featured in The Neurodiversiverse: Alien Encounters, Strange Horizons, and Tales & Feathers. When not using words to teach or tell stories, Clara uses wood, fiber, and glass to make practical or completely impractical objects.
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Clay Vermulm is a Montana-born, Washington Peninsula-based author of dark fiction and horror. Clay has edited/authored three short story collections and his debut novella, Crevasse. He has two more collections and a second novella forthcoming in 2025. Aside from writing, Clay is also the host of three podcasts (Fermented Fiction, Beneath the Rain Shadow, and Sinister Soup), the program coordinator of the Seattle Horror Writers Association, and the secretary of the board for Cascade Writers. When he’s not doing all that, Clay loves hiking, climbing, surfing, and gaming with his wife and cat.
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Clayton Mann is a U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant Major with over 30 years of combat medic experience. In addition to his combat duties, he’s trained other medics, given talks, and sat on writing convention panels to discuss the reality of combat trauma, field medicine, pre- and post-combat trauma planning and management, and helping writers depict combat and injury in realistic ways.

Cliff Winnig’s work appears on the Escape Pod podcast, in Mad Scientist Journal, and in anthologies such as Many Worlds, High Noon on Proxima B, Two Hour Transport 2, and Southern Truths. He co-edited the anthology Alternative Liberties. Cliff is a graduate of the Clarion writing workshop and has taught writing workshops at local science fiction conventions. He hosts the SF in SF reading series and third Sundays for the B Cubed Sunday Morning podcast. When not writing, he plays sitar, studies aikido and tai chi, and sings bass/baritone in the San Jose Symphonic Choir. He lives with his family in Silicon Valley, which frequently causes him to think about the future.
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Cody Sisco is an author, editor, publisher, and literary community organizer. His LGBT psychological science fiction series includes two novels thus far, Broken Mirror and Tortured Echoes. He is a freelance editor specializing in genre-bending fiction. In 2017, he co-founded Made in L.A. Writers, an indie author co-op dedicated to the support and appreciation of independent authors. His startup, BookSwell, is a literary events and media production company dedicated to lifting up marginalized voices and connecting readers and writers in Southern California and beyond. He serves as a co-chair of the board of directors for the Editorial Freelancers Association and as a board member at APLA Health.
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Coral Alejandra Moore writes character driven stories of connection and triumph. All of her books are kissing books. Currently she lives in the beautiful state of Washington with the love of her life and a dangerously smart Catahoula leopard dog, where she rides motorcycles, raises chickens, and drinks all the coffee. Find her online at her website.
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Corrina Lawson is a former newspaper reporter with a degree in journalism from Boston University. A mom of four, she works from home writing romance novels with a geeky twist, steampunk stories, mysteries, and fantasies, along with occasional blog posts on science fiction, fantasy, and superhero comics. She is a founding member of Geekmom.com
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Corry L. Lee has a doctorate in physics and is a science fiction and fantasy author, award-winning science teacher, data geek, and parent. Their epic fantasy trilogy with intricate storm magic that began with Weave the Lightning (Solaris, 2020) concludes in 2025. During their doctoral research at Harvard, Corry created subatomic particles that haven’t existed in nature since fractions of a second after the Big Bang. They love cross-country skiing and reading queer books. A 15-year transplant to Seattle, Washington, Corry is learning to embrace rainy days.
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Courtney Floyd grew up in New Mexico, where she learned to write between tarantula turf wars and apocalyptic dust storms. She currently lives at the bottom of a haunted mountain in the woods of Vermont with her partner and pets. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she writes speculative fiction: novels, short stories, and audio drama. Her debut fantasy novel, Higher Magic, comes out from Mira Books on October 7th, 2025. Find her online at her website.
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Craig Miller started his Hollywood career as a publicity executive on such films as Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. He then became a writer-producer and, nearly 40 years later, has more than 300 credits to his name. He’s worked with George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Jim Henson, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros., and others, and has done shows for companies all over the world. He’s taught screenwriting at the Art Institute of California and been a guest speaker on writing at events throughout Europe, India, Australia, and the United States. He is also the author of Star Wars Memories and More Movie Memories.

Cristián Londoño-Proaño is a science fiction writer, producer, researcher, and professor, with a doctorate in communication. He is editor and director of the science fiction magazine Teoría Ómicron and editor of the science fiction imprint Omicron Books. He is the pioneer of the Andean fantasy genre. He has published more than 10 books including poetry, novels, essay collections, and academic books. His name appears in studies on the history of Spanish-American science fiction. He has won several literary awards. He has written, directed, and produced various documentaries and documentary series. His papers on science fiction have been published in scientific journals.
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Crystal Lloyd is a lifelong fan of and long-time moderator for panels and workshops on science fiction and costuming. They balance many hats, including stage and historical costumer, E.V. specialist for the government, and conducting habitat restoration in the Pacific Northwest. Crystal holds degrees in English literature, public policy, and counseling.

Ctein is the co-author, with John Sandford, of the New York Times besteller, Saturn Run. They've written a natural disaster thriller, Ripple Effect, with David Gerrold. They're also the author of Digital Restoration From Start to Finish and Post Exposure. They are well-known for their photographs of eclipses, aurora, natural and unnatural scenics, and space launches. Their photographic work can be seen at ctein.com. Ctein identifies as “radical poly feminist genderqueer.” Not necessarily in that order. Their preferred pronoun is “cherry garcia.” (No, wait, that's their preferred ice cream.) If they grow up, they want to be a dilettante. Ctein lives with retired technical writer and geologist Paula Butler and three demented psittacines (along with a half dozen more-or-less normal computers and 20 kilobooks). The five of them will be emigrating to Ireland in October.
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Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen now writes stories near Portland, Oregon. He’s the author of the bestselling Kangaroo series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and has written for the Realm original podcasts Echo Park, Ninth Step Murders, and Machina. Curtis’ shorter works have appeared in Playboy Magazine; the ENNIE Award-winning Kobold Guide to Roleplaying; The Year’s Best Fantasy, Volume 2; Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey; and elsewhere. His homebrew cat feeding robot was displayed in the “Worlds Beyond Here” exhibit at Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum. Visit his website.
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D. Wes Rist is an international human rights lawyer with a specialization in preventing genocide and mass atrocities. He has worked with nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations around the world, conducted trainings for international lawyers and atrocity prevention experts, and advised governments and international organizations. He also works on the intersection of space law and policy and human rights and ethics, serving as a cofounding member of Project Lodestar. Wes frequently speaks about the intersection of human rights, ethics, space law and policy, and speculative fiction and fandom. He previously worked in academia, civil society, and as an atrocity prevention advisor at the U.S. Department of State. He is currently the director of government affairs at the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation. Wes holds a J.D. and an LL.M. (with distinction) in international human rights law.

D.L. Solum is an author of the urban fantasy thriller series Persephone: A Tale of Darker Seattle. He currently lives in Seattle but will always be from Butte, Montana. A collector of odd friends and odder hobbies, including armored medieval combat, fishing, hunting, and computer games. He helps manage the South Seattle Fiction Writers group, an online virtual writers’ critique group (available on Meetup.com). This latest obsession with writing urban fantasy thrillers is made possible via the encouragement and tolerance of his wife, Kate. Persephone: A Tale of Darker Seattle is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book and through Kindle Unlimited.
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A love of reading led Dale into both writing fiction and a career working in public libraries. He’s a long-time science fiction, fantasy and mystery fan. He made his first sale to 10Flash Quarterly, followed by more short story sales, including two collaborations with the late K.C. Ball. He began self-publishing with his Empowered series, and now has eleven books out, including two 1980s library cozy mysteries, and Rules Concerning Earthlight, a story collection. Dale’s also an avid stargazer, gamer, and fez-wearer. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Dale J. Pratt is Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literature at Brigham Young University, where he taught courses ranging from Introduction to Literature, to graduate seminars on Don Quixote, Unamuno, Gladós , Spanish Science Fiction, and Literature and Science. He studies Spanish realism, protohumans and posthumans, and the Golden Age. His publications include Signs of Science: Literature, Science, and Spanish Modernity since 1868 (2001), as well as articles on SF and Cervantes, works by Spanish authors Rosa Montero and Juan Miguel Aguilera, stone-age fiction, and the narratology of time travel stories.

Dale Ray Deforest grew up in the 4-Corners area of the Navajo Nation, around Shiprock and Farmington, New Mexico. 80s cartoons and comic books shaped his creative outlook in life by using thick lines with bright and vivid colors. Artwork that can be used to not only express, but captivate and manipulate thought and action has always been his creative goal.
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Known to many in northwest US fandom since 1980 as Kahboi (pronounced Cowboy in English), Dan has for many years been the Editor for the H.R. McMillan Planetarium’s affiliated space and astronomy educational BBS SpaceBase. At the peak of Fidonet’s success, the weekly results of Dan’s editing efforts reached more than 5,000 amateur BBSes world wide and a readership estimated in the tens of thousands. Dan has also witnessed space launches as an accredited journalist representing SpaceBase (including the US Space Shuttle). He has done panels and presentations at numerous conventions, including Worldcons, NASFics, Westercons, and many Pacific Northwest conventions.

Dan Moren is a writer, podcaster, and freelance technology journalist. He’s the author of the supernatural detective novel All Souls Lost and the Galactic Cold War series, and writes regularly for Six Colors and Macworld. He podcasts prolifically on Clockwise, The Rebound, Inconceivable!, as well as a number of shows on The Incomparable network. Dan lives with his family in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he’s never far from a twenty-sided die.
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Born and raised in Danvers, Massachusetts, Dan is a second generation fan of science fiction. Syndicated TV in the 1970s provided shows from the ’50s and ’60s. The mid-’70s brought bionics, superheroes, and a certain film in 1977. Channel surfing in 1980 provided the discovery of Doctor Who, and a lifelong fan was born. The appreciation of sci-fi and fantasy in film and television continues.
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Owned by two cats, Dana Bell enjoys writing stories about felines in the distant past to the unknown future. She has more than 10 anthologies completed.
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Daniel O’Malley graduated from Michigan State University and earned a master’s degree in medieval history from Ohio State University. He then returned to his childhood home, Australia. He is the author of the Checquy novels The Rook, Stiletto, Blitz, and Royal Gambit (and those yet to come).
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Daniel Ritter is the managing editor for First Fandom Experience. He is a student of the history and the impact of the early days of science fiction and science fiction fandom.
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Danielle Kane is the Computational Research Librarian at University of California, Irvine. She manages and supports the Programming Workshop Series, teaching introductory workshops in R, Python, Git and Unix. She also supports faculty, students, and staff with GIS.

Daphne Singingtree is a speculative fiction author, midwife, plant medicine maker, and environmental activist with a passion for Indigenous ways of knowing, sustainability, and history. Her novel, Circle for the Earth, explores themes of time travel, survival, and cultural resilience, drawing on her deep knowledge of herbs, permaculture, and emergency preparedness. Daphne’s work is inspired by her Lakota heritage and a lifetime dedicated to protecting the earth and promoting health through plants. When she’s not writing or teaching workshops, Daphne advocates for environmental justice and the preservation of traditional knowledge. She resides in Eugene, Oregon, with her family, where she cultivates herbs, and crafts medicine.
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Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus Award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Sheine Lende, the prequel to Elatsoe, is a USA Today bestseller and Lodestar finalist. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.
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Darin Briskman is co-chair of the Montréal 2027 Worldcon bid. His first Worldcon was Atlanta in 1986, and he helped create Dragon Con in 1987. His recent Worldcon experience includes managing Glasgow 2024’s online convention platform operations and Seattle Worldcon 2025’s timeline. He was also thanked as one of the heroes of CoNZealand for his work on the 2020 Worldcon.

Daryl Gregory is an award-winning writer of novels and short stories. His latest novel is When We Were Real (April 2025, Saga Press). He’s written seven other novels, including Revelator and Spoonbenders. Other books include the novellas The Album of Dr. Moreau, We Are All Completely Fine, and the short-fiction collection Unpossible and Other Stories. He lives in Seattle.
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Dave is a lifelong SFF fan, both current and vintage, and of short, translated, and world fiction. Novel Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, author Cordwainer Smith, and novelette “Vintage Season” by C. L. Moore are his favorites. ConJose in 2002 his first con, before 2011 Renovation in Reno and Dublin 2019. Dave has been writing a fannish blog since 2022, mostly book reviews but also other thoughts about SFF. He loved being on panels at Chicon 8 and Glasgow 2024 and nominating and voting for the Hugos.
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Dave O’Neill writes humourous SF under the cunning pseudonym Dave O’Neill. In his day job he works in a tech startup not focused on AI. His SF trivia quizzes and panel games are a thing of legend.
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David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include Existence, Sundiver, and Glory Season, plus Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War, and Hugo finalists The Postman, Earth, and Kiln People. David’s endeavor TASAT (There’s a Story About That) seeks to harness fan story expertise to advise governments, scientists, and the public whenever something strange happens in the future. A distinguished alumnus of Caltech, David consults for NASA, companies, agencies, and nonprofits about how science, technology, AI, and evolving values will affect our onrushing future. His first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. His latest is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood.

David D. Levine is the author of space-opera caper novel The Kuiper Belt Job. His previous works include Andre Norton Nebula Award winning novel Arabella of Mars, sequels Arabella and the Battle of Venus and Arabella the Traitor of Mars, and over sixty SF and fantasy stories. His story “Tk’Tk’Tk” won the Hugo, and he has been shortlisted for awards including the Hugo, Nebula, Campbell, and Sturgeon. Stories have appeared in Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Tor.com, numerous Year’s Best anthologies, and his award-winning collection, Space Magic.
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David Demchuk’s The Bone Mother was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award, and won the 2018 Sunburst Award. Queer horror/memoir hybrid RED X was a Rakuten Kobo Top 20 of 2021, a CBC Books pick for Best Canadian Fiction of the Year, and a New York Public Library Best Book of 2021. The Butcher’s Daughter (Hell’s Hundred/Soho—May 2025) with co-writer Corinne Leigh Clark, reveals the untold story of Sweeney Todd accomplice Mrs. Lovett. David lives with his husband in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
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David Gerrold is the unacknowledged grand master of the one-sentence bio.
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David Ian Salter, an early hire at Pixar Animation Studios, has edited many notable titles, including Toy Story 2 and Finding Nemo, which won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Salter has developed, directed, or edited feature film, documentary, and streaming properties for DreamWorks Animation and Paramount Pictures, among others. Salter was active in Boston fandom/NESFA in the 80s, then moved to L.A. for film school in 1988, reporting on SF shows for genre media magazines. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University. He is a member of American Cinema Editors (ACE) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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David Kessler ("DK") is the co-producer and stage manager of the annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. He has a great (or odd) enthusiasm for logistics, whisky, singing traditional folk songs and ballads, sailboats, organizing events and projects, and slightly lop-sided symmetries. He lives in Seattle, where he co-organizes Raise The Rafters traditional song weekend, and is on the Maritime Folknet board. He wrote “The Child Book of Etiquette” for trad ballad singers. He enjoys finding odd skills and stories, and he likes making things work.
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Prof. David Michelson leads the radio science lab at the University of British Columbia and serves as president of the Canadian National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science. He began his career at AT&T as a member of a research team that developed propagation and channel models for next-generation wireless systems. Since joining the University of British Columbia in 2003, his research has focused on wireless channels and systems for industrial applications, intelligent transportation, and the history of technology. Licensed as VA7DM and NC7V, he is an accredited amateur radio examiner and serves as principal investigator for the ALEASAT CubeSat project.
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David Ritter lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He blames his lifelong love for science fiction and fantasy on E.E. “Doc” Smith’s epic space operas and The Lord of the Rings. David curates the First Fandom Experience—a collaborative publishing project that brings to life the history and impact of science fiction fandom—as principal blog-writer and editor-in-chief. The project has created a comprehensive and diverse archive of fan material from 1930–1946, assembled over 20 years, which is open to researchers, students and authors with interest in early fandom. Five of the project’s publications have been finalists for the Locus Award for nonfiction.
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David is a professor of English at California State University, Fullerton and a member of both SFWA and HWA. His recent work includes the novel of music and magic, Egyptian Motherlode (Fairwood Press, 2024, co-written with Jacob Weisman); novella His Unburned Heart (Raw Dog Screaming, 2024), about Mary Shelley and her husband’s heart; editing the anthology The Afterlife of Frankenstein: Mad Science, Automata, and Monsters Inspired by Mary Shelley, 1818-1918 (Lanternfish, 2023); the poem “Futurisms” (Asimov’s, 2024); and short story “Night School” (Weisman) to appear in Abyss & Apex in 2025. His current novel in progress, The Frankenstein Singularity, builds on His Unburned Heart.
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David is a California-registered civil engineer and certified information systems security professional working on ways to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere leveraging natural processes. As an environmental engineer, he previously conducted environmental impact studies; managed environmental, health, and safety compliance; and worked on soil and groundwater cleanup at industrial sites. He has been an organizer, moderator, and speaker for more than 20 conferences and seminars.

Dr. David Tucker is a senior research scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy. His life mirrors his novels, a combination of experiences as a homeless construction worker facing injury and death, an international leader specializing in intelligent systems research, a pilot, and a world traveler immersed in African cultures and wars, all fused together by a passion for science fiction and fantasy. He dabbles in teleportation, time travel, anti-gravity, fusion, and regeneration.

David “has brought hard sci-fi roaring back to life” (The Wall Street Journal) in “an expanding universe of delight” (The Washington Post). His books include the John W. Campbell Award-winner The Genius Plague and Philip K. Dick Award-winner Terminal Mind. He is thrilled that he gets to contribute in a small way to the ever-growing canon of ideas in this genre of great writers.

Dawn is a professional editor specializing in developmental and copy editing for science fiction and fantasy manuscripts. She is passionate about preserving and amplifying each author’s unique voice while helping to refine their storytelling and world-building, without compromising their original vision. Dawn holds an editing certificate from the University of Chicago Graham School, a Master of Science in biochemistry from UCLA, and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Stanford. She is an active member of the LGBTQ+ Editors Guild, Northwest Editors Guild, Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), and ACES: The Society for Editing. Her scientific background brings a unique analytical approach to genre fiction editing, enabling her to blend technical precision with imaginative storytelling.
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Dawn is the chair and a founding member of BritCon, a convention focusing on British media and culture. She also helps her husband, Ian Shaw, with fan convention tech support. Outside of fandom, Dawn is a professional motivational speaker, owns Icelandic horses, and collects and restores model horses.
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Dawn Vogel has written for children, teens, and adults, spanning genres, places, and time periods. More than 100 of her stories and poems have been published by small and large presses. Her specialties include young protagonists, siblings who bicker but love each other in the end, and things in the water that want you dead. She lives in Seattle with her awesome husband (and fellow author), Jeremy Zimmerman, and their cats. Visit her at her website or on Bluesky @historyneverwas.
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Daytona’s fiction and food writing evoke the forest, fjords, and folklore of her Norwegian heritage. Her cookbooks, including Modern Scandinavian Baking and Disney Frozen: The Official Cookbook, celebrate Nordic flavors and traditions, whereas her fiction weaves together the myths, mysteries, and haunting beauty of the north. She holds an Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from Pacific University and lives near Seattle, Washington with her two children. Find more at her website.
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Dean Francis Alfar is an author, playwright, and advocate of speculative fiction based in the Philippines. His books include the novel Salamanca; short fiction collections The Kite of Stars and Other Stories, How to Traverse Terra Incognita, A Field Guide to the Roads of Manila and Other Stories, Stars in Jars, and Moon, Sun, Stars. He is the founder of the Philippine Speculative Fiction annuals, and the editor of multiple anthologies. Dean’s short stories appear in The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, as well as in many other books and magazines.
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Dean Wells is a writer of retro-futurist science fantasy, alternatively humorous or laced with existential dread. He doesn’t know why, they just come out that way. His published work has appeared in Queer Sci Fi, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and their respective anthologies Ink and Rise (QSF), as well as The Best of BCS and Ceaseless Steam (BCS). Other publications include Ideomancer, 10Flash Quarterly, ShadowKeep magazine, Demensions, and The Nocturnal Lyric. He has also written for the performing arts in various capacities. Dean is an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. He and his wife live in the Pacific Northwest with a cat, mountain beavers, and a family of indifferent raccoons.
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Deanna Sjolander graduated in 2004 with a master’s degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University and has been writing and editing since. She has recently released the second book in her series and is currently the senior editor for Rook Creek Books. She is the founder and CEO of Creative Pathworks.
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Debbie Bretschneider loves the books of Gail Carriger and has cosplayed many of the book covers. She has followed Gail to many conventions.

Debbie started costuming early. Over the years she’s made quilts, corsets, costumes of her own design for conventions and been involved in the SCA/other historical groups. She’s had a few theatrical gigs, worked on a film, and been volunteer crew on the Lady Washington. She’s done panels and workshops at conventions such as Anglicon (British media) and CascadiaCon (the eighth NASFiC). In 2010, she finished hand-quilting a family quilt (her husband named it 4 Generations of Procrastination), pieced in 1946. At one point, she decided to “give up” costuming. HA! Like trying to give up chocolate, it can’t be done.

Deby Fredericks has been a writer all her life, but thought of it as just a fun hobby until the late 90s. Since then she has published 18 novels, novellas, and novelettes, either with small presses or independently. Her short fiction has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways, selected anthologies, and small magazines. Since 2018, her significant work has been the Minstrels of Skaythe series, about a group of pacificst mages who seek hope while their world is ruled by darkness.
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Deleyna’s passion for writing began in childhood, crafting her first novel on gum wrappers. Combining her love for storytelling with a talent for technology, she founded Deleyna’s Dynamic Designs, specializing in web development for writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an independent publishing company. Deleyna explores diverse genres, sharing her narratives through various platforms. When not writing or designing, she enjoys beachside walks and time with her family. Dedicated to empowering authors, she also leads the No Stress Writing Academy, guiding writers to achieve their creative goals.
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Desmothene started bookbinding in 2021, and she binds under the imprint Celestial Sphere Press. In the course of her bookbinding journey, she has taken bookbinding classes in Greece and Japan. As part of the Renegade Bookbinding Guild's volunteer crew, she has worked on several projects, including the development of the Code of Conduct, in-person events such as a HavenCon meet-up & the Renegade Retreat, server moderator, & translations team lead. Desmothene currently serves on the Renegade Bookbinding Guild's first board of directors.
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Deva Fagan (she/her) is the author of A Game of Noctis, Nightingale, and other books for young readers, as well as the forthcoming adult fantasy House of Dusk. She lives in Maine with her husband and her dog. When she’s not writing, she spends her time reading, playing video games, doing geometry, and drinking copious amounts of tea.
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Devin Madson and Rebecca Ide are the same person, the Aurealis Award-winning author of In Shadows We Fall. While Devin Madson writes fantasy replete with dragons, messy relationships, amazing world building, and bucket loads of banter, Rebecca Ide shifted sideways into stabby romantasy with the recent release of her queer, fantastical murder mystery romance (romurdasy?) The Gentleman and his Vowsmith. Having given up on reality Devin/Rebecca is now a dual-wielding rogue with a lot of points sunk into stealth and lock picking skills. She lives in Australia with no cats and no neighbors and she doesn't drink coffee.
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Devin Miller is a queer, genderqueer cyborg and lifelong denizen of Seattle, with a love of muddy beaches to show for it. Their short fiction has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, PodCastle, and Strange Horizons. Their poetry received an honorable mention in the 2022 Rhysling Awards and once appeared on a King County Metro bus terminal. You can find Devin under a tree, probably, or at their website.
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Diana Fedorak is a speculative fiction writer from Las Vegas, Nevada. Born in Saigon, South Vietnam, she grew up in a Pan Am Airways family who frequently traveled overseas. Her prior career was serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. She enjoys writing complex characters in high-stakes science fiction and fantasy worlds. Diana’s debut novel, Children of Alpheios, was recently released by The Wild Rose Press and was listed as a finalist in the Science Fiction category for Book of the Year from the Independent Author Network. When she’s not writing, she spends time in her own universe with her husband, two children, and their German shepherd.
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Diana M. Pho is a queer Vietnamese-American independent scholar, playwright, and Hugo Award-winning fiction editor. She has over 15 years of experience in traditional Big Five publishing, including Tor Books, Tor.com Publishing, and the Science Fiction Book Club. Presently, she is now editorial director at Erewhon Books, acquiring and editing genre-bending and game-changing fiction.
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Diana Ma is a Chinese American author of middle grade and young adult books, including the Mighty Morphin Power Ranger series through Amulet Books. She was a 2019 We Need Diverse Books mentee and a Highlights Foundation Muslim Storytellers fellow. She teaches at a community college in Seattle and believes that it’s important for all kids to recognize themselves as the heroes of the books they read. Her belief that diverse books help us create a better world is what drives her writing and teaching. More information can be found about Diana on her website.
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Diana Pharaoh Francis is the USA Today and Amazon bestselling writer of fantastical, adventurous, and often romantic fiction. She holds a doctorate in Victorian literature and literary theory. She’s owned by a corgi, a mini blue heeler, and a blue-eyed corgi mix. She spends much of her time gardening, airbrush painting, herding children, and avoiding housework. She likes rocks, geocaching, horses, knotting up yarn, and has a thing for 1800s England, especially the Victorians. For more about her books and to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website.
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Diana Xin holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana and serves as a contributing editor for Moss. She is a recipient of fellowships and residencies from Hedgebrook, Artist Trust of Washington State, The M Literary Residency in Beijing, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Her work appears in Electric Literature, Narrative Magazine, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She is featured in the anthology Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her first full-length collection, Book of Exemplary Women, is forthcoming from YesYes Books.
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Dominique Duran is the illustrator of Champion of the Rose, an anti-colonial, young adult epic fantasy manga series co-created and written by Cat Aquino, forthcoming from VIZ Originals, VIZ Media in 2026. She was nominated twice for the 2017 Komiket Awards, and was a finalist for the Manila 2019-2050 Comics Contest. She's also the art director of Until Then, which was granted best art design in the 2024 Godot Game Awards, nominated for Emotional Impact in the 2024 Indie Game Awards, shortlisted as best international game in the 2024 SXSW Sydney Games Festival and was a finalist for the 2024 TIGA Games Industry Awards.
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Donald Eastlake has been helping on science fiction conventions for over 50 years, and a fan for longer than that. He first worked on registration at Noreascon I, the Worldcon in 1971. He co-chaired Boskone 11 and chaired Boskone 16 in Boston. He has been convention center liaison for two Worldcons, and facilities division head for one. There have been dozens of years in which he was presiding officer or on the staff for WSFS business meetings. He was instrumental in the formation of the WSFS Mark Protection Committee and has served as its chair for many years, most recently for the 2024-2025 year. He was a guest of honor at RiverCon, and is a master costumer in the International Costumers Guild and a member of the New England Costumers Guild.

Donato's passion for narrative art has seen his work grace the covers of over three hundred science fiction and fantasy novels, placed in hundreds of private and public collections, and landed numerous peer honors including three Hugo Awards, two Gold and six Silver Medals from Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, numerous awards from the Art Renewal Center, the prestigious Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators, and recognition from the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists with twenty-three Chesley Awards.
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Douglas A. Van Belle is a senior lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where he studies the role of media in the politics of crises and disasters and the role of science fiction in society, as well as writing science fiction novels and screenplays. He is also an experienced bladesmith who owns and operates Pleasantly Insane Forgery. His most recent novel, A World Adrift, is a political thriller set in the skies of Venus, 800 years after humanity first settled in The Drift.

Douglas Davidson has been involved with organized fandom, and with filk music in particular, since the mid-1980s. He writes songs both serious and comic about science and technology, about mythology and literature, and about popular and niche fandoms. Douglas is active in both the filk and folk music communities and is heavily involved in organizing Consonance, a San Francisco Bay Area filk convention.

dQ is a filmmaker, graphic designer, typographer, and an avid fan of American football, cigars, bourbon, and run on sentences; and semi-colons. His geek cred includes getting drunk with Admiral Motti, art directing Warhammer 40K, and having an issue of Superman signed by Curt Swan.

By day, Anthony Francis creates intelligent machines and emotional robots; by night, he writes science fiction and draws comic books. Anthony co-edited the award-winning anthology The Neurodiverse: Alien Encounters and wrote the award-winning urban fantasy Frost Moon and its sequels Blood Rock and Liquid Fire, starring magical tattoo artist Dakota Frost. His steampunk includes Jeremiah Willstone and the Clockwork Time Machine. Anthony is a roboticist specializing in deep reinforcement learning for robot navigation and language model planning for robot control. He lives in South Carolina with his wife and cats but his heart belongs in Atlanta. Follow Anthony at dresan.com.
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Dr. Corey Frazier is a former space shuttle and supercomputer engineer, and now a global innovation director in the tech industry in Portland, Oregon. An aspiring author, he's currently querying his award-winning first manuscript. As a consultant and community leader he drives technology equity initiatives across the country. Corey speaks professionally at national conferences on EdTech, AI and its impact, the importance of STEAM, and more to executives, community leaders, and policymakers.
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Heather O. Petrocelli, PhD is a film critic, writer, and researcher who employs transdisciplinary methods across film studies, queer theory, and public history, engaging with and rendering visible queer stories and experiences. This scholarly foundation—combined with a life-long love of horror and background in making, studying, programming, and marketing film—informs Petrocelli’s debut book Queer for Fear: Horror Film and the Queer Spectator and the road show Queer for Fear Live!, which they co-host in cities around the world with drag icon Peaches Christ.
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Dr. Jasmin Kirkbride is a writer and academic. Her debut science fiction novel, The Forest on the Edge of Time, is due out in February 2026, and her speculative short fiction has appeared in Reactor. An ex-editor and book trade journalist, Jasmin holds a Mater of Arts in ancient history from King’s College London, and a Master of Arts in creative writing and a doctorate in creative and critical writing from the University of East Anglia. Her thesis explored radical hope in dystopian climate fiction, and her current ecocritical research examines intergenerational trauma in fungal literature. She is a lecturer in publishing at City St George’s, University of London.
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Dr. Kaylea Champion is a professor of computer science at the University of Washington Bothell. Her research concerns digital infrastructure—how it succeeds and fails, the risks and harms we face, and the rules and structures we create. She has previously appeared at Norwescon, Wikimania, MozFest, FOSSY, and numerous other community, technical, and academic venues. She received her doctorate in 2024.
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Dr. Laura Woodney is a planetary scientist and professor of physics and astronomy at California State University San Bernardino. She specializes in studying the properties of small icy bodies (comets, centaurs) in our solar system and has experience in helping design planetary exploration mission concepts. When she’s not doing science or teaching she can probably be found knitting, reading, and/or playing with her two cats Myrtle and Tilly.
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Dr. Mary C Crowell writes songs about gaming and mythology and adores jazz. She also teaches music theory, piano, and composition in her private studio and occasionally at a community college in north Alabama. She loves participating in creative challenges like Soulwriters, Start With This, and FAWM (February Album Writing Month). Mary creates quirky MIDI compositions and arranges instrumental music. She also makes silly music videos for her patrons on Patreon. Two of Mary’s short music videos, “I Put My Low Stat” and “M is for Magic Missile,” were selected for Origins Game Fair’s film festival in 2021. Dr. Crowell performs with Play It With Moxie and Three Weird Sisters, releasing respectively Play It With Moxie, Live! (2012) and Third Thyme’s the Charm (2012). Both bands formed in Atlanta, Georgia through the George Filk Convention filk community. She also performs with Dead Sexy, Seanan McGuire's back-up band. Mary has released four studio albums: I Have Missed You at My Table (2022); Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour (2017); Acolytes of the Machine & Other Gaming Stories (2012) recorded at Mystic Fig Studio; and an earlier album, Courting My Muse (2007). Lately she has been collaborating with CSE Cooney and Tina Connolly on a new project: The Devil and Lady Midnight—a delightful, fiendish musical to be released as six podcast episodes. Come join pianist and singer Mary Crowell as she regales you with songs of radium girls, devils, and dice.
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Dr. Natalie Bloch Isenberg is an internist and the chief medical officer of MPCHECK, a health tech company specializing in home-based, point-of-care diagnostic solutions. She leads clinical strategy and implementation of novel technologies aimed at early detection and prevention of chronic diseases. Her work focuses on integrating remote, POC data acquisition into routine medical practice, bridging clinical rigor with technological innovation.
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Dr. Rachael Kuintzle is a speculative fiction writer, labor organizer, educator, and Moth StorySLAM champion. While completing her biochemistry doctorate at Caltech, she served as editor-in-chief of Caltech’s first sci-fi anthology, Inner Space and Outer Thoughts.
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Dr. Ricky is a working scientist and science communicator, particularly interested in using food and cuisine as a way to teach science—he’ll use almost anything to make science and critical thinking more accessible to the lay public, and fend off misinformation. On BlueSky at @dr-ricky.bsky.social.
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Dr. Rob Hoyt is a seasoned entrepreneur, physicist, and investor with expertise in advanced space technologies, additive manufacturing, plasma physics, and scientific algorithms. Dr. Hoyt has created two technology companies and achieved successful exits through acquisitions. Dr. Hoyt co-founded Tethers Unlimited Inc. (TUI) in 1994, and served as President & CEO for 25 years. Over that time he built the company into a $20 million-per-year space technology firm providing high-performance satellite components, as well as innovations in in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing, and sustainable space solutions. In 2020 he sold TUI to ARKA Group LP, a private-equity backed space and defense company.
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Dr. Tara Prescott-Johnson is a continuing lecturer and distinguished teacher in writing programs at UCLA, where she teaches Honors 87W: Exploring Hugo Winners. She is the editor of Streaming the Sandman: Critical Essays on the Netflix Series and Neil Gaiman in the 21st Century, as well as co-editor of Gender and the Superhero Narrative and Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Her TEDxUCLA talk, “Hike Your Own Hike,” is available on YouTube.

Dr. Thomas G Kucera has a doctorate in mathematical logic (McGill, 1984) and was a senior scholar in the department of mathematics, University of Manitoba, He retired 2023 as associate professor after 36 years of service. He is a long-time union activist, including executive positions and post-retirement service. He has been a speculative fiction, SF, and fantasy fan since before he could read for himself. He has attended roughly 40% of the Worldcons in the last 30 years. Thomas is a fanatic indoor and outdoor gardener, gourmet cook, winemaker, has widespread interest in “classical”(?) music from the Renaissance to the 21st century, which includes activism in support of contemporary Canadian “classical” music. He is a heritage railway and model railway supporter.
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Dusk is a local creative and builder here in Seattle, with a 20-year background in theatrical set and prop building. His day job as it were is as a maintenance technician for entertainment gear. In his spare time, Dusk dabbles in writing tabletop campaigns, and creates custom props both “smart” and mundane. His most recent passion is restorative work on acquired or discarded and found pieces.
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Dyani Sabin is a queer, Jewish author of speculative fiction, poetry, and science journalism. Her work has been published in Strange Horizons, Enchanted Conversations, Reckoning, Vastarien, Vast Chasm, Small Wonders, as well as National Geographic, The Washington Post, and Popular Science. You can find her haunting a cornfield, or at her website.
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E. C. Ambrose writes adventure novels inspired by research subjects like medieval surgery, ancient clockworks, and Byzantine mechanical wonders. Published works include Drakemaster, the Dark Apostle series, and the Bone Guard archaeological thrillers. One recent adventure is interactive superhero novel Skystrike: Wings of Justice, for Choice of Games.

EB Helveg is a science fiction author, poet, and artist living in the Pacific Northwest. To pay the bills he works as an anesthesia technologist, and he’d love to talk at length about diseases with anyone who will sit still long enough. His poetry can be found in magazines like F&SF and Eye to the Telescope, as well as the Cozy Cosmic series (Underland Press). His fiction can be found in the Nonprofit Quarterly, SoulJar: 31 Fantastical Tales by Disabled Authors (Forest Avenue Press), and The Midnight Labyrinth (Grendel Press). His art can be found in The Future Fire magazine and at various night markets around the PNW.
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Ed Buchan has been writing SF/F since 1969. Since 2016, he’s been cranking out multiple books a year, sometimes multi-volume stories like Bight of the Lamprey and sometimes intensely character driven stories like A Bard’s Tale. His lifetime novel count is 22 plus a moral philosophy titled “Das Nerdal,” all at Revision 1.0. He hopes to shop three novels to publishers/agents in 2024 and finish five of the revisions. He currently has zero novels in progress. He’s taken to writing diaries for Daily Kos on engineering subjects, like “How Big The Grid,” that contribute to his professional development hours for his professional engineering societies.

Edward Carmien began writing early in life and never stopped, though he did detour through an academic career teaching college writing and fantasy and science fiction. A lapsed poet, short story writer, game designer, and novelist, his first publications were game-related working as a freelancer for TSR, Inc. After appearing in the fiction anthology Earth, Air, Fire, Water he earned membership in the SFWA. He has won awards for his fiction and non-fiction, edited a volume of essays about writer C.J. Cherryh, and lives with his family near Princeton, New Jersey.
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Ed Finn is the founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, and the academic director of Future Tense, a partnership between ASU and New America. He is the author of What Algorithms Want: Imagination in the Age of Computing and co-editor of many collections of speculative fiction, including The Climate Action Almanac, Future Tense Fiction, Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers and Creators of All Kinds, and Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future.
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Ed McCutchan reviews science fiction and fantasy books at Kaiju and Gnome, with a particular passion for obscure and forgotten works, especially movie novelizations. A dedicated Godzilla fan, he brings deep knowledge and enthusiasm to his critiques, with a special fascination for the portrayal of religion in SF/F. His work highlights hidden gems of the genre, offering insightful analysis and a fresh perspective on overlooked stories.
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Edward Martin III is a writer and filmmaker scrabbling together a semblance of home in the Pacific Northwest. He’s responsible for four feature films, 40 or so short films, and seven different web series, totaling around 300 episodes. He’s also published two novels, and several other books. He’s surrounded by looming evergreens with sullen boughs, mountains that ponder the nature of death, and a relentless sea that dissolves everything it touches. Also, there are two cats. Big cats. Edward’s books and films are available via Hellbender Media’s website. Finally, you should probably get some rest.

Edwardson Ukata is a Black queer nonbinary writer from Nigeria. They are the winner of the 2024 C.D. Wright Poetry Prize, selected by Richard Siken, and a graduate fellow in the Master of Fine Arts program at Washington University in St. Louis. Their work appears in publications including POETRY, Obsidian, The Arkansas International, Lolwe, Vastarian, and Channel. They have been a finalist for the 2023 Bergen International Writing Competition and the 2022 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize.

Ehigbor Okosun, or just Ehi, is the #1 international bestselling author of Forged By Blood. Raised across four continents, she now resides in the US, where she writes speculative fiction, mystery thrillers, and contemporary novels for adult and YA audiences. She is a graduate of University of Texas at Austin with degrees in plan II honors, neurolinguistics, English, chemistry, and pre-medical studies. When she’s not reading, you can catch her bullet journaling, gaming, baking, singing, doing yoga and spending time with her loved ones. Her second book, Exiled by Iron, arrived to acclaim on October 22nd, 2024.
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Eileen Gunn is the author of a three collections of short fiction. Her most recent book, Night Shift, a collection of stories and essays, is part of PM Press’s excellent Outspoken Authors series, and was short listed for the Locus Award in 2023. Her work has received the Nebula Award in the United States and the Sense of Gender Award in Japan, and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, Philip K. Dick, Locus, and Tiptree awards. Gunn was editor and publisher of the pioneering webzine The Infinite Matrix, and served for 22 years on the board of directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.
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Elektra Hammond emulates her multi-sided idol Buckaroo Banzai by going in several directions at once. She’s been involved in publishing since the 1990s now she writes, concocts anthologies, and edits science fiction for various and sundry. When not freelancing or appearing at SF conventions, she travels the world judging cat shows. Elektra is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop and a member of SFWA. She lives in Delaware with her husband, Mike, and more than the usual allotment of felines.
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Eleri Hamilton is a writer, artist and generally crafty human who lives in the PNW with her wife, eldest offspring, and a menagerie of critters. She is known for making mind-bending puzzles, being a quazi-offical NPC in Myst Online, co-authoring the Myst TTRPG, and somehow having a Kevin Bacon-esque level of knowing people.
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Eli has produced and published filk for over 30 years, mostly through the Prometheus Music label. His work has focused on preserving and distributing “classic” filk from the 1980s and 1990s, particularly by Leslie Fish and Julia Ecklar. His most recent projects this year include a re-release of Phoenyx’s Keepers of the Flame (featuring our music guest of honor, Alexander James Adams), a Pegasus Nominees album, and a new Leslie Fish live-and-studio hybrid project.
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Elijah Kinch Spector is a novelist and dandy raised in the Bay Area counterculture who now lives in Brooklyn. He is a British Fantasy Award finalist whose writing has received acclaim from NPR, Reactor, Nerds of a Feather, Foreword, and Paste Magazine, among others.
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Elise Stephens (she/her) writes stories influenced by the themes of family, memory, and finding hope after a devastating loss. She also draws inspiration from her love for theater and a globetrotting childhood. She is a first-place winner of Writers of the Future (2019) and a finalist for the Baen Fantasy Adventure Award (2021). Her fiction has appeared in Analog, Galaxy’s Edge, Escape Pod, and FIYAH, among others. Elise lives in a house with huge windows that help her absorb the vast quantities of light she requires to stay happy. Visit her website.
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Libby Schultz is the founder and CEO of CipherCounts, and has worked at the forefront of the crypto industry since 2017, advising and educating innovators, institutions, Fortune 500 companies, Big 4 CPA firms, and the AICPA to build next generation financial systems. She is also a science fiction writer, licensed CPA, and technologist with a master’s in data science from Carnegie Mellon.
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Elizabeth Cobbe is a playwright-turned-author whose short fiction has appeared in Fireside, Cossmass Infinities, Daily Science Fiction, and Kaleidotrope, plus several anthology projects. She currently has a novel out on sub.
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Elizabeth Guizzetti is an illustrator, author, and podcaster best known for her demon-poodle comedy Out for Souls & Cookies and all the family drama in Vampires of the Paper Flower Consortium. She also produces and narrates the podcast, Scary Stories Whispered in the Rain, where she does her best to delight horror fans with chilling tales from featured authors.
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Ellen Datlow is an award-winning editor and anthologist who’s been editing sf/f/h short fiction for over four decades, currently acquiring short stories and novellas for Reactor and Tor.com. Her most recent original anthology is Christmas and Other Horrors. She has edited a Best Horror of the Year anthology for almost 40 years. Datlow is recipient of the Karl Edward Wagner Award for “outstanding contribution to the genre” and Life Achievement Awards given by the HWA and the World Fantasy Convention.
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Elliott Kay wandered from Los Angeles to Seattle 20 years ago and decided to stick around. His steamy, silly urban fantasy series Good Intentions is set in Seattle. His military sci-fi series Poor Man’s Fight combines student debt, space pirates, and interstellar war, using themes relatable to anyone in this economy.
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Elsa Sjunneson is a deafblind author and editor of speculative fiction as well as nonfiction. For various contributions to the literary community, she has been awarded the Hugo, BFA, Aurora, and Washington State Book Award. She also contributed to the 60th anniversary issue of Daredevil and Women of Marvel #1. She lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Emily C. Skaftun is a speculative fiction writer, editor, graphic designer, and irony enthusiast. Her short story collection, Living Forever & Other Terrible Ideas, was published in November 2020. Emily lives in Seattle with a furry house monster named Basilisk. In her spare time, she plays roller derby as V. Lucy Raptor, dabbles with taxidermy, and writes postcards to the void.
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Emily Hockaday is the senior managing editor of Analog Science Fiction & Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. She coedited Terror at the Crossroads with Jackie Sherbow. Emily is the editor of Heart of the Universe, a poetry anthology with Interstellar Flight Press, and the author of the poetry collections Naming the Ghost, In a Body, and Blood Music.
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Emily Loretta Flummox (pronouns: fey/fem/fear/fierce/femself; fey uses 18 other names) has had stories and poetry published in Wickedly Abled, The Horror Zine, Weird Fiction Quarterly, the BookFest Award-winning Fump Truck, and Scry of Lust 1 and 2 and edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Rat King. In addition to publishing TTRPG content in Girls Write These Worlds, Grok (Emily) appears on actual play livestreams throughout the internet while also working as a professional game master.
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Emily M. Bender is a professor of linguistics and an adjunct professor in the School of Computer Science and the Information School at the University of Washington. She is the co-author “Climbing towards NLU: On Meaning, Form, and Understanding in the Age of Data,” “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?” and co-author of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want. In 2022 she was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in September 2023 she was included in the first-ever TIME 100 AI list.
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Emily Paxman is an author and artist from Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. She’s a huge fan of gardening, cats, watercolor painting, and several other hobbies that befit an octogenarian. She has her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Chatham University, has written for indie video game company Wizard Games, and splits her time (unevenly) between creating comics and writing novels. You can read her webcomic, Neptune Bay, on Webtoon. Death on the Caldera is her debut novel.

Emily Smiley, a writer from South Carolina who calls Seattle home, crafts stories that reflect the world back to her readers, inviting them to explore deeper truths within themselves. Her novel Treading Water came in first in the horror category of the 2024 PNWA Unpublished Competition. She’s the programming coordinator for the Writers’ Studio at the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network on Bainbridge Island, Washington. She’s a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Seattle Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. Additionally, she’s a founder of Content Hospital, a speculative fiction writers marketing collective. When she’s not giving her readers nightmares, she’s running, traveling, reading, or playing video games.
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Emily Varga is an internationally bestselling fantasy author with a fondness for getting lost in bookstores and watching a lot of terrible reality TV. She has lived all over the world but currently calls the Rocky Mountains of western Canada home, where she lives with her family and their menagerie of pets. When she’s not writing, Emily works as a family lawyer, where she learned more about storytelling than she ever expected. Emily’s debut novel For She Is Wrath was an indie bestseller and a #1 UK YA bestseller, and was shortlisted for both the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Peter’s Children’s Book of the Year Award.
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Ennis Rook Bashe is an Elgin and Rhysling Award finalist, TAP New York Writers’ Institute Poetry Prize winner, and HWA Dark Poetry Scholarship-winning poet, novelist, and game designer. Their chapbook Beautiful Malady includes work nominated for the Pushcart Prize. They live with the World Side-Eye Champion (Cat Division.) Find more writing and information at linktr.ee/ennisrookbashe.
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Ephraim N. Orji is a writer from whose works have been published in Omenana Magazine, Flaming Tree African Ghost Story collection, Eboquills, the Will This Be a Problem? Anthology, and more. He is a finalist of the Awele Creative Writing Short Story Contest of 2020 and an alumnus of the Idembeka Writers’ Workshop 2025. When he isn’t lost in the pages of a book, he spends his time cleaning data on Excel, goofing around with his dog Reneé, and playing Sims 4.

The Faithful Sidekicks are an award-winning comedic filk pop duo of Erik and Jen Distad, who perform original catchy songs about SF/F, fandoms, gaming, and technology. They have been delighting audiences at conventions, clubs, and coffeehouses since 2014 with their fun songs about their nerdy passions, delivered with a ton of heart and a side of snark. They have won multiple Pegasus Awards, including best performer, and were inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2024.
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Eric G. Swedin is a professor of history at Weber State University. His doctorate is in the history of science and technology, and he used to teach in a computer science department. His publications include numerous articles, seven history books, four science fiction novels, and a historical mystery novel. His book When Angels Wept: A What-If History of the Cuban Missile Crisis won the 2010 Sidewise Award for Alternate History. Visit his web site.
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When not teaching high school math online, Eric Gjovaag is likely doing something involving either The Wizard of Oz or Doctor Who. He is the founder and head chef of the Emerald City Androgums, one of Seattle’s great Doctor Who-and-eating fan clubs. He has been a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club for nearly 50 years and co-wrote the novel Queen Ann in Oz. He started The Wonderful Wizard of Oz website in 1996, and it is still going 30 years later. In Oz fandom, he was awarded the Winkie Award in 1997 and the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award in 2013.
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Eric, a multifaceted filmmaker, has produced, directed, and edited several shorts and features. Notably, a significant portion of his time is dedicated to his podcast, Strange Aeons Radio. Additionally, he is the festival director for the Crypticon Seattle Film Festival. Eric has collaborated with renowned organizations such as The Seattle International Film Festival, The Film School, and Strange Aeons Magazine.
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Erica Frank has been volunteering at conventions since the 80s and was a Hugo Award finalist for best fanzine for her activity with the Galactic Journey blog. Her interests include fanfic, gaming, and filk. She has been volunteering for the Organization for Transformative Works and the Archive of Our Own for more than 15 years. She is currently on the board of directors of both the OTW and Squidgeworld, and is dedicated to fanfic preservation and celebrating all the new ways fans discover to share their creativity.

Erik Grove is a writer, long distance runner, workshop runner, writing teacher, and small- to medium-sized dog wrangler living and doing things in Portland, Oregon. He is a graduate of Viable Paradise and an active member of SFWA and the HWA. He is represented by Joshua Bilmes at the JABberwocky Literary Agency.
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Erik Scott de Bie’s work blends a core of fantasy with flavors and influences from genres as wide-ranging as sci-fi, horror, Western, and romance. To date, he has published over 2 million words in novel form (and counting), plus dozens of short stories, and he is a stalwart creator in the tabletop gaming space. He is best known for his Forgotten Realms novels, his World of Ruin apocalyptic fantasy series, and his ongoing Justice/Vengeance superhero series. He is also unusually tall. He lives in Seattle with his wife and menagerie of pets.
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Erin Barbeau (ze/zir) is a nonbinary science fiction author and entomologist. When Erin isn’t busy with writing, ze enjoys drawing and alternative fashion. Zir work has appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction and various academic journals.
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Erin Cairns is a writer, reader, and editor. She runs Inkfoundry.net, where she reads and wrangles short stories to encourage accessibility and discoverability for readers looking for a good narrative itch to scratch. Found families, happy endings, and rescue missions are her particular cups of tea, and there’s nothing she would rather be doing than visiting new worlds and meeting the people that inhabit them. Her neon-noir mysteries The Uncanny Valley and The Holofriend are available at all e-book retailers, and her short fiction has previously been published in Writers of the Future Vol. 34, The Dark, and EscapePod. You can see her past, current, and future projects at her website.
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Erin Hardee, together with wife Morag Hannah, writes under the penname MK Hardy. With backgrounds ranging from museum interpretation to web design, and from science communication to ghost tours, they are devoted to storytelling in almost every aspect of their lives and work. When they are not telling stories they can be found singing in choirs, foraging for fungi, and working on their 1880s fixer-upper. Their debut sapphic gothic horror The Needfire comes out from Solaris in July 2025.
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Erin Roberts’ short stories and interactive fiction have appeared in publications including Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, The Dark, Pathfinder: The Godsrain Prophecies, and Forge Your Quest, an interactive audio D&D adventure for kids from Yoto. Her TTRPG writing credits, which include work for D&D, Pathfinder, Triangle Agency, and Daggerheart, have earned her three ENNIE awards, a Diana Jones Emerging Game Designer award, and a Nebula Award finalist nomination. Erin is also one of the hosts of Writing Excuses, a weekly podcast conversation about the writing craft.
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Ethan Mills has published several articles on philosophy and science fiction. See his website for details at ethan-mills.weebly.com. Visit his blog.
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Eugenia Triantafyllou is a Greek author and artist with a flair for dark things. Her work has won the Shirley Jackson Award and has been nominated for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards. She is a graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop. You can find her stories at Reactor.com, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, Apex, and other venues. She currently lives in Athens with a boy and a dog. Find her on Bluesky @foxesandroses.bsky.social, her IG @eugeniatriantafyllou, or her website.
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Eva L. Elasigue is an eclectic science fiction fantasy author and poet, with published works ranging through various subgenres and forms, notably the fantasy space opera novel trilogy Bones of Starlight. She plies multiple modes of integrative creative expression, which feeds the written word. Panagnoatheific babaylan druid skald ma/ha/rlika-celtamerican demiasexual panromantic ethically solo polyamorous and genderfluid Q she/they.
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Evan J. Peterson’s first novel is Better Living Through Alchemy (Broken Eye Books), and his previous poetry collection is METAFLESH: Poems in the Voices of the Monster (ARUS). As a game writer, he created Drag Star! (Choice of Games), the world’s first drag performer RPG, and The Road to Innsmouth: Arkham Horror. His writing has appeared in Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Queers Destroy Horror, and Nightmare Magazine. Evan’s website can tell you more.
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F. Brett Cox is the author of The End of All Our Exploring: Stories (Fairwood Press, 2018) and Roger Zelazny, and co-editor, with Andy Duncan, of Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic (Tor, 2004). His recent fiction includes stories in The Dark and Sunday Morning Transport. In addition to fiction, his poetry, plays, academic writing, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies. He is a co-founder of the Shirley Jackson Award and currently serves on its board of advisors. A native of North Carolina, Brett is a Charles A. Dana Professor of English at Norwich University and lives in Vermont with his wife, playwright Jeanne Beckwith.
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F. J. Bergmann is the poetry editor for Weird House Press and freelances as a copy editor and book designer. Her work has appeared in Abyss & Apex, Analog, Asimov’s SF, and elsewhere; her awards include SFPA Rhysling Awards for both long and short poems and SFPA Elgin Awards for two chapbooks. She is a Writers of the Future winner. She has competed at National Poetry Slam and is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. She thinks imagination can compensate for anything.
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F.E. Choe is a Canadian and Korean American writer whose work has been published in adda, Augur, Clarkesworld, and Fractured Lit. She is a 2023 graduate of the Clarion West and Viable Paradise workshops and is an editor at 100 Word Story. Her work has received the support of South Arts, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greenville and has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She currently lives in the United States.
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Farah Mendlesohn (Farah/they/she) is a con-runner, retired history professor, charity manager, co-editor of the Hugo Award-winning Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction, author of the Hugo-nominated The Pleasant Profession of Robert A. Heinlein, and is currently working on a short book about Joanna Russ’s The Female Man. Farah has chaired three Eastercons, has served in various capacities in Worldcons and Eastercons, and is part of the World Fantasy 2025 team.
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Faye Gabriel (she/he|mx.) is a writer, parent, sewist, and bard/barbarian multi-class from Baltimore, MD. Find her on AO3 @13th_blackbird, on Bluesky @faye-gabriel, and at her website.
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Felicia Low-Jimenez is the Publisher at Difference Engine, an independent comics publisher based in Singapore. She holds an master’s degree in literary theory and Asian studies, with a focus on anime and manga, and has worked in bookselling and publishing for over a decade. She believes that stories have the power to change the world. She is also one half of the writing team behind the best-selling Sherlock Sam series of children’s books, and the writer of the young adult fantasy comic, Tiger Girls.
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Feng Zhang, also known as Sanfeng, is a science fiction critic and researcher. He is honorary senior lecturer at the University of Hong Kong and visiting scholar at the Center for the Humanities, Southern University of Science and Technology. He is also a council member of the China Science Writers Association, and a member of the Science Fiction Literature Committee of the China Writers Association.

Fonda Lee is the author of the epic fantasy Green Bone Saga, which has been translated into 14 languages and named to TIME Magazine’s Top 100 Fantasy Books of All Time. She is also the author of the novella Untethered Sky, several science fiction novels, and the young adult fantasy Breath of the Dragon, co-written with Shannon Lee. Fonda is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, a six-time winner of the Aurora Award, and a multiple finalist for the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award. She is a former corporate strategist and black belt martial artist residing in the Boston area.
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Two-time Nebula Award-winner Fran Wilde has (so far) published eight novels, a poetry collection, and over 70 short stories for adults, teens, and kids. Her stories have been finalists for six Nebula Awards, a World Fantasy Award, four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, and a Lodestar. They include her Nebula- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel Updraft, and her Nebula-winning, Best of NPR 2019, debut middle grade novel Riverland. Her short stories appear in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Shimmer, Nature, Uncanny Magazine, and multiple years' best anthologies. The managing editor for The Sunday Morning Transport, Fran teaches or has taught for schools including Vermont College of Fine Arts’ MFA in writing for children and young adults, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She writes nonfiction for publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, and Tor.com. You can find her on Instagram, Bluesky, and at franwilde.net.
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Francesca Myman is a senior editor and art director at Locus Magazine, where she has worked for 18 years. She also works as a cover artist and designer, and has completed over 130 Locus covers, most with her vivid and imaginative original artwork. Her editorial duties include convention coverage and photography, event planning for the Locus Awards, art books wrangling for the renowned Locus Recommended Reading List, undersea beastie upkeep, and many other strange and wonderful tasks. Art, science, and technology are areas of interest. She lives in Oakland, California, with her two polydactyl calico cats, Magic and Marginalia.

Frank Catalano is a professional writer, journalist, broadcaster, and former tech industry executive. He currently is the business contributor for Cascadia Daily News in Bellingham, Washington, and has written about tech-tinged topics for outlets ranging from GeekWire to Omni. His earlier science fiction credits span Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Amazing, and more. He’s a former officer of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.
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Frank Hayes's voice was used to wake up NASA shuttle astronauts in space—twice. Really. Once in 1990, just after the Hubble Space Telescope was launched from Discovery (STS-31), and again in 1993, just before Endeavour's crew (STS-61) went to work repairing Hubble's astigmatism. Hubble has been (mostly) working fine ever since, and Frank is still writing twisted songs about space, computers, fandom, and little fuzzy animals with big sharp teeth. He's won a fistful of Pegasus Awards, was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 2009, and was music guest of honor at Worldcon 76 in San Jose.

Frank Wu is a transdimensional interspace being, living physically near Boston with his wife Brianna the Magnificent, but regularly projecting his mind across time and space to commune with dinosaurs, eurypterids, and numinous energy beings. Award-winning visualizations and written accounts of these journeys can be found in Analog, Amazing Stories, Realms of Fantasy, his website, and the radiation-hardened memory bunkers of planet Gorsplax.

Frauke Uhlenbruch, Ph.D., is a researcher and writer with an academic background in sociology and a professional background as a linguist and content designer in tech and education. She publishes horror and science fiction as Anna Ziegelhof.
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Fred Moulton is a retired computer professional now living in Tempe, Arizona, with interests in speculative fiction, technology, human flourishing in the future, critical thinking, and skepticism.
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Gerald “G. David” Nordley is an astronautical engineer, consultant, and writer with over a hundred publications. He has degrees in physics and systems management and is a retired Air Force officer. He has four AnLab readers’ awards and nominations for both a Hugo and Nebula. His two novels and five story collections are available from Brief Candle Press. His stories focus on the human experience in plausible futures, many in space. Visit him at his website.
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G. Willow Wilson is co-creator of the Hugo and American Book award-winning comic book series Ms. Marvel, writer of the GLAAD Award-winning Poison Ivy series, and has written for some of the best-known superhero comics, including X-Men, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Her first novel, Alif the Unseen, was the 2013 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel winner, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and long-listed for the 2013 Women’s Prize for Fiction. NPR named her second novel, The Bird King, one of the best fantasy novels of the decade. In 2015, she won the Graphic Literature Innovator Prize at the PEN America Literary Awards. She lives in Seattle.
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G.R. Theron is a Pacific Northwest-based fantasy author, member of the Mythopoeic Society, and host of Northwest Speculative. Educated at the University of Washington as an ancient historian and classicist, his work often draws upon classical themes and mythos. He cherishes the best writing advice he ever received from his grandfather: The truth should never get in the way of a good story.
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Gabrielle has narrated and produced hundreds of audiobook titles, specializing in fantasy and humor, and those requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She is story podcast producer for Wil Wheaton’s It’s Storytime. She is a social media wizardress and blogs weekly at skyboatmedia.com. She is the writer and director of the award-winning short film The Deliveray. She has successfully funded two Kickstarter campaigns for audiobooks. She spent her childhood in Rome growing up with her wildly artistic and cinematic father, John de Cuir, three-time Academy Award-winning production designer, which taught her to be fluent in Romance languages and have an unusual appetite for visual delights.
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Gabrielle Harbowy is an associate literary agent at Corvisiero Literary Agency. An award-nominated editor, author, and anthologist, she is the author of the novels Aether’s Pawn and Pathfinder Tales: Gears of Faith. Her short fiction has appeared in various markets including Fantasy Magazine. She is an active member of SFWA, the LGBTQ+ Editors Association, and the International Association of Media Tie In Writers (IAMTW). She has written game adventures for Pathfinder PFS and Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League. For more information, including her manuscript wish list, visit her website.
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Gail Carriger has multiple NYT bestsellers and millions of books in print in dozens of different languages. She writes book hugs: comedies of manners mixed with steampunk, urban fantasy, or sci-fi. She is best known for the Parasol Protectorate and Finishing School series. She was once an archaeologist and is fond of shoes, octopuses, and tea. Visit her website.
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A mild-mannered structural engineer by day, Gary stalks the stages and filk rooms of Northeast conventions, singing of space flight, lunar colonies, and hyperspace hotels. Gary helped run NEFilk's Conterpoint incarnation, and is Balticon’s program coordinator for Filk and Other Musical Mayhem. Gary was a 2012 Filk Hall of Fame inductee.
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Gary K. Wolfe is the author of nine books and many essays, in addition to being a critic, editor (four SF volumes for Library of America and two for Subterranean Press), reviewer (Locus magazine since 1992), lecturer (“How Great Science Fiction Works” for Great Courses), retired professor, and podcaster (Coode Street Podcast, with Jonathan Strahan). He's a 14-time Hugo nominee (and one-time winner). Other awards include the World Fantasy, Locus, Ditmar, BSFA, Pilgrim, International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, and Eaton Conference awards.

Gemma Mendonsa is a biochemist whose work mostly focuses on storing data in DNA, rather than in traditional data storage media like hard drives or tape.

Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis is a science fiction writer, scientist, poet, and swordsman. He has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Heinlein awards for science fiction, the Rhysling award for poetry, and the AIAA Power Systems award for designing power systems for spacecraft. He works for NASA on developing advanced technologies for spaceflight, including recent missions to Venus and Titan. More information can be seen on his out-of-date website, or just look him up on Wikipedia.
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George R.R. Martin is the author of A Song of Ice and Fire series that began with A Game of Thrones, now an HBO series. He’s the executive producer of AMC’s Dark Winds, based on Tony Hillerman’s books. Martin’s philanthropic work includes scholarships to Clarion West, Odyssey Writing Workshop, Taos Tool Box, and the George R. R. Martin Chair in Storytelling at Medill School of Journalism. He produced Howard Waldrop’s short films Night of The Cooters, Mary Margaret Road-Grader, and Ugly Chickens. Martin is the proud owner of Beastly Books and Jean Cocteau Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he lives with his wife, Parris, and their pet menagerie.
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Dr. van Belle is the director of science at Lowell Observatory. He is an internationally recognized expert in the design, construction, commissioning, and use of optical telescope arrays, for carrying out astronomical observations at the highest levels of spatial resolution. His astrophysical research projects have been pioneering in the fields of fundamental stellar parameters, stellar surface imaging, and characterization of exoplanet host stars.
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Geri Sullivan is a Minneapolis fan living in the wilds of Wales (the one in Massachusetts) for the last 21 years. She is a fanzine fan, fellow of NESFA, on the board of governors for the Ig Nobel Prizes, and known for having hosted a party or two….

Gibbitt has been going to conventions since 1991, and been running conventions since 1995. She and her late husband started and ran Dragondyne Publishing and released about 10 books. She has also worked freelance as an editor. She currently lives in SeaTac, Washington, with a roommate, a cat, and a dog.
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Professor and space historian Gideon Marcus is founder of the independent speculative fiction house Journey Press and the five-time Hugo finalist fanzine Galactic Journey. He has just finished Majera, the fourth book in the Kitra Saga. His short fiction can be found in Dark Matter, Utopia, Simultaneous Times, and elsewhere.
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Gina Saucier will talk about empire and science fiction/fantasy even when it is a massive stretch to weave it in. Pacific Northwest born and raised, she works in local government and has a Master of Science degree in empires, colonialism, and globalization from the London School of Economics. Gina grew up doing local theater, which had a massive influence on her love of costuming and sewing. When traveling she will quietly whisper “give it back” in the museums of the world. @reginaroams on socials.

Glen Engel-Cox has published a novel, Darwin’s Daughter; a non-fiction compilation, First Impressions; and short fiction in LatineLit, Utopia, Nature, Triangulation, Factor Four, SFS Stories, and elsewhere. He publishes a daily newsletter about authors and literary events as part of his Patreon account. Join his Patreon for free.
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Gloria Jackson-Nefertiti (she/her) is an author and late-diagnosed autistic adult. She considered her December 2013 breast cancer diagnosis a gift, because it reminded her how short life is, encouraging her to come out as bisexual, polyamorous, and sex positive. Her work has appeared in the anthologies: True Stories: Vol V, The Narrative Project and Sharing Our Journeys 2: Queer BIPOC Elders Tell Their Stories. Her upcoming memoir is called A Different Drum: A Black, Autistic, Polyamorous, Mentally Ill, Former Fundamentalist Christian/Cult Member and Breast Cancer Survivor WHO JUST WANTS TO FIT IN. Gloria lives in Seattle, Washington.
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Gordon B. White is a Seattle-based author of horror and weird fiction. His works have been nominated for the Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker Awards, and his stories, reviews, and interviews have appeared in dozens of venues. His most recent book is the short story collection Gordon B. White Is Creating Haunting Weird Horror(s). You can find him on his website or on most social media as @GordonBWhite.
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Gordon Eklund was born in Seattle and has been an active SF fan since age 14. He attended the 1961 Seattle WorldCon as a teenager, and his first SF stories appeared in 1970. He published his first novel the following year. In 1974 he won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette for If the Stars Are Gods, written with Gregory Benford and later expanded to novel-length works. He has 25 books to his name so far, including three collections of selected shorter fiction. He often thinks his life was saved by science fiction.

Grace is a lover of science fiction, especially when it focuses on artificial intelligence and expands her imagination.

Greg L Johnson has been a lifetime reader of science fiction. He has participated on panels at conventions in the Minneapolis are for over 30 years, was an associate editor of Tales of the Unanticipated, and reviewed SF for many years for The SF Site and The New York Review of Science Fiction.

Gregg Castro [t’rowt’raahl Salinan/rumsien-ramaytush Ohlone] has worked preserving California indigenous heritage for more than three decades. Among many endeavors in “Indian Country,” he is culture director for the nonprofit Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, chair for the Society for California Archaeology’s Native American Programs Committee, adviser to the California Indian Conference, and many other organizational roles to the California Indian History Curriculum Coalition.
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Gregory A. Wilson is a professor of English at St. John’s University, where he teaches creative writing and speculative fiction, and is author of The Problem in the Middle: Liminal Space and the Court Masque (Clemson University Press), various book chapters, and journal articles. Outside academia, he is the author of the epic fantasy The Third Sign, the award-winning graphic novel Icarus, the Gray Assassin Trilogy, and the 5E adventure/sourcebook Tales and Tomes from the Forbidden Library; plus many short stories. He runs a Twitch channel focused on story and narrative, and has been a panelist at many conventions. He lives with his family in Connecticut.
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Gregory Amato made a career of selling his quill as a mercenary writer for many years. He wrote true and important things for newspapers, magazines, academia, and, for over a decade, intelligence analysis for the FBI. Now, he writes fantasy stories based on the myths and sagas of the Vikings. His fiction is often influenced by tales lost to time, usually full of high adventure, and always the sort that makes readers late to dinner. Outside his time spent spinning yarns about Vikings and wizards, he teaches judo, brews beer, and plays D&D when he gets the chance. Gregory lives happily with his family in the Pacific Northwest.
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Gregory Gadow works as an electron wrangler for the State of Washington. His CV includes a degree in economic analysis and work as a licensed financial representative, a software engineer, a business analyst, and an aspiring author is who sure to make it “any day now.” He lives in Olympia with two cats.

As managing director of The Washington Shakespearean Festival, GregRobin puts a lifetime of looking “under the hood” of Shakespeare’s works to find the common humanity, motivations, and techniques that created the canon we witness today. To study Shakespeare is a master class in wordsmithing that makes our own works richer and reach further. GregRobin also performs a solo interactive presentation of Benjamin Franklin—LIVE! across the country.
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Greta Kelly is the author of the critically acclaimed adult fantasy novels The Frozen Crown, The Seventh Queen, and The Queen of Days (Voyager) and the co-host of SFF Addicts podcast. Her writing has also appeared in Nerdist, i09, and Writer’s Digest. She currently lives in the U.S. with her husband EJ, and daughters Lorelei and Nadia, who are doing their level best to take over the world. You can follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok @gretakkelly.
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Griff grew up playing piano and singing in various choirs. Both his parents had masters’ degrees in music. He was also in marching and concert band in high school and college, and took up guitar in his early 50s in an act of rebellion against his classical-music upbringing. (Why Griff “the Filker?” Because there’s at least one other musician out there who goes by Griff, but he’s the only Griff who does filk.) He and his husband, author Cozy Joe Petty, are also both published fiction writers (together and separately), and are owned by an obstreperous tortoiseshell cat named Molly.
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Grimdark Magazine is a 2016 Stabby Award-winning, 2018 BSFA-nominated, and 2021 Aurealis-winning publication dedicated to the darker side of fantasy, science fiction, and horror, and run by a passionate volunteer crew. Joining the kaffeeklatsch are Elizabeth Tabler, the magazine’s commissioning editor, and Sarah Chorn, GdM’s line editor for original short fiction. Elizabeth curates each issue’s voice and vision, while Sarah brings her signature style and editorial expertise to the heart of the stories. Together they work to champion morally gray characters, brutal worlds, and stories where happy endings are never guaranteed.

Guy Morpuss was a trial lawyer in London, UK, before becoming a full-time author. His debut novel, Five Minds, about five people sharing one body, was a Financial Times Book of the Year and a Kindle #1 Bestseller in technothrillers and post-apocalyptic SF. His second novel, Black Lake Manor, about a murderer who can unwind time, was a Financial Times SF Book of the Month and a Waterstones Best Crime Book of 2022. His third novel, A Trial in Three Acts, is a courtroom thriller. He is currently working on a YA trilogy set in the world of Five Minds.
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Gwendolyn N. Nix is the author of the Celestial Scrips trilogy, Sharks of the Wasteland, I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Come, and Bone Knuckles and the Rose Scavenger. She lives in Montana with her husband, son, and a wild gray Labrador. Find her musing on Bluesky and Instagram @gwendolynnix and on her website.
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H.E. Milla is a Clarion West alum and doctoral student studying bioinformatics and computational biology. They live with their wife and a very small cat in North Carolina.

Hana Lee is a biracial Korean American writer who also builds software for a living. Their debut science fantasy duology, Road to Ruin and Flight of the Fallen, was published by Saga Press. Hana has an undying love for fantastical stories in all their forms, especially video games, and a habit of writing to moody indie rock playlists. Hana lives in California with their partner and two beloved cats.
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Hannah Swedin is an award-winning artist, cosplayer, and prop maker. She specializes in the unorthodox and unusual and has won top awards at various comic and sci-fi conventions throughout the years. She is always engaging with the community by teaching classes on custom plush making and cosplay. Her most recent endeavor is the creation of faux fantasy taxidermy specimens under her business DP Craftworks.
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Heather Preston (she/her) is an astronomer and filker who writes songs on topics from space science to Greek mythology. She was a planetarium director in subtropical Southwest Florida for 10 years but has now moved to the department of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago, on the oft-frozen shores of Lake Michigan. She is enjoying getting reacquainted with the strange phenomenon known as “four seasons.”

Heather Rose Jones is a 2025 Hugo finalist. She writes queer fantasy and historical fiction, including the Alpennia series and the fairy tale novella The Language of Roses, as well as multiple short stories. She has non-fiction publications on topics ranging from biotech to historic costume to naming practices, and creates the Lesbian Historic Motif Project blog and podcast, presenting research on sapphic themes in history as a resource for authors writing historic-based fiction.
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Heather Tracy is a travel agent by day and a masked copy editor and writer by night. As a travel agent, she plans Nerdventures—travel for the nerd in all of us. As a copy editor, she’s found hundreds of errors for Space Wizard Science Fantasy. With over 30 titles copyedited, in 2024 she published her first short story, in the anthology Fiery Deeps. In 2025 she published her first novel, Only a Chapter, featuring some of her personal journey surviving breast cancer. Heather lives in Raleigh with her husband, William C. Tracy. They have two rambunctious cats and several beehives and enjoy taking their own Nerdventures and cosplaying.

Helen’s unique background brings an interesting and fresh perspective to the publishing world. She has an extensive background in the arts as an internationally performing musician and photographer, as well as having worked in video, theater, and film. With a business and marketing background, she has worked extensively in the nonprofit sector and more recently for the Denver Center for Performing Arts. Originally from Harare, Zimbabwe and now residing in Colorado, Helen is passionate about storytelling and artistic expression. As a literary agent, she is focused on combining her own experience as an artist with the business side of publishing to support authors from creation through publication and beyond.
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Henry Lien is a graduate of Brown University, UCLA School of Law, and Clarion West Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of the Peasprout Chen fantasy series. His short fiction has appeared in publications, including Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF. He is a four-time Nebula Award finalist. Henry teaches for institutions including UCLA Extension, the University of Iowa, Clarion West, and Writing the Other, and won the UCLA Extension Department of the Arts Outstanding Instructor of the Year Award. Henry previously worked as an attorney and fine art dealer. Born in Taiwan, Henry lives in Hollywood, California. Hobbies include writing and performing campy anthems for his books and losing Nebula Awards.
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For nearly four decades Hilary has assisted on and off with various con committees, and has participated in both real-life and online fan communities. Her current projects include volunteering with Archive of Our Own and assisting with Yuletide, a multifandom fanfic exchange, when she’s not working as a tech services/YA librarian. She’s also owned by a bunny (pictures provided on request). Cherry Bun would tell you that this is the most important thing to know about Hilary, but Cherry is biased.

Dr. Hirotaka Osawa is an associate professor at Keio University. His research field includes human-agent interaction, imagination, and science fiction. He is the co-author of “Werewolf Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence to Deceive, See Through, and Persuade,” “SF Prototyping: A New Strategy to Create Innovation from Science Fiction,” and others. He supervised “Hundred Sci-fi which generated AI” and “SF Thinking: Skills for Thinking about Business and Our Future.” He is now editor-in-chief of the editorial board of the Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, and a board member and former president (2022–2024) of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan.
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Holly Black is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of fantasy books, including the novels of Elfhame, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and her adult debut, Book of Night. She has been a finalist for an Eisner Award and the Lodestar Award, and the recipient of the Mythopoeic Award, a Nebula, and a Newbery Honor. Her books have been translated into 32 languages worldwide and adapted for film. She currently lives in New England with her husband and son in a house with a secret library. She invites you to visit her website or on Instagram @blackholly.
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Holly Lyn Walrath is a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of Glimmerglass Girl, The Smallest of Bones, and Numinous Stones. She holds a bachelor’s in English from the University of Texas and a master’s in creative writing from the University of Denver. In 2019, she launched Interstellar Flight Press, an indie SFF publisher dedicated to publishing underrepresented genres and voices. As a freelance editor, she provides editing services for writers and organizations of all genres, experiences, and backgrounds, but enjoys working with new writers best.
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Howard Davidson was captured by a Heinlein book in second grade and hasn’t been seen much since. Inspired to do science fiction by reading it, he went off and got a Ph.D. in physics, the best training available for becoming a crackpot inventor. He is currently a senior physicist in the computer industry. He gets to write science fiction for the annual budget cycle.

Howard Tayler lives in Utah with his wife Sandra, their children, and their three cats. When he’s not writing or drawing he might be cooking, playing video games, or (thanks to long Covid and the concomitant chronic fatigue) recharging himself in the recliner. Howard can be found online at his website, and you can listen to him podcasting with his friends at Writing Excuses. The comic strip that Howard unashamedly refers to as his magnum opus is at the Schlock Mercenary website.
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Hugo, Girl! launched in May 2019. Hosts Haley, Amy, and Lori discuss Hugo Award-winning novels, stories, movies, and other genre content through a feminist lens. Kevin is our hardworking editor/producer. We try to bring a fresh eye and a humorous slant to the classics of speculative fiction. New episodes drop on the first Wednesday of every month. Find us at @hugogirlpodcast on social media.
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Ian K. Hagemann is a mixed-race fan living in Seattle. He helped found Potlatch and the Carl Brandon Society and was a regular panelist and moderator at Wiscon for nearly 20 years. He is a trained molecular biologist who worked in computers for 20 years before starting a career as a counselor in private practice. His articles about emotions and oppression and about polyamorous pioneers can be found on the website for his counseling practice.

Irene Radford has been writing stories ever since she figured out what a pencil was for. Editing grew out of her love of the craft of writing. She mostly writes fantasy and historical fantasy, including the best-selling Dragon Nimbus series and the masterwork Merlin’s Descendants series. She’s a founding member of Book View Cafe, and you can find many of her books at the cafe. Look for her new historical fantasy tales as Rachel Atwood: Walk the Wild with Me (DAW/Astra Books), a different take on the Robin Hood mythology, and its sequel Outcasts of the Wildwood.
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Isabel Cañas is a Mexican American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, Turkey, and New York City, among other places, she has settled in the Pacific Northwest. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern languages and civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.
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Isabel J. Kim is a Korean American speculative fiction writer based in New York City. She is a Shirley Jackson Award winner and a Nebula, Hugo, and Astounding awards finalist, and her short fiction has been published in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, and Strange Horizons, among other venues. Her work has been reprinted in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2023 and 2024 and in other venues. Her debut novel Sublimation is forthcoming from Tor. When she’s not writing, she’s either practicing law or co-hosting her internet culture podcast Wow if True.
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Isabel has been active in fandom for almost 30 years and is a frequent panelist at conventions. She has been published in Argentus, Drink Tank, Invisible 2: Personal Essays about Race and Representation in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Uncanny, and The WisCon Chronicles, and is co-editor of The WisCon Chronicles Volume 12: Boundaries and Bridges. Isabel has served on the boards of library-related organizations, and is the library coordinator for House of Puerto Rico San Diego, a cultural organization established to share Puerto Rican culture.

Isis Asare is the visionary founder of Sistah Scifi, the first Black-owned bookstore focused on science fiction and fantasy in the United States, as validated by the American Booksellers Association. With a background spanning business, technology, and community engagement, she attended Stanford University, majoring in psychology and minoring in African and African-American studies and holds a MBA and master's in public policy from Columbia Business School and Harvard University, respectively. Asare is the contributing editor of Afrofuturism: Short Stories published by Flametree Press.
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Izzy Wasserstein, a queer and trans woman, is the author of two poetry collections, the short story collection All the Hometowns You Can’t Stay Away From (a Lambda Literary Award finalist), and the novella These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart (Tachyon, 2024). She teaches writing and literature at a public university and lives in Southern California, where she shares a home with the writer Nora E. Derrington and their animal companions.
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Jim is a full-time SF&F writer, scientist (doctorate in electrical engineering, specialty laser physics), and former running-dog-lackey for the bourgeois capitalist establishment. With 20 published books, he writes science fiction, epic fantasy, and urban fantasy. Published by Open Road Media and Harper Collins, he’s also been successful at self-publishing. Jim has an abiding interest in geeky stuff like orbital mechanics, space travel, and laser weapons. He lives in Tucson with his wife Karen and two extraterrestrial aliens who claim to be cats, Simone and Paris.
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J. Spyder Isaacson is a long-time convention panelist in the Pacific Northwest who is on his fourth career, having worked professionally in journalism, IT, live theatre, and corporate training. He has a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s degree in theatre. He is an Air Force veteran who lives in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State with his wife, Kate, and their two furry feline children, Bumblebee and Ladybug. He has been a comic book collector and history buff his entire adult life.

J.R. Dawson (she/they) is the Golden Crown award-winning author of The First Bright Thing. They have had shorter works in places such as F&SF, Lightspeed, and Uncanny. Dawson currently lives in Minnesota with her loving wife. She teaches at Drexel University’s MFA program for creative writing and fills her free time with keeping her three chaotic dogs out of trouble. Her next book, The Lighthouse at the Edge of the World, releases from Tor in the summer of 2025. You can follow Dawson at their website.
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J.S. Fields is an author, artist, and scientist best known for their work turning fungus “puke” into solar cells and space lasers. Their science explores the interaction of the ancient art of spalting with modern photovoltaic and color science, while their science fiction explores the fantastical side of wood-digesting fungi.
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J.T. Greathouse is the BFA nominated author of the Pact & Pattern trilogy: The Hand of the Sun King, The Garden of Empire, The Pattern of the World, and the forthcoming novel The Tower of the Tyrant. In addition to writing, he has been a student in Beijing, an ESL instructor in Taipei, a bookseller, and a high school English teacher. His short fiction has appeared, often under Jeremy A. TeGrotenhuis, in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, PodCastle, IGMS, and elsewhere.
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Jack Glassman is an associate professor emeritus from the Department of Physics at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He was the director of laser development at the Nevada Terawatt Facility in Reno, Nevada. He has worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory. He holds a doctorate in optical sciences and an Master of Science in physics from the University of New Mexico, and a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Arizona. Jack and his wife live in an earth-shelter house (think “hobbit hole”) in rural Illinois with (at the moment) two cats, one dog, and whatever has crept in when they weren’t looking.

Since 2003 Jack Skillingstead has sold around 50 stories to markets including Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, F&SF, and Lightspeed, as well as various Year’s Best volumes and original anthologies. His story “Dead Worlds” was a finalist for the Sturgeon Award, and his novel Life on the Preservation was a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. In 2023 Jack’s second collection of short fiction, The Whole Mess and Other Stories, appeared from Fairwood Press. He lives in Seattle with his wife, writer Nancy Kress, and a stubborn (but lovable) Chihuahua named Pippin.
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As part of MoPOP’s executive leadership team, Jacob McMurray leads the collections stewardship strategy and curatorial vision of the organization. He manages a team of over 20 across curatorial, exhibition design (2D, 3D, interactive), collections, and exhibition fabrication disciplines, supporting initiatives that promote the museum’s 80,000+ object permanent collection and the development of collaborative, thought-provoking, and community-focused content for MoPOP’s 13 exhibition galleries. McMurray joined MoPOP in 1994 during the initial development of the institution and has held many positions over the last three decades, from curatorial assistant to his current role. During that time, he led the internal curatorial development of the Science Fiction Museum and Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which opened in 2004, and has organized over 20 exhibitions covering many facets of popular culture, including Minecraft: The Exhibition (2019), Indie Game Revolution (2014), Hear My Train A Comin’: Hendrix Hits London (2012), Can’t Look Away: The Lure of Horror Film (2011), and Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses (2011).
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Jae Steinbacher is a speculative fiction writer and the workshop manager for the Clarion West Writers Workshop. They have been published in Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and elsewhere. Jae holds an MFA from North Carolina State University and is a graduate of Clarion West. They live on unceded Duwamish lands in the Pacific Northwest, where they long for rain in the summer and sun in the winter. Find them online at their website or @JaeSteinbacher on various social media.
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Jake Casella Brookins is a critic, independent scholar, and avid book-clubber. He’s presented his academic work on science fiction with the SFRA, ACLA, ICFA, and many more, and publishes regular reviews with Locus, the Chicago Review of Books, and other venues. Casella is the host of the podcast A Meal of Thorns and the publishing editor for the Ancillary Review of Books. Originally from the Pennsylvania Appalachians, he now lives in beautiful Buffalo, New York.
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Jake McKinzie is the father of Caitlyn. A long-time D&D (since 1980) and other RPG player, proficient sword user, and high school science teacher, Jake reads sci-fi, fantasy, and science of all sorts. He is an outdoor enthusiast, especially in his Jeep.

Jake Stein survives despite all odds in Portland, OR, where he concocts strange tales on his laptop and spends too much time at Powell’s Books. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lightspeed Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and The NoSleep Podcast, among other awesome places. You can occasionally find him fumbling around Bluesky and Twitter/X. A full list of Jake’s published stories is available at his website.
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From a young age, James Bailey developed a love for movies and a fascination with the filmmakers and productions that created them. His passion led him to earning a degree in film production at the University of Florida. He currently works in the industry as a freelance director of photography and camera operator. James is also a course director in digital cinematography at Full Sail University. As a host of the Ink to Film podcast, James hopes to inspire others to dig deeper into the art of storytelling, whatever the medium. He’s always looking for great film recommendations he can be inspired by, so reach out if you have any!

James Davenport is a research professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, and the Director of the DiRAC Institute. His research uses large catalogs to explore how stars change their brightness over time, and how we might discover signs of extraterrestrial technology — or “technosignatures” — in our data.
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James Hay is a longtime fan and cosplayer. He has helped with over 100 conventions, including being the programmer for two Westercons, one World Fantasy, and over 15 other conventions, not to mention running trivia for the San Diego Comic Con and ConDor in San Diego for many years.
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James Hinsey is a lifelong lover of science fiction, fantasy, books, movies, TV shows, anime, 80s music, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan, and family. He is a Rhode Island Science Fiction Club member, Sci-Fi Journal co-host, Psi Upsilon brother, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alum, and former naval officer. He is currently masquerade Ddirector at Arisia. @SamuraiX47 on most social media.
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James Joseph (J.J.) Styles’ first science fiction convention was 50 years ago, when he attended Aussiecon 1. Since then, he has attended many local, university, and regional conventions and most Worldcons held outside America, working as a volunteer and gaming fan. Interests include SF & fantasy, history, politics and travel. J. J. Styles works as a locomotive driver and is the national vice president (rail) of the Australian Rail, Tram, and Bus Industry Union.

James Mendez Hodes is a seven-times ENnie-winning game designer, writer, and cultural consultant. You might know his consulting work from D&D, Magic: The Gathering, or Jackbox; his design from Avatar Legends or Thousand Arrows; or his writing from some articles about orcs and racism. He has a bachelor’s in religion, dance, and English literature from Swarthmore College, and a master’s in Asian classics from St. John’s College. His interests include martial arts, hip hop, and the relationships between fictional monsters and real-world identities. Find him at his website or on Bluesky as @lulavampiro.
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James Patrick Kelly has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. His most recent fiction publication is the novella Moon and Mars in Asimov’s. He also writes a column on the internet for that magazine. His work has been translated into 18 languages
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James R. Wells is the author of The Great Symmetry, a Grand Prize winner of the Cygnus Award for speculative fiction. His day job finds him working as a database analyst in fields including energy efficiency, environmental science, public health, and biodefense.
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Jan Kotouč has published almost two dozen novels in his native Czech, many later translated into English. His works include the Central Imperium series, the Czech Lands series, and the Hirano Sector series. He has contributed to numerous anthologies and universes, including the Honor Harrington series by David Weber, the 1632 universe by Eric Flint, and The Fallen World series by Christopher Wood and Chris Kennedy. He created the sci-fi setting and story background for the European Cybersecurity Challenge held in Prague in 2021. He is in charge of book-related program tracks on many conventions. He is also a lecturer at the University of Creative Communication, where he teaches writing workshops.
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Jan Vaněk, Jr. is Czech (rarely even proud), born in 1976 (so personal Golden Age coincided with the Booming 90s), and a fan(writer) of the sercon-ish/bookish bent: critic, editor, sometime translator, general gadfly. He has made fanac online/internationally since the good old Usenet: edited ISFDB, Wikipedia when (they) still young, sent SF Encyclopedia corrections, commented at focal-point blogs, made pilgrimages to European Worldcons, and publishes WOOFzine Newt News. (Honestly, kinda failed at all.) Since 2022, Jan has been contributing to Fancyclopedia.org: over 100k words, many quite original/unique/revelatory, some commended. He was a 2025 Trans-Atlantic Fan Fund loser by a record margin. Other interests: translatology, Sorabistics, craft beer.
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Janet Forbes (she/her) is a published fantasy author and game writer who has been building worlds since she was knee-high to an orc. In 2017 she founded World Anvil, the award-winning worldbuilding, writing, and RPG campaign software (now with over 2 million users!). She’s given seminars for Rochester Institute of Technology, GenCon, Full Sail Writers Conference, etc. She’s the creator and custodian of Worldbuilding Con, host of the award-winning World Anvil Worldbuilding Podcast, and a YouTube channel. Janet doesn’t sleep, but she’s never bored!
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Janice Gelb has worked on many conventions, notably running program operations at 10 Worldcons and the Hugo ceremony at LAcon III. She’s also published numerous apazines and spends way too much time posting on social media. She was the DUFF (Down Under Fan Fund) representative at Aussiecon 3 where, in a fit of madness, she also ran program ops. She liked Australia (and one particular Aussie fan) so much that she migrated there from the U.S. In real life, she’s a technical editor.

Four-time Hugo finalist Janice L. Newman is the author of the acclaimed speculative romance collection At First Contact and, under the name Laura Weyr, wrote the Rainbow Award-winning gay fantasy romance The Eighth Key and the lesbian romantasy Mirror of My Heart. She has also edited and contributed to both volumes of Rediscovery: Science Fiction by Women and is currently working on more queer SFF romances. A BNF in the fanfiction community, her passions include (queer) C-drama, anime, and Stardew Valley.
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Janine Wardale’s eclectic style of costuming combines sewing, crocheting, embroidery, bead work, dyeing, fabric painting, aging and distressing, and macrame. She loves to reuse, re-purpose, and reinvent vintage finds and to turn them into unique pieces of wearable art and masquerade attire. Her claim to fame is that she spends six hours of embellishing for every one hour of sewing. The results speak for themselves and she is just a fun person to be around, share a laugh with, and simply enjoy life.

Janna Silverstein has worked for more than three decades as an editor and writer, starting with Spectra, Bantam Books’ science fiction and fantasy imprint. She also worked at Wizards of the Coast and Kobold Press editing game-related fiction and non-fiction. Her title The Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design is a Gold ENNIE Award-winner. Her title The Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding was an ENNIE nominee for Best Writing and Best RPG-Related Book. Janna is a published poet, author, media fan, and general creative.

Jared Pechaček is an artist and writer based in Seattle, Washington. His debut novel, The West Passage, was listed by Kirkus and Reactor as one of the best fantasy novels of 2024. He is also a host of the Tolkien podcast By-The-Bywater. When he’s not doing any of that, he’s cooking, baking, or sewing something to wear to the opera.
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Jaroslav Olša, Jr. is a Czech diplomat and science fiction editor and historian. He has authored 30+ books, half of them genre-related. Jaroslav is now consul general of the Czech Republic in Los Angeles.
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Jason Denzel, author of The Mystic Trilogy (Tor Books), is a long-time Worldcon member, SFWA mentor, and founder of Dragonmount, the premier Wheel of Time fan community. With a deep history tied to Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and the fandom, Jason is a frequent convention panelist and occasional guest of honor. He enjoys discussing epic fantasy world-building, character development, and writing. Based in California, he practices kung fu and enjoys sports. His next novel arrives in 2026.
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Jason Grinblat is the creative head at Freehold Games and co-creator of Caves of Qud, a 2025 Hugo Award finalist for best game or interactive Work. His jams include offbeat science fiction settings, emergent narrative, baroque prose, and the simulation of fictional histories. He has written and spoken extensively about each of these topics and how he brings them together in his design practice. In addition to the Hugos, Caves of Qud has been recognized for a number of awards, including the award for Excellence in Narrative at the 2025 Independent Games Festival (IGF).
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Jason Pchajek is a writer, radio host, and researcher from Winnipeg, Canada. An author of sci-fi and fantasy, his debut novel, Bounty (cli-fi and speculative fiction), was released in September 2023 through Turnstone Press, and its sequel, Bounty: A Price to Pay is in development. His voice can be heard as the co-host of The Hockey Show on 101.5 FM in Winnipeg, and he is a member of the Manitoba Writer’s Guild and the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association.
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Jason Sanford is an award-winning science fiction and fantasy writer who is also a passionate advocate for fellow authors, creators, and fans, particularly in his Genre Grapevine column (for which he’s been a Hugo finalist for best fan writer). He’s also published stories in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Interzone, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, various “year’s best” anthologies, and The New Voices of Science Fiction. His first novel, Plague Birds, was a finalist for the 2022 Nebula Award and the 2022 Philip K. Dick Award. Born and raised in the American South, Jason’s previous experience includes work as an archaeologist, journalist, and a Peace Corps Volunteer. Visit his website.
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Jean Lamb, writer of profic and fanfic, has been reading SF since the 1960s. Her dad was a collector, and she inherited his collection. No, she won’t tell you where it is. She’s been a writer since the 1980s and has published short stories (including “Galley Slave,” a Man/Kzin story), some fanfic (mostly on Fanfiction.net), and eight novels published on Amazon. She is short and round and still likes to dance. She is active in local politics in her community, and she has composed some filksongs, though she mostly lets other people sing them. It’s for the best, really.
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Jeanne Mealy discovered fandom in 1976. Minicon was her first con, followed by regionals and Worldcons. She enjoys traveling to cons to attend programming and be on panels. She has suggested panels such as The Power of Play, How to be Creative, and Fannish Hobbies. She’s also involved in written fanac for our club, APAs, and fanzines. She is a selective extrovert who likes animals and birds and dreams of going into space, as well as reading and watching a variety of TV.

Jeff Bohnhoff is a professional musician, songwriter, and recording engineer/producer. He is a well-known parodist, and with his wife Maya has released four albums of hilarious parodies of classic rock songs, as well as four albums of original acoustic/electric rock music, including their latest, Labyrinth. He has also produced more than 20 albums for other artists. “Midichlorian Rhapsody,” a spot-on parody of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” went viral on YouTube, winning a Pegasus Award in 2014. Jeff and Maya have been musical guests of honor at cons all over the U.S. and the world.
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Jeff Brown is science fiction and fantasy illustrator and book cover designer. He has been published by all the major publishers and has worked on projects such as Eragon, The Three-Body Problem, Malazan Book of the Fallen, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and The Dragonbone Chair. He started as a full-time illustrator and designer in 2013 and since then has created over 1,000 covers and hundreds of illustrations. He was a Dragon Award finalist in 2023 and 2024 for best illustrative book cover. He is from Saskatoon, Canada, currently living in Mexico.
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A lifelong space nerd, Jeff grew up across the river from, and later interned at, NASA Kennedy Space Center. Now at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jeff manages the materials development group. Prior to his current role, he led testing of the sample collection capabilities for the Mars Perseverance rover, collecting samples on Earth before landing it on Mars. Before JPL, he tested rocket engines at Rocketdyne, including the space shuttle main engine, the Delta IV booster engine, and several development engines. On the side, Jeff raises money for science and engineering education through Astro Tea Company and enjoys all forms of space sci-fi!
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Jeff Sturgeon is known for his award-winning metal paintings. His career spans over thirty years, from a fan artist in the ’80s to computer game artist, animator, concept artist, etc., in the ’90s for companies like Electronic Arts. He has done cover art for clients such as Harper Collins Publishing and NASA JPL. More recently, Jeff’s been an exhibitor, guest, panelist, and guest of honor at conventions around the country. Jeff’s anthology Last Cities of Earth was released in 2022, and his continued work in the Last Cities of Earth universe now takes up most of his time as he creates new art and stories for a second anthology.
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Jenna Hanchey has been called a badass fairy, and she attempts to live up to the title. A professor of critical/cultural studies at Arizona State University, her research looks at how speculative fiction can imagine decolonization and bring it into being. Her own writing tries to support this project of creating better futures for us all. Her BSFA award-shortlisted fiction appears in The Sunday Morning Transport, Nature, and If There’s Anyone Left. She’s a narrator for Strange Horizons and Simultaneous Times, and she co-hosts the podcast Griots & Galaxies on African speculative fiction. Follow her adventures on Bluesky or at her website.
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Jenna Lee-Yun is a children’s author and clinical psychologist residing in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, son, daughter, and mini goldendoodle. A voracious reader as a child, Jenna found there were few books featuring characters who looked like her. Now, she is overjoyed to not only see so much more diversity in children’s books, but to contribute her own stories with Korean American protagonists. The Last Rhee Witch is her debut middle-grade series.
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Jennifer Brozek is a wordslinger and optimist, an author, media tie-in writer, an editor, and a collector of antique occult literature. She believes the best thing about being a full-time freelance publishing industry professional is the fact that she gets to choose which hours of the week she works. In-between cuddling her cats, writing, and editing, Jennifer is an active member of SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She keeps a tight writing and editing schedule and credits her husband with being the best sounding board ever. Visit Jennifer’s worlds at her website.
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Jennifer Rhorer enjoys attending and volunteering at cons. Her Worldcon experience started with volunteering for CONZealand. She assisted with programming for Discon III, Chicon 8, and Glasgow and helped coordinated the virtual side of Chicon 8. She also volunteered for the Hugo-nominated FIYAHCon.

Jeremy Szal was born in 1995 and was raised by wild dingoes, which should explain a lot. His main series is the Common trilogy from Gollancz/Hachette, which includes Stormblood, Blindspace, and Wolfskin, about a drug harvested from alien DNA that makes users permanently addicted to adrenaline and aggression. He’s the author of over 50 short stories, translated into 11 languages, many of which appear in his short fiction collection Broken Stars. He was the editor for the Hugo-winning StarShipSofa until 2020. He carves out a living in Sydney, Australia with his family, where he loves watching weird movies, eating Japanese food, exploring cities, learning languages, cold weather, and dark humor. Find him at jeremyszal.substack.com or @JeremySzal.
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Jes and Cin Wibowo are award-winning twin Indonesian graphic novelists who work in U.S. traditional publishing, making books for middle grade readers. Their graphic novels include Lunar Boy (Stonewall winning, GLAAD and Harvey nominated) and Weirdo (Eisner nominated).
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Jesper is a professor of economics at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden. He usually works on whatever interests him at the moment and/or whatever has the most urgent deadline; this often entails research on environmental economics, natural resource economics, energy economics, development economics, or several of these at once. He has attended more than a dozen Worldcons and no longer has any idea how many conventions he has attended in total.
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Jessie Kwak is an author and business book ghostwriter living in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of thriller novels, two series of space scoundrel sci-fi crime novels, and a handful of productivity books, including From Chaos to Creativity and From Big Idea to Book.
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Dr. Jill Engel-Cox is a clean energy engineer and environmental scientist. Her first job was climbing smokestacks in Los Angeles, followed by leadership roles at national energy research laboratories. She has led international planning for renewable energy and energy integration in Asia, North America, and the Middle East. Currently, she teaches industrial processes and environmental communications courses at Johns Hopkins University and global energy courses for University of Colorado Denver. While not a fiction writer, she has written dozens of scientific papers, has been a long-time reader of science fiction, and enjoys discussing science and fiction with her writer friends.
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Jim Kling is a writer in Bellingham, Washington. He has published short fiction in Nature and writes on a broad range of scientific topics. He is also the chair of the Endeavour Award for fantasy and science fiction novels or short story collections by writers in the Pacific Northwest.
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Jim Zub is a writer, artist, and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. For over twenty years, he’s worked for publishing, movie and video game clients, including Marvel, DC Comics, Disney, Capcom, Hasbro, and Bandai-Namco. He juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and a professor teaching in Seneca Polytechnic’s award-winning animation program, and he is currently the flagship writer for Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard’s genre-defining sword and sorcery hero.
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Jo Miles writes optimistic science fiction and fantasy. Their work includes the Gifted of Brennex space opera trilogy beginning with Warped State, as well as short stories in F&SF, Uncanny, Lightspeed, and more. Jo lives in Maryland, where they help nonprofits use the internet to save the world, but mostly serve the whims of their two cats. You can find Jo online at their website.
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Jo Riccioni lives on Gai-mariagal land in Sydney, Australia. She has a master’s degree in medieval literature from Leeds University, where she caught the fantasy bug from world-renowned Tolkien scholar and medievalist, Tom Shippey. Jo’s epic fantasy duology, The Branded Season, was published worldwide in 2025, with The Branded being shortlisted for The Small Press Network’s Book of the Year Award in Australia. Jo’s short stories have been published in anthologies and won awards internationally, as well as being optioned for short film. Jo’s first novel, The Italians, won the International Rubery Award for fiction and was longlisted for the New Angle Prize in the UK.
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Joan Slonczewski is the author of A Door Into Ocean, the award-winning classic about ocean-dwelling Sharers who use biology and nonviolence to repel an interstellar invasion. Joan’s books have twice earned the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Joan also publishes research with undergraduates on bizarre microbes from Ohio and Antarctica. In their latest novel, Minds in Transit (Caezik, 2025), the protagonist has a brain full of a million microbial minds. They join a world-size virtual intelligence called Transit to build an entire city—before a microbial mafia takes over. The Locus verdict: “Really far out!”
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JCM Berne codes by day, but by night he retreats to his secret lair and fights the deconstruction of the superhero genre by writing stories where the heroes are trying to do the right thing and, for the most part, succeed. He spends far too much time on social media, whispering to himself that scrolling through one more set of political memes will somehow further his writing career.
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A fan since the mid ‘60s, Joe published over 100 fanzines and worked on about 300 conventions, including 25 Worldcons. He chaired 20 of those (only one a Worldcon—MagiCon 1992). He’s the 2005 DUFF winner, received the 2016 Big Heart Award and was a fan guest of honor at Chicon 8, the 2022 Worldcon. Joe was a co-founder of Tropicon, the Traveling Fete, SMOFcon, and Fanhistoricon, the South Florida Science Fiction Society, the Coral Springs Science Fiction League, Social Drinking Society, Traveling FanVariety Show, and the Tallahassee Mad Gang. Joe published Harry Warner, Jr.'s history of 1950s fandom A Wealth of Fable, edited a new edition of his All Our Yesterdays, and co-edited the Hugo-nominated Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches with Mike Resnick. He co-curated 15 retrospective science fiction and fantasy art shows for Boskone, World Fantasy, and the 2022 Worldcon. He is best known for the Fan History Project, FANAC.org, an organization which has archived over 30,000 fan publications from the last 95 years.
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Joey Eschrich is managing editor at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, and assistant director of Future Tense, a partnership of ASU and New America that explores emerging technologies and society. He has edited several books of science fiction, nonfiction, and art, including The Climate Action Almanac (2024), supported by the ClimateWorks Foundation, and Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities (2017), supported by a grant from NASA. He hosts the CSI Skill Tree series on video games, worldbuilding, and storytelling, and edits the Imaginary Papers newsletter on science fiction, future thinking, and the imagination.

Johanna Wittenberg is the author of the bestselling Norsewomen series, which follows the story of Åsa, a real Norse queen who ruled alone during the early Viking Age. Like her Viking forebears, Johanna has sailed to the far reaches of the world. She lives on a fjord in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, whom she met on a ship bound for Antarctica.
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John G. Cramer is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published over 200 physics research papers in peer-reviewed journals, and the book The Quantum Handshake: Entanglement, Nonlocality and Transactions (Springer, 2016). Although he formally retired from teaching in 2010, he continued teaching and physics research until 2016, when he turned his focus to understanding the causes and cures for human aging, focusing on the progressive damage to mitochondrial DNA. John is the author of three SF novels: Twistor, Einstein’s Bridge, and Fermi’s Question. He also writes the bimonthly science-fact column “The Alternate View” for Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine.
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John G. McDaid is a science fiction writer and singer-songwriter from Rhode Island. A Clarion workshop grad, he won the Theodore Sturgeon award in 1995. His hypermedia novel, Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse, was included in an NEH digital conservation project. A four-time finalist for the writer/composer Pegasus, his debut studio album, Trail of Mars, won the 2021 John Culkin Award. He teaches media theory and is currently working on an alternate history novel. Follow him at his website.
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John Hedtke has 40+ years in software technical writing and has written 27 nonfiction books and about 200 magazine articles. John has developed documentation for many leading software products, and he is a fellow of the Society for Technical Communication. He drinks a lot of coffee and usually wears rainbow suspenders. John plays the banjo, bakes, pets cats, and writes slogans for buttons and bumper stickers. He and his wife, Marilyn, live near Seattle.

John Minton is the co-host and co-founder of Talking Story, a fantastical fiction YouTube channel. In the first two years, the channel has accumulated almost 12,000 subscribers. With his son Jakob and wife Amy, working under the pen name J.A.J. Minton, they have released an indie cosmic-horror novel, Discovery (Keyhole Books, 2025), the first in a series of five. Visit their website.
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John Picacio is a three-time Hugo Award winner, nine-time Chesley Award winner, World Fantasy Award winner, and one of the most acclaimed cover artists in American science fiction and fantasy over the last 25 years. He has illustrated cover art for well over 150 major SFF books, including works by George R.R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Leigh Bardugo, James Tiptree, Jr., Silvia Moreno Garcia, and many more. He founded the Mexicanx Initiative to support the career journeys of 42 Mexicanx SFF creators. His debut picture book, The Invisible Parade, co-created with #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo, releases August 2025. Follow him at his website and on Instagram and Bluesky @johnpicacio.
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John Scalzi is made of star stuff and Coke Zero.
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John Tilden (or JT, as he gladly goes by) has been an occasional moderator or panelist on Heinlein-related panels. He also has been reading and collecting comic books since a very young age. John is the current treasurer and operations chair for the Heinlein Society and is recognized as a charter and lifetime member. He is also a lifetime member of the Baltimore SF Society. John has published several poems in small press and had a poem used in the PBS show Earthscape. Please stop by the Heinlein Society fan table during the con and donate blood at the con (or in your community) if you can!
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John W has been attending SF cons since 1993 and leading braiding and balloon panels since 1995. He is a retired computer professional, and was an organizer for E.L.V.I.S. (The Emergency Link to Vital Internet Services) [1994-1999]. John has done hair braiding and balloon sculpting panels/workshops (typically solo) for gathering/artistic Events; general and/or children’s programming at several cons over the years, including over a dozen such panels at NASFiC and Worldcons. John can also speak on audio-books, beer, chocolate, photography, and especially Scotch whisky.
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Jon Lasser lives in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and two children. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Lightspeed, Analog, Interzone, and elsewhere. He’s a graduate of the Clarion West writers workshop. Find him on at his website and on Mastodon as @disappearinjon.
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Jonah is a former Jewish professional and current public interest energy lawyer who loves genre fiction. His wife, Juliet Brooks, is also a fantasy author. Her debut novel, A Fae in Finance, is being published by Orbit in August.

Retiring Renaissance reprobate JD has been described as the devilish delinquent you’ll never truly know but always be glad you did. His novels stem from a half century of gaming combined with at least half of that time spent fighting. A musician by inclination, combat leader by circumstance, author seeking catharsis, and game designer for escapism, beware the sly smile, and hope for the infectious laugh.

Jonathan is a retired Marine colonel living in Colorado Springs with his wife, Kiwi, and twin 6-year-olds, Dani and Dari. He is a full-time hybrid writer with emphasis on military sci-fi and space opera. He is a two-time Nebula and a two-time Dragon Award finalist and a USA Today bestseller. He is a member of the VFW and the Disabled American Veterans, and he is currently the chief financial officer for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. When he is not writing or playing with the twins, he can usually be found at cons, in the gym, traveling, or dining out.
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Jordan Kurella is a trans and disabled author who has lived all over the world (including Moscow and Manhattan). In his past lives, he was a photographer, radio DJ, and social worker. His fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award and long-listed for the British Science Fantasy Award. He is decisive, but couldn’t decide in cat versus dog, so he has both.
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Jordan S. Carroll is the author of Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) and Reading the Obscene: Transgressive Editors and the Class Politics of US Literature (Stanford University Press, 2021). His latest book is a Hugo Award finalist for Best Related Work, and his first book won the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars. He was also a recipient of the David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. Carroll’s writing has appeared in Kaleidotrope, American Literature, Post45, Polygon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Nation.

Joseph Brassey lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, children, and three cats. In his spare time, he trains in and teaches historical European martial arts. He has lived on both sides of the continental United States and has worked everywhere from a local newspaper to the frame shop of a crafts store to the smoke-belching interior of a house-siding factory with questionable safety policies.
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Joseph Malik is an author, adventurer, and swordsman. His debut novel, Dragon’s Trail, qualified him for the 2017 and 2018 John W. Campbell Award. His forthcoming novel, Stonelands, has been optioned for film. A veteran of the U.S. Special Operations Command, he has been a longtime panelist and demonstrator at SFF conventions, sought-after for his expertise in swordsmanship, hand combat, and warfighting, as well as his personal history of doing all his characters’ stunts from BASE jumping to blacksmithing.
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Josh Wilson is an editor and writer in San Francisco. He is the publisher of The Fabulist Words & Art (www.fabulistmagazine.com), and is also a journalist, non-profit founder, and an advocate for independent media.
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Joshua Kronengold is a long-time fan, filker, and occasional con-runner and game designer.

Joshua Palmatier is a fantasy author with a doctorate in mathematics. He currently teaches at SUNY Oneonta in upstate New York while writing in his “spare” time, editing anthologies, and running the anthology-producing small press Zombies Need Brains, LLC. He has written multiple fantasy novels, including the Crystal Cities series, the Throne of Amenkor series, the Well of Sorrows series, and the Ley series. He is currently writing his next fantasy and designing the Kickstarter for the next Zombies Need Brains anthology projects. Find out more at www.joshuapalmatier.com or www.zombiesneedbrains.com, or follow him on Bluesky @joshuapalmatier.bsky.social or on Twitter/X as @bentateauthor or @ZNBLLC.
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Joshua Walker is a fantasy author currently living in Sydney, Australia. He works as a primary school English teacher, and likes to read, brew beer, and hang out with his wife and BFD (Big Fluffy Dog) in his free time.
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Juan Manuel Pérez, a Mexican-American poet of Indigenous descent and the poet laureate for Corpus Christi, Texas (2019-2020), is the author of numerous poetry books including the award-wining, poetic-memoir, Thirty Years Ago: Life and the First Gulf War (2023). Juan is also the 2021 Horror Authors Guild’s inaugural lifetime achievement award-winner and a recipient of a 2021 Horror Writers Association diversity grant. To learn more about this award-winning poet, migrant worker, combat vet, history teacher, and Native American gourd dancer, please check out his official website at juanmperez.com.
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Juan is just an ordinary guy born into a Colombian family. He has been Into SF since he could see Trek. In his early teens, Juan got heavily into literary SF. He has been active in traditional fandom for a long time.
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Judy I. Lin is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author of fantasy and horror books for young adults. She writes stories inspired by the legends and myths she grew up with in Taiwan and currently lives on the Canadian prairies.

Under badge name Entwife Judy Johnson, Judy has been a fan for seven decades. Now she's getting serious about her WIP, a hard spec fic that is set in a near-Terra asteroid habitat. She is also resuming full-time work, attending local fandom events, and traveling in her motorhome when she can, with her dog (he has time to scratch; she doesn't).

Julia DaSilva is a doctoral student in the English department at the University of British Columbia. Her work focuses on fantasy and magic systems, religion in fantasy literature, phenomenology and politics of magic, and Marxist and anarchist theory. Her work has appeared in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and her poetry has appeared in Cathexis, The Lamp, Pivot, High Shelf Press, Reckoning, and MORIA.
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Julia is graduate of Viable Paradise, and she often writes with co-author Ken Bebelle. They have penned nine novels together, including Ebony Gate, an Asian-inspired contemporary fantasy published by TOR and named a 2023 Golden Poppy Finalist for the Octavia E. Butler Award. The series' conclusion, Pearl City, released in July of 2025.
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Julie Leong is a USA Today and Sunday Times internationally bestselling author of warm and whimsical fantasy novels, including The Teller of Small Fortunes (Nov 2024) and The Keeper of Magical Things (Oct 2025). She is a daughter of Malaysian Chinese immigrants and a graduate of Yale University. Julie lives in San Francisco with her husband and emotionally needy dog, and when she’s not writing, enjoys making unnecessary spreadsheets and flambéing things.
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Julie Nováková is a Czech writer, translator and editor of science fiction and simultaneously a scientist and science communicator active in astrobiology and evolutionary biology. She co-edited multiple anthologies, including Life Beyond Us (2023), published ten novels in her native Czech and a few dozen stories in English in Clarkesworld, Analog, Asimov’s, several best-of anthologies, and her story collection The Ship Whisperer (2020). Most recently, she wrote the storyboard for the popular science comic book Secrets of the Nano-World (2025). Connecting science fiction, science outreach and science is her passion.
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Justin Bortnick is a designer and researcher whose work centers on digital narratives, game storytelling, political games, and worldbuilding. His work has been featured on outlets such as Kotaku, Game Developer, Polygon, and more, and he has shown work and given talks at events such as the Electronic Literature Organization, IndieCade, and the Game Developers Conference. He has written and/or designed for projects such as the smart toy Octobo, the video games Frog Fractions 2 and Static Sky, and the film Reality Games, and he regularly consults for commercial video games. Dr. Bortnick is the president of the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation and a co-founder of NarraScope.
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K. Tempest Bradford is an award-winning teacher and media critic who writes speculative fiction steeped in Black Girl Magic. She’s the author of Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion, winner of the Andre Norton Nebula Award, and author of over a dozen short stories. Her essays have appeared on NPR, io9, and more. Tempest gives talks and teaches classes on representation and diversity though the Writing the Other website. You can also read more at Tempest’s website.
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K.C. Aegis has a master’s in literature and creative writing from California State University, Fullerton. Currently, he teaches English near Los Angeles. His debut novel, Her Gilded Voice, was published by Elsewhen Press, and the book launch was held at the 2024 Worldcon in Glasgow.
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K.G. Anderson (she/they) is a speculative fiction author and anthology editor. She writes fantasy, space opera, alternate history, mystery, and near-future political horror in styles ranging from humorous to dystopian. Her stories often reflect her work in tech, Jewish and Eastern European heritage, time spent living in coastal cities, and activism on behalf of women, elders, and universal healthcare. She attended the Taos Toolbox, Viable Paradise, and Cascade Writers workshops, belongs to SFWA and Broad Universe, and is a former Clarion West board member. Her short fiction appears in a wide range of magazines, anthologies, and podcasts, and she is a member of the editorial team for B Cubed Press.
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Kaitlin Schmidt is an editor by day and a writer of spicy queernorm fantasy by night. Being neurodivergent and queer influences and inspires much of her creative work. She grew up reading an endless amount of fantasy and romance, and those stories shaped the journeys of her heart. With a bachelor’s in English, a master’s in teaching, and a career in editing and writing, she is doomed to spend most of her time describing the indescribable shape of the human experience. She self-published her debut F/F romantasy, The Cartomancer’s Curse, in 2024. You can learn more at Kaitlin’s website.
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Dr. Kaitlyn Casimo is an award-winning science educator, neuroscientist, and theater nerd. She created and leads the Education and Engagement Program at the Allen Institute, a biomedical sciences research institute in Seattle. Kaitlyn received her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience with minors in psychology and theater from Pomona College; doctorate in neuroscience from the University of Washington, where she also received certificates in neural computation and engineering, and in science, technology, and society studies; and Master of Education in instructional design from Western Governors University. Outside of her work, she plays tennis and lives for all things theater. She is also a devoted SFF reader.
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Kamilah Cole is a national bestselling, Dragon Award-nominated Jamaican American author. She worked as a writer and entertainment editor at Bustle for four years, and her nonfiction has appeared in Marie Claire and Seventeen. A graduate of New York University, Kamilah lives in the Pacific Northwest, where she’s usually playing Kingdom Hearts for the hundredth time, quoting early SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, or crying her way through Zuko’s redemption arc in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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Kamino Temple is the Seattle chapter of Saber Guild International, a not-for-profit group of Lucasfilm-recognized costumed Star Wars performers focusing on lightsaber choreography.
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Kara Dalkey is the author of 16 published fantasy novels and over 20 short stories of both fantasy and SF. Her specialty has been historical fantasy with works such as Little Sister, set in Heian Japan. Her most recent novel is A Sword Named Sorrow, published by Eerie River Publishing—it is a fantasy story set in an alternate-world early California. She is currently working on a novella set in Iron Age Europe. Kara lives and works in the Seattle area, and her main hobby these days is computer gaming in Elder Scrolls Online and Hearthstone. She also recently picked up Civilization VII.

Karin Llyr is a musician and a music educator. She loves teaching music to kids from ages 0–99. She currently teaches music to elementary-aged students in a public school and directs adults in the Spokane Flute Choir. She is also an adjunct professor at a private university.

Kat Kourbeti is a queer, Greek/Serbian speculative fiction writer, culture critic, narrator, and podcaster based in London, U.K. She is a Hugo- and British Fantasy Award-winning podcast editor at Strange Horizons magazine, hosts The Write Song podcast, and writes about SFF arts and theater for the British Science Fiction Association. She also organizes Spectrum, London’s SFFH critique and community group. Her day job is in theater. Find her on all social media as @darthjuno.
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When she’s not writing or being a freelance fiction editor and writing coach, Kat Richardson wanders through the mountains of Western Washington in a trailer with one hound dog and a husband—it’s even her own husband. Along the way she has been a builder of paper automata, journalist, editor, actor, diamond expert, singer, stagehand, and Renaissance faire performer. She’s the author of the Greywalker paranormal detective novels, one award-winning SF novel, the historical fantasy noir novel Storm Waters, a slew of short stories, and a few unspeakable things that live in an electronic trunk. Trust her: It’s better that way.
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Kate Dramis is a bestselling author of romance and fantasy, including the No. 2 Sunday Times hit, The Curse of Saints. Kate finds joy in tormenting her readers with slow-burn romances filled with whip-smart banter. When she’s not filling her Notes app with her next book idea, you can find her impulse-booking her next travel adventure or snuggling with her dogs and cat at home in Atlanta.
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Kate Ristau is the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) and the executive director of Willamette Writers. She is the author of three middle-grade series, Clockbreakers, Mythwakers, and Wylde Wings, and the young adult series, Shadow Girl. You can read her essays in The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the chair of the Tigard Public Library board of directors, and you can meet her online by going to Kate Ristau’s website.
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Katherine Quevedo hails from Portland, Oregon, where she works as an analyst and lives with her husband and two sons. Her writing has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Rhysling Award, and her short stories and poetry have appeared in Asimov’s, Nightmare Magazine, Fireside Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry chapbook The Inca Weaver’s Tales and the fantasy novella Thrice Petrified. Learn more at Katherine Quevedo’s website.
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Kathleen De Vere is a streamer, writer, Magic the Gathering influencer, and notably chaotic dungeon manager . She’s worked extensively with Wizards of the Coast writing creative text for Magic cards and running live games of D&D at MagicCons, as well as gotten up to her own shenanigans as part of LoadingReadyRun, where she writes and appears in sketch comedy, panel shows, and online sitcoms. She can be found on the LoadingReadyRun Twitch and YouTube channels.
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Kathryn Brant is a master costumer who enjoys sharing techniques and teaching others.

Kathy Michels is a Seattle transplant Ph.D. immunologist who works in biotechnology by day and escapes into imaginary worlds at night. She writes dense technical reports and has many hundreds of thousands of words of sci/fi fantasy novel drafts squirreled away in subfolders. She likes painting, biking, and sweeping endless amounts of dog hair off the floor.
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Kathryn Sullivan writes young adult science fiction and fantasy, including the fantasy novel The Crystal Throne and short story collection Agents, Adepts & Apprentices. Her Doctor Who-related works include an essay in the Hugo-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords and essays in Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who, Outside In, and Outside In Regenerates. She also has reviews in the Star Trek-related Outside In Boldly Goes and Outside In Makes It So, and the X-Files-related Outside In Trusts No One. She is owned by a large cockatoo, who graciously allows her to write about other animals as well as birdlike aliens.
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Kathy has been watching Doctor Who since she was in the womb. While technically Colin Baker should be her Doctor, she loves Peter Davison the best. Subsisting on the Target novelizations, BBC books, and Big Finish audio dramas, she cried copious tears of joy when New Who came back on the air in 2005. Never missing an episode, Kathy enjoys discussing the finer points of wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey stuff with anyone who will sit still long enough. Outside of fandom, Kathy is a recovering academic who is a hit at cocktail parties with obscure trivia about European judicial systems and labor law. She can also be found dancing at clubs and raucously singing along with karaoke at dive bars.

Katie Wu is a writer of adult and crossover fantasy that is swoony, strange, or both. Her fantasy debut, Madder Lake, is forthcoming from Harper Voyager in 2027. Born in the U.S. and raised in Shanghai and Singapore, she has degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in computer science and fine arts, and is now based in New York City. Find her on Instagram/TikTok at @katiewuwrites (40k+ followers) and at katiewuwrites.com.
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Elonda Castro is known in the local San Francisco Bay Area con community as “The Tiger Lady”—hence, her fandom name of “Katigra.” She started crafting at the age of eight, at the knees of her grandma, who taught her to crochet. She hasn’t stopped since. In the ensuing half century plus, she has continued to explore most corners of the crafting universe, including studying some of the many facets of the indigenous craft heritage of her husband Gregg’s native communities. A former craft teacher for City of San Jose Recreation Department, she has conducted numerous workshops and demonstrations in DIY rooms of many SciFi conventions over the last two decades in a wide variety of craft styles, materials, and media. You are welcome to come share her joy and passion in her crafting world!

Kayce was a classically trained animator. When a nerve injury prevented her from animating she found her way to leather craft as an alternative way to express her art. Kayce has been working with and teaching leathercrafting with Tandy Leather for over a decade. She is currently the manager of the local Tandy leather store where she shares her experience with her community.

Dr. Keith Gremban is a member of the research faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is the Dale and Pat Hatfield Professor in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and the co-director of the Spectrum Policy Initiative at the Silicon Flatirons Center in the School of Law. Prior to joining the University, Keith was the director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Keith was also a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he managed programs in wireless communications and electronic warfare, and he worked in industry.
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Keith Wiley has a doctorate in computer science from the University of New Mexico and was one of the original members of MURG, the Mind Uploading Research Group, an online community dating to the mid-90s that discussed issues of consciousness with an aim toward mind-uploading. In addition to his books, he has written multiple book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and magazine articles. He has further written several essays on a broad array of topics, available on his website. Keith is also an avid rock climber, hiker, backpacker, and prolific classical piano composer.
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Kel McDonald is an Eisner-nominated writer and Eisner Award-winning editor who has been working in comics for almost two decades—most of that time having been spent on their webcomic Sorcery 101. More recently, they have organized the Cautionary Fables and Fairytales anthology series and written the Eisner-nominated mini-series, The Stone King. They’re currently the managing editor at Iron Circus Comics and are working on their self-published series The City Between.
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Kell Woods is an Australian historical fantasy author. She has studied English literature, creative writing and history, and writes about made-up (and not so made-up) places, people and things you might remember from the fairy tales you read as a child. Her books, however, are not for children. They include After the Forest, a “Hansel and Gretel” re-telling set in 17th-century Germany; Upon A Starlit Tide, a blending of “The Little Mermaid” and “Cinderella” set in 18th-century Brittany; and “Before the Forest,” a short story based on “The Juniper Tree,” which was a finalist in the 2025 Aurealis Awards.
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Ken Bebelle has been an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, and comic books his entire life. His love of SF and Star Wars led him to a career in prosthetics, where he spent twenty-five years specializing in upper limb replacement. Ken writes Asian-inspired urban fantasy and science fiction with his co-author, Julia Vee. They have two series, Seattle Slayers and The Phoenix Hoard. Ken and his wife live in the Pacific Northwest, and he would love nothing more than to grow the perfect tomato.
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Ken Scholes is the award-winning, critically-acclaimed author of five novels and over 60 short stories. His work has appeared in print since 2000. He is also a singer-songwriter who has written nearly a hundred songs over 30 years of performing. Occasionally, in his spare time, Ken consults individuals and organizations on maximizing their effectiveness.
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Kendra Tornheim became a fan of SFF books, handmade crafts, and folk music at a very young age, began attending SFF conventions and writing occasional songs as a teenager, and started to create wire art jewelry in 2007 featuring antique keys and hand-colored brass. They exhibit at a small number of venues mainly in Massachusetts, plus occasional conventions farther afield, and also enjoy LARPing, singing, and discussion on a large range of geeky topics.
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Kent Bloom is a retired computer performance engineer and a retired attorney. He has been involved in fandom for 50 years. He has chaired small conventions (DATclave and COSine) and a Worldcon (Denver 2008). He has volunteered at every level of Worldcon, from gopher to division head, multiple times. He is president of the Worldcon Heritage Organization, which collects and displays artifacts of previous Worldcons. He reads science fiction and high fantasy books. He has chaired the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) business meeting. He is on the Secret Masters of Fandom (SMOF) email list but not otherwise active online.
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Kestrel Michaud is a classically trained, award-winning, and internationally recognized fine art quilter with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in illustration. Her art quilts are large wall hangings made from thousands of pieces of fabric that are fused together and quilted. Kestrel and her art quilts have been featured on The Quilt Show and Quilting Arts TV on PBS. Kestrel teaches at conferences and on Patreon, and she has exhibited in six countries. Her work has won grand prizes at the largest quilt shows in the world.
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Kevin’s first memory of being a “fan” is, of course, Star Wars (or maybe He-Man, who can say). From pretending to run from AT-ATs in the Northern Alberta snow, to puzzling over the timeline of Back to the Future, he was a fan from an early age. Soon every trip to the mall required a stop at the bookstore, where he would go straight to the Sci-Fi section, choosing books based mostly on cover art (this was before Goodreads!). He is a public defender in Atlanta, Georgia, by day, and produces, edits, and provides the music for the Hugo, Girl! podcast.
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Kevin Rigathi is a Kenyan digital artist and speculative fiction writer based in Nairobi. His works include “If Memory Serves,” published in the anthology Will This Be a Problem? He also serves as the writer and host of The Kenyan Experiment, a podcast exploring Kenyan history.

Kevin Roche is a research engineer at IBM Research Almaden, specializing in materials for spintronics and other related technologies. He’s also a lifelong science fiction fan and costumer—he’s been making costumes since he was 8 and was the chair of Worldcon 76 in San Jose. In that not-so-secret identity as a research scientist, he’s hard at work wrangling giant robot vacuum chambers and electrons in atomically engineered materials, and is an IBM quantum ambassador. Kevin is president of the International Costumers’ Guild, president of San Francisco Science Fiction Conventions, Inc (SFSFC), and one editor of Yipe!, the costume fanzine of record (visit the Yipe! website).
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Khaya Maseko is a writer of fiction and poetry, hailing from South Africa. He is an avid reader and producer of science fiction, having written more than six novellas of transgressive fiction. He has been a leading member of Nowadays Poets, has 12 fingers, and a taste for extreme music.
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Seattle native Kim Iverson Headlee has been a critically acclaimed author since 1999 and a student of Arthurian lore for more than half a century. In 2016 she became the first author to publish a sequel to any of Mark Twain’s novels, and King Arthur’s Sister in Washington’s Court enjoyed copious praise and sales rankings. Now Queen Morgan le Fay—the only major character Twain did not kill off—reprises her majestic glory and hilarious hijinks in King Arthur’s Sister the Once and Future Queen.
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One of Kristina’s favorite things to do is share new books with people and find new books to excite the people around her. Doing this lead her to becoming a librarian and an “r/Fantasy” moderator. She spends her days connecting children with books they enjoy and her evenings on “r/Fantasy.”

Krys is a principal user experience designer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where she leads the Human-Centered Design Group. She is a proud part of the team designing the future of mission operations with the Mars Sample Return, Perseverance Mars Rover, and NISAR missions. She has also designed ground systems for other missions. Krys’s philosophy centers on an unwavering faith that when companies and products are designed around the needs of the end user, everyone wins. This is even more true when the company is a government organization, the product is a space robot, and the users are rocket scientists.
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Kylie Lee Baker is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Keeper of Night duology, The Scarlet Alchemist duology, and the adult horror Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng. She grew up in Boston and has since lived in Atlanta, Salamanca, and Seoul. Her writing is informed by her heritage (Japanese, Chinese, and Irish), as well as her experiences living abroad as both a student and teacher. She has a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and Spanish from Emory University and a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Simmons University.
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L. Ana Ellis is the author of the Panacea Trilogy, a near-future science fiction trilogy published through Fire-Forged Books. After days toiling over spreadsheets in a windowless cubicle with fluorescent lighting as a sleep-deprived government worker, unbeknownst to her coworkers who think she spends her evenings watching cat videos, she actually spends her nights creating science fiction worlds that are more of a commentary on the present than an accurate prediction of the future. When she’s not pondering how societies operate or writing about alternate realities, she enjoys Rennaissance faires, cons, and, as her coworkers suspect, watching cat videos.

L.D. Lewis (she/her) is an editor, publisher, and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated writer of speculative fiction. She served as a founding creator and project manager for the World Fantasy Award- and Hugo Award-winning FIYAH literary magazine. She pays the bills as director of programs and operations for Lambda Literary and development director at Clarion West. She is the author of the novella A Ruin of Shadows (Dancing Star Press, 2018), the forthcoming novella The Dead Withheld (Neon Hemlock, 2025), and her forthcoming debut novel Year of the Mer (Saga Press, 2026). She lives in Georgia on perpetual deadline with her partner, two cats, and an impressive LEGO build collection.
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L.J. Melvin is the author of the Curd Immunity series, a YA near-future adventure about microbiology and saving small pieces of the world. As a kid, L.J. spent weekends reading science fiction in her dad’s electron microscopy lab and listening to dinner conversation about coalescing lipids, diamond knife sectioning, histology, and microbiology. She later taught English to at-risk youth, prisoners, and African high-schoolers as a Peace Corps volunteer. She’s been a small business accountant, posturologist, structural bodyworker, and homeschooling parent, and now spends her time in Lewis County, Washington, gardening and writing science fiction novels.

Langley is a narrative designer at Romance Club and the writer of 7 Brothers as well as Vying for Versailles. Her short fiction appears in Hybrid Fiction, Escape Pod, PodCastle, Terraform, and elsewhere.
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Lara Elena Donnelly is the Nebula, Lambda, and Locus-nominated author of Base Notes and The Amberlough Dossier. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Nightmare, and Uncanny. She is a cofounder of the small press Homeward Books, a graduate of the Clarion and Alpha workshops, and has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and the Catapult Workshop in New York.
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Lark Morgan Lu lives with a collection of succulents and tea. They are an associate editor at Flash Fiction Online. Their short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Augur Magazine, and Pyre Magazine. Find them on various social media as @LarkMorganLu or find their newsletter on Lark Morgan Lu’s website.
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Larry Hodges of Germantown, Maryland, has over 220 short story sales and four SF novels. He’s a graduate of the Odyssey and Taos Toolbox writing workshops, a member of Codex Writers, and a ping-pong aficionado. As a professional writer, he has 22 books and over 2,200 published articles in over 220 different publications—yes, that’s a lot of 22s! He’s also a member of the US Table Tennis Hall of Fame. He claims to be the best table tennis player in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and the best science fiction writer in USA Table Tennis!!! Learn more at Larry Hodges’ website.
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Larry Lewis is a cartoonist, illustrator, writer, and teacher whose degree is in architecture. He lives with his girlfriend and adoptive family near Tacoma, and his son is from Shoreline. Lately he has done 40-plus autobiographical minicomics and other minicomic series, and he is working on much larger fantasy, sci-fi, and urban planning projects.
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Larry Niven has been a published author for 60 years. He wrote Ringworld; he also wrote Lucifer’s Hammer with Jerry Pournelle. His books may be found at any surviving bookstore.

Laura Anne Gilman is the award-winning (and losing) author of the Huntsmen books, most recently Uncanny Lies. Her work blends elements of horror, history, fantasy, and science, and it has been hailed as “a true American myth” by NPR. She has been praised for her “deft plotting and first-class characters” by Publishers Weekly. She also runs d.y.m.k. productions, an editorial service. An East Coaster by birth, Laura Anne currently lives in Seattle with a cat, a dog, and many deadlines.
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Laura Antoniou’s rambling publishing career started with creating and editing the groundbreaking gaming/media magazine Gateways back in the 80s, which was followed by her work on the People with AIDS’ Newsline for several years during that previous pandemic. Now, she’s better known for her kinky erotica, especially for the Marketplace books, a series of BDSM-themed novels noted for the diversity in the ensemble cast and being well outside the tropes of romance novels. A notable public speaker, she’s been teaching human sexuality topics for decades. Keep up with her or hit block/ignore on Facebook at laura.antoniou, @LAntoniou, and of course, Laura’s patreon.
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Lauren C. Teffeau’s work examines environmental issues and the role of technology in our lives through fantastical adventures and immersive worlds, including her novella A Hunger with No Name (University of Tampa Press, 2024) and her novel Implanted (Angry Robot, 2018). Implanted was shortlisted for the 2019 Compton Crook Award for best first SF/F/H novel and named a definitive work of climate fiction by Grist. Over 20 of her stories have appeared in venues like Sunday Morning Transport, DreamForge Magazine, and the Stoker Award-nominated Chromophobia: A Strangehouse Anthology by Women in Horror.
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Laurence Raphael Brothers is a writer and a technologist with five patents. He has a background in internet and AI research and development and is currently employed as a patent examiner. He has published over 50 short stories in such magazines as Nature, Galaxy’s Edge, and PodCastle and has published several science fiction and fantasy novels with small presses. Follow him on Bluesky at @lrb.bsky.social.
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This year marks Laurie Mann’s 50th year of convention-going, and the 50th anniversary of her moving to Pittsburgh for the first time and meeting Jim Mann. She’s somewhat retired from convention-running, but she helped out at Boskone and is running the conrunning/fandom track of the program for Seattle Worldcon. Laurie and Jim’s focus is more on travel these days. They visited France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy last spring. Laurie plans to return to help out with Fancyclopedia and to work on her Ancestry.com site this fall. You can always follow Laurie’s website, Laurie’s occasional blog, Laurie’s “Good Quotes” collection on her website, and/or Laurie’s Bluesky account.
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Laurraine has been a science fiction fan since 1973. She became involved in many facets of fandom: fanzine reader and producer and a member of one or more amateur press associations (APAs). She was a regular book reviewer for a few monthly review fanzines and ran the reviews section of Sime-Gen. Since then, she has done occasional reviews of books, movies, ballets, and operas, dabbled in writing fiction, and made artwork. Some of her art has appeared in fanzines, and she has sold a few pieces at art shows and elsewhere. Laurraine publishes a quarterly fanzine titled Purrsonal Mewsings. For more information about her and her interests, visit her website.
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Lawrence Watt-Evans is the author of more than fifty novels and one hundred and fifty short stories, mostly fantasy, SF, and horror. His short story “Why I Left Harry’s All-Night Hamburgers” won the Hugo in 1988. He now lives on Bainbridge Island.
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Lazarus has won prestigious awards for both writing and art. In 2022, he was award first place in Writers of the Future, and debuted his first novel: The True Dragon of Atlanta. His long career in advertising won him numerous accolades for design and marketing. He is one of the judges for Illustrators of the Future, joining a short list of illustration luminaries including Frank Frazetta, Wil Eisner, Bob Eggleton, and more. He currently lives 90 miles north of Seattle in Bellingham and is finishing both a sequel to The True Dragon of Atlanta and a horror novel.
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Leadie Jo Flowers holds a bachelor’s degree from Stetson University in English and Russian studies, and a Master of Fine Arts in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. She had been an English instructor at Moscow State University and The Russian Academy of Public Relations. Currently she is working on a global website for authors, educators, and fans to grow the use of science fiction in the classroom, increasing students critical thinking skills and imagination as well as interest in STEM classes and careers.

Leah Cutter writes page-turning, wildly imaginative fiction set in exotic locations, such as a magical New Orleans, ancient Asia, rural Kentucky, Seattle, Minneapolis, and many others. She writes fantasy, science fiction, mystery, literary, and horror fiction. Her short fiction has been published in magazines like Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Talebones, anthologies like Fiction River, and on the web. Her long fiction has been published both by New York publishers as well as small presses. Read more books by Leah Cutter at the Knotted Road Press website. Follow her blog at her website.
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Leanna Cosplay is a costumer, Navy veteran, and current Army civilian meteorologist. She has bachelor’s degrees in earth science (meteorology), East Asian studies, and applied mathematics. Her capstone paper of East Asian studies followed the evolution of Japanese clothing from Sui and Tang dynasty Chinese clothing to the contemporary kimono. She has graduate work in mathematics and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in data science through Johns Hopkins University while still forecasting the weather at White Sands Missile Range. Besides working on cosplays, Leanna likes playing video games, knitting, crochet, hiking, and lounging with her husband and cats.
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Lee Ricci has done astronomy education and outreach for over a decade, including working for the Ashcroft Observatory, the Great Basin Observatory, and Southern Utah Space Foundation, and Lee most recently worked with the joint partnerships of NASA, Earth to Sky team, NOAA, and NPS to bring a wide variety of educational events to Hot Springs, AK for the 2024 eclipse. Lee has personally run over a thousand star parties, and just really likes space.
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Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Familiar, Ninth House, and the creator of the Grishaverse (now a Netflix original series) which spans the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, the King of Scars duology—and much more. Her short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. She lives in Los Angeles and is an associate fellow of Pauli Murray College at Yale University.
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Leigh Harlen is a queer, trans, non-binary writer of horror and other dark leaning speculative fiction who lives and works in Seattle alongside their partner and dogs. They are the author of Queens of Noise, Blood Like Garnets, A Feast For Flies, and several short stories. Their non-writing hobbies include petting strangers’ dogs, crocheting, and enthusing about how awesome bats are. For updates on future publications visit their website or check them out on Bluesky @LeighHarlen.
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Leon Perniciaro is editor of Haven Spec Magazine, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Connecticut, and a member of the game design and development faculty at Quinnipiac University. His academic research centers on Indigeneity, race, and the environment, especially through ideas of apocalypse and extraction. A citizen of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb and a New Orleanian, he now resides in New England, where he’s terrified of both the climate crisis and the Great Filter.
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Leonardo Espinoza Benavides (Leo) is a Chilean physician-writer and SF editor. He’s the author of Más espacio del que soñamos, Adios, loxonauta (2022 Altisimo Award winner), and Nomadismos del tiempo trifráctico. A dermatologist focused on psychodermatology, he serves as coordinating director of ALCIFF, the Chilean SF&F association, and is a SFWA member. His work has appeared in Latin America, the US, China, and Europe. He lives in Santiago, Chile.
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Lettie Prell’s short fiction has appeared in Analog, Apex, Clarkesworld, Reactor/Tor.com, WIRED, and elsewhere. Her novella, Uploading Angela, was a finalist for an Analog Readers’ Award. Several of her stories have been reprinted in anthologies, including The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, best-of publications curated by Neil Clarke and Rich Horton, and The New Voices of Science Fiction (Tachyon). Several of her works have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and other languages.
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Lezli Robyn is a mostly-blind Australian author, as well as executive editor and associate publisher of Arc Manor and its three imprints, who lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, with her blue-eyed chiweenie, Bindi (which means “little girl” in several indigenous Australian dialects). She’s known for writing bittersweet fiction, being a lover of chocolate and gardening, and is forever drawn by the call of the ocean.
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Lia Holland (they/she) is an author and high-impact activist in the Pacific Northwestern US. While keeping up a rigorous fiction practice, Lia confronts the world’s most powerful for their worst behavior at Fight for the Future. Lia currently serves as the campaigns and communications director for Fight for the Future, the queer women-and-artist-led organization behind the largest online protests in history. In campaigns, Lia focuses on the right to privacy, defending cultural preservation and community-run alternatives to Big Tech, and restoring the dignity of artistic labor. Increasingly, Lia’s work unites the threads of story and activism, such as in the Stop Surveillance Copaganda project, which is a collaboration between RightsCon and Strange Horizons, or their salon series with Amnesty International, Emerging Tech for Activists. They speak in diverse venues from DragonCon to Model UN to Consensus, and their work is featured by dozens of major news outlets and in prestigious publications from institutions including UNESCO.
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Liisa Spink has a background in front of and behind the stage of cabaret and theater. Liisa started as a lounge singer in a variety of dive bars in Los Angeles and has mixed performance with behind-the-scenes work for the past two decades. She has worked at DanceXchange (Birmingham, UK), Royal Shakespeare Company, and Seattle Children's Theater, among others.

Lilith Acadia (Ph.D. Berkeley), is a professor of literary theory at National Taiwan University, a writer-in-residence for The National Museum of Taiwan’s Taiwan Literature Base, a Pushcart Prize-nominated SF writer, and a member of the Taipei Poetry Collective and Codex Writers. Connect on socials @acadialogue.
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Lincoln Peters is an engineer, photographer, and historical swordfighter. He was the masquerade photographer at Worldcon 75, and in 2017 and 2018 he helped to put on the children’s photography workshop. Since 2013, he has also worked with St. Michael’s Salle d’Armes to provide sword-fighting demos and lessons, to educate writers and fans on the differences between real fighting and stage fighting. Lincoln has also watched the maker movement since its inception. He has built projects using Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards, and he is waiting for an affordable 3-D printer that can work with steel.

Linda D. Addison, is a five-time recipient of the Horror Writers Association’s (HWA) Bram Stoker Award, including for The Place of Broken Things, written with Alessandro Manzetti, and How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, a recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award, an HWA Mentor of the Year, and a Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry. Visit her site.
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Linda’s first Worldcon was Noreascon I (1971), where she attended her first WSFS Business Meeting and subsequently was secretary of those annual meetings from 2008-2022 with one break. Linda also served as WSFS Division Head for Sasquan in 2015 and DisCon III in 2021. Linda was thrilled to be awarded the Big Heart Award in 2021.

Lindsey Byrd is the 2025 debut author of The Sun Blessed Prince. Originally from New York, she currently lives in Europe and works as a historian and researcher. Lindsey writes adult fantasy novels, and enjoys finding ways to combine science and magic in new and exciting ways.
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Lisa Padol is a second generation SF fan, a filker, a gamer, playtester and editor of games, and a player and writer of LARPS. She sings adequately and consistently fails to identify harp tunes when her husband, Joshua Kronengold, is noodling around on the harp.

Liz Coleman is a mental health counselor specializing in trauma and neurodivergence. Her writing has appeared in Lightspeed and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and she is a graduate of Viable Paradise. She has previously been on the board of Cascade Writers.

Liz has been a fan since she was around age 12 or 13 or thereabouts. Liz’s father before her was a fan too. She grew up reading Heinlein, Bradbury, and Asimov, sometimes even autographed first-edition books from her father’s library. Liz does international U.S. and U.K. tax and, as an enrolled agent, can answer your questions about tax.
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Liza Groen Trombi is the four-time Hugo Award-winning publisher and editor-in-chief of Locus Magazine. A life-long reader of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, she studied literature, history, and translation at university, and worked in several fields before joining the magazine in early 2003. She has been editor-in-chief and publisher since 2009. Trombi also participates in convention panels and awards juries, runs the Locus Awards Weekend and writing workshops, publishes books with Locus Press, and serves as board president of the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. She lives in California with her two daughters and a little dog, too.
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Lizzy D. Hill grew up on a farm in Southern Idaho where she was free to explore the world around her and find the enchanting things in it. She enjoys fantasy books, researching fashion, exploring nature, and especially listening to music. Lizzy’s art is inspired by various songs and the stories she sees as she listens to music. To pursue these inspirations, Lizzy D. got an Associate of Fine Arts at BYU-Idaho and has been displaying her whimsical art at science fiction and fantasy conventions, and various stores and shops. She also had a successful Kickstarter for her coloring book Wickedly Whimsical Witches and has been illustrating books in recent years. She is happily married to her best friend and living in Washington state with their son and noisy blue eye kitty.
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Ljiljana Trajkovic received the Diplom-Ingeniuer degree from University of Pristina, Yugoslavia, Master of Science degrees in electrical engineering and computer engineering from Syracuse University, and a doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. She is currently a professor in the school of engineering science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia. Her research interests include communication networks and dynamical systems. Dr. Trajkovic served as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers Division X delegate/director, president of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, and president of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. She serves as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems. She is a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society and was a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Circuits and System Society. She is a fellow of the IEEE.
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Lori is a lawyer in Atlanta and a co-host of the podcast Hugo, Girl!
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Louisa Morgan is the pseudonym for Louise Marley, who has been publishing steadily since her first novel appeared in 1995. Since 2017, when she began writing historical fantasy, she has been writing as Louisa Morgan. She is published by Redhook, an imprint of Hachette. which published her bestselling novel A Secret History of Witches. She is a three-time winner of the Endeavour Award, given for excellence in speculative fiction written by a Pacific Northwest author, and she now lives in Southwest Oregon.
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LP Kindred is a Chicagoan-Angeleno-Chicagoan writer, editor, culture worker, and teaching artist working from the axes of Black identity, queer identity, and speculative fiction. An alum of the Hurston-Wright, Voices of Our Nation (VONA), and Clarion workshops, LP appears in Apex, Reactor, Speculative City, Fiyah, Escape Pod, PodCastle, the inaugural Queer Blades Anthology, the LeVar Burton Reads podcast, and Prismatica. Kindred is a three-time nominee for the Ignyte Awards as co-editor of Voodoonauts Presents: (Re)Living Mythology, for his short story in Anathema titled “Wanderlust,” and as a cocoa-founder of Voodoonauts. When not cheating on his novel(la)(s) with short fiction, LP is binge-watching TV, listening to an audiobook, or kiki-ing with one of the homies, most likely his bon vivant roommate, Dee. Find him @lpkindred anywhere that uses an @ symbol.
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Luis Carlos studied fine arts at the National University of Colombia and history of Islamic art at the American University of Cairo. He is a writer, a artist and illustrator, and a lecturer. Castro’s Vagabunda Bogotá won the 10th prize of the Chamber of Commerce of Medellín. El Gusano received an honorable mention for the Isaac Asimov Award of the Ateneo de Puerto Real. In 2021 he published Parasitos Perfectos and Tierra Contrafuturo. Luis Carlos created sci-fi related artwork for the movie The Other Shape (2022), short films Sapan (2011) and MU (2013), and the VR project Códice Futuro (2024), among others.
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Luka Dowell is a writer, organizer, and host of Solarpunk Now!, a podcast exploring ideas and projects towards a hopeful, humanitarian vision of our tech-enabled future. They have previously worked as a street poet-for-hire and the marketing lead for an independent publisher of diverse science fiction. With a background in environmental and tenants’ rights activism, Luka is passionate about making solarpunk a reality. Luka is currently affiliated with the Institute for Social Ecology.
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Luke Elliott is a writer whose speculative fiction has appeared in Reckoning, Metaphorosis, and the Even Cozier Cosmic anthology, among other magazines and podcasts. He’s also the co-host of the Ink to Film podcast where he discusses books and their film adaptations from a craft perspective with a filmmaker co-host and industry guests. He has an Master of Fine Arts in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University and is a graduate of the Viable Paradise writer’s workshop. Originally from Central Florida, Luke now lives with his wife and the dogs he spoils like children in Portland, Oregon.
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Lynn has been involved in fandom longer than she likes to publicly admit. She's been on many a successful Worldcon bid committee, been staff at various Worldcons, Westercons, and other regional cons, has chaired and held other staff positions at Consonance, a San Francisco Bay Area filk convention, and is president of Fanfare Music, the parent nonprofit corporation that funds Consonance. She's been performing her own music for several decades at cons around the world. In her mundane life, she's a technical writer who lives with her dog, Grace (as in “Hopper”) in Mountain View, California.

Eleven-time Hugo Award-winner Lynne M. Thomas is the co-editor-in-chief and co-publisher of the eight-time Hugo Award-winning Uncanny Magazine with husband Michael Damian Thomas. The former editor-in-chief of Apex Magazine (2011-2013), she co-edited the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords, Whedonistas, and Chicks Dig Comics. She moderated the Hugo Award-winning SF Squeecast and contributes to Verity! In her day job, she is the head of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library and Juanita J. and Robert E. Simpson Rare Book and Manuscript Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the largest public university rare book collections in the country. You can learn more at her website.
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M V Soumithri is a South Indian economist who currently runs a natural-dyeing unit in Hyderabad. Soumithri also edits and plays in the podcast Desperate Attune, which plays fiction-first games and is interested in themes of identity, colonialism, and the question of how to be hopeful while the world falls apart. Soumithri has two degrees in economics and has worked as a financial journalist, researcher, cloth salesperson, and tabletop role-playing game creator.

M. R. Robinson is an academic studying time and desire in Renaissance literature. When she isn’t doing that, she’s probably writing or reading speculative fiction. Her short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Flash Fiction Online, Fusion Fragment, and Haven Spec, among other publications. In her free time, M. R. and her wife are slowly restoring a crumbly old house, which they share with four pets and too many books. You can find M. R. online at her website.
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M.C. Childs’ poetry has won awards from the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) and appeared in many magazines from Analog to Utopia. Prof. Emeritus Childs’ award-winning urban design publications include Foresight and Design, The Zeon Files: Historic Route 66 Signs with Ellen Babcock, Urban Composition, Squares, Parking Spaces, multiple articles, and a newspaper column. M.C. was interim dean and director of the Design and Planning Assistance Center at the University of New Mexico, and a Fulbright scholar (Cyprus 2005).

M.T. Zimny is a young adult author in the Pacific Northwest, where she subsists off of rainy days and ungodly amounts of overpriced coffee. Her works include The Apex Cycle and Skalterra By Nightmare. She lives with her husband, her daughter, and her golden retrievers.
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Time traveling, tea drinking, and professionally cheeky, Madame Askew is a comic performer, expert panelist, and presenter at fandom conventions across North America. Madame hosts a weekly live talk show with her best friend, the Grand Arbiter, as well as her monthly interview podcast. She has also had the privilege of working on programming, audience development, and outreach behind the scenes at multiple conventions. When she’s not at conventions, she can be found teaching sewing for cosplay.
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Carmen has been sewing costumes for over 50 years and has sewn everything from a business suit for an infant to a bulletproof vest for an airplane fuselage section. She is enjoying her recent retirement from running a historic costume business by being twice as busy constructing costumes for herself and her husband.

Maeve MacLysaght is a literary agent at Aevitas Creative Management representing commercial genre fiction and graphic novels for all ages. She is drawn most to stories with big, campy stakes but surprising emotional cores, lovably immoral characters, queer coded villains, and people kissing while things explode. The goal of her list is to increase the amount of queer and BIPOC joy in the world, and to make space for marginalized authors to rework the tropes that historically oppressed them.
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Mallory Craig-Kuhn (New York, 1986) is a writer, translator, and researcher based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She holds master’s degrees in literature from Universidad de Buenos Aires and Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) and regularly teaches workshops on contemporary Latin American sci-fi, Latin American new weird, and sci-fi crime fiction. Her first novel, Divino Neón, was published in Argentina in 2024 by Ediciones Ayarmanot.
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Manjula Menon has degrees in astrophysics and electrical engineering. She writes science fiction and about philosophy. She is based in San Francisco.
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Maquel A. Jacob is an independent author originally hailing from Chicago, Illinois. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest. Her stories revolve around fluid beings in an ocean of stars seen through the human lens, social sci-fi with a bit of romance and a touch of gore. Her three series dive into space opera, dystopia, post-apocalypse, and classism. Maquel writes short stories for Boundary Shock Quarterly along with various collections and anthologies. When not honing her craft, Maquel enjoys cooking and photography along with anime, music, and wine to keep herself entertained. She loves honest feedback regarding her works and gets ecstatic about meeting fans at book signings and conventions.
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Marc came to fandom via the SCA and being swallowed, body and soul, by filk. He leads the filk track in his two local conventions and has helped with three Worldcon filk tracks. Marc holds a key role in the Festival of the Living Rooms, which brings filk fans and audiences together from across the globe. Marc released his own filk album and a holiday EP, which can be found on Marc’s Bandcamp. Marc, a U.S. veteran, played a ground security role for NASA during launch and recovery operations for the shuttle mission STS-007. Marc enjoyed the RPG Traveller and was involved in promotion and development of the game Battletech.

Mari Kotani is an SF and fantasy critic and one of the first cos-players in Japan. She served as vice president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan and chair of the women writers committee of Japan PEN Club. Her first book Techno-Gynesis (Keiso, 1994) won the 15th Japan SF Grand Prize in 1994. Her next book, Evangelion as the Immaculate Virgin (Magazine House, 1997), sold more than 80,000 copies. She regularly publishes book reviews in major newspapers such as Nihon-Keizai Shinbun. Her collaborations include Blood Read (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997). In 2001, she founded the Japanese Association of Gender Fantasy and Science Fiction and the Sense of Gender Award.

Mari Ness is thrilled to see “Ever Noir,” published by Haven Spec Magazine, as a finalist for the 2025 Special Hugo Award for Best Poem. Other work appears in Reactor, Clarkesworld, Uncanny, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Apex, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nature Future, Baffling, Strange Horizons, and other zines and anthologies.
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Mariah Southworth is a science fiction, horror and fantasy short story author. She lives in Washington with her partner and cat. When not writing, she is reading, drawing or practicing her martial arts. For more information about Mariah Southworth and her work, check out her website.
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Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly leans on her academic fields for inspiration. She is the author of more than twenty novels, ninety short stories, and several poems; her work has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. As half of M.A. Carrick, she has also written the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy, beginning with The Mask of Mirrors. For more information and social media, visit her online.
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Marie Guthrie wrote the first U.S. dissertation dedicated to the works of Robert A. Heinlein. She has been active with The Heinlein Society and The Ray Bradbury Center. She served in Peace Corps (Moldova, 2003–2005) and has enjoyed her global travels. A master scuba diver, she is currently retired from Western Kentucky University.

Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author Marie Vibbert’s short fiction has appeared over 90 times in top magazines like Nature, Analog, and Clarkesworld, and been translated into Czech, Chinese and Vietnamese. Her debut novel, Galactic Hellcats, was long listed for the British Science Fiction Award, and her work has been called “everything science fiction should be” by the Oxford Culture Review. She also writes poetry, comics, and computer games. By day she is a computer programmer in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Mariecris obtained her master’s degree in library and archives management from Simmons College and is a digital preservation librarian at the University of Washington. Mariecris worked in all aspects of archives management for 17 years with an increased focus on preserving digital collections in the last 6 years. Her interests are digital preservation appraisal and technology, community archives and activism, archives and access for historically marginalized communities, and Filipino American History. Mariecris is also a co-chair of the ALA Core’s Digital Preservation Special Interest Group and Washington state representative for Northwest Archivists.

Marilyn has written hundreds of thousands of words as a lawyer, a judge, and the author of scripted musical productions ranging from Victorian pageants to musical murder mystery dinner theater comedies. She also wrote 987 words that were published as fantasy flash fiction. While she waits for that published word count to rise, she crafts useful items out of con T-shirts, and performs stand-up comedy at open mics, when she can stay awake that late.

Marina grew up in San Diego, California reading fantasy novels and watching Shaun of the Dead on repeat. She fell into the world of online fandom and fan culture at a young age when she discovered other people were as obsessed with Yu-Gi-Oh! as she was. Marina’s hobbies include learning K-pop choreo, reading copious amounts of fanfiction (the longer the better), and watching BL (boy’s love) dramas from around the world. In her professional life she is a freelance developmental editor, project manager, and director of panel programming and special events at GeekGirlCon.
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Marisca is a queer author based in Massachusetts, on Pocumtuck and Abenaki land. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, F&SF, Asimov’s, Nightmare magazine, and others. Her speculative poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards. Their cli-fi novella, Every Dark Cloud, was published in March 2025 by Ghost Orchid Press.
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Mark is the author of the Danger Boy time travel series, and the currently unfolding Max Random and the Zombie 500 series from Graveside Press, for young readers of all ages. He also works as a columnist covering showbiz and its dis/content in Los Angeles, where he has a ringside seat on various harbingers of the apocalypse. Which, as a proud papa and enthusiastic coyote song listener, tends to keep up him even later at night.
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Mark is a long-time SF fan who discovered SF long before discovering fandom, and discovered fandom long before getting involved in con-running. Only later did Mark get involved in NESFA Press, and, even later still, in fan history. Mark has chaired or co-chaired several conventions and worked on numerous others, as well as editing a dozen books and reviewing for Aboriginal SF. Mark prefers schlock SF to schlock fantasy, and collects SF art. In real life, Mark’s an astronomer who needed to make a living, so got degrees in chemistry—and wound up managing software development. (But he still loves astronomy more than anything else.) Mark’s currently editing Fancyclopedia 3 and scanning and building infrastructure for fanac.org.

Marshall is the author of the Rites of Resurrection trilogy of high fantasy novels, the Son of a Sailor pirate cozy fantasy trilogy, the children’s book Postcards from a Lake Monster, and over 30 published short stories. He has spoken as a guest on panels for conventions including the Nebula Conference, DragonCon, and ApollyCon. He is represented by Brent Taylor at Triada U.S.
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Marshall is a fantasy and science-fiction writer, author of 16 novels, most of which are part of the Maradaine Saga—four braided series set amid the bustling streets and crime-ridden districts of the exotic city called Maradaine. He is also the author of the standalone dieselpunk fantasy, The Velocity of Revolution. He is a four-time Hugo finalist as the co-host of the podcast Worldbuilding for Masochists, and has been a playwright, an actor, and an amateur chef. He lives in Austin, Texas with his family.
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Marta’s passion is connecting people to stories, information, and resources to inform and enrich their lives. She is a teen librarian and writer living in the Pacific Northwest who loves all sorts of stories, especially in the speculative fiction genres. Prior to earning her master’s degree in library science, she was an award-winning newspaper journalist. You can find her published work in Library Journal, School Library Journal. and various anthologies and online magazines. She serves as treasurer of the nonprofit group Broad Universe, supporting female-identifying and non-binary writers, editors, and publishers in the speculative fiction genres.
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Martha Wells has been a science fiction and fantasy author since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993. Her New York Times bestselling series The Murderbot Diaries has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and an American Library Association/YALSA Alex Award. Her work also includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, and several other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023), as well as short fiction, non-fiction, and media tie-ins for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: The Gathering. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her work has also appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the British Science Fiction Association Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List, and has been translated into 25 languages.

Martin Klima created first Czech fantasy pen-and-paper role-playing game Dragon's Den in 1990. He has been making computer games since 1997, releasing Original War in 2001, ArmA in 2007, Kingdom Come: Deliverance in 2018, and most recently KCD2 this year.
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Martin Vopenka is a Czech writer with Jewish roots, and a philosopher, poet, and author of 29 books published in 13 languages. He’s been writing since childhood, despite being forced to study mathematics and physics during communism. His work has received awards and a feature film was made from one of his novels. Martin’s writing is notable for its keen awareness of individuals' personal struggles and the perilous elements present in society as a whole. This includes a focus on the threats posed to our planet.
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Marve has been writing for over a decade and self-published the critically acclaimed thriller His Dark Reflection. Her debut fantasy novel, Firstborn of the Sun (the first in a trilogy) will be published by Penguin Michael Joseph in October 2025. The novel was also a finalist in many competitions including the 2023 Future Worlds Prize for Fantasy Writers of Colour. Marve is an award-winning filmmaker and you can find her exploring life as a serial hobbyist, passionate about myths, history, and assembling her own personal library to indulging in an unapologetic obsession with all things Christmas. She is represented by Ciara Finan and Flo Sandelson at Curtis Brown Literary Agency (UK) and United Talent Agency (USA). She can be found online @justmarvewrites and justmarve.org.
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Mary is the author of the sci-fi novella One Level Down as well as The Word, Flicker and Mist, and other YA and middle grade novels. Her contemporary thriller Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee was a winner of the 2017 Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the 2018-2019 Missouri Gateway award. Her short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter magazine, Apex magazine, and others. She holds a master in fine arts in writing for children from The New School, and completed the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television’s professional program in screenwriting. She lives in Washington, D.C.
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Mary Robinette is the author of the multi-ward winning alternate history novel The Calculating Stars, the first book in the Lady Astronaut series, which continues in 2025 with The Martian Contingency. She is also the author of The Glamourist Histories series, Ghost Talkers, The Spare Man, and has received the Astounding Award for best new writer, four Hugo Awards, the Nebula, and Locus Awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Uncanny, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary Robinette has also worked as a professional puppeteer, is a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses, and performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction. She lives in Denver with her husband Robert, their dog Guppy, and their “talking” cat Elsie. Visit her online at maryrobinettekowal.com.
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Mary Turzillo's Nebula Award-winner, “Mars Is no Place for Children,” and her Analog novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl were recommended reading on the International Space Station. She has been a finalist on the British Science Fiction Association, Pushcart, Stoker, Dwarf Stars, and Rhysling ballots. Her poetry collection Lovers & Killers won the 2013 Elgin Award for best collection. This is her fourth collaboration with Marge Simon. Mary lives in Ohio with her scientist-writer husband Geoffrey Landis and twin orange goofball cats.
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Mary-Michelle is the STEM Teaching Librarian at the University of California, Riverside. She is interested in the representation of librarians, library work, and information literacy in online spaces, and in SFF and popular culture. She has presented on these topics at WorldCon 76, ChiCon 4, Gallifrey One, and ACA/PCA Conferences.

Mason is a professor in the department of mathematics at UCLA. He also holds a secondary appointment in the department of sociology, and is an external professor of Santa Fe Institute. Mason conducts research in complex systems, network analysis, nonlinear dynamics, and their applications. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, the American Physical Society, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
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Matt writes about pop culture history from a queer perspective, exploring behind-the-scenes stories about movies and TV shows that changed the world and the fascinating people involved. His latest book tackles the history of queer characters on sitcoms, and is entitled Hi Honey, I’m Homo!
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Matt Dinniman is a writer, artist, and musician from Gig Harbor, Washington. He is the author of multiple books, including the bestselling Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
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Matt G. Leger is, at 44 years and counting, filk music’s longest-taking “overnight” success story. A struggling graphic designer by day, he copes with everyday life by writing original songs and song parodies, such as “The Singer's Secret,” “’Evil’ Is A Four-Letter Word, Too” (aka the notorious “Evil Overlord” song) and “Mother of Dragons.” Matt has won a Pegasus Award and been nominated once for best composer. A native of Louisiana's Cajun country, Matt currently lives in Atlanta with his wife Mary Mulholland, a retired public health worker and fellow filker, and two cats, Ronan and Arienne.
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Matt Ruff is the award-winning author of eight novels, including Fool on the Hill, Set This House in Order, Bad Monkeys, The Mirage, 88 Names, and The New York Times bestseller Lovecraft Country, which was adapted as an HBO series. His most recent novel is The Destroyer of Worlds: A Return to Lovecraft Country.
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Matt Youngmark is the author of the Chooseomatic Books series, the Arabella Grimsbro YA novels, and the humorous fantasy series Spellmonkeys. He also wrote and drew the daily webcomic Conspiracy Friends, and, in a previous life, worked the newsprint mines at the Tacoma Reporter and Pandemonium magazine. His latest work is The Pilot Episode, a near-future Sci-Fi novella about accidentally stealing a spaceship, and the dangers of late stage capitalism.
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Matthew Kressel is a multiple Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-nominated author and coder. His many works of short fiction have appeared in Analog, Asimov's, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Tor.com/Reactor, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many other publications and anthologies, including multiple year's bests. 18 of his stories are included in his debut collection, Histories Within Us, now out from Senses Five Press. His far-future novel Space Trucker Jess is out June 2025 from Fairwood Press. And his Mars-based novella The Rainseekers is forthcoming from Tordotcom in February 2026. Alongside Ellen Datlow, he runs the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in Manhattan. And he is the creator of the Moksha submissions system, used by many of the largest fiction publishers today.
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Matt is the author of Wet Work and The Prison World Revolt series: Petra, Petra Released, and Petra Rising. His short fiction has appeared in Alembical 3, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Writers of the Future Volume XXV. He graduated from the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 1998. Matt also plays guitar and has been known to sing karaoke. He lives in Nebraska, and assures you that he has heard all the jokes.
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Maurizio is an Italian digital illustrator appointed grand master by the European Science Fiction Society, and nominated for the Hugo Award for best professional artist in both 2021 and 2022. Throughout his 30-year career, he has earned numerous awards including one Chesley Award and four Asimov’s Readers’ Awards. Among his clients: Subterranean Press, Infinivox, MacMillan, and the magazines Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF.
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Max Goller is the founder and president of Sacred Legions, a podcasting company created to honor secular saints, as defined by their patron saint, Kurt Vonnegut: “Someone who behaves decently in a shockingly indecent society.” He serves on the board of the Charles Bruce Foundation. He is a former director of education at the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library, and volunteer at the Ray Bradbury Center. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 2001 and teaching middle school English in 2019. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree from Indiana University.

Writer of speculative fiction as the result of childhood trauma involving a robot named Gort, Maya is The New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars Legends: The Last Jedi (with Michael Reaves) and The Antiquities Hunter. She is a singer, songwriter, and Bahá’í. Her short fiction has appeared in Analog, Amazing Stories, Interzone, and Baen’s Universe; she’s a Nebula, Crawford, Campbell, Sidewise, and British Science Fiction Award finalist. She performs and records original and parody music with husband Jeff and blogs frequently at bahaiteachings.org and bookviewcafe.com
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Maya is a South Asian American author, a Caltech graduate, and a former software engineer. She currently resides in the Pacific Northwest, where she enjoys hiking, kayaking, and raising her budding bookworm kiddo. Her YA novels include Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things—a Children’s Book Council young adult favorite, and librarian favorite—and Wild Wishes and Windswept Kisses. She’s also the author of the Sejal Sinha chapter book series, which have been selected for the OWL Awards shortlist, the Bank Street Best Books of the Year, and the NECBA Windows & Mirrors list. She’s passionate about creating brown kid leads in books across genres. Visit her website www.mayaprasad.com or find her on Instagram or TikTok @msmayaprasad.
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Meagan is an editor and senior game developer at Kobold Press, working on books such as Vault of Magic, Tome of Heroes, the Tome of Beasts series, and Tales of the Valiant’s Monster Vault. When not saving kobolds from their own word traps, she spends her time enjoying the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the comfort of a good book. She has been playing table top role-playing games since the early 90s, when her parents turned her into an emerald wyrmling.

Mehdi Achouche is an associate professor in Anglophone cinema and American studies at Sorbonne Paris Nord University. He works on science fiction cinema and television, more particularly depictions of technological progress, transhumanism, and posthumanity. He is currently completing a book on such depictions in 1960s and 1970s cinema and television, including early representations of A.I., the destruction of the environment, or overpopulation.
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Meihan is the Singaporean author of The Formidable Miss Cassidy (Epigram Books Fiction Prize co-winner 2021, Singapore Book Awards best literary work 2022), The Enigmatic Madam Ingram (shortlisted EBFP 2023, for SBA best literary work in 2023, long-listed for Dublin Literary Award) and The Mystical Mister Kay (Epigram Books Fiction Prize winner 2025). The Miss Cassidy books are internationally published by Pushkin Press UK and Harper Perennial US. Miss Cassidy has also been translated in Italy and Albania.
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Meg is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in New York City with their partners and cats. They were raised in fandom, and volunteered as a con-runner on regional conventions and Worldcons for 15 years before deciding to make their own messes.
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Megan Lloyd is a director, story artist, and screenwriter. She directed on seasons 4 and 5 of Star Trek: Lower Decks. Past storyboard clients include Netflix, Dreamworks, Marvel, and Nickelodeon.
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Meghan had made her first machine-sewn doll and costume by age 11. She has studied theater, film, textiles, and museology, taught art and art history, worked 11 years in film and music production, and has worked with textile collections in five museums. She likes to participate in single pattern contests and masquerades, and won best presentation—novice class at Dublin Worldcon 2019. She considers herself a “maker,” skilled at sewing, embroidery, sculpting, and metalwork, and collects odd bits of flotsam for masks, headpieces, dolls, props, etc. She does business under the name MaggieD Studio.
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Melinda M. Snodgrass studied opera at the Conservatory of Vienna, graduated magna cum Laude from the University of New Mexico with a degree in history, and went on to law school. After three years as a lawyer, she realized she hated being a lawyer and turned to writing. In 1988 she accepted a job on Star Trek: The Next Generation and began her Hollywood career, where she has worked on staff on numerous shows and has written television pilots and feature films. In the prose world she writes for and co-edits the shared world anthology series Wild Cards with George R. R. Martin, and also writes her own novels. She is working on a new fantasy novel. Her space opera, Imperials, her Carolingian series, and her White Fang Law series are available. For fun she rides her dressage horses and plays role-playing and video games.
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Melissa is the international bestselling author of The Last Hour Between Worlds, as well as two fantasy trilogies, Swords & Fire (staring with The Tethered Mage) and Rooks & Ruin (starting with The Obsidian Tower). Her debut novel was shortlisted for the Gemmell Morningstar Award, and The Last Hour Between Worlds was picked as one of the best books of the year by People, NPR, Reactor, Book Riot, and more. Melissa is a tea drinker, LARPer, and mom. She lives in Massachusetts with her video game designer husband, two superlative daughters, and assorted pets.
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Plaything of the winds. Professional cat herder and experienced conrunner. Writer, dreamer, dancer, time traveler extraordinaire. Adventurer, moss gardener, fencer, needleworker, crocheter, and staunch defender of the serial comma.

Melissa is a land use planner by occupation and a reader of speculative fiction by avocation. She came to speculative fiction young, growing up with The Hobbit as a bedtime story. She came to land use planning by a more circuitous route, involving grad school and living near a rapidly sprawling metropolitan area. The best part of both worlds is definitely maps.
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Mena is a trans fantasy author of Pakistani-American ancestry. They graduated from Drew University in 2017 with a degree in art history and history, minoring in medieval studies. They are currently a second-year graduate student at Monmouth University, where they study history and plan to write a thesis about South Asian women’s voices in Victorian era Britain/film. Mena enjoys alternative culture and recently interviewed for Weirdo, a zine dedicated to South Asian alternative creators. They are also working on an as-yet unpublished fantasy series. Mena has worked as a museum educator for The Cloisters, the New York Transit Museum, and the Brooklyn Historical Society.

Merav is secretly a conglomerate of writer, musician, activist, crafter, and facilitator of good mischief. They can often be found at the filk, knitting, or deep in conversation with a variety of people in unusual hats.
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Micaela is a London-based book cover designer and illustrator, originally from Sydney, Australia. She began her career at Penguin Random House UK, and HarperCollins UK before transitioning to freelance in 2019; since then, she has collaborated with major publishers worldwide. Her work has earned her widespread recognition, from being named one of The Bookseller’s Rising Stars in 2021, to becoming a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist in both 2024 and 2025. Her portfolio comprises a distinctive fusion of creativity and artistry, influenced by her passion for travel, her diverse cultural heritage, and a deep appreciation for the fine arts.
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Michael has been publishing fiction for over 50 years and writing/producing SFF TV almost as long. His SF novels include the Heaven’s Shadow trilogy with David S. Goyer, as well as 50 published short stories in Asmiov’s, Analog, and other places. He has contributed scripts to Twilight Zone, Max Headrooom, Farscape, The Dead Zone, Z-Nation, and others. More recently he wrote and directed a short SF film, The Summer Machine.

Michael H. Payne’s novels have been published by Tor Books, Sofawolf Press, and upcoming from Fenris Publications. His short stories have appeared in Asimov's, the Writers of the Future anthology, and Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, and his poems can be found in Silver Blade, Star*Line, and his new chapbook, Two Strikes and I'm Out, from Island of Wak-Wak. After 15 years of posting daily webcomics, he's settled into a more sedate rate of four pages a week at hyniof.blogspot.com while running Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s featured book program and compiling the monthly round-ups for the Science Fiction Poetry Association.
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Michael has been volunteering with local Seattle convention Norwescon for 15 years in various roles, and is the Seattle Worldcon website admin. He works with accessible technology at a local college, and advocates for better digital accessibility in the fan convention community. Primarily a science fiction fan, Star Trek is his home fandom, and he has collected and read every officially published Original Series novel and is working on the rest. His alter ego DJ Wüdi got started in alternative dance clubs in Anchorage, Alaska in the ’90s, is now a regular Thursday night DJ for Norwescon, and brings a wildly eclectic selection of dance tracks to his events. LLAP/IDIC.
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Michael Haynes is an avid short fiction reader and writer with nearly 100 published stories, most in the speculative fiction genres. He lives in Colorado after residing in Ohio for his first half-century or so. He has more hobbies than he really has time for, enjoying travel, going to concerts, photography, cooking, geocaching, hiking, board games, and so on. His debut short fiction collection is At the Intersection of Love and Death. Learn more at michaelhaynes.info.
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Michael is a disabled, award-winning audio director known for his work on The Secret of St. Kilda and the Strange Horizons podcast. Based near Glasgow, Scotland, Michael works with audio for fiction, film, and podcasts. He is currently working alongside Kat Kourbeti for their Strange Horizons@25 Project, a retrospective look at the impact of the magazine over the past 25 years. Michael is also writing his first fiction book.
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Michael discovered fandom in the mid-60s; attended his first con—Disclave—in 1969; chaired Balticon, Disclave a few times, and Capclave a few times; chaired a Worldcon (once); and chaired two-and-a-half World Fantasy Cons. He thinks he’s done with chairing cons &tl;G>. He’s also been selling books at cons since the early 70s, started WSFA Press to publish the occasional book by the con GoH, and operated a currently-sleeping small press, Old Earth Books. Since 1974, Michael has been to all but four Worldcons.
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Michael lives in Oregon with his wife and their “mini-me” children. When he isn’t obsessively writing, he can be found exercising, exploring nature, enjoying comedy, or playing Warhammer. His favorite shows are Dark, The Wire, and Scavenger’s Reign—clearly, he loves his heart to be abused. If you are foolish enough to challenge him in table tennis, he will gladly destroy you.
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Mikey is the author of the science-fiction/horror novel Symbiote (2025, Angry Robot Books). He is also a pilot, planetary scientist, and futurist; a program manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); a test pilot school graduate, a former NASA engineer, and a former principal investigator with the U.S. Antarctic Program. His real-world experience in the science and military communities adds next-level authentic details and a touch of hyper-realism to his work. Mikey is new to Instagram and would love to connect with all Worldcon attendees there: @authormichaelnayak. Win a copy of his next book, Sentient, by checking out “The Sticker Game” on his website, michaelnayak.com.
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Michael has been making maps for nearly three decades, starting in college, where he learned digital mapping technology for his science degrees. He used mapping in his career, and taught the subject at the college level as an adjunct. Later, he applied his love and interest in mapping to work charting the borders and other information about the Society for Creative Anachronism, a worldwide medieval non-profit, with 20 kingdoms. That work led to serving in the role of kingdom cartographer of Northshield for nearly a decade. Moving to Washington state, he continued his mapping efforts, and began branching out into physical maps after decades of solely digital. Today Michael works regularly in both physical and digital maps, broadening his skills and knowledge of this fascinating topic.

Michael has a diverse and dynamic set of interests limited (largely) by time and focused (somewhat) by current projects. An avid reader of science fiction since finding the genre in his high school library, he learned to pace himself after running out of readily available SF novels later that same year. Normally describing himself as a computer programmer, a full account of his career would include four continents and involve most aspects of the software industry with various side trips into other areas. His current (professional) project is “The Digital Go-Bag.”
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Dr. Michael Ravine is the advanced projects manager at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. At MSSS he has managed the development of four cameras orbiting the moon, three orbiting Mars, nine cameras on two rovers on the surface of Mars, a camera orbiting Jupiter, and seven cameras on the way to the asteroids Psyche, Apophis, and multiple Trojans. Currently, he is leading the development of nine cameras for the Dragonfly Titan drone mission and five cameras for a Venus probe. On the side, he was a producer on a feature film (Nobel Son), worked for James Cameron on an undisclosed space project, managed payload development for an internet startup to fly a private unmanned mission to the moon (Blastoff!), and helped found a web company back when the internet was new. Originally trained as a scientist, Ravine has a Bachelor of Science in physics from Caltech, a master’s degree in geology from Brown, and a doctorate in geophysics from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego. As part of that life, he’s done field work in Montana, Iceland, Hawaii, Antarctica, and someplace in the middle of the ocean a thousand miles south of Australia.
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Michael is the founder of Upstart Crow Literary. A former editorial director for HarperCollins, he has edited hundreds of best-selling and award-winning books, including titles by Michael Grant, Ursula K. Le Guin, M.T. Anderson, Diane Duane, Bruce Coville, and Jane Yolen. He also runs a book packager where he co-created the #1 bestselling series Fallen. As a writer, he has won the Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and other prizes, and, under pen name Carter Roy, is the author of the award-winning middle-grade fantasy adventure trilogy Blood Guard.
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Michael has been a professional writer for more than 40 years, during which time he published 11 novels, over 150 stories, and countless works of flash fiction. He has received the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards, as well as five Hugo Awards. He is best known for the Nebula-winning science fiction novel Stations of the Tide, and for his Iron Dragon fantasy trilogy. Swanwick lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter.
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Micheal Kabunga is an industrial artist who has dedicated most of his skills, talent, and time to empowering women, youth, children in resource-limited situations around the world. He has coordinated youth volunteer exchange programs between Africa and the rest of the World. He is a graphic designer, illustrator, and author. Micheal is the chair for ConKigali 2028 Worldcon Bid.
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Michelle is The New York Times best-selling author of 50+ books for children and young adults, including the Trelian (MG fantasy) and Evil Librarian (YA horror-comedy) trilogies, and the award-winning picture book Library Lion, which Time magazine named one of the 100 best children’s books of all time. She sometimes writes short stories for adults, too, and was a 2024 BSFA finalist for best audio fiction. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with three humans, two cats, and one snake.
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Michelle Ruiz Keil is the best-selling author of the novels All of Us With Wings and Summer in the City of Roses, a finalist for the Ursula K. Le Guin Fiction Prize. Her short fiction was most recently published in Buckmxn Journal and the anthology Dispatches From Aarres. Her work has been supported by Hedgebrook, Tin House, RAAC, The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and The Bloedel Reserve. Born in San Francisco, Michelle has lived in Portland, Oregon for many years in an overgrown cottage where the forest meets the city.
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Miguel O. Mitchell (he/his/him) is a Black speculative poet, SFF author, visual artist, and retired chemistry professor. He has published poems in Amazing Stories, Dreams & Nightmares, Eye to the Telescope, FIYAH, Scifaikuest, Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Sauúti Terrors anthology, Space and Time, Star*Line, and Year's Best African Speculative Fiction (2022). His poems have been nominated for the Rhysling Award several times. He has also published a science fiction novel-in-verse, Surrealia (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2024) and a fully illustrated poetry collection, Periodic Table of Alien Species (Elements 1-86) (Barnes & Noble Press, 2021). In the role of editor, Miguel is editor of the 2025 Dwarf Stars anthology, the best speculative poems of 1-10 lines, was co-editor (with David C. Kopaska-Merkel) of the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, and is editor-in-chief/publisher of SpecPoVerse: An International Journal of Speculative Poetry, https://specpoverse.org.
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Mike Brennan is a retiring kind of guy: He likes it so much that he’s done it twice. He retired from the U.S. Navy, where he was an officer in the submarine community and the Naval Reserve. He has also retired after 25 years as a radiation health physicist, a job as geeky as the title makes it sound.

In his 10 years in fandom, Mikołaj Kowalewski has been a conrunner (including 2025 Polish Natcon), volunteer, panelist, board member of the European Science Fiction Society, and (to his great delight!) guest of honor liaison at the Glasgow Worldcon for Ken MacLeod. Originally from Poland, he currently lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he makes lots of Nordic fandom connections. When Mikołaj is not organizing or travelling, he enjoys SF literature and board games. He is also the 2025 TransAtlantic Fan Fund delegate. He says, “TAFF seems like a great opportunity to meet more fellow fans overseas, and for me to tell you all about the wonderful Polish and Nordic fandom.”
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Miri is an award-winning cosplayer, longtime craftsmanship judge, nighttime writer, and feral JRPG goblin. She lives outside of Washington, D.C., with her partner, two dogs, three sewing machines, and a hedgehog.
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Misha Grifka Wander (he/they) is a writer, designer, editor, and critic from the American Midwest. They have a doctorate in English from Ohio State University, and have published academic work in speculative fiction studies, media studies, ecocriticism, and more. Their game design work can be found at mishagw.itch.io. They are an editor at Ancillary Review of Books.
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Mitchell Burnside Clapp graduated from MIT in 1984 with four degrees, and from the USAF Test Pilot School in 1988, to work on the YA-7F program, instruct as part of the school's staff, and become the Air Force's flight test person on the DC-X program. He developed aerial propellant transfer technology to enable HTOL spaceplanes. He left active military service in 1996 to found Pioneer Rocketplane, which was sold in 2005. From 2011 to 2016, he was a program manager at DARPA, where he consulted from 2018 to 2025. He has a wife, three children, one house, a dog, no cat, many songwriting credits, and little skill at writing biographical information about himself.

MJ Kuhn is the internationally bestselling author of Among Thieves and Thick as Thieves. She is also a co-host on the SFF Addicts podcast and the creator of The Ultimate SFF Story Bible resource for writers. When she’s not writing, she enjoys boxing, gaming, and hanging out with her very spoiled cat, Thorin Oakenshield.
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Molly Lewis is a singer-songwriter-ukulelist from southern California. Under the name Mollylele, Lewis writes humorous yet poignant songs about history, popular culture, and current events. Since 2009 she has self-produced four albums, including original musical holiday special Thanksgiving Vs. Christmas. You can find some of her jokes and lyrical stylings in season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000. She makes her home in Seattle with her partner and their 15 ukuleles.
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Monica Valentinelli is a writer and narrative designer whose books, stories, articles, and games span multiple worlds including the World of Darkness, Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Cyberpunk RED, Pacific Rim, and many others. For more information about Monica, visit her website.
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Morag Hannah, together with wife Erin Hardee, write under the penname MK Hardy. With backgrounds ranging from museum interpretation to web design, and from science communication to ghost tours, they are devoted to storytelling in almost every aspect of their lives and work. When they are not telling stories, they can be found singing in choirs, foraging for fungi, and working on their 1880s fixer-upper. Their debut sapphic gothic horror novel, The Needfire, comes from Solaris in July 2025.
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Morgan has been geeking out ever since going as a Star Trek officer for Halloween when she was just four years old (yes, it was adorable). After a stint as an Army engineer, Morgan transitioned to the world of radiation safety, and she’ll happily talk your ear off about all things radiation related.

Moriko Handford is an author from Upton, Massachusetts. When not at work, she’s bringing her family on wacky adventures. Her Substack is where she publishes videos and writings about various topics. Her most recent publication is a graphic novel called Fixing the System about a school bathroom ban and how students fought back. Moriko also has a memoir, A Trans Feminist’s Past, and before that, she wrote a sci-fi trans romance called Flipping under her pen name, Forest Handford.
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Moustapha Mbacké Diop is a medical doctor and writer living in Dakar, Senegal. His writing mainly explores African spirituality, grief, and colonialism through a darker speculative lens. His work has appeared in Omenana, The Dark, Haven Spec, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well as anthologies: Africa Risen, Blackened Roots, The Year’s Best African Spec Fic. He was shortlisted for the 2024 Nommo Awards. You can find him on social media at @mdmoustaf.
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Mur Lafferty is an author, editor, and podcaster. Her latest book is Infinite Archive, and she is co-editor of the Hugo finalist semiprozine Escape Pod. Her 20 years of experience podcasting include I Should Be Writing (the longest running writing podcast) and the Hugo-winning fancast Ditch Diggers. She is from North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, kid, and dog.
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Nancy Kress is the author of 35 novels, four story collections, and three books on writing fiction. Her fiction has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Nancy’s work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, none of which she can read. She has taught writing SF at Clarion, at Taos Toolbox, in Beijing, and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Leipzig.
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Naomi Eselojor is a speculative fiction writer from Nigeria. She is a global talent migrant, endorsed by the Arts Council England for her contributions to Africanfuturism. She is the winner of the 2023 Utopian Award for short fiction and the Best Okereke Prize for short fiction. Naomi’s works are in and forthcoming at Afrofuturism anthology by Flame Tree Press, African Ghost Short Stories anthology by Flame Tree Press, 2022 Best of Utopian Science Fiction anthology by Android press, Omenana Magazine, Lolwe, Hexagon Magazine, Dark Matter Magazine, and elsewhere. A Nommo Award finalist, Naomi’s works have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Ako Caine Prize, and the Utopia Award. Naomi is an alum of Milford Writer’s Workshop, Authors Publish Novel Writing Workshop, and Voodoonauts fellowship. She served as a Spring mentor in 2024 and 2025 and is the senior editor of Ojuju magazine. She currently resides in United Kingdom.

Naomi Kritzer is a writer from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her fiction has won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Edgar Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. She has a spouse, two grown kids and three cats (the number of cats is subject to change without notice). You can find Naomi online at her website or on her Bluesky.
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Natalia Theodoridou has published over 100 short stories, most of them dark and queer, in magazines such as Strange Horizons, Uncanny, Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Nightmare, and F&SF, among others. He won the 2018 World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction and has been a finalist for the Nebula Award in the novelette and game writing categories. Natalia holds a doctorate in media and cultural studies from SOAS, University of London, and is a Clarion West and Tin House Writers’ Workshop graduate. He was born in Greece and has roots in Georgia, Russia, and Turkey. His debut novel, Sour Cherry, came out in April 2025 from Tin House and Wildfire.
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Natania Barron believes in monsters and hopes you do, too. The award-winning fantasy author of Queen of None, Natania Barron is preoccupied with mythology, monsters, mayhem, and magic. From medieval tales to Regency fantasy romance, her often historically inspired novels are lush with description and vibrant characters. Of her first novel, Pilgrim of the Sky, Library Journal wrote, “Barron’s debut is an sf adventure that mixes high action with exquisitely detailed depictions of everyday existence in these alternate worlds.” In 2021, Queen of None won the Manly Wade Wellman Award for speculative fiction. She is represented by Stacey Graham at 3 Seas Literary.
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Creator of the Cobalt City Universe, Nathan Crowder lives amongst the fog-shrouded pines of the great Pacific Northwest. He has a deep love for urban planning, architecture, and the “third place.”

Nathaniel Williams is the author of Gears and God: Technocratic Fiction, Faith, and Empire in Mark Twain’s America, a book about science fiction’s influence in the 19th-century U.S. His research has appeared in American Literature, The Cambridge History of Science Fiction, and elsewhere. His fiction has been published by Fantasy Magazine, Metaphorosis, and others. He’s working on a non-fiction book about Doc Savage and The Shadow.
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Neil Clarke is the multi-award-winning editor of Clarkesworld Magazine and over a dozen anthologies, including the Best Science Fiction of the Year series. He is a three-time winner of the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form, four-time winner of the Chesley Award for Best Art Director, and 2024 winner of the Locus Award for Best Editor. In 2019, Clarke received the SFWA Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award for distinguished contributions to the science fiction and fantasy community. He currently lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.
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Neil Ottenstein obtained a doctorate in theoretical nuclear physics in 1990 and since then has been working in flight dynamics for one of two NASA Goddard Space Flight Center contractors. He is currently the contractor flight dynamics lead for the magnetospheric multiscale (MMS) mission. He has been reading science fiction and fantasy most of his life, and he has been going to science fiction conventions since 1980 (and a couple of comic book conventions before that). Babylon 5 is his favorite television program.

Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas was born and raised in Mexico but now lives in the U.S. She is a graduate of the Clarion West class of 2019. Her short fiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Nightmare, Strange Horizons, the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology She Walks in Shadows, and elsewhere.
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Nicholas Binge is a bestselling author of speculative thrillers, science fiction, and horror. His novels include Professor Everywhere, Ascension, Dissolution, and Extremity. His work has been translated into eleven languages, nominated for a number of awards, and many of his novels are currently in development for TV and film. Binge has lived in Singapore, Switzerland, and Hong Kong and is currently based in Edinburgh, U.K.. When he’s not writing for himself, he also lectures in creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University and is a co-host of the Binge Reading Book Club podcast.
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My name is Nick Fraser, I’m a librarian living in Seattle, and a lifelong science fiction-fantasy fan (first Worldcon: Los Angeles 1984!). I am one part of Seattle Movie Geeks, an organization that showed films around Seattle (pre-pandemic).

Nicola Griffith, Ph.D., 2024 Inductee into the SFF Hall of Fame, is the author of nine novels, including Hild, Spear, and Ammonite. In addition to her fiction and nonfiction (New York Times, Guardian, Nature, New Scientist), she’s known for her data-driven 2015 work on bias in the literary ecosystem and as founder and co-host of #CripLit. Awards include a Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Tiptree awards, as well as two Washington State Book Awards and six Lambda Literary Awards. She’s married to writer Kelley Eskridge and lives in Seattle.
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Nicole Glover is the author of the historical fantasy series Murder & Magic, which begins with The Conductors. When she’s not writing, she’s working as a UX researcher, where her knowledge about murder and other mysteries is surprisingly useful.
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Nicole Kimberling is a novelist and the senior editor at Blind Eye Books. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award. Other works include the Bellingham Mystery series and an ongoing cooking column for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. She is also the creator and writer of Lauren Proves Magic is Real! a serial fiction podcast, which explores the day-to-day case files of Special Agent Keith Curry, supernatural food inspector.
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From playing the DM in Dungeons & Dragons to writing fantasy novels, Nikhil Prabala loves storytelling, delighting in fantasy fiction from the epic to the cozy and everywhere in between. The Duchess of Kokora is his first published novel. Born and raised in Austin, Texas, he graduated from Stanford in 2019 and is currently based in the Bay Area. In his free time he enjoys ballroom dancing, singing, playing the guitar, tabletop games, and spending time with friends and family. You can find him on socials as @nprabala.
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Nikki Rossignol McCoy is a Montana-based visual artist, poet, illustrator, and educator. She is a former ballet dancer who has turned her attention to creating fantasy, surrealism, and mythology-based works. She lives with her warlock husband, goblin daughter, and a menagerie of animal familiars.
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Nino Cipri is a queer and trans/nonbinary writer, editor, and educator. Nino’s fiction has been nominated for the Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy, Lambda, Nebula, and Hugo awards. A multidisciplinary artist, Nino has also written plays, screenplays, and radio features; performed as a dancer, actor, and puppeteer; and worked as a stagehand, bookseller, bike mechanic, and labor organizer. One time, an angry person on the internet called Nino a verbal terrorist, which was pretty funny. Their newest book is the YA Horror novel Dead Girls Don’t Dream.
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Nisi Shawl is the multiple award-winning author, coauthor, and editor of over a dozen books of speculative fiction and related nonfiction, including the standard text on diverse representation, Writing the Other: A Practical Approach. Shawl’s best known fiction is the Nebula Award finalist Everfair. Kinning (2024) is a sequel. Additional recent books include 2023 middle-grade historical fantasy Speculation, 2024 beat fantasy The Day and Night Books of Mardou Fox, and 2025 space opera Making Amends. They’ve spoken and taught at Duke University, Sarah Lawrence College, and elsewhere.
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Nkereuwem Albert’s short fiction and essays have featured in publications such as Omenana, Fusion Fragment, FIYAH Magazine, Will This Be a Problem Vector, and more, and has been awarded the Dream Foundry Prize for Emerging Writers. When he is not writing, he works as a dentist.
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A former journalist and award-winning photographer, Olav Rokne is a frequent Worldcon volunteer. He is a judge on the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History, sits on the WSFS Mark Protection Committee, and does a variety of other fannish stuff. Along with his wife, Amanda, he has been on the Hugo Award shortlist four times for their fanzine, An Awkwardly Named Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog.
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Oliver K. Langmead writes speculative fiction. His verse-novel, Calypso, has been shortlisted for a Hugo Award, and named one of the best science fiction books of 2024 by Esquire magazine and The Guardian. His previous novel, Glitterati, was shortlisted for a British Fantasy Award, and named one of New Scientist’s best science fiction books of 2022. He is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Lancaster, and in late 2018 he was the writer in residence at the European Space Agency’s European Astronaut Centre in Cologne.
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Olivia Kidula is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Will This Be A Problem? Kenya’s first SFFH journal. She is also the publisher and editorial director of Shilitza Publishing Group, an independent press based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is currently working on her first short horror film.
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Oluwafikayomi Adeniyi is an aspiring writer from Nigeria who's reluctantly studying industrial and production engineering at the University of Ibadan. he takes immense please in binge-watching TV shows and lurking around the web, when he's not playing around the borders of worldbuilding or slaving away at his department. He enjoys speculative fiction and wouldn't mind if people checked some of his published works in Isele Magazine, Akowdee Magazine, Flame Tree Press's African Ghost Short Stories anthology, and others.
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Oriana Leckert is the head of publishing at Kickstarter, where she helps creators bring a marvelous array of literary projects to life. She’s written and edited for Vice, MTV News, Slate, Hyperallergic, Gothamist, Atlas Obscura, and many more. Her first book, Brooklyn Spaces: 50 Hubs of Culture and Creativity (Monacelli, 2015), grew out of a multi-year project chronicling the rise and fall of under-the-radar creative places across New York City. Follow her at @orianabklyn on most social platforms.
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P. H. Low is a Rhysling- and Locus-nominated Malaysian American writer and poet whose debut novel, These Deathless Shores, is now out from Orbit Books (U.S.) and Angry Robot (U.K.). Their shorter work is published in Strange Horizons, Reactor, Fantasy Magazine, and Diabolical Plots, among others. P. H. can be found online at ph-low.com.
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P.L. Stuart was born in Toronto, Canada. He holds a university degree in English, specializing in medieval literature. P.L. is an assistant editor for Before We Go Blog. P.L. is the co-host of the BookTube series Page Chewing and the host of BookTube’s Six Elementals Interviews. His seven-book Drowned Kingdom Saga chronicles flawed and bigoted Prince Othrun’s journey towards change and his rise to power in a new world after the downfall of his homeland. His bestselling fantasy A Drowned Kingdom is mentioned in Kirkus Magazine’s 2021 indie issue as one of “Four Great Examples of the Genre” and won the 2022 Picky Bookworm Award for Best Indie Book Based on Mythology.
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Palmer has been writing fiction since she was eight. She received her Bachelor of Arts in American studies from Wesleyan University, with concentrations in religion and race relations. She currently works in Silicon Valley in the gaming industry and high tech. In addition, Palmer holds a certificate in Chinese acupressure, is a certified solar panel installer, and studied Tibetan Buddhism with the 14th Dalai Lama. She lives and writes in the magical redwood forest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, California.
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Internationally bestselling author Paolo Bacigalupi’s writing has won the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, John W. Campbell and Locus awards, as well as being a finalist for the National Book Award and winning the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. Paolo’s work often focuses on sustainability and climate change, though his latest book is Navola, an epic fantasy inspired by the history and politics of the Italian Renaissance. He can be found on his website.
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Pat is a long-time Norwescon member, starting with Norwescon 8 (1985). As a theater major, a friend asked her to come help the tech department, and she never left. Pat has held many positions over the years, including chair. She and husband Doug (who she met at Norwescon) ran the Norwescon art show together for over 10 years, and are avid collectors of antiques, art nouveau, vintage umbrellas, and of course science fiction art. A few years ago, Pat decided to try something new, hotel liaison. She remains passionate about Si/Fi art and even more so about Norwescon. Pat’s professional career has been varied, working in food service, the medical field (which she retired from), and 15 years for Wizards of the Coast, as a retail customer service specialist. She even claims that her years of working with Norwescon got her the job at Wizards of the Coast. Who better than a geek to work for a gaming company!

Patrick S. Tomlinson is a writer of sci-fi novels through Angry Robot Books and Tor Books. When not writing, he enjoys muscle cars, motorcycles, model building, lazy trips to the beach, and fighting the terrorist cult stalking his family for the last half decade. He lives with his wife and two cats in Milwaukee.
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Patrick Swenson is the author of The Ultra Long Goodbye, the third book in the Union of Worlds trilogy. He’s the author of the dark fantasy Rain Music, the editor and publisher of Fairwood Press, and a graduate of Clarion West. He’s sold short fiction to Unavowed, Unfettered III, Unbound II, Gunfight on Europa Station, Seasons Between Us, and others. He’s the director of the Rainforest Writers Village, a retreat in the PNW. He taught high school for 39 years and now spends his work time on the press and writing. Find him at his website.
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Paul A. Dixon is a science fiction and fantasy author by night and a product manager in the world of climate technology by day. His works include the novels Carpathians, Starfall, and Moonfall, as well as the short-story collection An Occurrence at Owlskirk. He lives on Vashon Island, Washington, with his wife, daughter, and a pair of poorly behaved cats.
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Paul Michael Winters is an author and avid reader of queer fiction, with the goal of spreading queer joy via his stories. He lives in Seattle with his husband and two tuxedo kitties. His debut novel, Together in a Broken World, is a queer post-apocalyptic love story. His latest novel, The Haunting Between Us, is a queer coming-of-age romance and ghost story. Both were instant Amazon #1 bestsellers in YA LBGTQ+ fiction. You can visit Paul on Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky @pmwintersauthor.

Dr. Paul Price has a doctorate in environmental toxicology and has worked for 40 years assessing risks from chemicals. He has 90+ technical publications. As a fan scholar, Dr. Price has presented papers on SF, anime, and manga at Anime Expo, Mecademia, The Eaton Conference, and the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts. He has presented at SF and anime conventions, including Chicon 8, Arisia, USA Anime, and Animazement. He has published two papers: one on isekai manga and a second publication on the hard SF anime Planetes.
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Paul is a lifelong fan of science-fiction and fantasy, and a lifelong American Baptist. Growing up he found the big questions asked in sci-fi and fantasy and in his faith were very important to him. He is an ordained pastor of American Baptist Churches USA and is doing doctoral work about the intersections of pop-culture, faith, and the church. In addition to this work, he is the founder and director of the Oasis Project which creates radically inclusive safer spaces for rest, recharge, and renewal at conferences, conventions, and festivals, including Seattle Worldcon 2025. Come find the Oasis Room at Worldcon After Dark!

Paul “Princejvstin” Weimer is not really a Prince of Amber. He is a photographer, gamer, and a SFF reviewer and podcaster. He lives in a city between St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota and continually dreams of SFF books and his next photographic adventure. His reviews, columns, and other genre work appear at Nerds of a Feather, The Skiffy and Fanty Show, File 770, and more. He can best be found on the internet everywhere under the name @princejvstin.
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Paz Pardo is the author of The Shamshine Blind, a Library Journal Top Ten SFF read of 2023 that Kim Stanley Robinson called “a deadpan hilarious allegory for our times… full of heart and sharp as a razor.” Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, CrimeReads, and LitHub (among others). She lives in Argentina.
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Ex-pat twice over, multi-year backpack dweller and traveler, and recovering IT manager, Peter is currently trying to make sense of the impacts climate change will have on urban societies in Southern Africa as a graduate student at UW’s Jackson School of International Studies.

A leading innovator in computer architecture, Peter Glaskowsky helped found, fund, and build x86 microprocessor startup Montalvo Systems. Until recently, he was a computer architect at Esperanto Technologies, a machine-learning semiconductor company in Silicon Valley. Now he’s looking for work! He is a co-inventor on 30 U.S. patents, has authored two books on computer graphics, co-authored two books on space elevators, and has been active in science fiction fandom for 50 years.
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Peter Orullian is the author of several novels, novellas, and short stories across various genres. He has been shortlisted for esteemed fiction prizes and hit multiple bestseller lists. He is a professional composer and musician who received the Private Eye Best Male Vocalist award. Orullian novelized multiple albums by Grammy Award-winning artist Dream Theater. He recently founded his own group, Symphony North. He is currently at work on Symphony North’s second album and its accompanying novel and is collaborating with #1 New York Times-bestseller Brandon Sanderson on a new fiction series that will feature music as a key component. You can visit Orullian at his website and Symphony North's.
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Petrea Mitchell is a lifelong fan of speculative fiction in all its forms. Her current fannish activities include Pathfinder and Starfinder Society games, watching a lot of anime, and a publishing a weekly newsletter about conventions, SMOF News.
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Pierre, with his wife, Sandy, has been costuming for over 40 years. He has won multiple awards, including four Worldcon Best of Shows. Pierre has judged many masquerades, including both F/SF and historical. He was the president of the International Costumers’ Guild for three years and currently serves as their parliamentarian and archivist. He was the co-chair of three Costume-Cons. He and Sandy were presented the ICG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000. They were fan guests of honor at the San Jose’s Worldcon 76 in 2018. Pierre is an independent author. The first five books of his Sodality Universe are currently available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other e-publishers.
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Plangdi Neple is a Nigerian speculative fiction writer. Plangdi’s work has appeared in several publications, including FIYAH, Baffling, Omenana, Translunar Travelers Lounge, Cast of Wonders, Flame Tree Press, Afterlives 2024: The Year’s Best Death Fiction, and others. He is a Voodoonauts 2024 fellow, a member of the Clarion West class of 2025, and a Brave New Weird Award winner. Find him at @plangdi_neple on X, @plangdineple.bsky.social on Bluesky, and plangdineple.wixsite.com/plangdi.
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Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, Locus, Ignyte, and Aurora Award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, British Fantasy, British Science Fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Crawford Awards. In 2024, she was the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence. She is the author of the Beneath the Rising series of novels as well as several novellas. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues and she can be found on her website at premeemohamed.com.
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A 2016 MBA graduate and published author, Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years and counting. Capstone published the Powered series, and Unnerving Press published Offstage Offerings. Priya lives in Miami, Florida, with her family.
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R. James Doyle (aka Richard J. Doyle) held technical and managerial roles at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) over a career arc spanning 40 years. He worked primarily at the interface of space exploration and computer science, with a focus on autonomous space systems. He holds a doctorate in computer science specializing in artificial intelligence from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a member of a JPL team that consulted on the Babylon 5 sci-fi TV series in the 1990s. He had the pleasure of visiting Sir Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka in the year 2001.
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R. Thursday (they/them) is an educator, writer, and all-around nerd. Their poetry and short stories revolve around monsters real and imagined. They live in South King County, Washington, with the world’s most copacetic cat.

R.S.A. is a Nebula and Sturgeon-Award winning writer of speculative fiction, and a Locus, Ignyte, and Eugie Foster Award finalist. Her Amazon bestselling science fiction mystery, Lex Talionis, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and the IPPY silver medal for best scifi/fantasy/horror ebook. She has published short fiction in venues such as Clarkesworld, Uncanny, The Sunday Morning Transport, Strange Horizons, and several anthologies. Her Locus and BSFA long-listed scifantasy The Nightward is out now. She lives in Trinidad and Tobago with an extended family and too many cats.
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R.W.W. Greene is a recovering journalist / teacher cum spec-fic writer with a lot on his mind. His latest, the First Planets duology from Angry Robot Books, is on the shelves now.

Rachael K. Jones grew up in various cities across Europe and North America, picked up (and mostly forgot) six languages, and acquired several degrees in the arts and sciences. Now she writes speculative fiction in Portland, Oregon. Rachael is a Eugie Award winner, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards. Her fiction has appeared in dozens of venues worldwide, including Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, and Amazon Prime’s hit series Secret Level. Follow her on Bluesky, or find her at her website.
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Rache found her way into fandom through friendship and discovered her tribe there, migrating from print zines and email lists to websites and AO3. In 2009, she was among the fans interviewed on NPR's “Vidders Talk Back to Their Pop-Culture Muses.” She was a founding member of Media Cannibals, and her vid, A Fannish Taxonomy of Hotness, has been discussed in Cinema Journal and showcased as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s Cut Up exhibit. As a fan historian, she has written articles, chaired Fanlore.org, and spoken at several conventions, including Norwescon, Escapade, and GeekGirlCon. She has been a member of the Organization for Transformative Works since its inception.
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Rachel A. Rosen is the author of Cascade and Blight, as well as the co-author, with Zilla Novikov, of The Sad Bastard Cookbook: Food You Can Make So You Don’t Die. More of her writing can be found in Beyond Human: Tales of the New Us, Instant Classic (That No One Will Read), The Dance, and Trollbreath Magazine. She co-hosts the Wizards & Spaceships podcast with David L. Clink and freelances as a book cover designer. For her sins, she is also a high school teacher. She lives in Tkaronto (Toronto), where she is the harried personal assistant to two cats.
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Rachel Sobel writes fantastical and realist fiction about dykes and other queer people. She is a cofounder of Homeward Books and teaches computer science and creative writing in Seattle.
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Ramez Naam is Prometheus and Philip K. Dick Award-winning author of the Nexus trilogy. He’s also the author of two non-fiction books about the future of humanity and the planet, a computer scientist, and an expert on the clean energy transition.
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Ramiro is a writer, translator and critic. His novels are yet unavailable in English translations, but among them the last ones are Un pianista de provincias (2023), Krautrock (2024) and Los acontecimientos (2025).
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Ramzan heads the media and communication department of the Senate (Parliament), Pakistan, but is currently on research leave to pursue his Ph.D. at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His dissertation, Analysis of Theoretical and Professional Perspectives on Political Communication related to the Government’s Pandemic Response during COVID-19 in Pakistan, hopes to suggest measures for future pandemic management strategies.

Randee is the bestselling author of the funny pop culture fantasy novel Tune in Tomorrow. She will have three novels out in 2025: The Only Song Worth Singing and Leave No Trace (ArcManor/Caezik) and We Interrupt This Program (Solaris Nova). A veteran entertainment journalist for the Los Angeles Times, Variety and Today.com, Randee lives in Brooklyn.
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Randy (he/him) is author of the humorous Finn Fancy fantasy trilogy from Tor (US)/ Titan (U.K.), the Writers of the Future 2014 Golden Pen Grand Prize winner, and Clarion West graduate. Other words that appear if you view his Matrix base code: neutral good, pan, TTRPG streamer, cat parent, and volunteer. Randy is always happy to talk about the craft of writing, and achieving a happy and successful creative life; feel free to stop him in the hallway or after a panel to chat.
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Rath Mercury writes horror, fantasy, romance, and science fiction, always queer. Mercury has published in Stance on Dance, DASH Literary Journal, Avatar Review, and Jersey Devil Press. They have also worked as a choreographer, marketing consultant, web developer, open-source leader, arts administrator, public speaker, and more. It’s been busy. Mercury lives in New Mexico. When not writing, they play tabletop games, struggle with classical guitar, and stare at nature.
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Award-winning speculative fiction author Raven (they/them) is best known for Amaskan’s Blood, Voices Carry, and Class-M Exile. They’re published in over a dozen anthologies and are even published on the moon! Besides being a writer and artist, they’re a disabled gamer geek who enjoys staring at the ocean. They live in the Seattle area with their wife, and their three kitties who enjoy lounging across the keyboard when writing deadlines approach. Their hair color changes as often as their bio does. You can find them at www.ravenoak.net.
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Ray is the author of the Locus Award-winning novel The Mountain in the Sea, which was named one of Esquire’s best science fiction books of all time, and been translated into more than a dozen languages. His novella, The Tusks of Extinction, is a 2025 Nebula and Hugo Award finalist. Ray was environment, science, technology, and health officer at the U.S. consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, and most recently served as international advisor to the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He’s also a diplomatic fellow and visiting scholar at the George Washington University’s Institute for International Science and Technology Policy. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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Rebecca (she/her) is an award-winning author, playwright, book designer, and writing instructor living in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and three muppets. Her short work has appeared alongside authors like Cat Rambo, and been dramatized for the stage and NPR. When not being held hostage by words, you can find her at her day job (supporting a legal aid firm), tending to her indoor jungle, crafting, sewing, playtesting tabletop role-playing games, and failing to teach her dogs new tricks. For more information on her work, please visit rebeccademarest.com.
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Rebecca is an author and archivist living in Boston, who has been publishing short and novella-length science fiction and fantasy since 2012. Rebecca’s debut novel, sci-fi rom-com Lady Eve’s Last Con, came out in 2024 and was named one of The New York Times’ best romance novels of the year. Rebecca also cohosts the Hugo-nominated podcast Eight Days of Diana Wynne Jones with Emily Tesh.
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Rebecca has been narrating audiobooks since 2014, and works out of her home studio in Seattle. She has degrees in drama and music from the University of Washington, more than 15 years of improv acting, and a lifetime of stage performing. She has lived on three continents and 10 cruise ships, where she picked up multiple languages and accents while working in various forms of entertainment. She loves bunnies, cats, coffee, tea, board games, and cozy vibes.
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Rebecca (she/her) is a literary agent and contract manager at Bradford Literary Agency, representing adult and YA SFF and romance. Rebecca has also practiced law for 10 years and currently works as legal counsel for the American National Standards Institute. She is happily queer and disabled, and lives in Brooklyn with her elderly Yorkie named Pike.
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Rebecca, often known as Tibicina around the internet, is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy, partially thanks to her grandmother's love of the genre. She found filk sometime in college, and eventually stumbled her way into fandom. She spent most of her life in Southern California with a brief stint in Minnesota for college, but now lives near Seattle where she continues to make music, play games, read, and do random arts and crafts as the fancy strikes her.

Rebecca is a New York Times-bestselling and Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning speculative fiction writer. Her work includes two novels in The Sixth World series, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, Race to the Sun for the Rick Riordan imprint, and the epic fantasy trilogy Between Earth and Sky. She was the guest editor of America’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy (2023) and a contributor to The New York Times “100 Best Books of the 21st Century.” She has also written for Marvel comics and games. Her television writing includes FX’s A Murder at the End of the World, and the Marvel series Echo for Disney+. She has had her own work optioned by Paramount, Amazon Studios, Netflix, and AMC Studios.
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Reed is the daughter of a Marine and hasn’t spent more than a few years in one place in her life. Her formative years, when not moving cross country and across oceans, were spent on horseback and handling birds of prey, and she’ll happily tell you more than you wanted to know about either. She draws, paints, dabbles in illuminated calligraphy, and is fascinated by pre-industrial handicrafts. Reed lives with her geneticist husband, precocious daughter, and a small menagerie of furred, scaled, and exoskeleton-ed critters.
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Remy is an author, activist and a compassionate productivity consultant. His stories can be found in Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and many anthologies. He is a graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, where he currently serves as a board member. He has a master of arts in genre writing. Remy grew up in Greece, Japan, and the San Francisco Bay Area, but now lives in Portland, Oregon, with his extremely stylish partner. He spends as much time as possible getting cold, wet, and muddy.

Remy Siu 蕭逸南 is a composer, new media artist, and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His work involves the construction of automated and variable performance apparatuses that spans chamber music, dance, theatre, installations, and audio-visual work. In 2020, he founded Sunset Visitor (斜陽過客), an independent video game studio focused on narrative experiences and bringing the experimental performing arts to interactive media. Their debut game, 1000xResist, was released in 2024 and has been nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
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Randy Smith has been in fandom for over 40 years. He has helped run conventions, written for fanzines, conducted book discussion groups, and collected fannish stuff. As an ordained United Methodist pastor, he has also conducted Christian worship services at conventions for over 30 years. He has participated in panel discussions on many different aspects of religion related to the SF world, as well as other topics such as social change, story-telling, comics, SF literature, and the history and culture of fandom. Randy is appointed to a congregation in San Jose, California. He always enjoys a good conversation!

R.Z. writes speculative fiction, including a space opera novella series and urban fantasy novels as Rhiannon Held. She lives near Portland, Oregon, where she works as an archaeologist for an environmental compliance firm and spoils her two timeshare cats.
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Ric is a technologist, trouble maker, and problem solver whose interests outstretch his available time by a significant magnitude. When adulting, he splits his time between attempting to raise the quality of the world’s business communications—particularly presenting—and his love of software design and development. The rest of the time he obsessively collects geek activities. Lately he’s been into pro and fan applications of e-communities and podcasting. He’s proud of the over 700 fan-oriented podcast episodes he produced and contributed to over the last two decades. When he has a moment, Ric reads books and comics, and plays analog board-, card-, and retro video games. He’s here to help people. It’s what he does.
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Rich is a software engineer for a major aerospace corporation by day. By night (ok, all day long!) he is an anthologist, editor, reviewer, essayist, and fan, primarily of science fiction. He has published more than 20 anthologies, and has written reviews and essays for F&SF, Black Gate, Journey Planet, and numerous other publications. He blogs about SF, Victoriana, and all sorts of fiction at rrhorton.blogspot.com

Rich was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir, as well as 250+ short stories. His fiction has been translated into more than a dozen languages, and adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of Love, Death & Robots. His latest book, Changelog, drops September 2025.
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Richard is a Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer and adjunct professor of instruction at Columbia College, Chicago. He’s also been nominated for the Hugo, Sturgeon, and Rhysling Awards. His work has appeared in many places, most notably in F&SF—often as the cover story. And he’s done a stint as book reviewer for Galaxy’s Edge magazine.
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Richard is a writer and publisher living in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and three boys. He is the author of several novels and numerous short stories. He is also the publisher and lead editor for Factor Four magazine, and has a weekly live writing stream on Twitch as “Flores Factor.” He likes to think that life fits around writing, but it is usually the opposite. When not reading or writing, Richard can be found watching movies, anime, and hockey, and is also an avid collector of trading card games.
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Richard is a tech geek, entrepreneur, an artist, and a Tai Chi teacher. He won the Best Fan Artist Hugo award in 2023 for his photo portrait project of science fiction and fantasy creators called “Worldbuilders of SF&F”.
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Born in England, Richard started out as a writer of plays, revues, and TV. Rowan Atkinson performed his “Schoolmaster” sketch in John Cleese’s The Secret Policeman’s Ball, which was nominated in The Guardian in January 2025 as number one in a list of Rowan’s top ten film appearances. In 1992, Richard moved with his family to Los Angeles, where his work really branched out, including writing libretti for operas composed by Lee Holdridge, directing Jack Black in Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and writing fantasy adventure novels. New Rock New Role was Richard’s fiction debut. New Rock New Realm (November 2024), continues the series. Learn more at richardsparks.com.
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An actor, director, and national award-winning costume designer, Richard Stephens has been working and playing in fandom for over 35 years now. “I love passing on what I have learned to young costumers. Hopefully they learn from my mistakes and what NOT to do!” In addition to being a full-time caregiver, Richard works for a variety of community causes and local theaters and schools.

Rick has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and has been a lifelong science geek. He has worked in the game industry as a game designer, and taught programming, math, AI, and physics. Now retired, he can often be found acting as cat furniture.

Riyan has worked in the realm of storage technology for over two decades, with more than 70 patented innovations in fields ranging from DNA storage to cutting-edge optical and magnetic storage technologies. Currently, he serves in the office of the chief technology officer at Seagate Technology, and as chair of the Twin Cities Magnetic Chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, where he champions the cause of innovation and collaboration within the tech community. Beyond his corporate contributions, Riyan is committed to the growth of future innovators, mentoring FIRST Robotics teams for over a decade, where his work not only pushes the boundaries of science and technology but also nurtures the next generation of engineers and scientists.
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RM is a speculative fiction writer and the editor of Vital: The Future of Healthcare. He is a Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association member, attended the Taos Toolbox writer’s workshop, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Stonecoast Creative Writing program. His short story, “Olive Branch,” appeared in Friends Journal’s 2024 annual fiction issue. He speaks three languages, has over two decades’ experience in web and software development, is a lifelong pacifist, and holds a black belt in Aikido.
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In 2007, Rob started showing his work at Norwescon and other conventions, including the Helsinki and Dublin Worldcons. He has been invited to be the artist guest of honor at Radcon, Dragonflight, Miscon, Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous, OryCon, Norwescon, and Philcon. Rob stays busy doing both self-directed and commercial projects and murals. He is currently the artist for the Twitch stream “Legacy of Fools”—a live actual-play D&D game—and the art director and primary artist for Beach House RPGs, which released Start Here: The Introductory RPG in 2024. This year, he is excited to be working on the Gamers: Dorkness Falls movie, coming soon!

Rob is a reader, writer, and reviewer. His first critique (age 4) was shouting to an entire drive-in that E.T. should die. He runs the semi-retired comics review site Panel Patter (panelpatter.com) and formerly reviewed comics and novels for Publisher’s Weekly. His most recent publications appear in the Baen anthology Weird World War China and Infradead 2024 from Hiraeth Publishing. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, writer Erica Satifka, and writer-in-waiting son Spencer.
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Rob is a jack of all trades, author, songwriter, theater artist, teacher, builder, bard. He has been praised by Readers’ Favorite for his dark, compelling characters in fast-paced, adrenaline-soaked prose. His Deserted Lands series’ bat-flu pandemic stories, eerily echoing COVID-19, have earned fans and awards since 2014. Analog calls his protagonist Lizzie “our anti-hero with a heart of gold, so compelling, she grabs you by the heart and pulls you along until it’s three in the morning,” and concluded, “The story’s over and you just want to read more.”
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Robert has been a professional s-f writer since 1955, and has won numerous Hugo and Nebula Awards. He was named a grand master by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association, and was guest of honor at the 1970 Worldcon in Heidelberg, Germany.
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Robin Hobb is a fantasy novelist best known for The Farseer trilogy, and subsequent books set in the Realm of the Elderlings. She is the recipient of the World Fantasy lifetime achievement award. She lives and works in Washington State. She also writes as Megan Lindholm.
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Robin lives happily with her husband and their out-of-control comic book collection in the Pacific Northwest She is the author of the urban fantasy series The Night, as well as The Cadence Turing Mysteries series. When not writing, Robin shares what she’s learned about writing in workshops both online and in person.
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Ron is a computer scientist, science fiction and fantasy fan, and self-published fantasy writer. Some of his earliest memories include watching Star Trek on weekday afternoons. After college, his love of D&D and other tabletop roleplaying games led him to science fiction fandom. He has worked on and run several conventions, and now shares his house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his wife—also a fan of SFF—four cats, over 300 robots, multiple lightsabers, more artwork than the walls can hold, several dragons, and assorted stuffed animals, not all of which are from this world. He also writes under the pseudonym Randall Fox.
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Roseanna Pendlebury is a London-based reviewer mainly interested in scifi and fantasy, but occasionally prone to dabble in historical and mythological fiction. She is currently an editor at Hugo and Ignyte award-winning fanzine Nerds of a Feather and columnist at the Ancillary Review of Books. When not reading, she can be found enjoying rugby, collecting too many crafting hobbies, or attempting to learn how to fight with a longsword.
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Rosemary’s “Apollo in Retrograde” won the Sidewise Award. Several of her stories were finalists for Analog magazine’s readers’ award. Look for her alternate histories, future romances, time-travel tales, dinosaur adventures, reworked mythologies, and horror stories in other magazines and anthologies. Her book reviews and editorials also appear in Analog. As a field archaeologist, she excavated ancient sites in the U.S. Her role-playing game is T-Rex Time Machine. Follow her socials @RCWordsmith or RCWordsmith.com.
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Rosemary Jones is the author of the Arkham Horror novels The Nightmare Quest of April May, Mask of Silver, The Deadly Grimoire, and The Bootlegger’s Dance. Her other works include Wrecker of Engines (Cobalt City), Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms novels Crypt of the Moaning Diamond and City of the Dead, and numerous novellas, short stories, and collaborations. She is an ardent collector of illustrated fiction, including the first 40 Oz books. Follow her adventures at rosemaryjones.com.
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Rowenna is the fantasy and historical fantasy author of the Unraveled Kingdom trilogy, The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill, and The Palace of Illusions, as well as short fiction. She is also a lecturer in English at Indiana University South Bend, and a fairly handy seamstress. She lives in Indiana with her husband, two daughters, four cats, and an ever-growing flock of chickens.
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Russ is a former national professor of the year in planetary science, author of the SF novel The Arasmith Certainty Principle (Chanticleer International Book Awards first place category winner), and co-author of the science education book Learning to Read the Earth and Sky (NSTA Press, 2016). When not teaching college students and fellow science teachers about planets and geology, he writes contemplative science fiction full of adventure, discovery, and a little romance, and gardens his seventeen-acre rural property.
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Russell is a serial information technology entrepreneur, retired Navy captain, adventurer, and writer. A technology business owner, electrical engineer, and nuclear submarine officer by training, he spent 30 years on active and reserve duty, with 18 years in command and seven years in senior staff commands. He studies and writes science fiction and alternate history, is an avid investor, and speaks at macroeconomic conferences. Russell has attended Norwescon for 20 years and was the military track lead for many of those years.

Ryan Cahill is the award-winning author of the bestselling epic fantasy series, The Bound and The Broken. Born and raised in Ireland, Ryan now resides amongst the rolling hills and hobbit holes of Middle-Earth, New Zealand. He does not own enough swords, would sell his left kidney for a dragon egg, and despises mushrooms in all their eldritch forms. There are three things Ryan has always told himself about writing. Write the books you want to read. Write the books that your younger self would be proud of you for reading. Make sure they have dragons.
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Ryan is an independent cameraman and editor living in Seattle. He has produced two dozen shorts, ranging from parodies to thrillers. He has shot every Let’s Make A Movie workshop since 2000, as well as three feature-length films. His work has been shown on the BBC, TLC, and at the Seattle International Film Festival. Last year he released a remastered, high-definition version of his 16mm 1984 Doctor Who fanfilm The Wrath of Eukor. He is married to Kate Waterous.
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Ryan’s recent work includes the non-fiction books How to Take Over the World and How to Invent Everything, the semi-fictional graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, and the so-far-fictional series Dinosaur Comics, Squirrel Girl, and Fantastic Four. He’s an internationally-recognized multiple-New-York-Times-bestselling author whose work has been translated into 16 different languages, and as a linguist, he’s very happy about that. He lives in Toronto, where he once messed up walking his dog so badly it made the news.
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S. A. (Austin) is a transmasculine author of romantic sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. He is the author of three novels—Peter Darling, Coffee Boy, and Caroline’s Heart—and runs the Speculation Postcard Club, a weird mail service delivering monthly sci-fi/fantasy stories. His recent work includes a worldbuilding workshop for Clarion West and publications in Strange Horizons and Your Body Is Not Your Body (Tenebrous Press). He lives in Seattle with his partner, Sara, and two weird cats.
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Sadie Hartmann, aka Mother Horror, is the co-owner of the monthly horror fiction subscription company Night Worms, and the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered from Page Street Publishing. Her second book, Feral & Hysterical: Mother Horror’s Ultimate Reading Guide to Dark and Disturbing Fiction will be released August 2025.
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Sagan is a Canadian writer, media artist, and organizer. Their multidisciplinary practice includes animation, video games, interactive installations, and speculative fiction. Their writing has appeared in places like Best Microfiction, Tales & Feathers, Apex magazine, and Lightspeed. Sagan is currently pursuing an Master of Fine Arts in design media arts at UCLA, exploring everything from queer giant robots and computational poetics to A.I. critique, and biomimcry technologies.
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Salinee is a speculative fiction writer and multimedia artist who lives in Washington D.C. and is drawn to outsider perspectives. A biracial, bisexual, diaspora writer, Sal often explores themes of identity, obsession, and alienation in her work. A gaming industry veteran, Sal has created narrative trailers for titles such as Skyrim, Fallout 4, Dishonored, and Minecraft. When not writing, she likes to paint, listen to records, and play in punk bands.
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