Otherwise Auction

  • contact: auction@wiscon.net

The Otherwise Auction is one of the premiere annual events for the Otherwise Literary Award — and it’s certainly one of the highlights of any convention that hosts it. WisCon has been proud to host the Otherwise Award Auction time and again over the years, and we’re delighted to welcome the auction back again this year.

WisCon members will be able to preview and submit bids for auction items at the Gathering on Friday. On Saturday night, the fun begins as the auction holds center stage right after the dinner break.

Otherwise Award Auction

This isn’t your everyday fundraiser. For more than twenty years, the Otherwise Award has offered you the rare, the beautiful, and the just plain weird. Books annotated by Alice Sheldon? Check. Chapbooks handmade by Ursula K. LeGuin? Check. Kangaroo scrotum? Check.

What will be on offer this year? Come and find out Saturday night and welcome Otherwise auctioneer Sumana Harihareswara for the perfect blend of laughs, rare items, and feminism.

How can I donate?

We would love donations of books, original art, jewelry, Space Babe memorabilia, and odd items that fit in with the Otherwise spirit. Please let us know what you are donating before the con, just fill out this form to do so. The sooner we know what wonderful things are coming our way, the better the auction will be.

We’d really love it if you could send donations ahead.  But if you can’t, we’ll have a donation station at the con on Thursday and Friday. We want to have all donations in hand by the Gathering, where prospective bidders get to see what’s what this year.

See the Auction FAQ at the Otherwise website for more details.

What can I do to help?

We need volunteers to lend a hand.If you’re interested, please email auction@otherwiseaward.org.

We need people to help catalog donations and put them into the auction database, to help out at the Gathering and at the Auction itself, and to help move items before and after the Gathering, and before and after the auction.

Of course, you can also help by bidding on items at the Gathering on Friday. Items without any bids may not make the cut for Saturday night’s live auction. (Only so many minutes in a programming slot…)

Otherwise Award Exhibit

The Otherwise auction items will be on display in the Gathering on Friday afternoon. Subsequently, items that are available for Direct Sale will be on display in the Art Show. Every dollar from Direct Sale and the Auction goes to supporting the Otherwise Award.