WisCon 41

Friday Morning Critique Sessions

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Marianne Kirby
Workshops

Finding someone who understands your genre is priceless — that’s why WisCon Workshops is proud to offer Friday morning critique sessions for writers seeking feedback on short and long-form fiction. We are so pleased to announce the facilitators for this year’s sessions and we hope you’re as excited as we are.

Aren’t sure if the critique sessions are for you? Check out more information on our WisCon Workshops page. Or check out our other offerings via the blog’s WisCon Workshops tag!

Aren’t sure who some of our facilitators are? No worries – check out their websites (linked above) and their bios below.

To sign up for a critique session

  • Register for WisCon!
  • Prepare your manuscript (10k or less – more instructions on the WisCon Workshop page!) — complete instructions are on the critique sessions submission guidelines page.
  • Choose your workshop facilitator preference (if you have one).
  • Email all of that to workshop@wiscon.net
  • Deadline:  April 25, 2017, 11:59pm Central Time

If you have any questions, email workshop@wiscon.net ASAP!

Each critique session is capped at four participants plus the facilitator and is first come, first served.

Schedule

  • Friday, 9am – noon

Our awesome facilitators

Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All the Birds in the Sky (Tor 2017). She is a raconteur, a bon vivant, a wild and perilous soul. She is always willing to be a bad influence for a good cause.

Eugene Fischer is a writer from Austin, Texas whose work has won the James Tiptree Jr. Award, won place for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and has been nominated for the Nebula Award. He is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, and has an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. While at Iowa he created and taught the course “Writing and Reading Science Fiction,” the university’s first undergraduate course for genre fiction writing. In addition to his teaching at the University of Iowa, he has run workshops at Armadillocon and led a science fiction writing summer camp for children. He is currently serving as a member of the Tiptree Award jury for 2017.

Mikki Kendall is a writer, diversity consultant, and occasional feminist who talks a lot about intersectionality, policing, gender, sexual assault, and other current events. Her nonfiction can be found at outlets like the Washington Post, Ebony, Essence, Bustle, and more. Her fiction has been published through Revelator magazine and Torquere Press. Her comics work can be found in the Swords of Sorrow anthology, the Princeless charity anthology, and in the CCAD anthology of 2016. She is working on an independent project to be announced later this year.

Marianne Kirby is the author of Dust Bath Revival (Curiosity Quills 2016), book one of the Feral Seasons trilogy. She writes about bodies both real and imagined and plays in the liminal space between vanishing and visibility. Marianne is a long-time writer, editor, and activist; her nonfiction has been published by the Guardian, xoJane, the Daily Dot, Bitch, and others. She is at least semi-professionally fat.

David D. Levine is the author of the novel Arabella of Mars (Tor 2016) and over fifty 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. Levine’s stories have appeared in Asivmov’s, Analog, F&SF, on Tor.com, and in numerous Year’s Best anthologies, as well as his award-winning collection Space Magic.

David J. Schwartz (he/she/him/her) is a Nebula-nominated novelist, essayist, and short story writer who has attended the Odyssey workshop and the Sycamore Hill workshop. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with his partner and so. Many. Books.

JoSelle Vanderhooft is a dramaturg and something of a lapsed playwright. She works as a freelance journalist, poet, and fiction writer. Her work has appeared in print and online in such venues as Aofie’s Kiss, Byrarium, Cabinet des Fees, Jabberwocky, Not One of Us, MYTHIC, Mythic Delirium, Reflections Edge, Star*Line, and many others. To date, she has published seven books of poetry. Her first novel, The Tale of the Miller’s Daughter, was released in 2006. She has edited several anthologies, including Sleeping Beauty, Indeed (a book of lesbian fairytales) and Bitten By Moonlight (a book of lesbian werewolf stories).

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Concom Opportunity — PWD Safer Space lead

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WisCon Chairs
SF3 Personnel Committee

We’re looking for someone to run our Safer Space for people with disabilities as the prior lead may not be able to make it to WisCon this year. This is, of course, a role that’s reserved for a person with a disability.

The lead is responsible for the key to the room and determines the setup for the room. They will also have control over a small budget that they are free to use for refreshments, supplies, or whatever they determine is necessary for the space.

To fill this role you do not need to be local to Madison, but should be planning to attend WisCon 41. We particularly welcome volunteers from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized identities.

The PWD Safer Space lead is part of the WisCon Concom and is automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of the registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends.

If you are interested in joining our Registration team, please email: recruitment@wiscon.net

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Concom Opportunity — Registration co-lead and table captains

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WisCon Chairs
SF3 Personnel Committee

WisCon’s Registration desk is the information hub of the convention, greeting every member as they arrive, selling and handing out name tags and dessert tickets, and answering questions. Registration is a vital space that’s open every day of the convention — it’s where lost & found is, where you can sign up to volunteer at the Art Show or Con Suite or anywhere else that needs a hand at the last minute, and where members go when they have questions.

Registration is a great place to contribute time to help WisCon go smoothly, especially if you love knowing things and meeting people.

We are looking for someone to join the Registration team as co-lead for WisCon 41 — a role that’s part of the Concom.  We’re also looking for folks willing to learn the Registration interface (it’s easy, don’t worry!) who can serve as table captains during short shifts throughout the convention.

To fill these roles you do not need to be local to Madison, but should be planning to attend WisCon 41. We particularly welcome volunteers from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized identities.

The Registration co-lead is part of the WisCon Concom and is automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of the registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends.  The table captains are not part of the Concom, but as volunteers are of course eligible for the membership rebate.

If you are interested in joining our Registration team, please email: recruitment@wiscon.net

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Concom Opportunity — Hotel Liaison team

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WisCon Chairs
SF3 Personnel Committee

WisCon’s Hotel Liaison team works throughout the convention with the amazing staff of the Madison Concourse Hotel to ensure that every one of the ballrooms, conference rooms, and meeting rooms in the hotel is correctly set up for each of the 240+ programming sessions throughout the weekend, coordinates banquet orders for any events that include food or beverage service, responds to member inquiries about hotel availability, and monitors the status of WisCon’s room block to ensure that sufficient rooms are available in the hotel.

The Hotel Liaison team gets a crash course in the nuts and bolts of large-scale events, but with the safety net of working within a 41-year-old convention with a relationship with the hotel that’s lasted more than three decades.

To fill this role you do not need to be local to Madison, but should be planning to attend WisCon 41. We particularly welcome volunteers from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized identities.

The Hotel Liaison team is part of the WisCon Concom and is automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of the registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends.

If you are interested in joining our Hotel Liaison team, please email: recruitment@wiscon.net

WisCon 41

Funding the Fund — $6,000 fundraising goal for the Member Assistance Fund

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SF3 Fundraising Committee
& the Member Assistance Fund

The snow is melting in Madison, Wisconsin. The ground is mud, mottled with hard-packed ice, under a patina of exhaust residue. The lakes are still frozen over, but their surfaces are puddled, treacherous. We’re beginning to remember that one day, leaves will grow. That the wind isn’t always unwelcome. That it’s time, finally, to… donate to the WisCon Member Assistance Fund!

What’s the WMAF, you ask? It’s a fund established to assist people attend WisCon by alleviating some or all of the costs incurred by attending. 2016 was the biggest year yet for the WMAF. The donations you gave totaled almost $11,000, from a combination of individual donors and matching donors. We are so grateful for the generosity shown, and our con was much richer for the presence of members who received those funds.

Let’s do it all over again! We’ve set an initial fundraising goal of $6,000 by Friday, March 3. Your donations are tax-deductible, and there’s nothing like giving the gift of WisCon.

Donate to the WMAF when you register for WisCon, anytime on the Fund’s webpage, or using the buttons below. And if you’d like to offer matching donations, reach out to us by writing to fundraising@sf3.org. We’d love to hear from you!

One-time Donation: WisCon Member Assistance Fund




Recurring Donation: WisCon Member Assistance Fund









How often would you like your gift to recur?
Enter your donation amount












WisCon 41

Nominate someone for the Member Assistance Fund — closes Feb. 28

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WisCon Member Assistance Fund

Memorial Day weekend can be the best and worst time of year. The best time if you’re in Madison for WisCon. And the worst if — you’re not.

Listen, we know that getting to WisCon is not economically feasible for everyone. That’s why we have our Member Assistance Fund. Maybe you need gas money, or a plane ticket, or a hotel room, or even just dogsitting. We might be able to help.

The Fund is pretty simple — we have a small pool of money and we disburse it to people who need a little assist in getting to WisCon. All you have to do is write us a short email nominating someone. The details are on this page. We’ve tried to keep is as low-key as possible.

And, yes, we absolutely encourage you to nominate yourself. Because you know who we’d love to see at WisCon? YOU.

There’s one more week to nominate people — the deadline is Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 11:59pm Central Time. We’ll let nominees know if funding is available for them before the Programming survey closes on March 13.

WisCon 41

OPEN CALL FOR GAMES, Game Masters, and Gaming volunteers! Deadline — April 1!

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SarahTops & Phredd
Gaming

WisCon Gaming is looking for board and card games, game facilitators, and gaming volunteers for WisCon 41! On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, from 8pm to midnight, we will host board, storytelling, and role-playing games open to attendees. We are enthused to offer an alternative way to enjoy WisCon evenings in a (sometimes) quieter, more intimate setting… over dice and cards! Interested in playing with us? Read on.

Board and Card Games

WisCon provides several board and card games for attendees, but we also welcome attendees to bring new games to share!

Are you bringing a game you’d like to keep with you, but run at WisCon? Please fill out our online form with details of your proposal. If you’d like your game to be advertised on WisCon’s published schedule, submit the form before our April 1st deadline. Alternately, you are welcome to hang out in our board gaming space and run pick-up games at your leisure. The board gaming space will be located in the Dealers’ Room Lobby on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights from 8pm to midnight.

Are you bringing a game you’re offering to leave with Gaming through the course of the convention, for others to play at the public Gaming Space? Please email us at gaming@wiscon.net and provide a description of the game. We will take the best care we can with your game, but there is always risk in loaning games to a public gathering. We will be in touch to arrange logistics for the lending process.

Do you have a game you’d like to donate to WisCon? Please email us at gaming@wiscon.net. To make sure we have the storage space to accept your offering, please provide dimensions of the box or book, as well as the game’s condition. We are especially interested in family-friendly, kid-friendly games to round out our collection!

Do you have a game you’d like to see at WisCon? Please email us at gaming@wiscon.net and share a description of the game, how to find it, and if you’d like to play or run it should a copy be found. We are happy to put a call out for specific games attendees request.

Popular games tend to be those with simpler mechanics or rules and those that take one hour or less. Especially popular are family-friendly games, and we highly encourage all-ages game-playing in our public gaming space. Get in touch to share your ideas!

Game Masters and RPGs

WisCon is looking for people who want to run storytelling and role-playing games! Please fill out our online form if you’d like to run a tabletop RPG or LARP. To help us reserve space for your game, please submit your proposal before our April 1st deadline. (But do feel free to get in touch after; we may be able to cast a Location Spell.) Most games would run in 1-, 2-, and 4-hour time slots between the hours of 8pm and midnight on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, and we are open to discussing alternatives.

WisCon is especially interested in games that fit well within the convention’s themes (e.g., feminism, identity politics, and social and cultural theory). Rules that are familiar or easy for new players to learn tend to be the most successful. We look forward to hearing more about your adventures!

Gaming Volunteers

WisCon needs Gaming volunteers! If you’d like to volunteer in the public Gaming Space greeting attendees and/or running games, or help with Gaming before the convention, please get in touch with gaming@wiscon.net.

Stay tuned for games we will be offering at WisCon 41, to be announced in April!

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Panel Sign-Up and Interest Survey Is Open!!! Deadline to Submit Survey — March 13

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Programming

Panel Surveys are open until March 13. Now’s the chance to give YOUR feedback on what panels will run during WisCon 41. The survey is a big part on how programming is decided every year! If you want to more about how panel programming, please view this post for a quick overview.

WisCon programming is divided into separate tracks which group related concepts together in order to facilitate interesting and complex discussions. The current list of tracks are below:

  • Feminism and Other Social Change Movements
  • Power, Privilege, and Oppression
  • Spirituality, Organized Religion and Politics
  • Science and Technology
  • The Craft and Business of Writing
  • Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing Science Fiction
  • Fandom as a Way of Life
  • Gaming

You will need to a WisCon account in order to view the survey. If you don’t have an account, create one at the Create Your Account page. For those with an account already created, go to Log in to My Account page.

Once you’re logged into your account, you can choose your panel interests on the panel sign up and attendance interest form!

For your convenience, we also provide a full list of proposed panel items. You may wish to open this link in a separate tab or window for ease of reference.

Questions/Concerns/Feedback can be sent to program@wiscon.info.

Thank you for your continued attendance, feedback, and support of WisCon as we finalize programming for this year.

WisCon 41

Wiscon 41 Art Show Call For Artists!

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Art Show

Applications for this year’s WisCon Art Show are open until February 28th.

The WisCon Art Show focuses on art exploring themes related to SF and feminism/social justice, work by women, and work by Midwestern artists. We’re interested in seeing work in any medium. In addition to painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and jewelry, past shows have also included comics, fiber art, glass, art dolls, and ceramics, among others.

This will be our second year in a larger space on the first floor of the con, with room for more artists and more art!

We prefer and encourage that artists in the show also attend the con, but mailing in art is an option if you are comfortable with us hanging and handling your work. The Art Show operates like a gallery or store — you set the prices for your work and customers can purchase it during the show’s open hours (Saturday through Monday during the con). WisCon takes a 4% commission on all sales (8% for mail-in art).

Our artists page has more information and the application. Completed applications (including images of your work or a link to a website with images) must be submitted online by Tuesday, Feb. 28 (11:59pm Central Time).  Artists will be notified of acceptance in mid-March.

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Con Suite — Seeking staff & at-con volunteers

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WisCon Co-Chairs

Did you visit the Con Suite last year? Do you want to see WisCon’s Con Suite continue to be a place where people choose to eat and spend time?

Then we need you!

But there’s a catch.

Our intent is to specifically address the racist and misogynist abuse toward Con Suite staff and volunteers that we saw at last year’s con, so we are putting emphasis on recruiting Con Suite staff and volunteers who are white and male identified.*

What’s the difference between being Con Suite staff and a Con Suite volunteer?

Just a matter of scope and commitment.

Staff become part of our Concom prior to the convention, comprise a team under our Con Suite leads, are required to go through ServSafe training and certification (fees paid by WisCon) and to help to guide the work of volunteers, and will be asked to commit to a minimum of two three-hour shifts during the convention. Tasks will include setting and resetting the Con Suite space, preparing and portioning foods, maintaining and monitoring inventory, helping to order supplies, and unpacking and repacking equipment, among other things.

Volunteers are encouraged to go through ServSafe training and certification (fees paid by WisCon) though it isn’t required, must follow guidance from Con Suite staff and leads, don’t need to commit to any minimum number of hours, and are not part of the Concom. You can let us know that you intend to volunteer to help out in the Con Suite now or at any point before or during the convention. Tasks will include keeping the Con Suite clean and ready for visitors, directing foot traffic, assuring that everyone in the space is wearing shoes, helping staff to portion and set out food, helping staff to reset the space between mealtimes, and other things.

What will you get out of stepping up to become Con Suite staff, or volunteering?

The most crucial reward will be that we will continue to have a Con Suite where you will enjoy spending time and eating! We’ve had wonderful feedback — and very very high demand — for the Con Suite over the past two years. That means that the WisCon community loved what our Con Suite lead, Julia, created so much that she is no longer able to keep up with it. As a community we need to make sure that she and her successors lead a team that is both large enough that no one has to spend the entire convention working and capable enough that they can all rely on each other.

If pride in a popular Con Suite isn’t the reward you’re looking for, we’ve got more! All staff are automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of your registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends. Volunteering? You can get the same rebate deal as long as you volunteer at least six hours and ask the Con Suite lead to confirm those hours (ask how at the Registration Desk!).

To apply to join Con Suite staff, contact: recruitment@wiscon.net

To let us know you plan to volunteer in the Con Suite, contact: volunteers@wiscon.net

*Wait! You aren’t male identified, or you aren’t white, and you want to join the Con Suite team? Fantastic! We want to have you on the team as well, and we’ll work with you to make sure that your Con Suite experience is a good one. We are optimistic that we will not see a repeat of the poor behavior toward the Con Suite team last year, but we also assure you that behavior is a violation of our Code of Conduct, and will not be tolerated if we see it again.

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Concom opportunity — Dealers’ Room lead

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WisCon Co-Chairs

The WisCon Dealers’ Room is a marketplace of books, toys, posters, artwork, magazines, cards, jewelry, and all sorts of other science fiction and fantasy related merchandise as well as items relevant to explorations of feminism, gender, race, class, and disability.

We are looking for someone to step into the role of lead for the Dealers’ Room for WisCon 41, as part of the Concom. To fill this role you do not need to be local to Madison, but should be planning to attend WisCon 41. We particularly welcome volunteers from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized identities.

The Dealers’ Room Lead role involves some planning prior to the convention, doable in a few hours a month during March, April, and May. During that time, you would review applications from vendors as they come in, determine the final list of vendors from the applications you receive, and maintain a waitlist if necessary. The Dealers’ Room lead is also responsible for answering questions from potential vendors, assigning them tables, and confirming that all table fees and memberships have been processed by the payment deadline.

During the convention, the lead also needs to be on hand while vendors are loading in to the space (Friday 10am-2pm), as well as for opening and closing the Dealers’ Room space every day, for checking in throughout opening hours, and for being on hand as vendors load out from the space on Monday (after 2pm).

The Dealers’ Room lead is part of the WisCon Concom and is automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of the registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends.

If you are interested in joining the concom as the Dealers’ Room lead, please contact recruitment@wiscon.net

WisCon 41

WisCon 41 Concom opportunity — Gathering lead

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WisCon Co-Chairs

For people new to WisCon, the Gathering is their very first look at what WisCon is like — and for folks who have been to WisCon before, it’s a welcome time to find people they haven’t seen in a year, to catch up, and to relax with one of the diversions that the Gathering has to offer!

Those experiences make the Gathering, the official start of the convention, an important event at every WisCon. A defining event, just as much as our Opening Ceremonies.

WisCon is a feminist convention, and we believe that means not just “diversity,” but inclusion and centering marginalized identities, including identities around race, gender, class, and ability. The Gathering must reflect that as well.

We are currently seeking a lead for the WisCon 41 Gathering. The Gathering lead is part of the WisCon Concom and is automatically eligible to opt for a WisCon membership rebate of 40% of the registration fee, meaning that if you register for WisCon as an adult, you can opt to receive $20 of your $50 membership back after the con ends.

You need not be local to Madison, but should be planning to attend WisCon 41. In particular, we are seeking applicants from traditionally underrepresented or marginalized identities.

Your role will include some planning prior to the convention, doable in a few hours a month during March, April, and May. You will determine what activities will be held from the applications you receive, communicate with the people running those activities, and solicit other activities as necessary. During the convention you will be on hand when the Gathering space is set up Friday morning and will be present during the event itself.

To apply to be Gathering lead, contact recruitment@wiscon.net