The clock is running down on your time to nominate a Guest of Honor for WisCon 45 in 2021!
We opened nominations back in May during WisCon 43, and you have until Tuesday, October 15, at 11:59pm Central Time to send in all your wildest dreams of who you’d like to see us spotlight.
Don’t talk yourself out of sending us your thoughts! It’s easy, and nominations for Guest of Honor can come from anyone. That means whether you’ve been to WisCon forty-one times, one time, or maybe you’ll come someday in the future, we want your nominees. As long as WisCon is important enough to you to send an email, your ideas are important to us.
Our Guests of Honor help shape and focus our programming, influencing our conversations at the convention and afterward, so we welcome nominees who have something to say about the world, science fiction, fantasy, and elements of inclusive intersectional feminism as described in WisCon’s Statement of Principles. Guests of Honor can be essayists, critics, artists, reviewers, fans, authors, musicians, scientists, performers, or none of the above, so long as you think they fit the bill.
To make a nomination (or ten, or more), send an email to gohnoms@wiscon.net. We’d love to hear your reasoning, but that’s not mandatory. We’ll make a list of all of the nominees on October 16, and the convention planning committee will take a series of votes then extend invitations to the top candidates. We’ll announce the WisCon 45 guests during WisCon 44 in 2020, and then this whole process will start again.
More questions about Guests of Honor and the whole process? We’ve got lots of details in a previous version of this blog post – just don’t forget that the dates have changed.
Happy nominating – we can’t wait to hear who you want to invite!
Our convention hotel is Madison’s wonderful Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club. We have a room block with special rates, which expires in April of 2019!
We are overjoyed to introduce our Guests of Honor for WisCon 42!
Saladin Ahmed
Saladin Ahmed (Photo by Al Bogdan).
Saladin Ahmed was born in Detroit. His novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon, was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. His poetry and short fiction have been widely anthologized, and his nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and Salon. He is currently writing “Black Bolt” for Marvel Comics.
Tananarive Due is a screenwriter and an award-winning novelist who teaches Afrofuturism at UCLA. She also teaches creative writing in the MFA program at Antioch University Los Angeles and for Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA). She was the former Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Spelman College. Due, an American Book Award winner and NAACP Image Award recipient, is the author of twelve novels and a civil rights memoir. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus and has been named to the Grio100 and Ebony Power 100. Her short story collection, Ghost Summer, won a British Fantasy Award and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In 2013, Due and her husband/collaborator Steven Barnes co-wrote a short film, “Danger Word”, based on their YA zombie novel Devil’s Wake, which they co-produced with director Luchina Fisher. Starring Frankie Faison (“The Wire,” “The Silence of the Lambs”) and Saoirse Scott, “Danger Word” was nominated for Best Narrative Short at the BronzeLens and Pan African film festivals.
From the moment we knew Kelly Sue was going to be one of WisCon 41’s Guests of Honor, we all started counting the days until until Memorial Day weekend 2017. And we knew late last winter so it’s been a long wait!
AT LAST, the wait is over for all of us. We are so excited to welcome you to WisCon 41 as we honor Kelly Sue DeConnick and celebrate her work!
About Kelly Sue
Kelly Sue DeConnick is best known for surprise hits like Carol Danvers’ rebranding as Captain Marvel and the Eisner-nominated mythological western, “Pretty Deadly”; the latter was co-created with artist Emma Ríos. DeConnick’s most recent venture, the sci-fi kidney-punch called “Bitch Planet”, co-created with Valentine De Landro, launched to rave reviews in December 2014. DeConnick lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, Matt Fraction, and their two children. Under their company Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, Inc., DeConnick and Fraction are currently developing television for NBC/Universal.
Following and Friendship: Social Media Etiquette for Fans
Saturday, 10–11:29am
Capitol A
When our faves share their thoughts and give us a peek into their personal lives, it’s enticing to engage as much as possible, but when we’re one of their thousands of followers and they’re likely to receive several notifications at once, where should we draw the line? As creators and creatives, the tenuous balance between being approachable and setting boundaries can take a huge emotional toll on us. How do we encourage fan interaction while holding a reasonable amount of space for ourselves to exist as humans? This panel will explore the nuances of being an inclusive, friendly internet community while still being respectful of the privacy and dignity of people with large public platforms.
Kaffeeklatsch and Guest of Honor Reading
Saturday, 4–5:29pm
Assembly
Guest of Honor Kelly Sue DeConnick reads from her work and chats with her fans over snacks and coffee.
> Attendance may be limited: Please check with the Registration desk to see if there is a sign-up sheet.
Comics Are for Everybody (with Comic Matchmaking)
Sunday, 2:30–3:59pm
Wisconsin
The lack of access to local comic shops and fandom culture of exclusion can make it hard for people to feel like there are comics out there “for them”. Comics Are for Everybody is all about proving that there is a comic for every taste.The panel will start by highlighting some lesser known comics and creators for the room, then to do some highly interactive matchmaking. Audience members will name a beloved genre/author/movie/etc. and the group will come up with suggestions for comic books they might not have read, the more under-the-radar the better. Web comics, self-published comics, and manga of course would be welcome (and encouraged).
Guest of Honor Speeches (and Tiptree Ceremony)
Sunday, 8:30–10pm
Capitol/Wisconsin
This Guest of Honor event is the high point of WisCon programming; it’s the formal event at which we honor our guests and listen to what they have to say to us. In the past, we’ve heard rallying calls to political action, humorous anecdotes, scholarly treatises, exposes, autobiographies, earthshaking ideas, and passionate and lyrical speeches. For instance, Pat Murphy initiated the Tiptree Award as part of her 1991 Guest of Honor speech at WisCon 15.
Word is when we asked Amal to be one of our Guests of Honor, she read the email three times to make sure it was real. When she accepted? We pinched ourselves to make sure we were really awake.
This is definitely the best reality, because it’s finally time — We are so thrilled to welcome you to WisCon 41 as we honor Amal El-Mohtar and celebrate her work!
About Amal
Amal El-Mohtar has received the Locus Award, been ais(!) a Nebula Award winner for her short fiction, and has won the Rhysling Award for poetry three times. She is the author of The Honey Month, a collection of poetry and prose written to the taste of twenty-eight different kinds of honey, and contributes criticism to NPR Books and the LA Times. Her fiction has most recently appeared in Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, Uncanny Magazine, and The Starlit Wood anthologyfrom Saga Press. She divides her time and heart between Ottawa and Glasgow. Find her online at amalelmohtar.com, or on Twitter @tithenai.
Amal El-Mohtar has a history of collaborating with likeminded souls, from editing a poetry zine to performing with a troupe of writer/musicians to co-writing fiction and beyond. How is it possible to discover fellow travelers and co conspirators across space and time(zones)? What are the benefits of such long distance collaborations, and how do different kinds of collaborative projects come together?
Music & Miscellania
Friday, 9–10:29 pm
Michelangelo’s
Come and enjoy a musical extravaganza concocted by bewitching sensations Amal El-Mohtar and C.S.E. Cooney. Their repertoire includes singing, musical instruments of undisclosed types, moderate mayhem and poetry.
Direct Payment and the Creator/Fan Dynamic
Saturday, 10–11:29 am
Caucus
We’re interested in examining, through a feminist lens, the economics around SFF for writers and creators. With many emerging artists asking for support online through sites like Patreon, writers have more income avenues than ever. How does a direct connection between artist and supporter change the power dynamic? Does this give marginalized creators more direct access to the people they want to reach? Does the ability of working class folks to support the creators they admire change when writers seek funds individually? What do artists end up owing their patrons, supporters, Kickstarter backers, or universities that provide graduate student stipends?
Dance Apocalyptic: Dystopian Fiction and Media In a Dystopian Age
Saturday, 1–2:29 pm
Capitol A
What is the function of dystopian media in a dystopian world? When fans (and academics) talk about the functions and roles of dystopian stories, it is often assumed that they are worse than the world that the storytellers live in. What about worlds where this isn’t true, or might not be true for very long? Does how we react emotionally to these stories change? Has their function changed? What do we learn from these forms of media?
Guest of Honor Reading
Saturday, 2:30–3:59 pm
Assembly
Consuming Media
Saturday, 4–5:29 pm
Conference 2
“Geek” seems to be increasingly defined as a form of material “consumption”. We no longer “watch, read, play” but rather “consume”. How does materialism define geek culture, and how doesn’t it? Is it possible — or desirable — to separate geek culture from materialism?
Borders, Boundaries and Liminal Spaces
Sunday, 10–11:29 am
Capitol B
Politics has us talking about borders constantly. Not just geopolitical borders but also ones around gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and language. We examine and re-examine how they affect feminist discourse and intersectionality, as Gloria Anzaldua did in her semi-autobiographical book on Mexican and Latinx culture, Borderlands / La Frontera. How do our notions of gender, race, and orientation shift? What kinds of liminal spaces and identities exist for people who regularly cross borders (geographical and otherwise)?
Tastes of Honey with Amal El-Mohtar
Sunday, 1–2:29 pm
Room 627
In The Honey Month, WisCon Guest of Honor Amal El-Mohtar uses the taste of different varieties of honey as gateways into stories, poetry and more. This honey tasting will allow attendees to enjoy a variety of honeys and get a sense of some of the flavors which inspired The Honey Month.
> Attendance may be limited due to room size: Please check with the Registration desk to see if there is a sign-up sheet.
Comics Are for Everybody (with Comic Matchmaking)
Sunday, 2:30–3:59 pm
Wisconsin
The lack of access to local comic shops and fandom culture of exclusion can make it hard for people to feel like there are comics out there “for them”. Comics Are for Everybody is all about proving that there is a comic for every taste.The panel will start by highlighting some lesser known comics and creators for the room, then to do some highly interactive matchmaking. Audience members will name a beloved genre/author/movie/etc. and the group will come up with suggestions for comic books they might not have read, the more under-the-radar the better. Web comics, self-published comics, and manga of course would be welcome (and encouraged).
THE SECOND REBOOT OF THE REMAKE OF THE SEQUEL OF THE NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL
Sunday, 4–5:29 pm
Wisconsin
The ninth installment of this popular and amazing panel! Writers of color working in F/SF face unique challenges, it’s true. But, at the end of the day, being a “person of color” is only one aspect of what makes up our identities as writers. While it’s very flattering to be asked to be on panels, most of these panels never crack the ceiling of Race 101. With that in mind, wouldn’t it be nice for multiple writers and fans of color to sit on a panel that isn’t about race at all? Here’s our chance to do just that. So, what are we gonna talk about, instead? Practically anything! Presented in game show format, SIX SEASON SERIES BASED ON THE THREE-PART TRILOGY BASED ON THE SINGLE BOOK OF THE NOT ANOTHER F*CKING RACE PANEL brings together writers and fans of color to get their geek on about any number of pop culture topics — none of them race related.
Guest of Honor Speeches (and Tiptree Ceremony)
Sunday, 8:30–10pm
Capitol/Wisconsin
This Guest of Honor event is the high point of WisCon programming; it’s the formal event at which we honor our guests and listen to what they have to say to us. In the past, we’ve heard rallying calls to political action, humorous anecdotes, scholarly treatises, exposes, autobiographies, earthshaking ideas, and passionate and lyrical speeches. For instance, Pat Murphy initiated the Tiptree Award as part of her 1991 Guest of Honor speech at WisCon 15.
WisCon 42 is a year-and-a-half away — which means NOW is the time to let us know who you’d like to see as a Guest of Honor in 2018.
Nominations for WisCon GoH come from our community. We want to hear from those of you who attend WisCon regularly and those of you who can only make it now and then. We want to hear from our volunteers and our concom members. Hey, even if you’ve never been to WisCon but you’ve been kind of wanting to come, let us know who you’d love to see as a GoH at your very first WisCon.
Nominations opened during WisCon weekend earlier this year, and they’re still open right now — but they close at the end of the week: Friday, Nov. 4, at 11:59pm Central Time
What does a Guest of Honor do?
Our Guests of Honor are part of WisCon programming all weekend long. There will be panels and discussions about their work. Each GoH gives a few readings — one during our unofficial kick-off on Thursday night at Room of One’s Own and another some time during the convention weekend. On Monday during the SignOut, they’ll be available to sign things for you. And, most prominently, on Sunday night our Guests of Honor in turn honor us with a keynote speech.
Who can I nominate?
WisCon has tended to have Guests of Honor who are writers of novels and other fiction, but we’ve also honored editors as well as individuals who are significant in the fan community in some way. For the upcoming WisCon 41 (in 2017), our Guests of Honor are Amal El-Mohtar, a poet, fiction writer, and prominent critic, and Kelly Sue DeConnick, comic book writer known for “Bitch Planet” and for her run on “Captain Marvel.” We’d also be delighted to receive nominations for artists, game writers or developers, musicians, and so on. The pool is as wide as you want to make it!
The most important thing to remember is that WisCon is a feminist convention — a Guest of Honor should be someone who upholds WisCon’s Statement of Principles in some way — and our feminism is intersectional, encouraging discussions not just about gender but also around race, class, disability, and many other axes oppression.
How do I nominate?
Send an email to: gohnoms@wiscon.net. Let us know the names of those whom you wish to nominate, and include a short paragraph about why you think they’re a good fit for WisCon and would make a great Guest of Honor. If you could provide a link to their website or to a Wikipedia page, that would be helpful.
(Please send your nominations via email only. Our nomination process is confidential — we do not ever release the names of individuals who have been nominated.)
What happens next?
In the next few months, WisCon’s convention-planning committee — the concom — will review the nominations, discuss them, and, in a series of voting, winnow the pool down to just a few people to whom we’d like to extend an invitation. Out of this process emerge the two Guests of Honor that we’ll announce for WisCon 42 at the conclusion to our Sunday evening ceremonies during the upcoming convention in 2017.
Saturday, May 28th, Nalo Hopkinson will be at the PM Press Booth from 2:30 – 3:30pm to sign her book Report From Planet Midnight.
Published in 2012, Hopkinson’s Report From Planet Midnight takes on sexism and racism in the publishing industry. Also included isher short stories Message In A Bottle, a time travel story with a twist, Shift, an erotic adventure, and PM Press’ Outspoken Interview with the author.
Nalo Hopkinson is the author of Falling in Love With Hominids, Midnight Robber, and Brown Girl in the Ring. She is a recipient of the John W. Campbell Award, the Andre Norton Award, a two-time recipient of the Sunburst Award for the Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the World Fantasy Award. She is also WisCon’s 40 Guest of Honor.
Breaking down the genre walls to open up conversations of race and ethnicity in SF and Fantasy, we’re honored to have Nalo Hopkinson at WisCon! Make sure to head over to the PM Press Booth on Saturday and get your own signed copy of Report From Planet Midnight!
Sofia Samatar is the author of the novels A Stranger in Olondria (2013) and The Winged Histories (2016), both published by Small Beer Press. She is the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, the William L. Crawford Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, and Locus Awards. She co-edits the journal Interfictions and teaches in the English program at California State University Channel Islands, where her interests include African and Arabic literature, Afrofuturism, and speculative fiction.
Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier is an Australian–American author of seven novels. Her next, My Sister Rosa, is about a seventeen-year-old boy whose ten-year-old sister is a psychopath. It publishes in February by Allen and Unwin in Australia/New Zealand and in November 2016 by Soho Press in North America. Her previous novel is the award-winning Razorhurst. Justine lives in Sydney, Australia, where she gardens, boxes, and watches too much cricket, and sometimes in New York City, where there’s far too much going on for any of that.
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson (photo: David Findlay, 2011)
Nalo Hopkinson, born in Jamaica, is the author of eight books of fiction and a chapbook, the editor/co-editor of four fiction anthologies, and a fiction co-editor for the Lightspeed special edition “People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction.” She is a recipient of the John W. Campbell Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Andre Norton Award, and a two-time recipient of the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Her novel Midnight Robber received Honorable Mention in Cuba’s Casa de las Americas prize for literature written in Creole. “Falling in Love With Hominids,” her second collection of short stories, appeared from Tachyon Publications in 2015. She is a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California Riverside, where she is part of a research cluster in science fiction which founded UCR’s programme in Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies. She is currently working on “Blackheart Man,” a fantastical alternate history set in an imagined Caribbean, and (with artist John Jennings) on “Nancy Jack,” a graphic novel. She has been a juror for the Tiptree Award, and was a WisCon Guest of Honour in 2002.
Past GOHes posing at WisCon 30. (Photo courtesy of Jeanne Gomoll, GOH at WisCon 24.)
Do you have a favorite author whose books you love chatting up to family, friends, and people on the bus? Would you enjoy a weekend of discussions about their work? The chance to have them sign your copies of their books? Consider nominating that author to be a Guest of Honor at WisCon!
Oh yes, we’re still deep in planning for WisCon 40. But planning for WisCon 41 starts now — and even though 2017 seems very far off, we would love for you to submit suggestions for Guests of Honor for WisCon 41.
Nominating is as easy as sending an email to gohnoms@wiscon.net with the person’s name and a few sentences about why you think they’re a good fit for WisCon. What makes someone a good fit? Review our Statement of Principles to get a sense of what WisCon is about. Also check out our list of previous Guests of Honor to see who we’ve invited in the past.
Don’t be shy! Maybe you’ve been a Guest of Honor yourself and now would like to see someone else so honored. Or perhaps you’ve never attended a WisCon, but you know just the person who would be the perfect fit as a Guest of Honor. Everyone is welcome to submit a nomination!
