Category Archives: WisCONline2026

Uncategorized, WisCONline2026

How to WisCon

Leave a comment

Wiscon 48 round sticker featuring Rachel Quinlan's artwork The Gatherer - a mysterious figure with a staff, lantern, and a bulging sack of intriguing items on their backThere’s a lot of moving parts, but here’s your list of resources for participating in 2026’s Online-Only WisCon 48.

First, REGISTER!

CODE OF CONDUCT and STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES
Please familiarize yourself..

SIGN UPS/ASSIGNMENTS
Once you’re registered, you should be able to log in by clicking ‘YOUR WISCON ACCOUNT’ on the upper left of the main website navigation menu. There, you’ll be able to see what panels or programs you’re volunteering on.

four bookworms of different colors having an animated discussion at a table

SCHEDULE 
This is public. You don’t have to be logged in to see it. Review what programs you might want to attend and plan out your weekend. NOTE All times are in CST. (If any of the pages say EST, they’re lying.). Always check at the beginning of the day in case there are last-minute changes.

ZOOM & DISCORD
This is where you’ll participate in the programming. All registered attendees should receive an email shortly before the con begins (was emailed 5/21 a.m.) with links to the rooms, as well as an invite to this year’s Discord server. Please be sure to check your spam folder if the email does not appear in your inbox.  Reach out to registration@wiscon.net if you’re unable to find it.

CART (real-time captioning) will be provided for Zoom Rooms 1, 2, and 3 unless otherwise noted. Zoom Rooms 4, 5, and 6 and some specific programming will have automatic captioning enabled.

YOUTUBE Note that many of the programming sessions will be recorded and available for 1 week as unlisted videos. So if you can’t get to a program, you can view it later.

HOW ZOOM WORKS  – A general guide to getting started. All the programming will be in the Zoom Rooms.

DISCORD at WISCON
All WisCon attendees will have access to the main WisCon 2026 Discord server.

  • You may request access to safer space servers in the #safer-spaces-access channel.
  • Check out #first-time-at-wiscon channel if you’re new (and WELCOME!). Meet other new attendees and ask questions.
  • There’s also a different channel for each event, so be sure to log in for side conversations, real-time reactions, posted resources, answers to questions, etc.

VOLUNTEER
Volunteering is a great way to get involved with the WisCon community, make friends, and learn what makes the con happen! We’re especially in need of Zoom Production Assistants and Discord Moderators.  

If you’re interested in taking a shift or two during the con, contact onlinecon@wiscon.net.  

For post-con volunteering and helping us make WisCon happen in 2027, check out Volunteering, or email personnel@sf3.org,

Additional Channels and Spontaneous Events

If you would like to request a Discord channel for a specific topic, you can do so in the #suggest-a-channel channel!

You can also request a spontaneous event (for example, a chat on a certain topic) over Zoom by pinging @moderator. 

Spontaneous events will not be moderated or in any way supervised by WisCon volunteers. Think of it as the virtual equivalent of meeting up with others in the hotel lobby for a chat. By requesting a spontaneous event, you accept all responsibility to follow the WisCon Code of Conduct and report any issues by pinging @moderator, @admin, or @safety in Discord. 

Need help?

Contact chairs@wiscon.net

WisCONline2026

Panel Interest Survey Open

Leave a comment

Register now to enter responses in the WisCon 48 Panel Interest Survey! From AI to resistance in speculative fiction to Heated Rivalry’s impact on fandom, we have topics you won’t want to miss!

Is this where I sign up to be on panels, to Moderate panels, or just say which panels I’d like to Attend?
Yes! We do all three in one survey.
One way to do it is look at each subject and mark anything interesting as ones you want to attend, and, if there’s one you have Thoughts on, then mark it as one you want to be in. For those you get to fill in any experience I have on the topic, which helps us build balance panels. Finally, if there’s one you definitely don’t want to miss, then you could mark it as one you want to moderate. (There will be panel moderator training this year, so even if you’re a beginner we’ll give you a good start!)
How do I get to the survey?

This survey is available by going to http://wiscon.net and logging into your Wiscon account in the top left corner of the page, then click on Interest Survey along the top.If you don’t have an account or your password, then go to Forgot Password at https://program.wiscon.net/ForgotPassword.php
to create a new account or password!

How do I submit a manuscript to participate in a Workshop Critique Session?
You can submit a manuscript until May 1st this year. For more information on submission guidelines and how critique sessions operate, visit http://wiscon.net/programming/workshops/.

How do I read my work or make an academic presentation?
To read your work at WisCon, please email readings@wiscon.net
Keep an eye out here for more information about academic presentations!

What’s next?
We will close the Interest Survey on April 19th. After that point, you can sign up to be a substitute panelist or moderator.
Behind the scenes:

  1. The Panels Team will determine which panels “make the cut” aka have enough interest, panelists, and a moderator. (We may recruit additional panelists or moderators for particularly popular panels, starting with substitutes who have signed up by then.) Next,
  2. we will try to fit our list of panels into WisCon’s schedule as well as the schedules of each and every panelist and moderator. (We like to call this 4-dimensional tetris. It’s fun but challenging work!) Then
  3. we’ll confirm with the panelists and moderators, and finally
  4. we’ll rearrange the schedule again, to accommodate any substitute panelists’ schedules. (Even more 4-D tetris!)
With luck and plenty of willing panelists and moderators, we can post the panel schedule by May 1st!
Official Announcements, WisCONline2026

WisCon 48 Guests of Honor — Darcie Little Badger & Premee Mohamed

Leave a comment

We are thrilled to introduce our Guests of Honor for WisCONline 2026!

Darcie Little Badger

Alt-text for picture if you can do it in WordPress: Purple and yellow background with the WisCon logo and picture of a person with chic red-colored hair wearing a black t-shirt. Text is "INTRODUCING OUR GUEST OF HONOR, Darcie Little Badger. Join us! Memorial Day Weekend, May 22-25, 2026. WisCon Online! WisCon.net

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 2nd novel, a Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, and Ignyte Award, and a Newberry Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. Her 3rd book, Sheine Lende, is a prequel to Elatsoe and was a USA Today bestseller and Lodestar award winner. Darcie is married to a veterinarian named Taran.

Premee Mohamed
Purple ground with Wiscon logo and picture of dark-haired woman wearing blue and black. Text: Introducing our next guest of honor PREMEE MOHAMED, a Nebula, World Fatasy, Ignyte, Locus and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author. Hugo, British Fantasy, & Ursula K. Le Guin Finalist. Author of "The Butcher of the Forest." 2024 Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence. Crawford Award finalist. Wiscon.net
Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, 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, Locus, British Fantasy, British Science Fiction, 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.
Official Announcements, WisCONline2026

WisCon is officially on(line) for 2026!

Leave a comment

Thanks to the efforts of volunteers, we are officially staffed enough to commit to WisCONline in 2026!

We intend to have WisCon 2026 over the customary Memorial Day weekend, May 21-25, 2026.  GoH announcements are coming soon! We can’t wait to share more with you about what lies ahead for 2026.

We’re also excited to announce that we’re planning to have WisCon in person again in the Concourse Hotel in Madison in 2027! If you’re interested in making that happen, consider volunteering with us.

You can find current open roles here: http://wiscon.net/volunteer/concom/
The volunteer page will be continuously updated as we prepare for both upcoming WisCons.

Want to support the future of WisCon? Donations are always open at http://wiscon.net/donate/.