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Panel Suggestion Box Open for 2027

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Panel Suggestion Box for in-person WisCon 49  in 2027  OPEN (now through Halloween 2026)!

Submit those delightful panel ideas you got during this year’s WisCONline here!

SUGGESTION BOX

(Wait, I can suggest panels?!)
YES! WisCon is unusual in the way that we develop panel programming: collaboratively and democratically, among our attendees. Help WisCon reflect your feminist and inclusive values in the speculative fiction realm by sending an entry to the box:

  • Submit once for each idea, as many ideas as you want!
  • Share the link with friends and other feminist and speculative fiction spaces!

What’s next?
Once the Panels Interest Survey is published in November, you can use Your WisCon Account to fill it out and help decide which panels make it into the schedule and even offer to participate in ones you’re qualified for!

Sounds Fun! How can I Help?
If you’d like to help develop Panels programming, check out the Panels Team Member role description: https://wiscon.net/volunteer/concom/
This role will take 3-5 hours per week of editing in November and December with a break in late December. Then, you’ll spend time in January and February sending and answering emails to support the Panels co-Leads as they arrange the panels part of the schedule itself. For the rest of the year, there’s light email maintenance and a few meetings to coordinate. Email personnel@sf3.org by Halloween of this year to express interest!

Uncategorized, WisCONline2026

How to WisCon

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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

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2026 Panels Staffing Call

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UPDATE May 19, 2026: PANELS CLOSED! The Panels Team has now finalized the schedule! 
We need panelists and panel moderators!
On May 19, the WisCon Panels team will pare down the schedule based on what we have not been able to staff. That means, we need you to get the word out to all the cool people to come be part of this con and make it awesome.
Please email Panels@WisCon.sf3.org if you are able to participate! Also, get a Your WisCon Account so we can match you to your chosen panel!

We are particularly in need for people on the following:
    • Anarchist Tech (panelists and moderator needed) **This panel will be cut if we do not get at least one more volunteer**
    • How Not to Do Copaganda (panelists needed; attendees who have studied the topic with an ACAB focus only)
    • The Social Media Landscape: It’s Bleak! (panelists needed)
    • What SpecFic Says about Resistance and Mutual Aid (panelists needed)
    • You Got That Wrong (your expertise done wrong in fiction) (panelists needed)
    • Premee Mohamed: Queering the Apocalypse (panelist needed)
    • Horror in Color (additional fan panelist of color needed)
    • Fantasy ER (panelists with medical background needed)
    • Intro to Speculative Fiction in Translation (panelists needed)
    • GoH Panel: Climate Change & Climate Fiction (moderator role open)

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

Filled:

      • General Strike! (moderator & panelists who have studied the topic needed) FILLED! 
      • Where Are All the Asexual Voices (moderator needed; Ace-spectrum mod preferred) FILLED!
      • Stepladder Speculative Feminism (moderator needed, panelists optional) FILLED!
      • Liminal Spaces in Speculative Fiction (moderator needed) FILLED!
      • Gender Neutrality In Gendered Languages (panelists needed; speakers of languages with grammatical genders only) FILLED!
      • Androids and Cyborgs and Robots, Oh My! (science fiction vs. reality) (panelists needed) FILLED!
      • The Man Wants You to Drink the GenAI Kool-Aid (mod needed, panelists optional) FILLED!
      • Self-Publishing While Avoiding Kindle Unlimited (panelists neeeded) FILLED!
      • Writing and Publishing in a Post-Microsoft World (panelists needed) FILLED!
      • NEW Caremongering (panelists needed)
      • Gender Diversity in D&D (mod needed) FILLED!!
      • Darcie Little Badger: Multicultural Magic (panelists needed) FILLED!!
      • Bug/Insect Tropes in Speculative Fiction (mod needed) FILLED!!
      • Nested Storytelling (especially in GoH works; panelists needed) FILLED!!
      • NEW Our Dreaded TBR Piles (roundtable, mod only)  FILLED!!
      • NEW The Impact of Good Representation (disabled panelists, queer panelists, & panelists of color especially) FILLED!!
      • NEW Modes of Queerness in The Summer Hikaru Died (fan panelists) FILLED!
      • NEW My Favorite Book When I Was Twelve (how did it hold up?) (panelists) FILLED!
      • NEW Heated Rivalry and Other LGBTQI+ Sports Stories (queer fan panelists) FILLED!
      • NEW Wicked From Page to Stage to Screen (fan panelists of any version) FILLED!
      • Stand or Fall Together: Coop Games (can be roundtable, fan panelists optional) FILLED!!
      • Liminal Spaces in Speculative Fiction (compared to myth) (panelists needed) FILLED!
      • NEW Were the Luddites Right? (moderator needed) FILLED!

       

    • In Your WisCon Account, you may also sign up to be a general substitute in case others can’t be on panels. Go to Participant View and select Yes from the drop-down menu next to “Do you want to be a panelist and/or moderator?” on the landing page.This list is subject to change as some panelists join and other panelists’ schedules change. 
WisCONline2026

Panel Interest Survey Open

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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

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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!

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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/.

WisCONline 2025

Urgent Call for Panelists for WisCONline 2025

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WisCon has an urgent need for panelists.
On May 19, the WisCon Panels team will pare down the schedule based on what we have not been able to staff. That means, we need you to get the word out to all the cool people to come be part of this con and make it awesome.
Please email Panels@WisCon.sf3.org if you are able to participate!We are particularly in need for people on the following:

  • Wheel of Time needs a moderator
  • Does Baby Have Hat needs at least a moderator.
  • The Year Without Sunshine and Other Stories 
  • Imagining the Past, Divining the Future: The Works of Andrea Hairston 
  • Citizen Sleeper’s Personhood in Capitalism needs a moderator.
  • Not Another Race Panel
  • The Year in Trans SFF has a moderator but needs panelists.
  • Using Magical Realism to Build Collective Realities
  • The Wild World of Modern Agtech and Why Isn’t it Showing Up in Current SFF
  • Going Beyond Representation: Speculations on Creating Disabled Worldbuilding, 
  • Games We Love
  • Resistance Lessons From History needs a BIPOC panelist with historical knowledge or resistance participation.
  • Good News, Everyone
WisCONline 2025

WisCONline 2025 Registration is Live!

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Are you ready for WisCon 2025? Registration is now open here: https://wiscon2025.sched.com

Tickets for WisCon this year are “pay what you can” with a few suggested amounts available. However, you can truly pay whatever makes sense for you (no pressure or judgement!) including $0. To pay a different amount than the suggested options, contact registration@wiscon.net with the desired amount so we can issue you a code.

Please note that the schedule is not yet available but we will let you know as soon as it is.

As a reminder, WisCon takes place over May 23-26, 2025 and is online only this year (“WisCONline”). We can’t wait to see you there!

For any other questions, contact onlinecon@wiscon.net.

WisCONline 2025

WisCONline 2025 Dealers’ Room Applications

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If you’ve been a vendor at WisCon in the past, or intended to be a vendor this year, and are disappointed that it will be an online event, there’s good news for you. You can still be a virtual dealer on our Dealers’ Room page! Participation in this will be free, but you will need a website for us to feature. (WisCon cannot provide a payment platform for off-line businesses.)

We’re looking for about 40 vendors, which is roughly what we would have in a normal year. To sign up, please fill out our Google form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qRMwxRLxfg2mfzMr-5zhVqNp5hO3TLtv49LJ8OYHDIU/edit
The form will give us the 3 things we need from all participants. 1) We need your business name. 2) We need a short description of your business and what you are selling. (This is what will be displayed on the Vendors page.) 3) We need the link to your website.

We will take applicants on a first-come, first-serve basis. Applicants may apply between now and St Patrick’s day (3/17).

WisCONline 2025

WisCon 47 Guests of Honor — Naomi Kritzer & Andrea Hairston

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We are thrilled to introduce our Guests of Honor for WisCONline 2025!

Naomi Kritzer

Naomi Kritzer is a science fiction and fantasy writer from St. Paul, Minnesota. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, she is probably best known for her political blog, which provides deep-dive information on candidates in local political races. Outside of the Twin Cities, she is best known for her fiction, which 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 naomikritzer.com or on Bluesky as @naomikritzer.bsky.social.

Andrea Hairston

Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, poet, 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 when she was a young thing and has been a scientist, artiste, and hoodoo conjurer ever since. Novels: Archangels of Funk; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire, a Washington Post Best Book of 2022, Otherwise and Carl Brandon Award winner; Master of Poisons on the 2020 Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her short fiction appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future; New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color; Trouble the Waters; and Lightspeed Magazine. Plays and essays are collected in Lonely Stardust. Tor Publishing Group will publish Mindscape on August 5, 2025. Andrea bikes at night year-round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.

WisCONline 2025

2025 WisCon Town Hall

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WisCon will be holding a virtual town hall on February 19, 2025 from 7:00-8:00 pm Central.

WisCon town halls are a check-in with WisCon membership about the current state of WisCon, including our challenges and victories. This year, Chairs and members of the Board have a lot of changes to tell you about, as well!

All current and former WisCon attendees and volunteers welcome!

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ebg-kzqv-xyb
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 617-675-4444‬ PIN: ‪937 530 022 3950‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/ebg-kzqv-xyb?pin=9375300223950
WisCONline 2025

Volunteers Needed for WisCONline 2025: GoH Co-Lead, Apprentice Communications Chair

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Guest of Honor Co-Lead
Want to rub elbows with some of your favorite established authors? Sign on to coordinate communication and logistics for WisCon guests of honor! As Guest of Honor Co-Lead, you’ll make sure each guest has a place on the program and coordinate liaisons as needed. Learn more by contacting personnel@sf3.org (subject: GoH Lead).

Apprentice Communications Chair
Spread the word about WisCon! As Apprentice Communications Chair you’ll help the Communications Team transmit the latest WisCon news via its website, social media, and newsletters. To learn more, please contact personnel@sf3.org (subject: Apprentice Com Chair).

A feminist, diverse, inclusive science fiction and fantasy convention.