Author Guest of Honor:Â Kij Johnson
Since her first sale in 1987, Kij Johnson has sold dozens of short stories to markets including Amazing Stories, Analog, Asimov's, Duelist Magazine, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Realms of Fantasy. She won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for the best short story of 1994 for her novelette in Asimov's, "Fox Magic." In 2001, she won the International Association for the Fantastic in the Art's Crawford Award for best new fantasy novelist of the year.
Her short story "The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change" was on the final ballot for the 2007 Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award, and it was a nominee for the Sturgeon and Hugo awards. In 2009, she won the World Fantasy for "26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss," which was also a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula. She won the 2010 Nebula for "Spar," the 2011 Nebula for "Ponies" (also a finalist for the Hugo and World Fantasy). In 2012, she won both the Nebula and Hugo for "The Man Who Bridged The Mist" ...
Kij Johnson is a writer of short stories, novels and occasional other things. Her first sale was in 1987 to a small Minnesota magazine, Tales of the Unanticipated; since then she has sold more than fifty shorter works of fiction, as well as poems, nonfiction, and game materials. Her books include The Fox Woman (Tor, 1999); Fudoki (Tor, 2003, a finalist for the World Fantasy Award); the short story collection At the Mouth of the River of Bees (Small Beer Press, 2012, a finalist for the World Fantasy Award); The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe (Tor.com, 2016, winner of the World Fantasy Award); and The River Bank, a sequel to Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (Small Beer Press, 2017). There was also a Star Trek: The Next Generation book with bestseller Greg Cox, Dragon's Honor.
She is a three-time winner of the Nebula Award (2010, 2011, and 2012), and the World Fantasy Award (2009, 2017, and 2019), and a winner of the Hugo Award (2012), as well as winning the French Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (2017), the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award (1992); the Crawford Award (1999); and others Her short stories include the award-winners "Fox Magic," "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss," "Spar," "Ponies," "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," and "The Privilege of the Happy Ending." She’s been translated into seventeen languages, and her work has been optioned for Hollywood twice.
Here's a good list of her fiction that is available online, some here on this website, some not so much.
In the past, she's had all the cool jobs: managing editor for Tor Books, Collections and Graphic Novels Editor for Dark Horse Comics, Continuity Director and Creative Director for various worlds at Wizards of the Coast/TSR, a subject matter expert for Microsoft, and a manager for user educations groups in several tech companies.
Currently, she lives in Lawrence Kansas with a cat, Jurat.
Website: kijjohnson.com
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kijjohnson
Artist Guest of Honor:Â Sara Felix
Sara Felix is a Hugo award winning mixed media artist who creates with inks, acrylics, resin and sometimes clay. She also is an editor for the Hugo winning fanzine Journey Planet and has been also Hugo nominated for her work for the past few years. One of the covers she painted for Journey Planet won a FAAN award (Fanzine Activity Achievement Award. She has designed two Hugo bases, one with Vincent Villafranca in 2018 and one on her own in 2016. She has created 4 of the Lodestar awards since it started in 2018 as well, Sara is also the president of ASFA, the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, who give out the Chesley award. Her design work has been a part of many conventions including the logo and other pieces of art for Glasgow 2024, the 2026 LA Worldcon bid and the 2025 Eastercon.
Every week Sara creates a tiara for "Tiara Tuesdays" and has been doing this since the beginning of the pandemic. She has created over 200 tiaras for the weekly project and other commissions. With Glasgow 2024 she has made four giveaway tiaras corresponding to the Worldcons leading up to 2024. She shows her work on social media especially the facebook group Concellation with over 40k members.  Â
In her misspent youth she was on a number of shows on HGTV related to crafting including Crafters Coast to Coast where she did two segments on one of the episodes.
Website: www.sarafelix.com/wp/
facebook/instagram/twitter/bluesky: @sillysarasue
Toastmaster Guest of Honor:Â Sam Schrant
I have lived in Nebraska all my life. I grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek: TNG with my dad. Then begin reading sci-fi books as got older. Then started going to con when in 2004 with WillyCon being my first at Wayne State College.
At Wayne State College joined the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Club where I became vice president and president. This is where I got back into reading and watching more TV and movies.
I still live in Wayne, Nebraska where I enjoy life watching sci-fi movies and TV shows. I also still go to sci-fi cons as much as I can trying to support Nebraska ones. It is where I have met many friends.