Interaction Program Participant Biographies

S-Z

Steve Saffel

Steve Saffel's first job was for an independent wholesaler and involved stripping covers from magazines and books. He segued to the cheerier environment of an independent bookstore, then to the American Red Cross. He joined Marvel Comics in 1983, then moved to Del Rey in 1995, where he is an Editorial Director. He edits science fiction and fantasy, alternate histories, and horror, from authors like Amber Benson, John Birmingham, Eric Flint, David Gemmell, Christopher Golden, Howard Hendrix, Greg Keyes, John Shirley, and Harry Turtledove. He also edits media tie-in projects ranging from Xbox to Star Wars to Spider-Man.

Don Sakers

Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he became an SF writer. Born a US Navy brat in Japan, he also lived in Scotland, Hawaii, and California before his family settled in Maryland. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs. Don currently lives in suburban Baltimore with his legal-in-Canada-and-Vermont spouse, costumer Thomas G. Atkinson. In his career as writer and editor, Don has given voice to sapient trees, brought Carmen Miranda's ghost to Space Station Three, and beaten the “Cold Equations” scenario. His books include The Leaves of October (a finalist for the Compton Crook Award), Dance for the Ivory Madonna (a Spectrum Award finalist), and The SF Book of Days.

Andy Sawyer

I am the librarian of the Science Fiction Foundation Collection at the University of Liverpool Library, and Course Director of the MA in Science Fiction Studies offered by the School of English. I've been in fandom since the '70s, when I was lured into editing the BSFA's Matrix. I've published critical essays on children/young adult SF, John Wyndham, Telepathy, Babylon 5, Reverse-Time Narratives, and Terry Pratchett, and reviewed endlessly. I co-edited the collection Speaking Science Fiction (Liverpool University Press, 2000), I am Reviews Editor of Foundation and am Advisory Editor of the forthcoming Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (Greenwood Press).

Sam Scheiner

Sam Scheiner is a scientist and fan who has been attending Worldcons and participating in programs longer than he cares to admit. He is the author of over 50 scientific papers and four books in the fields of ecology, evolution, and statistics. He also co-authored a book with SF writer Phyllis Eisenstein on arthritis and the wonders of the vitamin pantothenic acid. Currently he is working at the National Science Foundation giving away lots of money so that people can do cool stuff.

Stanley Schmidt

Stanley Schmidt has contributed numerous stories and articles to original anthologies, edited several anthologies, and published five novels, the non-fiction book Aliens and Alien Societies: A Writer's Guide to Creating Extraterrestrial Life-Forms, and hundreds of Analog editorials, 35 of them collected in Which Way to the Future? As editor of Analog, he has been nominated 26 times for the Hugo Award for Best Professional editor. He was Guest of Honor at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore, and has been a Nebula and Hugo Award nominee for his fiction. 

Karl Schroeder

Karl Schroeder writes science fiction that subverts the standard tropes of a post-singularity world. His widely acclaimed novels include Ventus and Permanence and this summer's Lady of Mazes. An award-winning short story writer as well, Karl's hard science fiction has just been published in a collection entitled The Engine of Recall. His next novel, Sun of Suns, will appear in serialized form starting this fall. In addition to writing fiction, Karl consults on futurist issues and also co-wrote The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction with Cory Doctorow.

Mike Scott

Mike Scott is a member of the multiply Hugo nominated Plokta Cabal who are assimilating Interaction. Resistance is useless.

Pamela Scoville

Pamela D. Scoville is the Director and co-founder of the Animation Art Guild and one of the world's leading experts in appraising animation art. Through the Pamela D. Scoville Literary Agency she represents a small select stable of authors. She has won, along with John Grant and Elizabeth Humphrey, a 2004 Hugo for The Chesley Awards: A Retrospective. She is married to Paul Barnett (aka John Grant) and they make their home in New Jersey with their four cats.

Shelly Shapiro

Shelly Shapiro is Editorial Director of Del Rey Books. She is currently in charge of Del Rey's Star Wars fiction program, working with authors such as Troy Denning, Karen Traviss, Aaron Allston, Timothy Zahn, and James Luceno. Other authors she edits include Elizabeth Moon, Greg Bear, Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey, Tara K. Harper, Rosemary Kirstein, and Robert Newcomb.

Delia Sherman

Delia Sherman is a writer and editor living in New York, NY. Her short stories have appeared most recently in the Viking young adult anthologies The Green Man and Faery Reel. Her novels are Through a Brazen Mirror and The Porcelain Dove (which won the Mythopoeic Award), and, with fellow-fantasist and partner Ellen Kushner, The Fall of the Kings. She has co-edited anthologies with Ellen Kushner and Terri Windling, and is working on an anthology of Interstitial Fiction with Theodora Goss. She is a founding member of the Interstitial Arts Foundation board. She prefers cafes to home for writing (they bring you things to eat and the phone's never for you) and traveling to staying home. 

Joe Siclari

Joe Siclari has been an SF fan since 1965. He's published over 100 fanzines and worked on about 200 conventions, including more than 20 Worldcons. He's also chaired 20 conventions (only one of which was a Worldcon) and worked in every area from programming to hotel relations.  Feeling a deep need for more conventions, Joe founded Tropicon, the Traveling Fête, and was co-founder of SMOFcon and FanHistoricon. Joe has been Fan Guest of Honor at a number of conventions including Loscon, Minicon and DeepSouthCon. Joe chaired the 50th World Science Fiction Convention, MagiCon, and is/was a Division Head for several others.  Joe also nucleates. He founded the South Florida Science Fiction Society (SFSFS) and the Coral Springs Science Fiction League, Social Drinking Society, and Traveling Fan Variety Show, a more recreational fan organization (ahem!). In college he started the Tallahassee Mad Gang. Joe's current obsession is fannish history; he runs the FANAC Fan History Project putting fanhistorical material on the internet.  It's not a new obsession -- Joe wrote a fanhistory for The Science Fiction Reference Book, published Harry Warner, Jr.'s history of 1950's fandom A Wealth of Fable, and produced a new edition of Warner's All Our Yesterdays for NESFA Press. He is co-founder of Timebinders, a group dedicated to preserving our fannish history. His own fanzines include FanHistorica, unterHelios, The Complete Quandry and other fanhistorical publications. Motto: "When it stops being fun, stop doing it."

Robert Silverberg

Robert Silverberg has been a prolific SF writer for the past fifty years. Among his best-known books are Lord Valentine's Castle, Dying Inside, and Nightwings. His most recent book is Roma Eterna (Gollancz and Harper Eos). He is a many-times winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, was Guest of Honor at the 1970 World SF Convention in Heidelberg, and in 2004 received the Grand Master award of the Science Fiction Writers of America. 

Amy Sisson

Amy Sisson is a writer, reviewer, and academic librarian who recently moved to Houston, Texas, with her NASA husband Paul Abell. Her most recent publications include "gray's boadicea: unlikely patron saints, no. 4" in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and "The Law of Averages" in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VII. She is a member of the Clarion West class of 2000 and currently edits the Clarion West alumni newsletter.  More information:

Martin Sketchley

Martin Sketchley grew up in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He began writing behind a market stall at the beginning of the 1990s, and sold his first short story in 1994. Having worked in retail and then catalogue publishing he is now a freelance writer and editor. He lives in Birmingham with his wife, Rosaleen, and their two children. His first novel The Affinity Trap was published in February 2004, and his second The Destiny Mask was published in April 2005. US imprint Pyr will publish The Affinity Trap in September 2005. 

Ken Slater

Born 1917, I've have read F&SF for something like 80 years, and built three magazine collections which were almost completed: in 1939 -- went for war salvage; 1950 -- went for personal survival and to support O.F.; and 1960 -- decided I could no longer be bothered. I have retained a few personal signed copies is all. I find there is too much material published for me to be able to read all of it, and as a dealer anything I want will come my way if I am patient. I find people are more interesting than books. In small doses. If you wish to know more take a look in Harry Warner's All Our Yesterdays, or the first edition of Sprague de Camp's Handbook. Ask Google!

Graham Sleight

Graham Sleight was born in 1972, lives in London, and has been writing about SF and fantasy since 2000. His reviews have appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction, Interzone, Science Fiction Studies, SF Weekly, and Foundation, of which he is assistant editor. He has also contributed to various books, including Snake's Hands: The Fiction of John Crowley, Supernatural Fiction Writers (2nd edition), Polder: A Festschrift for John Clute and Judith Clute, and forthcoming Foundation volumes on M. John Harrison and Christopher Priest. The last three, printers willing, should be out for Interaction.

Kathleen Sloan

Kathleen Sloan has been involved in fandom for over 25 years, and has been filking for almost that long. Currently she lives in Denver, Colorado but is able to attend many filk conventions and had the honor of being GoH at Gafilk 2005 and Filk Waif at FilkOntario in 2004. She is also active on the Interfilk Fan fund board of directors.

Melinda Snodgrass

Melinda Snodgrass was born in Los Angeles, but her family moved to New Mexico when she was five months old so she considers herself a native New Mexican. She was educated at the University of New Mexico, and graduated Magna cum Laude in History. During her undergraduate days she took a year off to study opera at the Conservatory of Vienna in Austria. Upon her return from Europe she entered the UNM School of Law and graduated in 1977. She practiced law for three years, but realized while she loved the study of law she didn't particularly love lawyers so she quit, and began to pursue a career in writing. She wrote numerous science fiction novels, and helped edit the Wild Card anthologies. In 1988 she accepted a job on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and began her Hollywood career. Her most recent position was as Consulting Producer on NBC's Profiler She has written television pilots and feature films for Disney. In addition she has written a number of freelance episodes for various television shows.

Ian Sorensen

Ian Sorensen is one of Britain's best-known fans. Fan guest of honour for the 2006 Eastercon, Worldcon board member in '87, and winner a Best Fanzine Nova Award in 1991. Ian spent the 1980s running conventions and writing about them in his fanzine Conrunner. As part of Reductio Ad Absurdum Ian writes and performs plays satirising SF epics, including Dune and Lord of the Rings (done as a spaghetti western A Fistful of Hobbits). The latest epic is in the Armadillo on Friday night. Ian also writes and performs conventional rock operas that assassinate the reputations of famous fannish icons. 

Simon Spanton

Along with Jo Fletcher I run the Gollancz SF and Fantasy list at Orion Books. I've worked in publishing (both genre and mainstream) for fifteen years. Before that I was a bookseller for four years. I currently edit, amongst others, Stephen Baxter, Rob Grant, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Graham Joyce, James Lovegrove, Richard Morgan, Adam Roberts and Steph Swainston. I've been responsible for the Gollancz parodies line and am the editor for the Gollancz Manga imprint that launches in August.

Maureen Kincaid Speller

Long-time UK fan, fan writer, former TAFF winner, former Clarke Award/Tiptree Award judge, former chair of the British Science Fiction Association. Still writing reviews and articles for journals such as Vector, Foundation, Extrapolation as well as maintaining a living as a copy editor and proof reader, and reading part-time for a degree in English Literature at the University of Kent, Canterbury. Also assisting with the organistion of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and maintaining an online presence on LiveJournal.

Doug Spencer

I'm a beer-loving British SF fan of very nearly forty. I'm on the committee of ZZ9, the official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fan club. I'm also one of the few SF fans happy to come out in the Fannish community as both a Christian and a pervert. 

Kevin Standlee

Kevin Standlee was co-Chair of ConJose, the 2002 Worldcon, and he is a Director of SFSFC, Inc., parent corporation of the 2002 and 1993 Worldcons. He has been attending conventions since 1984 and working on them since 1990, in roles from gopher to Worldcon Chairman. He will be Fan Guest of Honor at CascadiaCon, the 2005 NASFiC. Kevin is an acknowledged expert on the official rules of the Worldcon. His other hobbies include a love of trains and rail transit. Kevin works as a database systems analyst for Menlo Worldwide, a logistics management company headquartered in Redwood City, California.

James Steel

British Masquerade fan and amateur ham, occasional British Eastercon masquerade winner, often noticable for not being able to be seen under the costume. Fond of big stuff that doesn't sparkle or glow. Builds costumes from the stuff you find in Wickes. One of the prime movers behind the Nessie last time around.

Joseph Stockman

A fan and convention participant for 25 years, Joseph "Uncle Vlad" Stockman enjoys working behind the scenes helping conventions run. He is the perpetual chair of Congenial and current President of Midwest Fannish Conventions Incorporated.

Charles Stross

Charles Stross is a Hugo nominated SF/Fantasy author and resident of Scotland's other major city, Edinburgh. His latest novel, Accelerando, is published by Orbit to coincide with Interaction; other recent titles include Iron Sunrise (Ace/Orbit) and The Hidden Family (Tor). 

Kathryn Sullivan

Kathryn Sullivan is the author of The Crystal Throne, and Agents & Adepts out from Amber Quill Press, and has a third YA fantasy under consideration. She lives in Winona, MN, and is owned by two parrots. 

Tricia Sullivan

Tricia Sullivan is the author of five science fiction novels, including Maul and the Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning Dreaming in Smoke. An expatriate American, she lives in Shropshire with her young family. Her most recent work is Double Vision, a novel set in 1980s New Jersey -- and on another planet.

Bill and Brenda Sutton

Bill and Brenda Sutton have been playing music and attending (and working) conventions together since 1986, when they finally met face-to-face after a two-year relationship on CompuServe. Brenda began her fannish career by attending the 1984 Worldcon in LA, where she discovered costuming and filk. She moved to Atlanta in 1986 and has been involved in running various conventions ever since. Her day job is the Event Coordinator for the Mythic Imaginations Institute, a non-profit organization responsible for the annual Mythic Journeys Conference. Musically, Brenda sings and plays guitar and bodhran for the group Three Weird Sisters, its parent group Year And A Day, and with Bill as part of the duo Bed & Breakfast. Bill was hooked into fandom through gaming conventions in the early 1980s and was ambushed into chairing conventions starting with PhoenixCon .5 (in Atlanta) (really) in 1985. Along the way he has worked Worldcons and regional conventions, and he currently chairs the annual GAFilk music convention. In his spare time Bill runs Bedlam House, publisher of folk and acoustic CDs. Bedlam House offerings include artists from the US and Europe and receive radio airplay around the world. Bill plays guitar, pennywhistle/flute, and mandolin for the band Year And A Day as well as with Brenda as part of Bed and Breakfast.

Steph Swainston

Steph Swainston is the author of The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time. She is currently working on her third novel.

James Swallow

James Swallow is the author of a dozen books, including the Sundowners series of steampunk westerns, and several media tie-ins. The only British writer to have worked on a Star Trek television series, his other credits include a handful of short stories, as well as scripts for audio drama and videogames.

Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick is one of the most acclaimed science fiction and fantasy writers of his generation. He has received a Hugo Award in five out of the last six years -- an unprecedented accomplishment! He has also received the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards, and has been translated and published throughout the world. His novels include Bones of The Earth, The Iron Dragon's Daughter, and the Nebula Award winning Stations of the Tide. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter. He is at work on several new novels, and many shorter works.

Bryan Talbot

Starting in underground comics such as Brainstorm, Bryan has worked in the comic medium for over twenty-five years, mainly in the area of adult comics and graphic novels and SF illustration. These include drawing for 2000AD, Hellblazer, The Nazz, Sandman and Fables and, as writer/artist, Legends of the Dark Knight, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Heart of Empire and The Tale of One Bad Rat. He has won many comic industry awards, had several one-man exhibitions around the world and appeared in many others, and is a frequent guest at international comic festivals. He is currently working on a 300 page graphic novel, Alice in Sunderland.

Takayuki Tatsumi

Takayuki Tatsumi, SF critic and professor of English at Keio University (Tokyo, Japan), is the author of Cyberpunk America (Tokyo: Keiso Publishers, 1988) and the co-editor of the Japanese Science Fiction issue of Science- Fiction Studies (29.3[November 2002]). He won the 5th Pioneer Award (SFRA) in 1994 and the 21st Japan SF Award (SFWJ) in 2001. Having published a variety of essays in PMLA, Para*Doxa, Extrapolation, SF Eye, American Book Review and elsewhere, he has just completed a book tentatively entitled Full Metal Apache (Durham: Duke UP, forthcoming).

Teddy

Costumer, historical reenactor and filker. Worldcon participation is limited to 1987, 1990, and 1995, but I've been active at Eastercons, DiscWorld Cons, Masque and Wardrobe (costume conventions), and FilkCons over the years (mostly costume related stuff except at the FilkCons). A founding member of the Costume Guild UK (Treasurer for several years). Ran (solo and jointly with others) Chaos Costume workshops at several of the events listed above. Member of the Best In Show winning masquerade entry "Return of the Hunt" at the last Glasgow Worldcon.

Eldon Thompson

Ever since he was a child, Eldon has wanted to do two things: play quarterback in the NFL, and write fantasy adventure novels. While he seems to have fallen short with the former, some would say that he is well on his way with the latter. His first novel, The Crimson Sword was given a grand release by HarperCollins (Eos) in May of this year, and a pair of follow-up books are on the way. Hollywood has expressed interest, and as a UCLA-educated screenwriter, Eldon has his fingers crossed. As for playing professional football... well, that's what video games are for. 

Amy Thomson

Amy Thomson is the author of Through Alien Eyes, The Color of Distance, and Virtual Girl. She won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1994. The Color of Distance was nominated for the 1995 Philip K. Dick Award. Her latest novel is Storyteller, from Ace Books, which was a finalist for the Endeavour Award. Currently, she is working on her next novel, Nomad.

Suzanne Tompkins

Since discovering SF fandom in the mid-1960s, Suzanne (aka Suzle) has co-edited four fanzines (two of which, The Spanish Inquisition and Mainstream, with long-time-companion-turned-husband, Jerry Kaufman, were nominated for Hugos); helped found an SF club (WPSFA in Pittsburgh, PA); and helped run numerous SF cons (most recently the Seattle Potlatches and the 2004 Nebula Awards Weekend). Suzle is the 2005 TAFF winner and is eagerly looking forward to attending Interaction. In real life, she works as an association manager/meeting planner. She and Jerry currently publish their third 'zine, Littlebrook, available in print or via efanzines.com.

Karen Traviss

Karen Traviss is new British author whose critically acclaimed debut SF novel City of Pearl (HarperCollins USA, March 2004) was a finalist for the Philip K Dick Award. The sequels are Crossing The Line (Nov 2004) and The World Before (Nov 2005). Her Star Wars novels include the best selling Republic Commando: Hard Contact. A former defence correspondent and TV and newspaper journalist, Karen has also served in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service and the Territorial Army. Her short stories have appeared in Asimov's, Realms of Fantasy, and On Spec.   

Andrew Trembley

Geek, freak, reader, essayist, costumer, critic, media junkie, biker, pervert, party-queen, troublemaker, FAN.

Diane Turnshek

Diane Turnshek teaches astronomy at St. Vincent College and at the University of Pittsburgh. Her short fiction is published in Analog and other magazines. She founded Write or Die, a genre critique group, and Alpha, the SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers. For four years, she hosted a popular, daily, online discussion forum for young speculative fiction writers on writers-bbs.com. She's been involved in Pittsburgh's science fiction organization PARSEC, its annual literary conference, Confluence, and its yearly short fiction contest. She has been an invited program participant at several Worldcons and has worked behind the scenes assisting with programming and guest invites and running the teen activities division (Millennium Philcon), and a workshop for young writers (TorCon3). Her four sons (ages 10 - 20) are proud of her.

Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove is an escaped Byzantine historian who writes alternate history, fantasy, other science fiction, and historical fiction. Recent and forthcoming books include Homeward Bound, The Enchanter Completed (a tribute anthology to L. Sprague de Camp), Settling Accounts: Drive to the East, and Every Inch a King.

Cristina Pulido Ulvang

Cristina is possibly Norway's only government-authorized translator with a Master's in English translation. Her dissertation was on Translation and Film, and looked at subtitling, dubbing and other forms of screen translation. Despite her love of film, she mostly works with legal and technical translation. She spends her free time analyzing film subtitles and going to international cons.

Eric Van

Eric has been Program Chair or Chair Emeritus for all 15 Readercons; his observations on Philip K. Dick have appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction. The outline for his novel Imaginary has reached 40,000 words. A co-author of The Red Sox Fan Handbook and the statistical guru of Red Sox nation online, he also writes rock criticism for local 'zines. He lives in Watertown, Mass., USA.

Gordon Van Gelder

Gordon Van Gelder has worked as an editor for Bluejay Books, The New York Review of Science Fiction, and St. Martin's Press. He has been the editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1997, and he has been the magazine's publisher for more than four years. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Kees van Toorn

Kees van Toorn started in Fandom in the mid-1960s, attended HeiCon, the 28th Worldcon in Heidelberg Germany, wrote for years in APA-L, published semi pro SF magazine Orbit from 1977-1989, organised ConFiction the 48th Worldcon in the Hague, received EuroCon Award in 1991. He now works as freelance translator of SF movies and books; has been translating the Perry Rhodan series since 1978 from German to Dutch.

Britt-Louise Viklund

Britt-Louise Viklund lives something of a double life:  as a serious lawyer, and as a science fiction reader (all her life), and fan (for about 15 years). Her fannish activities include several clubs, running local cons, and going to cons both in the Nordic countries and Worldcons.

Robert Vogel

I have been  involved more than 30 years in the SF/F scene and a writer for several German genre magazines for about 20 years. As a travelling reporter I often visit the shooting of popular genre TV shows like Stargate SG-1, Andromeda, Dune, etc.  I often appear as an extra in the shows I visit and had three appearances in SG-1. In Germany I am often called the Alfred Hitchcock of SF because of these appearances. I write in a light humorous way and love to tell these funny behind-the-scenes stories, especially with the SG-1 crew. 

Jim Walker

I am a long time science fiction fan and last year I was asked to write an article on Urdu Science Fiction for Tadeeb, a new literary magazine in English and Urdu which circulates in Pakistan and the UK. In researching the subject I found that there is in fact virtually no science fiction written in Urdu (not including translations of US and UK authors). The paper suggests what real science fiction is, establishes that the genre is missing in Urdu literature, and discusses the reasons for its absence.

Michael J Walsh

Michael Walsh has chaired a Worldcon, two World Fantasy Conventions, and a number of cons in the Baltimore-Washington area. In his spare time he has a small press, Old Earth Books, which is publishing the first US edition of The Separation by Interaction GoH Christopher Priest. First convention was in 1968... or maybe 1969, who can remember the 60s?

Jo Walton

Jo Walton is the author of The King's Peace, The King's Name, The Prize in the Game, 2004 World Fantasy Award winner Tooth and Claw, and the forthcoming Farthing. She won the John W. Campbell Award in 2002. She comes from Wales, but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.

Tino Warinowski

Tino Warinowski was born in 1976 in Finland. He is a biochemist and works as a researcher at the University of Helsinki. Tino has been the GoH liaison in several large conventions. He also enjoys reading, B5, Wikipedia, and bicycling.

Damien Warman

Damien Warman is joint Australasian Going Up-and- over Fan Fund delegate with Juliette Woods. In 2005 he is a member of an Aurealis Awards judging panel. Aside from fanac he likes mathematics, fencing, and playing go. He lives in a leafy inner-Adelaide suburb.

Kate Waterous

A long-time science fiction and fantasy reader (Oz books as a youngster, Heinlein in middle school, etc.), I have also had a lot of fun dancing. Recruitment to a medieval dance troupe during a high school summer dance program, and subsequent performing at a renaissance festival eventually left me open to being a SCAdian, and hence to bellydancing. My work in costuming naturally followed, all somewhat to the detriment of my reading schedule. After having grown up in Minnesota and living in Boston, I now am at home in Seattle with my husband, Ryan K Johnson, a fan-film maker (e.g. Star Trek the Pepsi Generation), and our two Siamese cats, Cosimo and Bellini. My favorite motto is: Satius est supervacua scire quam nihil (it is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing; Cicero.)

Ian Watson

Ian Watson's newest (and 10th) story collection, Butterflies of Memory, is due from PS Publishing this September. His most recent novel is Mockymen (Golden Gryphon 2003; Immanion Press 2004). In 2004 Immanion also published a new, rewritten edition of his Clarke Award nominee, Whores of Babylon. In October 2006 he's chairing wonderful two-day NewCon3 in Northampton. He lives with a black cat in a little village in Northamptonshire, and won the chocolate Bunny of Death for Best Hall Costume as Inigo Montoya at this year's Eastercon.  More information: 

Jaine Weddell

Jaine is an exhibitionist who was relieved to find that dressing up was acceptable in fandom. Her first costume won her a part as an extra in "Spock in Manacles," her second won the Eastercon masquerade. After years of body paint and sequins she has now settled down to medieval and Goth.

Elizabeth Wein

Elizabeth Wein's young adult novels include The Winter Prince, A Coalition of Lions, and The Sunbird, all set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia. The cycle continues in The Lion Hunter and The Mark of Solomon (Viking 2006). Elizabeth has short stories forthcoming in Datlow and Windling's Coyote Road anthology and the Reckless issue of Michael Cart's Rush Hour (Spring 2006). Elizabeth has a PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Scotland with her husband and two small children, and frequently squanders writing time keeping her pilot's license current. 

Dave Weingart

Dave Weingart is a longtime fan and longer-time filker who's been causing trouble and fomenting disorder at conventions for over two decades. He's been known to do the odd fanzine (and some were VERY odd), enter the masquerade, be on committees, father children (2), own guitars (4), hike, camp, fish, and cut bait. At some point, he hopes to learn to fly, preferably in a direction other than straight down.

Allan Weiss

Allan Weiss is a writer and scholar living in Toronto. He has published SF stories in On Spec, Tesseracts 4 and 7, and Prairie Fire, and has also appeared in The Year's Best Horror Stories; "Heaven and Earth" will be appearing this spring in Tesseracts 9. He has also published mainstream stories, including the collection Living Room (Boheme Press 2001). He is Associate Professor of English and Humanities at York University, where he specializes in courses on fantastic literature. 

Martha Wells

Martha Wells has written seven fantasy novels, including Wheel of the Infinite (HarperCollins Eos, 2000) and The Death of the Necromancer (Avon Eos, 1998), which was a Nebula Award nominee and a 2002 Imaginales Award nominee. The Wizard Hunters (HarperCollins Eos, May 2003) was the first book in a trilogy, which continued in The Ships of Air (HarperCollins Eos, July 2004) and The Gate of Gods, forthcoming November 2005. She has had short stories published in the magazine Realms of Fantasy and her books have been released in eight languages, including French, Spanish, Russian and Polish. 

Michelle (Sagara) West

Michelle West lives in Toronto with two school age children who make sure that there is always one sick person in the household. She has written a bunch of short stories, and eight novels for DAW (the last of which was The Sun Sword).

Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld is the author of five adult sf novels and five books for young adults. The most recent are Risen Empire (Orbit/Tor) and Uglies (Simon & Schuster). His books have won the Philip K Dick Special Citation, the Aurealis Award, and been named NY Times Notable Books of the Year. He has contributed to Nerve.com, BookForum, and the scientific journal Nature, and published short fiction on scifi.com and in F&SF. His next novel, Peeps (Penguin), will be released in September 2005. He is married to the Hugo nominated Justine Larbalestier, and splits his time between New York and Sydney.

Andrew Wheeler

Andrew Wheeler has been, at various times in his illustrious career, a fusion-drive steam fitter, Lord High Commissioner of Femtotechnology, Special Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Centaurans, and Minister of Finance of the breakaway government of NGC-1471A. But he's much better known for being an outrageous liar and a senior editor with the USA's Science Fiction Book Club. He once edited a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's best stories, under the title Black Seas of Infinity. He sadly has no scandalous stories about past Woldcon GoHs, and persists in believing he has a sense of humor.

Eva Whitley

I attended my first con in 1977, met my husband (Jack Chalker) when I ran my first con in 1978. We were married 26.49 years and had two great sons, Dave and Steven, one of whom is here, the other wishes he were. My day job is as a technical editor for Lockheed Martin IT. I've run several cons, edited a few fanzines, and entered one masquerade, but have resisted the urge to filk.

Nicholas Whyte

Nicholas Whyte works in international politics in Brussels, and reads a lot of SF. His website tracks joint winners of the Hugo and Nebula Awards, science fiction and fantasy stories set in Ireland, and American presidents with beards. 

Bridget Wilkinson

I have been active in fandom since 1980, one way and another. I have been involved in contact with international (i.e. multilingual) fandom for nearly 20 years, both in editing the (currently lapsed) Fans Across the World Newsletter, and in one committee post or another in the European Science Fiction Society. If we can't understand SF types who speak another language, how on earth are we going to deal with real aliens?

Liz Williams

Liz Williams is the daughter of a conjuror and a Gothic novelist, and currently lives in Brighton, England. She has a PhD in philosophy of science from Cambridge. Her novel The Ghost Sister was published by Bantam in July 2001. Further novels include Empire of Bones, The Poison Master, and Nine Layers of Sky. Her novel Banner of Souls, now out in the USA with Bantam and the UK with Tor Macmillan, gained her a third nomination for the Philip K Dick Award. Liz has had over 40 short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, and The Third Alternative.

Sheila Williams

Sheila Williams is the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. She started at Asimov's in June 1982, and served as the executive editor of Analog from 1998 until 2004. She is also the co-founder of the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing). In addition, she coordinates the websites for Asimov's. Her most recent anthology, co-edited with Connie Willis, is A Women's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (Warner Aspect, 2001). She has edited or co-edited over twenty other anthologies. Ms. Williams received her bachelor's degree from Elmira College in Elmira, New York, and her master's from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. During her junior year she studied at the London School of Economics. She lives in New York City with her husband, David Bruce, and her two beautiful daughters -- Irene and Juliet.

Neil Williamson

Neil Williamson is co-editor (with Andrew J Wilson) of the new anthology Nova Scotia: New Scottish Speculative Fiction. A collection of Neil's own stories will be published by Elastic Press in 2006. He lives in Glasgow and is a member of the Glasgow SF Writers Circle.

Connie Willis

Connie Willis, the author of Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Bellwether and Passage, has won more Hugo writing Awards and Nebula Awards than any other SF author and is the only author ever to have won Hugos and Nebulas in all four writing categories.

Andrew Wilson

Andrew J. Wilson was born in Aberdeen, but now lives and works in Edinburgh. His short stories have been published in anthologies and magazines in Britain and the USA, including Year's Best Horror Stories, Gathering the Bones, and The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases. He is a member of the Writers' Bloc spoken-word performance group and has read his work on BBC Radio Scotland. Nova Scotia: New Scottish Specualtive Fiction, the anthology he has co-edited with Neil Williamson, has just been published by Mercat Press. Andrew also reviews science fiction and fantasy for The Scotsman.

Edward Wilson

Ed Wilson is a mechanical engineer with an interest in geology, and a member of the Sime-Gen writing school. In 2004 a discussion regarding the effect of a super volcano hinged on:  How long would the eruption last? Using standard fluid mechanics he gives a series of answers.

Paul Witcover

Paul Witcover's first novel, Waking Beauty, was chosen by Locus as one of the outstanding first novels of 1997. His second novel, Tumbling After, is just out from Harper Eos. A novella, "Left of the Dial," is archived at the SciFiction website,  His book reviews appear in each issue of Realms of Fantasy magazine and online at scifi.com. With Elizabeth Hand, he created and wrote the DC comic, Anima.   

Gary K Wolfe

Gary K. Wolfe has been a reviewer for Locus Magazine since 1991 and is Professor of Humanities and English at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He is the author of several critical and reference works on science fiction, for which he has received the Eaton Award, the Pilgrim Award, and the International Association for the Fantastic Distinguished Scholarship Award. His most recent book is Soundings, a collection of reviews.

The Wombat

The Wombat, aka jan howard finder, has been reading SF for more than 50 years and active in SF circles for about 30. He chaired Tolkien conferences in 1969 and 1971. After finding fandom in 1972 and conventions in 1973 in the UK, he ran two SF conventions. He was named an Honored Guest at ConFrancisco, the 1993 Worldcon. He came out of retirement in 1996 to chair Albacon 96. Still brain dead, he successfully chaired SFRA 2001, an academic SF conference. He enters, judges and MCs masquerades. He is one of the best auctioneers found at cons. According to backs that know, he gives the best backrubs north of the South Pole. He put out an award winning fanzine, The Spang Blah. He sold a short story in 1981, edited an SF anthology, Alien Encounters (1982), and published his incredible Finder's Guide to Australterrestrials. He is a marsupial groupie. He attended Aussiecon 3, and afterwards drove about Oz for a total of 174 days looking for wombats. He puts out an irregular fanzine on Arthur Upfield, an Australian mystery writer. He also likes aerobics, learned to scuba, is taking up sailing and cricket, has a budding film career and visited Middle-earth in 2004. Ask him about Yaminons, wombats, BYTELOCK, visiting Middle Earth, & other stuff. He is a neat guy. Buy him a Pepsi! 

Delphyne Woods

I am a Chicago native, formerly Joan Hanke-Woods, fan artist from 1976 to 1987. At my initial SF convention, MidAmerican in Kansas City, Robert Heinlein grabbed my hand, kissed it, and invited me to his room party. Sally Rand fussed over my Viking II lander masquerade costume as she, Mr. Heinlein, and I descended the elevator together. I won most original, miming Viking's activity on Mars simultaneously that same afternoon on Earth. I won numerous regional art show awards, two FAAN awards, seven consecutive Hugo nominations, and the Hugo at Atlanta's 44th Worldcon, ConFederation, 1986. Subsequently I faded into other interests [gafiate?], tending to worsening health. Now health is no longer a concern, I am back.   May we enjoy this transcendent artform together far into the future.

Juliette Woods

Juliette Woods is joint Australasian Going Up-and-over Fan Fund delegate with Damien Warman. While she has lived in Australia for many years, she was in fact born in Scotland and is slightly bemused by the thought of attending a Worldcon in her parents' hometown. She discovered both fandom and Damien Warman on her first day at university and has seldom looked back. She contributes to various fanzines, occasionally runs small conventions, and has been known to write fanfic. Her PhD is in Applied Mathematics and she works in environmental consulting. 

Frank Wu

Frank Wu's award-winning art has materialized in many magazines and fanzines, including Fantastic Stories, On Spec, Talebones, Strange  Horizons, and Nth Degree, plus the fanzines Emerald City, Argentus, The Drink Tank, Corrupt Marquee, and Challenger. Frank's done fan art for the San Diego in 2006 Westercon bid, for the Bay Area Science Fiction Association (BASFA), LA con IV (Worldcon 2006), and the Speculations Rumor Mill. He has also painted covers for books by Jerry Oltion, Mark Siegel, Jennifer Barlow, Daniel Pearlman, and Jamie Rosen. 2003 saw the release of a small press book of stories by Jay Lake, illustrated by Wu; the collection is entitled Greetings from Lake Wu. Frank won the Illustrators of the Future Grand Prize and the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Fan Artist. He also has four scientific papers on DNA replication to his credit, along with humor published in The Journal of Irreproducible Results and The Annals of Improbable Research. When not creating stuff, Frank can be found hanging out with monks, hunting for mastodon bones in New Mexico and dinosaur bones and fish fossils in Wyoming, holding Laura Palmer's diary, riding in banana-shaped mopeds, touching art when the museum guards aren't looking. 

Pete Young

Pete Young is a reviewer and editor of the Nova Award-winning fanzine Zoo Nation. He also owns several thousand SF books mostly stored up in the attic, which he rearranges from time to time in the mistaken belief he's actually doing something useful.

Lucy Zinkiewicz

Lucy Zinkiewicz is an academic psychologist and long-time fan, who's been involved in literary, fanzine, media, and convention fandoms in the UK and Australia. Area Head for Staff Services at Interaction, which means she'll be trying to get everyone reading this to do some gophering.