BayCon 2011 - Carnivale Logo
-725 days until BayCon 2011 begins.

 

Guests of Honor

Writer Guest of Honor: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of Shades of Milk and Honey (Tor, 2010). In 2008 she received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and has been nominated for the Hugo and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov's, Clarkesworld, and several Year's Best anthologies. She is the Vice President of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Mary, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor, recording fiction for authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi. She lives in Portland, OR with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters.

Artist Guest of Honor: John Picacio

John Picacio is a 2011 Hugo Award finalist for Best Professional Artist. It's his seventh consecutive Hugo nomination. He has yet to win his first Hugo, finishing in second place the past three years. His 2010 published cover artwork credits include Michael Moorcock's ELRIC: SWORDS AND ROSES (plus over 20 interior illustrations), Lauren Beukes' ZOO CITY, Mark Chadbourn's DARK AGE trilogy, as well as several more major works.

He won the 2005 World Fantasy Award and is best known as one of the most prolific American cover artists for science fiction, fantasy, and horror of the last ten years. His artwork is noted for its diversity and range, often combining traditional drawing and painting with digital finishes, as well as exploring methods such as hand-made assemblages. His artwork has illustrated the covers of books by Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Dan Simmons, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Ford, Frederik Pohl, James Tiptree, Jr., and many more. He has produced cover artwork for franchises such as STAR TREK and the X-MEN.

His accolades also include the Locus Award, four Chesley Awards, and two International Horror Guild Awards, all in the Artist category. His illustrations are often featured in the pages of SPECTRUM: THE BEST IN CONTEMPORARY FANTASTIC ART.

Clients include Ballantine/Del Rey, Bantam, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Tor Books, Pyr, Golden Gryphon Press, Subterranean Press, Angry Robot, and many more.

Amongst his forthcoming published works will be the much-anticipated 2012 calendar for George R. R. Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE as well as covers for Ian McDonald's YA novel debut PLANESRUNNER and new limited editions of Dan Simmons' classic THE HYPERION CANTOS . He and his wife Traci live in San Antonio, TX with daughter Samantha.

Fan Guest of Honor: Bobbie DuFault (chair for Seattle 2012 Westercon)

Bobbie is a fixture of Northwest Fandom but not in a creepy way. You know that same guy in the same corner of every hotel lobby? Not like that. No, you can walk in to just about any northwest convention and ask, "where's Bobbie?" and you'll have a dozen people point a dozen different directions and nearly every one of them would be right.

She runs on hidden quantum energy reserves and makes order from chaos. You can find her in any and every corner of a convention (often at the same time). Running a costuming panel, getting a last minute entry set up in an art show, cooking in hospitality, finding a badge for a fledgling volunteer, in a ConCom meeting discussing what can be done better next year... You would be hard pressed to find anyone who contributes more to Fandom here the Northwest.

Toastmaster: Martin Young

I'm originally from Britain. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy, and teach philosophy at community college, occasionally using humor and science fiction in my work. I was originally asked to Baycon to appear on a panel discussing The Matrix, and other panels where a philosophical view might he helpful. I've also appeared on science vs. religion panels where, as an atheist, I invariably find myself defending religion. My other forte has turned out to be humor panels. I was dropped into "A Shot Rang Out" without any idea of what to expect, and some people seemed to find my abject terror amusing. I also managed to be quite funny, and to work well with other funny people, which resulted in me being placed on other humor panels, including panels where the only reason for my inclusion was that it is, apparently, fun to watch me melt down. All I can say there is that I suppose I'm glad that others find my distress enjoyable.