Participant Bios
Arisia 2017 Program Participant Bios
Generated: Thu Jan 12 20:55:27 2017
Daniel R. Abraham, Esquire Consort, plays games (for fun), cooks (for meditation), makes candy (for presents), makes masks (on occasion), and otherwise enjoys his existence as a father of a geek child, husband to the finest gamemaster he knows, and plays a little poker on the side.
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. The prizes, awarded each year since 1991, honor achievements that make people laugh, then think. He is also editor and co-founder of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, a weekly columnist for The Guardian newspaper, and the author of several books. His web site and blog are at www.improbable.com
Wendee Abramo stood in her first autograph line at the age of 5 and still possesses a battered 8"x10" glossy signed "Darth Vader" to prove it. A life long dabbler, in 2008 she discovered belly dance and finally found her favorite thing to geek out about. She is half of Ki-Ra Luna who you may have seen dancing at Arisia as Ewoks, evil clowns, or chickens, or as part of the dance show at local renn faires or steam punk festivals. She is an American Tribal Style® Belly Dance Sister Studio, offers instruction in Boston, and would love to teach you how to shimmy. She lives, and occasionally podcasts, in Brighton with her partner and their dog. Also, there is a cat. facebook.com/KiRaLunaDance
Over the past many years Hanna Lee Rubin Abramowitz, or H-chan for short, has wondered through the many unusual facets of the Arisia community and tried her hand at many parts of the Sci-Fi world. She is an avid fan all things Pokemon, Harry Potter, Steampunk, Cosplay, Magic Girl Manga (particularly Clamp), and most of all the Arisia Con scene. This will be her sixth year at the convention, her fourth year as a panelist. You will likely see her wandering the halls in one of her costumes, likely with an Eevee on her shoulder (because she can) and in the company of her husband and/or friends or talking your ear off about any one of her favorite topic (most likely Pokemon). Don't be afraid to come up to her and say a friendly "Hello". I promise she does not bite.
Yitzy Abramowitz is a busy man with many important things to do, but for the past 5 years, he's made sure to set aside time to go to Arisia. He always comes to the con with his wife and dragged his mother along for the ride for her second year. (HI MOM!) Yitzy loves anime and manga, having his own massive home library. He also loves all things Nintendo and will happily talk your ear off about the NX, assuming they've revealed anything about it by mid-January. Yitzy is a huge dork when it comes to Pokemon and really hopes Niantic adds a Poke'stop in time for the convention.
Three words that one might use to describe Adri are “generic”, “geek” and “girl”. Sometimes all at once.
Heather Albano is a storyteller. Sometimes she writes traditional fiction and sometimes she makes games, and she finds the line between the two growing fuzzier all the time. A new edition of her steampunk time travel novel Timepiece is now available from Stillpoint Digital Press! Or if you prefer to have a more active role in shaping your steampunk fiction experience, you might prefer Heather's A Study In Steampunk: Choice By Gaslight, an interactive novel released last year by the Choice of Games Hosted Games program. Heather randomly muses about various things at www.heatheralbano.com.
Dawn Albright is involved in many different areas of fandom. She's a short story writer, editor of anthologies (New Altars and Vision Quest), a dollmaker and costumer. Her most recent project is a web journal called Polu Texni which can be found at http://www.polutexni.com. Her dollmaking site is www.dollmaking.org.
Ryan Alexander is currently the lead back-end developer for the Money Advice Service based in London. He’s been helping organise large-to-small scale community events for a quarter of a century. He is passionate about inclusion, diversity, giving people the best chance to do their best, and believes that empathy is the key to making that happen. He’s also fond of board gaming and cocktails in case he’s getting too sincere and you’d like to distract him onto a different topic.
Mark L Amidon first read Isaac Asimov's Nightfall in 1971 and has been heavily involved in science fiction ever since. He has been attending Arisia since 1991, and with his wife since 1992. He lives in the future, right now. Both of his daughters read genre fiction. His cats remain aloof.
Thomas A. Amoroso, MD, MPH was a practicing emergency physician, once. Now he's a medical director for a regional health plan, and does health policy for a living. He's been a fan of fantasy and science fiction since his junior high librarian pointed him to Harry Harrison after he found Andre Norton on his own. After that, he devoured everything he could find in the limited libraries available in Europe for English language SF. Despite all of that, it took him way too many years to find the rest of organized fandom. He firmly believes in the power of human thinking to get us through crises; he just wishes we'd use some of it to avoid crises instead. He's appalled at how hard it is to change big systems, but keeps trying anyway. All other aspects of science are just as fascinating, and he's fully prepared to expound on the scientific method, the uses and limits of statistics, and why most people aren't able to adequately judge scientific issues, even though it just isn't that hard.
Erik Amundsen—Always Chaotic Evil.
Bekah Anderson is a fantasy writer in training, disability activist, and student at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. She is a co-founder of the student group Collective of Students Affected by Ableism, which works to support students with disabilities and advocate for their needs. She has published pieces about disability, queerness, and religion with the Wild Goose Festival and the New Sacred blog. Her fantasy writing, as yet unpublished, tends to be character driven and sad. She blogs irregularly at bekahmaren.blogspot.com.
Andrew Anselmo has been creating and folding origami for over 20 years, and has been a street performer for over 10 years at Waterfire (Providence, RI) as well as at Faneuil Hall, Boston Common, and many other venues. He also has taught origami at local libraries and museums throughout New England. www.flappingbird.com. He is a member of Artisan's Asylum, a large maker space in Somerville, MA.
Inanna Arthen is an artist, speaker and author of The Vampires of New England Series (http://vampiresofnewengland.com): Mortal Touch (2007), The Longer the Fall (2010) and All the Shadows of the Rainbow (2013). Inanna is a lifelong scholar of vampire folklore, fiction and fact, and runs By Light Unseen Media (http://bylightunseenmedia.com), an independent press dedicated to publishing vampire fiction and nonfiction. She is a member of Broad Universe, New England Horror Writers, Horror Writers Association, Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE). She holds an M.Div degree from Harvard and is an outspoken advocate for the Pagan and LGBTQI communities. She is the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Winchendon, MA.
Lisa A Ashton is a Master-level costumer recently relocated to Harpers Ferry, WV. She has won Best In Show in the Arisia Masquerade in the past with "Home Improvement", "The Standing Stone" (with Diane Seiler), "Mary Gothins--Perfectly Evil", "Victorian Lady's Hunting Costume--An American Tradition", and recently as part of the group "Disney in A Nutshell". At Costume Con 2016 she was awarded the ICG's Lifetime Achievement Award. She enjoys costuming, beading, and hunting, and has been an Emergency PA for over 30 years. A passionate interest is Victorian photos, artifacts and clothing, as well as vintage beadwork, for "Miss Lizzy's Traveling Historical Fashion Show", now an educational non profit, https://www.facebook.com/MissLizzysTravelingHistoricalFashionShow. She is a contributor to The Virtual Costumer with articles about Victorian clothing topics. Buy her a cup of coffee and talk about quilts and costumes and Victorian times and she'll love you for it!
Jacqui B. is a graduate of Emerson College’s Writing, Literature, and Publishing program, a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, and runs Literary Sidekick. Her superpowers are storytelling and editing. If the written word is your arch-nemesis or the love interest you can’t stop being awkward around, she’s here to help. She also loves discussing matters of representation and diversity in fantasy and sci-fi. You can often hear her saying things like, “if there is a dragon in it or an Android, it doesn’t need to be historically accurate.”
Michael Bailey is an independent author and creator of the “Action Figures” and “The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot” series. After 15 years working as a reporter and blogger, Michael left the world of journalism to focus on his creative writing, and in 2013 he released the first book in his YA superhero series, "Action Figures." Michael is also a freelance writer; a performer and stage combat director for the Connecticut Renaissance Faire; and a former scriptwriter for CTRF and Pastimes Entertainment of Revere. He lives in Worcester with his wife Veronica, four cats, and a bulldog.
Stephen R Balzac, PhD, is the author of "The 36-Hour Course in Organizational Development," and "Organizational Psychology for Managers." He has also been published in numerous magazines, including Analog Science Fiction. When he's not writing, Steve is a management consultant, speaker, and psychology professor. He is the president of 7 Steps Ahead (www.7stepsahead.com) and the founder of the MIT Assassins' Guild and SIL West. He uses LARPs as a tool for training business leaders in negotiation and leadership skills. His research includes exploring how LARPs influence non-game social awareness in the areas of leadership, decision making, and working with a group.
E. J. Barnes is a cartoonist and comic-book artist, having seen publication in Fortean Times, Funny Times, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, and elsewhere. Her comics have been published in anthologies Colonial Comics: New England, 1620-1750, The Greatest of All Time Comics Anthology, Hellbound, SubCultures. Most recently, she wrote the script for "Bring Me the Head of Phineas Gage" (illustrated by LB Lee) for the science comics anthology Boundless, published in August 2016. She exhibits at independent comic-book conventions, and her comic books (self-published under Drowned Town Press) are sold across the country.
Reuben Baron—Writer/director of the short films "The Music of Erich Zann" (based on the HP Lovecraft story) and "The Making of a Superhero Musical" (featuring Neil Gaiman). Freelance writer for MyAnimeList (username: HoyvinGlavin64). Former editor of the-LFB.com and contributor to the Brattle FilmNotes blog.
Alan F. Beck has been an artist and illustrator for over 35 years. His work has been exhibited in art shows and Science Fiction/Fantasy conventions all across the country. He has won numerous awards and honors including two Chesley award nominations and a HUGO award nomination, and received a "Body of Work" Award at LA Con IV WorldCon, Anaheim, CA. plus “Best of Show” award at 2010 ReConStruction NASFiC in Raleigh, NC. Alan's work tends to be realistic and surrealistic in nature, often whimsical and humorous. His paintings and prints can be found in collections in the US, Canada and Europe. He has published a children’s book The Adventures of Nogard and Jackpot and is creator of the “Mouseopolitan Museum of Art”. His art can be found in Space and Time magazine, The Fantasy Art Bible, assorted e-zines and other publications. Visit www.alanfbeck.com.
Elizabeth Birdsall is a longtime fan and occasional author, as well as a queer lady and a lover of a wide variety of random subjects. She has had short stories published here and there, most notably in the "Women Destroy Science Fiction!" special issue of Lightspeed Magazine. She lives in the Boston area with two excellently geeky housemates and two extremely inept cats.
A native of Phoenix, AZ who long ago decided he preferred living somewhere with actual seasons (namely Boston), W. "Ian" Blanton has been spending the last decade or so focusing on homeschooling his daughter while being gainfully employed as a Mac Consultant. His previous life interests include western/eastern martial arts, LARPs, costuming, Gaming (Video & RPG), historical re-enactment, and flinching whenever a "re-imagined" movie/TV show is announced. His current project is mastering his handmade 18' folding sea kayak, and he still hasn't opened that OGRE board game box.
Aimee Bouchard is a bi, poly, kinky, geeky, hippie, crafty, girly sort of gal.
Anna R Bradley is a gamer, LARPer, costumer, and volunteering junkie. Anna has played and run LARP for over 20 years. She has been playing and running Garou games for the past 7. This year she is Conchair of Arisia.
David E. Brahm, Ph.D., CFA, is a portfolio manager at Geode Capital Management in Boston. Dr. Brahm holds an S.B. in physics and math from MIT, and a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from U.C. Berkeley. Following six years of postdoctoral physics research at Caltech and Carnegie Mellon, he joined Fidelity Investments in 1996, and became one of the founders of Geode in 2001.
James Bredt was one of two technical founders of Z Corporation, which makes 3D Printers, and holds over 20 issued patents in 3DP technology. His present company, Viridis3D sells industrial 3D printers to the foundry industry. He also occasionally teaches materials science at MIT, and is writing a graphic novel.
Robin Brenner is Teen Librarian at the Brookline Public Library in Massachusetts. When not presenting programs and providing reading guidance, she writes features for publications including VOYA, The Horn Book, Library Journal, and Knowledge Quest. She is an active member of YALSA and has served on awards committees including the Michael L. Printz Award, Margaret A. Edwards Award, the Boston Globe Horn Book Award and the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. She is the editor-in-chief of the graphic novel review website No Flying No Tights. She grew up devouring all of the fantasy and science fiction she could find at her local library and on her parent's bookshelves, and was raised in a house that believed Star Trek was the pinnacle of science fiction TV. She still tends toward speculative stories and adores every format from comics to podcasts. She still watches an alarming number of television shows, but loves discussing genre on screen with a distinctly feminist point of view.
Cyd Brezinsky—When I was in high school, a friend once told me that if I ever stopped creating, a bolt of lightning would strike me. So, I've decided to not tempt fate. Mad scientist by day, and creator of soft sculpture Dragons, Faeries, and other fantasy creatures when time allows. Most recently, I have been teaching Dragon and Faerie costume wing making at the kids programming for various conventions over the past 5 years, including WorldCon, Boskone, and Arisia. I am pleased to also offer the wing making programming to adults since 2016.
Kate Brick is a fan with a fan husband and three fan kids. They all like to costume, do crafts, and read books. In her professional life she is a metaphorical cat herder. In Fast Track that counts for something, right?
Maury Brown
Terri Bruce produces fantasy and adventure stories from her home in New England where she lives with her husband and two cats. Her novels include the contemporary fantasy "Afterlife" series (Hereafter (Afterlife #1), Thereafter (Afterlife #2), and Whereafter (Afterlife #3) and several short stories in various anthologies including Welcome to OASIS in the Dear Robot anthology and The Wishing Well in the It's Come to Our Attention anthology. Visit her on the web at www.terribruce.net.
Marc Brunco is an avid cosplayer, con goer, scifi fan, political junkie, and also a longtime admin with the Boston Whovians. He lives in the southernmost part of the Commonwealth Wasteland known as Cape Cod.
Nat Budin is a singer/songwriter/larper/programmer. He has written and run over a dozen larps, has served as con chair of Intercons I and P as well as the first three Festival of the LARPs conventions at Brandeis University, and writes open source software in the Ruby on Rails community.
Constance Burris is a nerd, a writer, a mother and a wife. COAL, her first complete novel, is about a human boy living in a world filled with elves, dwarves, giants, and dragons. She blames R.A. Salvatore, Melissa Marr, and Holly Black for her love of the fae. When she's not writing, she's working hard as an environmental engineer in Oklahoma.
Michael A. Burstein is the winner of the 1997 Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He has earned ten Hugo nominations and four Nebula nominations for his short fiction, collected in I Remember the Future, which has been made into a film. Burstein lives with his wife Nomi and their twin daughters in the town of Brookline, Massachusetts, where he is an elected Town Meeting Member and Library Trustee. When not writing, he develops K-12 Science curriculum. He has two degrees in Physics and attended the Clarion Workshop. More information on Burstein and his work can be found on his webpage, http://www.mabfan.com.
Nomi S. Burstein is a technical writer, freelance editor, and fiction writer. Her debut novel, Flying Without a Net, was published in November 2016 under the name EM Ben Shaul. When she is not involved in professional word-nerditry, Nomi knits, sews, and performs amateur word-nerditry. She lives in Brookline, MA, with her husband, Michael A. Burstein, and their twin daughters.
Kevin Cafferty is a documentary filmmaker from Massachusetts. His film "It's a Bash!" (which is about punk rock) was given four stars by The Providence Journal, aired on New England PBS affiliates, and is available on DVD from Midway Pictures. He has been nominated for four Emmy awards, can be followed on Twitter at @kcafferty, and was named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine in 2006.
Ian Campbell—Works in IT, moonlights as an amateur (CCG) game developer. Likes long swordfights on the beach, space cowboys, Oberyn Martell, giant monsters/robots, and games. MANY GAMES.
Michael Carr is a literary agent with a background in editing and writing, working from a home base in the Northeast. He works carefully with clients to produce the cleanest, most professional manuscripts and enjoys teaching at workshops and conferences to help develop emerging writers. Michael speaks Spanish and conversational French and before joining Veritas had professions as diverse as programming simulators for nuclear submarines and owning an inn in Vermont.
D. L. Carter was decanted from her incubation pod in the outback of Australia many decades ago. This terrifying event was closely followed by shrieks of "there, there it goes. Hit it with a brick!" These valiant attempts to correct the existence of D.L. were, unfortunately, unsuccessful and she now resides in New Jersey, US., in a box with her toys, two human beings and three cats.
Melissa Carubia is an actor, singer, dancer, gamer (of both role-playing and video games), and composer based in the Boston area. She composed the award-winning musical T: An MBTA Musical (Winner, Best Musical 2011, Best Musical Direction 2012 Broadway World Boston) and most recently, Beneath the Skin, a musical with the goal of eliminating the stigma of mental illness. Her theatrical performance credits include Chicago, Avenue Q, and Les Misérables with the Company Theatre, as well as roles with ImprovBoston and Fresh Pond Ballet, both of Cambridge. She also can be found rocking out on keytar and vocals with her band, Minusworld, in and around Boston. During the day she works as an actor/musician for the non-profit Urban Improv, an organization that uses theater to help children build self-esteem and avoid violence, and as Musical Director for the Company Theatre of Norwell.
Jeanne Cavelos began her professional career as an astrophysicist at NASA. Her love of SF led her to earn her MFA in creative writing and move into publishing. She was a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she ran the SF/F/H programs and won the World Fantasy Award. Jeanne left publishing to write. Her seven books include the best-selling Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy and The Science of Star Wars. Her work has twice been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Jeanne is director of the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that offers a highly regarded summer in-person workshop in NH and winter online classes for writers of SF/F/H. Jeanne was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for her work at Odyssey. (www.jeannecavelos.com)
Emma Caywood is a children's librarian at Wellesley Public Library. Like most librarians, it was not her first career. She has always worked as a playwright, drama teacher, literary manager for screenwriters with Torque Entertainment, ran a screenwriting competition, and environmental educator. She plays the ukulele, makes papier-mâché masks, is working on a few middle grade manuscripts, and just married fellow panelist Andy Hicks, in a ceremony where the ring bearer was dressed as the 11th Doctor.
Aurora Celeste is a costume dabbler with more than 10 years of experience. Her costuming interests are all over, but her passion is reproducing costumes; mostly sci-fi and fantasy movies, tv shows, anime, and manga. She gives panels and enters masquerades all over the country, has won Best in Show at Costume Cons 24 and 30 as well as Chicon and LoneStarCon and is currently serving as Vice President of the International Costumers' Guild Board of Directors. Outside of costuming, Aurora can often be seen running conventions. She has served as staff on many conventions, including DragonCon in Atlanta and a con head at Naka-Kon Anime Convention in Kansas City. Visit her costuming blog at www.dramaticthreads.com.
Venetia Charles is a Creative's Assistant. After receiving her Master's degree in Folklore (focusing on second generation members in new religious movements with a special emphasis on apocalyptic cults), she moved to the middle of Wisconsin to work for New York Times Bestselling Author Patrick Rothfuss. She was his assistant for 3 years, working on a vast variety of projects and running his charity Worldbuilders. In 2012, she moved to Portland Oregon to work for illustrator and designer Lee Moyer. She shares his interest in pin-ups and is currently cataloging his 35 years of work.
Don Chase—Author, illustrator, picture taker and hopefully one day movie maker.
Ellen Cheeseman-Meyer blogs for tor.com. She has written re-reads of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series and Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga. She also teaches history and reads a lot.
Benjamin Chicka is a Ph.D. candidate at Claremont Graduate University focusing on the relationship between religion and science. He is an American Pragmatist and a religious pluralist. He also loves video games and co-founded the TheoNerd website and podcast with Andrew Tripp. There they have conversations with each other and guests about topics in nerd culture relevant to religion and theology, and vice versa. Benjamin has published scholarly articles on astronomy, neuroscience, as well as theology. He writes for more popular audiences on the website Patheos, and has spoken at PAX East in addition to other video game events around the Boston area.
Bob Chipman is a film critic and entertainment writer for Geek.com and Screen Rant, Chairman of the Boston Online Film Critics Association and the creator of In Bob We Trust, The Game OverThinker, The Big Picture and Escape to The Movies. He has published seven volumes of collected work, along with the full-length gaming analysis book Super Mario Bros 3: Brick-By-Brick.
Jon Erik Christianson is a comics journalist, blogger, and critic who loves queer comics and hates reading the comments (but he does it anyway). His writing lives at ComicsAlliance, BookRiot, Honestly Comics, Boston University's The Quad, and the DCWomenKickingAss blog. Way too much of it lives on Twitter at @HonestlyJon.
Dr. Amy Chused is a physician at Weill Cornell Medical Center in the Division of Hospital Medicine, with additional interests in palliative care and clinical informatics. In her free time, she raises her 3 children (all still under 6). In her other free time, of which there isn't much, she also reads SF & F and fanfic, plays boardgames and computer games, debates medical ethics, and waves vaguely at the Arisia Dealers Room.
Zachary Clemente lives in Boston and writes for and about comics. He's been published at least once and helps run MICE. Office hours are at Diesel Cafe, typically 7AM-10AM Mondays and Thursdays.
Byron P Connell, a longtime SF and costuming fan, is a historian by training. He likes to help at masquerades rather than entering them; entering once a decade is about right! However, since being part of the Torcon III best-in-show entry, when he does enter, he does so in the Master division. Byron has run masquerades at the 2002 Arisia, several Costume-Cons and Philcons, as well as Anticipation and Chicon 7. He is a member of the Sick Pups (New Jersey-New York Costumers' Guild), the SLUTs (St. Louis Ubiquitous Tailoring Society), and the Armed Costumers' Guild; that makes him an Armed SLUT Puppy! Byron is a past President of the International Costumers' Guild, which honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award. He likes hard SF, alternate history, alternate worlds, and fantasy (not necessarily in that order). He was one of the founders of the Latham, Albany, Schenectady, Troy Science Fiction Association and one of its former presidents. He chaired Albacon 2016.
Will Coon—Will designs secret dating sims for government agencies.
Kelly J. Cooper is a freelance copy editor and long-time writer with a strange and trivia-stuffed brain that can recall obscure forensic facts and then forget words like "refrigerator." She regularly renders twisty, winding thought pieces, essays, opinions, poetry, rude rants, reviews, technical articles, and the occasional wretched fiction story. Her addiction to comics dates back to the early 1990s and extended into the online world of webcomics quite a few years ago now. It's true love and the long haul. She has a background in Internet Security and still teaches classes on various topics within that realm. She loves editing, writing, laughing, reading, talking with friends, cooking, beading, howling, eating good food, and walking.
Todd Cooper is a consummate computer geek. Todd has an BA in Computer Science from Colgate University as well as an MBA and Masters in Computer Science from WPI. Todd likes to travel to places near and far, including FDR's summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick. Todd is passionate about cutting up nice plush soft stuff animals and making them into creative monsters.
Andrea Corbin is a Boston-based writer of speculative fiction. She has work in or forthcoming from Shimmer, Crossed Genres, Sub-Q, The Sockdolager, and Recompose. All of her work, including interactive fiction and the occasional blog post, can be found at her website, amcorbin.com. She also talks a lot of nonsense on twitter @rosencrantz, and has a cat named Hatshepsut.
Corbin Covault is on the faculty of the physics department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where he teaches physics -- usually introductory physics -- and conducts research in experimental astrophysics, specifically high energy cosmic ray physics and ground-based gamma-ray astronomy. He is also pursing research in observational optical SETI.
Deirdre Crimmins is a Boston-based film critic. She is currently a staff writer at FilmThrills.com and Cinematic Essential, as well as a contributing writer for BtchFlcks.com, OpenLettersMonthly.com, the Brattle Theater Film Blog, Paste Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. She has presented academic work at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts and spoken on panels at WorldCons. Though she focuses on contemporary horror film criticism, she is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy.
Morgan Crooks is a life-long fan of science fiction and fantasy literature and now teaches ancient history. Morgan’s stories have appeared on the Daily Science Fiction website, Electric Spec, and in anthologies released by Cyclopean, Burnt Offerings, and Mystery and Horror LLC. Essays and reviews are also available on his blog (ancientlogic.blogspot.com).
MJ Cunniff is a PhD student at Brown University, interested in poetry, ecopoetics, feminism, queer theory, and representations of alterity (or, for the elevator pitch, "gay witches and weird trees from 1400 to 2017.") They are also a poetry editor at Strange Horizons.
Mary Catelynn Cunningham got involved with science fictions conventions in 2004 when her now husband, Mark Richards, dragged her to one kicking and screaming. Having been an avid fan for years she felt right at home. Catelynn is also a member of the alt lifestyle community in NYC where is she is on the board of a local group. She also helps staff cons when able, sometimes at senior management level.
Leo D'Entremont, also known as Mijan in various fandom circles, has been active as a fan writer, costumer, and convention geek since 2003. Primary fandoms include Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. As a self-identified queer person, he has a particular interest in GLBTQ issues as they relate to fan activities, particularly issues of gender identity and gender expression in social structures, writing, and fandom itself. Serving seven years in the Army under DADT has given Leo a unique insight into certain aspects of social justice and civil liberties. Despite being a student of world religions and active in a UU congregation, he is a scientist, skeptic, atheist, and social secularist who feels that this is an essential perspective too often ignored in the political arena. In real life (what's real?), Leo is an EMT with a background in biology, a nursing student, and a published author of queer fiction.
Garen Daly has been in the dark for more years than acceptable. He is an award winning film programmer. He is a movie commentator for WGBH, NE Cable News, NH Public Radio and several other media outlets. Perhaps he is best known as the producer of The Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, the oldest genre film festival in the world (we think). Visit the web site, BostonSci-fi.com for ticket and submission info. Because he's lazy and needs to stay out of bars, Garen is spending his free time making a movie. It's a documentary on the legendary Orson Welles Cinema Complex. For those who don't know, it was indeed famous. The first manager, in his first gig in the business, was some dude named Tommy Lee Jones. If you have an OWC story and want to be in the film, track him down and chat him up.
Gillian Daniels lives in Somerville, MA and is a reviewer of short fiction at Fantastic Stories of the Imagination and a local theater critic with The New England Theatre Geek blog. After attending the 2011 Clarion Writing Workshop, she has had poetry and prose published in Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Flash Fiction Online, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and other venues. She blogs and sometimes posts drawings at www.gilliandaniels.com.
Alexander C Danner is co-creator of the audio drama podcast "Greater Boston." (http://www.GreaterBostonShow.com) He has also written comics and prose fiction, with stories appearing in the science fiction anthologies "Machine of Death" and "The Girl at the End of the World," as well as in Fantasy Scroll Magazine, The Saturday Evening Post, and Event: Poetry & Prose. He is co-author of the textbooks "Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present" and "Character Design for Graphic Novels." He teaches online courses in writing comics and graphic novels through Emerson College. He also currently serves as President of The Writers' Room of Boston, a non-profit workspace for Boston-area writers.
Dash—I am the founder and editor-in-chief of Expanded Horizons, an online magazine whose mission is to increase diversity in speculative fiction and to create a venue for the authentic expression of under-represented voices in the genre. I am also an attorney, linguist, and private tutor of many subjects.
Christopher K. Davis has been reading science fiction for longer than he can remember, and going to conventions for longer than he wants to think about. He's worked as a sysadmin for both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and part of the Human Genome Project, and feels fortunate to have arrived at just the right time for such opportunities. He's given up on looking for technological predictions from SF; too many lunar bases, not enough globe-spanning computer networks. (He's still glad food pills never came along, though.)
An avid gamer (role-playing and miniatures) and reader (Sci-Fi and fantasy, mainly) since early adolescence, T Christopher Davis is now an amateur game designer and writer, as the love for the written word has grabbed hold and taken control of his soul. Now he only hopes to find a buyer for what he loves to write so that he may do much more of it.
A freelance writer and web producer for such entertainment publications as Today.com, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, and Emmy Magazine, Randee Dawn is also a fiction writer, with a volume of speculative fiction, Home for the Holidays. The collection -- which runs the gamut from speculative fiction to memoir -- includes a first-person zombie story originally podcast by "Well-Told Tales." She is also a co-author (with Susan Green) of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion, which published in September 2009. She has a first novel of urban fantasy recently completed, and renews her offer to write in exchange for sugar-cured bacon.
Keith R.A. DeCandido has written a metric crapton of stuff. Recent and upcoming work includes the Marvel "Tales of Asgard" trilogy of prose novels starring Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three; the "Precinct" series of fantasy/mystery novels and short stories; the short story collection Without a License; the Stargate SG-1 novel Kali's Wrath; the urban fantasy novel A Furnace Sealed, first in a series about a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx who hunts monsters; and short stories in Aliens: Bug Hunt, Baker Street Irregulars, A Baker's Dozen of Magic, Limbus Inc. Book 3, Nights of the Living Dead, The Side of Good/The Side of Evil, Stargate SG-1/Atlantis: Far Horizons, TV Gods: Summer Programming, V-Wars: Night Terrors, With Great Power, and The X-Files: Trust No One; and lots more besides. He's also a professional editor of many decades' standing, a second-degree black belt in karate, a veteran podcaster, and probably some other stuff, too. Find out less at www.DeCandido.net.
Lori Del Genis may be one of those people who has more ongoing projects than sense. Though she still dreams of creating photorealistic portraits on commission, she has 20+ years' sewing experience and for the past 11 years has been the Alpha behind Conscious Elegance, a green business which creates useful and pretty things out of reclaimed fabrics. Lori has lectured publicly on zero-waste business practices and her dresswork has been exhibited in the American Textile History Museum. In her copious spare time, she putters around her overgrown garden and becomes Destroyer Goddess as her preferred therapy when hugs are not immediately available. She resides in Stoneham with her spoose Jonathan and never wants to live outside of 495 again. Find her drawings at www.afinelikeness.com and her fabric creations at www.consciouselegance.com.
Daniel P. Dern (www.dern.com) is a freelance technology writer, and a very amateur magician. His science fiction stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Analog, F&SF, World of If, and New Dimensions. He's also been writing his short/flash-length Dern Grim Bedtime Stories (Few of Which End Well)," and longer, Jewish-themed YA contemporary urban fantasies including "The Tashlich Fish," "A Child's Yom Kippur In Whales," and "And They Built A Crooked Sukkah."
Mario Di Giacomo does not hold a doctorate in any subject, but he can be quite strange, when the mood arises. A storyteller at heart, Mario has been recounting tales about the history of science fiction, fantasy, and anime at conventions in Southern New England for over a decade.
Alexa Dickman is a blogger who runs the Ladies Making Comics tumblr (http://www.ladiesmakingcomics.com). She is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable and an avid comics historian who runs the Women in Comics Wiki (http://womenincomics.wikia.com). She's also a former law student and IP nerd. Her other interests include fanfiction, buying books she has no time to read, making her own tea blends, and Bond villains.
DJ Dirge (Allure, Excess, Haven) is known for his raucous parties and genre-defying mixing. Dirge is the resident DJ at several dance nights in and around Boston and New England. Dirge's musical selections range from EBM, IDM, Electro, Dubstep, New Wave, Goth, and Rock. Never one to hold back, Dirge infuses energy and excitement into every event. Dirge is New England's only living-dead DJ, playing music to wake the dead.
DJ Xero (Haven, Excess), an operative of SeeDarkly™, has spun regularly in New England's dark alternative goth-industrial dance club scene since 2006. He also writes a weekly blog about dark-alternative cover songs and their origins. For mixes, playlists, blogs, and upcoming events, find him online: http://Xero.SeeDarkly.com
Michael "Lawyer Mike" Dlott has been running games for over 20 years and has frequently run White Wolf LARPs and Dungeons and Dragons games at local area cons such as Arisia and Anime Boston. Recently he has started staffing Live Gaming at Arisia. He resides in Quincy, MA with his wife Melissa and 2 cats.
N.S. Dolkart is the author of Silent Hall and its sequel Among the Fallen, coming April 4th from Angry Robot Books. He is a fine upstanding citizen, despite his mysterious love for writing epic fantasy. He lives in Waltham.
Debra Doyle was born in Florida and educated in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Pennsylvania -- the last at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate in English, concentrating on Old English poetry. While in Philadelphia, she met and married James D. Macdonald, who was then serving in the US Navy, and subsequently traveled with him to Virginia, California, and the Republic of Panama. Doyle and Macdonald left the Navy and Panama in 1988 in order to move to Colebrook, New Hampshire, and write full-time. With Jim Macdonald, she has written the Mageworlds space opera series and the alternate-historical fantasies Land of Mist and Snow and Lincoln's Sword; their most recent publication is the short story "Gertrude of Wyoming" in the anthology Altered States of the Union, from Crazy8 Press. She is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Science Fiction Writer's Workshop each year on Martha's Vineyard; she also does freelance editorial and critique work.
Thom Dunn is a writer, musician, and new media artist, as well as a staff writer at Upworthy. He has had plays performed in New York, Boston, Hollywood, and Alaska; comic books published by Grayhaven Comics and Ninth Art Press; essays and criticisms and other vaguely-non-fictional ramblings published by Quirk Books and Tor.com; and poetry published by Asimov's and others. He is a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, as well as a graduate of the Clarion Writer’s Workshop at UCSD and Emerson College. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and firmly believes that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is the single greatest atrocity ever committed against mankind. thomdunn.net / @thomdunn / facebook.com/thomdunnwrites
Greykell Dutton, aka werewulf, has been wandering around the convention scene since age 15 when a friend of the family brought her to a Star Trek convention in Washington DC and she saw Mr. Spock!! She spends most of her time at conventions volunteering in various jobs including coat check at Arisia, Tech Fandom at cons up and down the east coast, and as the Backstage Pirate for many masquerades. She is also the props mistress and co-director of the Dr. Horrible Live show at Dragoncon in Atlanta and proudly declares Dr. Horrible as her main fandom. She is the 2017 Arisia FGoH.
Jill Eastlake is a Master Costumer and ICG Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Although she costumes infrequently, she has a penchant for working in winning costuming groups. Jill has been the President of the Northern Lights Costumers' Guild, a chapter of the International Costumers' Guild and other fannish organizations, chaired Arisia '09, Boskone 11 and 15, Costume-Con 18, and a Division Head at many Worldcons. She's well known as a great recruiter, so if you have any spare time, watch out! You won't after Jill and her friends have inspired you.
Gaia Eirich is a Master costumer and has been attending and costuming at conventions for over 15 years. For the last 17 years she has been sewing and creating costumes in a wide variety of forms including fantasy, historical, and anime costumes for conventions and commissions, belly dance costumes for a studio, wedding dresses, accessories, and also basic quilt making. She has also worked as a costume manager in a theater and is currently working on belly dance costume alterations for a studio. She loves and greatly enjoys taking part in convention masquerades in all areas (participating, judging, etc). She is also an active member of the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumer's Guild (GCFCG), the local chapter of the International Costumer's Guild (ICG).
Genevieve Iseult Eldredge is the creative mind behind the authorial/editorial storm and salvo that is GirlyEngine. A published author and professional editor, GIE holds an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction, a first-degree black belt in Goju-Ryu karate, a second-degree brown belt in small-circle jiu jitsu, and has been a panelist at Arisia, PhilCon, ConBust, and was Guest of Awesome at 4Pi-Con. A feminist, sapphist, and all-around strong female character, she believes that representation matters at every level, and she champions the often unheard female voice. GIE recently signed on with Monster House Books to publish LGBT YA about girls kicking ass and falling in love. The first book in her Circuit Fae series, Circuit Fae: Moribund, comes out in September 2017. Find GIE at her website: http://www.girlyengine.com/ and on FaceBook at: Genevieve Iseult Eldredge - Author and Twitter: @girlyengine
Kevin Eldridge hosts The Flopcast, a ridiculous weekly podcast about comics, conventions, Saturday morning cartoons, 1980s pop culture, and rubber chickens. His comedy band The Sponge Awareness Foundation can be heard occasionally on the Doctor Demento Show, and he has been a juror for the Logan Awards for Excellence in Comedy Music. Kevin is also an organizer for Boston Skeptics, a group of nerds promoting science and critical thinking.
Ruthanna Emrys is a Neo-Lovecraftian writer, blogger, and monster apologist. Along with best co-blogger Anne M. Pillsworth, she writes the Lovecraft Reread series for Tor.com. Her first novel, Winter Tide, will be available from MacMillan's Tor.com imprint in April 2017. She lives in a mysterious manor house in the outskirts of Washington DC with her wife and their large, strange family. She makes home-made vanilla, obsesses about game design, gives unsolicited advice, occasionally attempts to save the world, and blogs sporadically at http://ashnistrike.livejournal.com and on Twitter as @r_emrys.
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction under a pen-name so her colleagues don't question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, is fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it 'zealously representing your client.' In addition to intellectual property law and issues related to battered women, she is the owner of Seraphim Press, which publishes her own books, several literary estates, and box sets for several best-selling author cooperatives including contemporary romance, paranormal, space opera and Christian fiction [don't ask]; digitizes old books and brings them back to life; oversees translation work and international marketing; a Broad Universe member; a lurking wannabe horror writer at New England Horror Writers Association, and has had her works translated into 8 different languages. She moderates two Goodreads communities: Lovers of Paranormal, and is the Space Opera Fans Borg Queen.
Griffin Ess—Professional illustrator and head-of-nonsense at Shaded Areas Entertainment, Griffin has made it his life's drive to create and facilitate art and entertainment that uplifts, informs, and includes. Check out the art at GriffinEss.com or the articles, shows, and comics at ShadedAreas.com
Paul Estin (a.k.a. "Happy Fun Paul") is a longtime SF fan with a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and an affinity for silly music. Musically, Paul can often be found in filk circles singing and playing guitar. Among Paul's other interests are (in alphabetical order) '80s music, astronomy, bicycling, cats, cognitive science, complexity, dynamism, epiphenomena, epistemology, folk music, freedom, linguistics, liberty, maps, market solutions, modern fairy tales, movies, mu*ing, natural history, Neil Gaiman, non-fiction, nonstandard categories, operational definitions (mostly critiquing them), rock music, RPGs (older ones and meta-design), science, subconscious biases, surreality, systemic modeling and feedback mechanisms, Unitarian Universalism, and xenobiology. Ingredients of Happy Fun Paul include an unknown glowing substance which fell to Earth, presumably from outer space. DO NOT TAUNT HAPPY FUN PAUL!!!
etana is an assistive technology specialist, social justice worker and poet. They like glitter, universal design, sewing (poorly) and cruising around like a blind cyborg in C.A.R., the trusty power chair. First fandom was Buffy (the film), first poetic love was Shel Silverstein, and Ms. Frizzle is still their favorite teacher/inspiration (for everything).
Wonder Wendy Farrell began sewing (with a lot of help from her mother) at the age of 10. She began creating her own costumes for high school performances. Shortly after becoming a mom, she discovered the joy of creating really fun costumes for her children. When she attended Arisia in 1999, she realized that there were lots of other people like her that enjoyed sewing and creating. Her first masquerade entry was in 2003; subsequently, she has won numerous awards including several "Best in Class". She has done numerous fantasy, super-hero, and steam punk creations,. Her company "Wonder Wendy & Friends" has shown two fashion collections at the SEABA Art Hop STRUT. They have also costumed theatrical productions in Vermont. Wonder is an inveterate hoarder of fabrics and anything else that might come in handy for a future costume. (A dangerous pastime). She is a member of the Norther Lights Costumer's Guild (NOEL) and a Master Costumer.
Alexander Feinman—Alex hacks hackers for a living: he helps design a programming language used by millions worldwide. His sci-fi novels Duplicate, We Were Gods, and End Game are available for sale online and at Arisia; he is currently finishing up a YA fantasy novel.
Sara Felix is a Texas conrunner and artist living in Austin. She started working on conventions after working with Willie Siros at the Science Fiction and Mystery bookstore Adventures in Crime and Space. Since then she has worked many different sized conventions from ArmadilloCon, World Fantasy to WorldCons. While wearing her artist hat she makes jewelry and small clay robot sculptures that she sells at art shows. She designed the 2016 Hugo base and is also the president of ASFA, The Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy artists.
Mr. Ferguson is a math teacher at a school for students with above average intelligence and emotional differences. He is also a youth sword instructor, so please ask him if you want your children to learn the knightly art of the sword. AND he is a storyteller with over 25 years' experience, although some would say the first ten years don't count because he wasn't over 18 yet.
Kristina Finan has been sewing and costuming since 1982, a Doctor Who fan since 1979, and a Science Fiction fan since she saw the first man walk on the moon, live. Now she attempts to write about it. Don't get her wrong, she still sews, keeps a full-time job as a Custom Framer, and a part-time job keeping a husband.
Carl Fink is the Chair of LI-CON, a new convention on Long Island, and President of ICON Science Fiction. Taking Heinlein's comment about specialization to heart, he has in his life worked on a loading dock, managed a store, been a schoolteacher, worked as a technical trainer, managed corporate Information Technology, and is an occasional freelance writer, appearing in Smart Computing and Linux Journal. A member of the James Randi Foundation and the Skeptics Society, Currently enrolled in a Masters program in Learning Technology, Carl is particularly likely to challenge pseudoscience and superstition. He lives and works on Long Island, New York.
Allison Finn is a scarred veteran of many a decade of con running, and a semi-professional photographer. An avid film and media collector specializing in Asian and British science fiction and horror.
William Frank, aka "scifantasy," is a geek and lawyer, in roughly that order. Professionally, he specializes in trademark law, has interned for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Creative Commons, and was a computer programmer before he turned to evil--err, law. Fannishly, he has interests in pretty much everything. Will was also Vice-Administrator of the 2016 Hugo Awards. This is Will's seventh Arisia, his fifth as a panelist.
Adam Fromm is a musician, writer, crossword constructor, the bearded half of folk duo Murder Ballads, and a man with insufficient control over his hair's daily activities. He has recently moved to the wilds of Rhode Island in a bid to bolster his underdog status, and between songwriting, performing, procrastinating on editing that same damn novel, and commuting daily to Lexington for reasons even he doesn't understand, he keeps pretty busy. Can be bribed with Thai food.
Ed Fuqua is a Young Adult Librarian as well as being a writer, poet and swordsman. He has spent many years running comic book stores and has qualified for the National Poetry Slam Championships four times. He writes under the pen name Cameron Quintain. His novella Familiar Places won second place in the Passionate Plume Awards from the Romance Writers of America and his book The Viscountess Investigates is available from Circlet Press in print and ebook. The second book in the series is also available as an ebook. He is also a writer, director and performer at King Richard's Faire in Carver, MA.
Shana Fuqua has a BA in music. She is an fifteen-year veteran of King Richard's Faire where she spent one year as assistant apprentice music director, six years as an administrative assistant and three years as assistant director to the villager program. She has been involved in the BDSM scene for over twenty years and works with the programming team for the NELA Fetish Flea. She is also a member of the programming team for Arisia. She is an experienced gamer, both video games and tabletop RPGs. Her many skills include knitting, crocheting, spinning, candlemaking, and balancing a stick on her head.
Ken Gale's writing career started with sales to DC Comics and Warren Publishing in the 70's. He's editor and co-publisher of Dangerous Times and New Frontiers for Evolution Comics, wrote for Defiant Comics, and is a producer and host for two radio shows on WBAI-FM in NYC; one on the environment and one on comic books. He does miscellaneous arts and public affairs shows at many different time slots. He is a member of the Board of the Celtic League American Branch and a former math textbook writer. He wrote an environmental horror comic book story for Psychosis! #2 and is a long-time environmental activist. Since last Arisia, the guy with a face for radio has become a regular for Environment TV. www.comicbookradioshow.com & www.ecoradio.org
Games by Play Date—GbPD is a game design and publishing studio centered in southern New Hampshire. They make analog games that interest them and hopefully you.
Maya Garcia is a lifelong comics fan and an avid cosplayer, artist, and commentator. Her main loves in comics are Silver Age Marvel Comics and contemporary creator-owned works such as The Wicked + The Divine. Equally interested in visual and verbal art, she draws and does graphics design on the side while engaging with literature as a continuing student and aspiring critic and translator. She’s currently working on a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literature at Harvard University and her major research interests are music, poetry, and youth cultures of the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union.
Craig Shaw Gardner is the author of a bunch of books and short stories, many of which are now being released as e-books. His latest novel, Temporary Monsters, features an unemployment agency that secretly controls the world.
Jaime Garmendia is the incoming ConChair of Arisia 2018. He is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable where he writes, produces, publicizes, and markets independent comics of all genres. His first published game, the Wuxing Empire expansion for Your Move Games' Battleground, was published last year. He has run both the Programming and Exhibits Divisions in past years, and has been the Assistant ConChair for Team Content since 2016.
Dr. Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science. Her best-known project may be Astronomy Cast, a podcast she co-hosts with Fraser Cain (publisher of Universe Today). This show takes listeners on a facts-based journey thru the cosmos that explores not just what we know, but how we know it. Beyond Astronomy Cast, she is also director of the CosmoQuest virtual research facility, which engages people in learning and doing science through a combination of educational materials and citizen science projects. Dr. Gay also works to communicate astronomy to the public through her blogging, public talks, and popular science articles. She is the host of numerous web series, including the Google Lunar XPRIZE Team Hangouts. Her writing has appeared in Astronomy, Sky and Telescope, Lightspeed, and Mothership Zeta magazines. She has appeared in shows ranging from the History Channel's The Universe to National Geographic's Top Secrets.
Deb Geisler is a pretty boring college professor who helps run conventions in her spare time. She teaches communication and journalism on the college level, and enjoys F&SF, mysteries, and historic fiction. She does not collect anything interesting (except friends).
Greer Gilman's first metaphysical noir mystery, Cry Murder! In a Small Voice, won the 2013 Shirley Jackson Award. Ben Jonson investigates again in Exit, Pursued by a Bear. Her Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter's Tales won the 2010 Tiptree Award. Like her earlier novel Moonwise, it's set in a Northern mythscape, in a world where women turn the sky. Her Cloudish tales have also won a World Fantasy Award, a Crawford Award, and have been shortlisted for the Nebula and Mythopoeic Fantasy awards. Besides her two books, she has published other short work, poetry, and criticism. Her essay on "The Languages of the Fantastic" appears in The Cambridge Companion to Fantasy Literature. She likes to say she does everything James Joyce ever did, only backward and in high heels.
Julia Gilstein is a fantasy writer, editor, medievalist, tea addict, and cosplayer. She’s an assistant organizer for New England Asexuals (NEA) and a member of the Boston Speculative Fiction Writing Group, Boston Sci-Fi/Fantasy Meetup, Historyphiles, Boston Area Shakespeare, and Dress Up Boston. Julia lives north of the city and—when her nose isn’t buried in a book—can often be found procrastinating on Etsy, perusing the NaNoWriMo forums, and stealing her roommate’s lapdog. Keep up with Julia on Twitter @JGilstein.
Larissa Glasser is a librarian and SF writer from Boston. Her fiction has appeared in the anthologies Procyon Science Fiction Anthology 2016 (Tayen Lane Press) and The Healing Monsters Volume One (Despumation Press). She has previously published nonfiction and reviews in Harvard Review, The Boston Phoenix, and Maelstrom. She co-founded the Witching Metal band Hekseri (http://hekseri.net) and is a Member at Large of Broad Universe (https://broaduniverse.org). She’s on Twitter @larissaeglasser and blogs at https://larissaglasser.com.
Mehitabel Glenhaber is an independent comic artist, currently studying history of technology and media at MIT. She writes comics about squid in space striking up unlikely friendships with the Great Cthulhu, fairytales as Alan Turing would have told them to his children, improbable but nonetheless true stories about Unitarian Universalism summer camp, and the zombie apocalypse and 14th century theology. She has also written a research paper in comic book form on the history of comics censorship in the 1950s. She also talks about history, philosophy and science, and strange connections between those topics as one of the hosts of There and Back Again on WMBR. You can follow her comics shenanigans at topquarkintown.tumblr.com.
Timothy Goyette was raised in and is a resident of New Hampshire. He is the editor of Quantum Muse, a webzine and online writing group that has been around since 1999. In this capacity he has worked with many aspiring authors to help them develop their talents. Tim also a principal in Quantum Muse Books, an independent publishing house. He has authored a number of short stories and one novel, Lockdown which came out in 2013. In 2014 a collection of short stories was published, titled Digital Voodoo.
Anabel Graetz began performing as a teenager in Omaha, NE. She is half of the Victorian duo, The Proper Ladies; the creator and director of The Festival of Light & Song; and was founder and director of the all-woman ensemble Laduvane in the 70's. She has appeared off-off Broadway in The Drunkard and on several Boston stages; studied vocal folk styles extensively; was a Fulbright Scholar in 1987-88; developed and taught the perennially popular course "Song for Non-Singers" at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Anabel currently teaches at the Lau Lapides Studio in Wellesley, MA. Film and TV credits include Island Zero, script by famed mystery novelist Tess Gerritsen; The Last Poker Game, which stars Martin Landau and Paul Sorvino, the web series S(her)lock, release date TBD; and Mrs. Merriman in the award-winning HBO mini-series based on Olive Kitteridge, the novel by Elizabeth Strout, a must read!
April Grant lives in Somerville, MA. She has published poetry in Strange Horizons and Mythic Delirium. She enjoys singing and reciting poetry and telling ghost stories.
Justine Graykin is a freelance philosopher sustained by her deep and abiding faith in Science and Humanity (well, Science, anyway) and the belief that humor is the best anti-gravity device. Author of Archimedes Nesselrode (Double Dragon, 2013), written for adults who are weary of adult books, her new SF novel Awake Chimera is due out in June. She is often accompanied at conventions by a Winged Snake. Justine lives, writes and putters around her home in rural New Hampshire, occasionally disappearing into the White Mountains with a backpack. Find her at justinegraykin.com.
Erin Gumbel manages Comicopia--a comic, graphic novel, and manga bookstore in Kenmore square. Before that, she managed Chapel Hill Comics in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for almost 8 years. She has a Master's degree in Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was in charge of the campus's graphic novel collection. Erin loves helping you find the perfect comic to read next. She enjoys real cats, Internet cats, unreliable narrators, and the X-Files.
Dr. Abby Hafer is a biologist, writer and speaker on the topics of evolution, Intelligent Design, Creationism, and the lack of a gender binary in nature. She thinks that humor is often the best way to puncture a bad argument. She is the author of The "Not-So-Intelligent Designer" and has been interviewed on NPR and other radio outlets. Growing up, she lived many different places. This convinced her that what is considered normal changes with both time and distance. She has B.A. in biology from Swarthmore and a D.Phil. in zoology from Oxford University. She worked for National Marine Fisheries Service on a Japanese fishing ship in the Bering Sea where she won a push-ups contest with the ship's officers. She has done research on sleep, circadian rhythms, and respiratory physiology. She teaches Human Anatomy & Physiology at Curry College. She enjoys outdoor sports and thinks that geeks should do more of them, and has traveled widely, often to places that many people can't find on a map.
James Hailer is a writer, artist and adventurer born and raised in Boston Massachusetts. Sometimes he's writing science fiction, sometimes he's doing science experiments in his garage. On top of that he writes and draws the web comic, "Myanmar Folktales," learns more languages than people know exist and travels the world eating all the best food. When he's not splitting infinitives or atoms he's planning a wedding for his lovely wife and him this October.
Andrea Hairston is author of Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the 2011 Tiptree and Carl Brandon Awards, Mindscape, winner of the Carl Brandon Award and Lonely Stardust, a collection of essays and plays. Her latest play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater: 15 Plays by Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers. Her third novel, Will Do Magic For Small Change is a NEW YORK TIMES editor’s pick. Griots of the Galaxy, a short story, appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy. Saltwater Railroad was published by Lightspeed Magazine. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. In her spare time, Andrea is the L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre. She bikes at night year round, meeting bears, multi-legged creatures of light and breath, and the occasional shooting star.
A member of the CERN team that developed the original specifications for the World Wide Web, Phillip Hallam-Baker predicts the future the old way, by inventing it. With numerous patents and contributions to IETF, W3C and OASIS standards, Hallam-Baker is a recognized authority on Internet security, cryptography and Internet Crime. Active in the replica prop building community for the past five years, the full scale dalek he built (which visited Arisia in 2012) uses the same materials and techniques as the original prop. He is currently working on a TARDIS and Han in carbonite, both full scale.
Forest Handford is a fire artist from Berlin, MA. Forest works as the Games Evangelist at Affectiva. While not at work, he's bringing his family to corn mazes, conventions, and Burning Man events. His website is EastCoastGames.com where he publishes video and writing about various topics. He recently founded VoteSquared.org, the site for rating politicians.
For more than 10 years, Matt Harmony has been a member of a created polyamorous family called Harmony House, located in upstate New York. He is a father to five children, a wordsmith, a musician, a SCAdian, and a shameless movie geek who, while watching a film, has been known to read along with the screenplay. He makes his living as a media professional.
Buzz Harris is a former Arisia conchair, and, in his real life, was the Executive Director of the Ida B. Wells Center for Investigative Journalism. He recently retired to take up life as a professional mosaic artist (and sometime troublemaker).
Morgana Hartman has written about anime and manga for Amazing Stories Magazine, The Mary Sue, and Kronos' Speakeasy (all under the name Morgana Santilli). She is the Manga Manager at Comicopia in Kenmore Square. The first comic book she ever owned was Sailor Moon, which she received for her eighth birthday.
Glenn Hauman has over 25 years of experience in publishing and was a pioneer in ebooks. Mr. Hauman has worked as an author, graphic designer, editor, photo retoucher, CD-ROM producer, story consultant for films, and radio show host. His Star Trek book, "Creative Couplings", got worldwide press coverage for its portrayal of the first Klingon-Jewish wedding. In addition to Star Trek, he's written other licensed tie-in works for X-Men and Farscape, and urban fantasy for Baen Books, and he was the colorist for Mike Grell's Jon Sable Freelance: Ashes Of Eden graphic novel as part of his work for ComicMix (http://www.comicmix.com). His most fun work is with ComicMix Pro Services, where he says "anything that a comic creator doesn't want to deal with, or know how to do... we do. We provide everything you need to make your comics great."
A New England native, Wes Hazard was named as one of “5 Boston Comedians to Watch” by The Boston Globe Magazine. A writer and storyteller as well as comedian, Wes brings wit, energy and honesty to the stage, qualities that have made him a regular performer in Boston venues as well as at The Boston Comedy Festival and The Women in Comedy Festival. Wes is a multiple-time winner on The Moth StorySLAM stage and he’s appeared as a guest on the Comedy Bang! Bang! Live! podcast – based on the critically-acclaimed IFC television show -- with Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins. Wes is also always down for delivering a multimedia presentation about comic book advertising or the critical role of Matthew Lillard in American horror cinema. He wishes you only the best.
Rev. Johnny Healey is an amateur mixologist, homebrewer, and gin enthusiast. He has many years of experience brewing beer, mixing cocktails, and making homemade bitters. He also programs computers as a day job.
Jeff Hecht is a freelance science and technology writer and a correspondent for the weekly New Scientist. His short fiction has appeared in Analog, Nature Futures, Asimov's, Interzone, Twilight Zone, Daily Science Fiction and several anthologies including Year's Best Horror Stories, Great American Ghost Stories, Extreme Planets, Decopunk, Extreme Planets, and the upcoming Conspiracy!. His non-fiction has appeared in many other magazines, including Nature, IEEE Spectrum, Laser Focus World, Optics & Photonics News, Omni, Analog, Cosmos, and Technology Review. His books include Understanding Fiber Optics (Pearson/Prentice Hall), Understanding Lasers (IEEE Press/Wiley), Beam: the Race to Make the Laser and City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics (both Oxford University Press). He holds a B.S. in electronic engineering from Caltech.
Lisa Hertel is an artist from a long line of artists (to be continued). She usually works in clay and watercolors, but has also done alcohol inks, encaustics, and more. In her spare time, she helps run literary science fiction conventions, including being the chair of Arisia 2014. Visit her at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, studio #109, where she offers art classes for children and adults.
Andy Hicks is, or has been: a writer, producer and occasional voice-over guy for WGBH radio and television, a musician, a sound designer, an actor, a cat owner, a husband, an author, an ADHD advocate, a human being, an odd duck, a host for storytelling nights and pub trivia, an angry liberal, a Time Lord, a test subject, an early-childhood PCE exposure survivor, a late night rock DJ, a writer of post-apocalyptic musicals, robot, a rocketship, a jet fighter, a paper airplane, and for a brief and glorious week, an escaped capybara. Oh, and he's writing a thing for a Star Trek essay compilation called Outside In Boldly Goes 2, and is dragging old media kicking and screaming into the digital age. Probably.
Ellie Hillis is a blogger, reporter, podcaster, comics historian, and cosplayer. She is a reporter and founder of Acts of Geek, and a featured contributor for Geek League of America and the Geek Initiative. A graduate of Smith College, she wrote her senior thesis, The Surviving Superheroines: Costume, Sexuality and Identity of Female Characters in Superhero Comics, with Professor N. C. Christopher Couch. She has a number of upcoming scholarly articles, and has contributed to a number of presentations and shows on graphic novels and comics. She is a Director at a New England non-profit, and has managed social media for nerdcore rapper MC Lars. Her writing has been featured in a variety of RPGs published by Spectrum Games, and she is currently beta testing her RPG "Best Friends Forever! Magic, Adventure, Sparkles, and Hugs". Her costumes have been featured in Comic Alliance's Best Cosplay Ever (This Week), Marvel Comics, IDW Publishing, and Science Fiction.com.
Lee C. Hillman is a contributing editor and author in the Bad-Ass Faeries series (Dark Quest Books), as well as the anthology, TV Gods (Fortress Publishing). As Gwendolyn Grace, she is also a singer-songwriter, an avid fanfiction author, and a conference planner. In her third alter-ego, Lee Carter Browne, she is a theatrical and radio (voice) actor. She is the President of HPEF, Inc., an organization that produced Harry Potter conventions between 2003 and 2012. She is also a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Since September, 2008, she was a player-author and moderator in the journal-based role-playing game, HP Alternity, on Dreamwidth.org, which reached its planned conclusion in September, 2015. Although she is seeking more gainful employment, she looks forward to getting back major amounts of time which can be used for other projects, like the CD she has been promising herself to produce, or more likely endlessly playing BushWhacker2.
James Hinsey is a lifelong lover of science fiction, fantasy, books, movies, tv-shows, anime, 80's music, women, root beer, chocolate, Hawaii, Japan, and family. He is half-Japanese, a reader, Potterhead, Trekker, Browncoat, Costumer, book-collector, model-maker, videographer, con-goer, RISFC member, Sci-Fi Journal co-host, Psi Upsilon brother, RPI alum, former naval officer, brother, son, uncle, husband, and father of two young women. He is currently Arisia '17 Masquerade Director. SamuraiX47.
Steven Hirsch has been training swords since 2006 and unarmed martial arts since 1998. First with the Higgins and now teaching at his own school, Athena School of Arms. Steven is also a professional strength coach focusing on performance for combat sports and martial artists, his business is Fight with All Your Strength. He is also studying to be a physical therapist--which may be useful given his hobby.
Cate Hirschbiel—A librarian and 10-year Boston resident, Cate enjoys consuming lots of media in the form of books, podcasts, television shows, and movies. She will happily go on at length about a number of topics including GoT, Outlander, Shakespeare, superheroes, football, and the future of libraries. She also enjoys playing board games, tabletop RPGs and LARPs. In her professional capacity she promotes the use of the college library by hanging lots of posters and giving away candy. She reviews popular science titles and writes occasional news articles for Library Journal.
Merav Hoffman is a New York-based singer/songwriter and performer. She is a founding member of the band Lady Mondegreen along with Seanan McGuire and Batya Wittenberg. She also edits books, musicals and poetry, as well as writing her own. In 2013 she was nominated for the Rhysling poetry award in the short form category. She works in publishing, television, and IT, and occasionally produces albums and DVDs for her various musical projects. In whatever time she has left over, she crochets an insane amount and runs local music events.
Melissa Honig likes to hang out with the New England Browncoats and the Boston SciFi/Fantasy Meetup Group, and has somehow found herself involved in the organization of the Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, MA. She enjoys steampunk, costuming, weird crafts, and playing with the stuff she finds while trying to clean up the craft room so she doesn't have to finish cleaning up.
Heidi Hooper is the Dryer Lint Lady -- Believe it or Not! Her unusual dryer lint art is featured in Ripley's Believe it or Not Museums all over the world and in their books. She has been nominated four times for the prestigious Niche award (having won once) and was the Artist Guest of Honor at Albacon in 2016. Heidi has a Bachelors in Sculpture from Virginia Commonwealth University and Master's in Metalsmithing from the Massachusetts College of Art. Her work has been seen in many galleries across the country and can be viewed on her web page at www.heidihooper.com. She also has won many costuming awards for her metal armor pieces, including a Best Craftsman award at the Worldcon level. She has been a masquerade judge at many conventions, including Worldcon, Balticon, and Ravencon. Heidi is also one of the founders of modern American fantasy medieval LARPing along with her husband Michael A. Ventrella. They now run Alliance LARP (www.AllianceLARP.com)
Sharone Horowit-Hendler is a linguistic anthropology graduate student, currently working on her PhD. She is studying how we create and present our gender identities through our language, especially focusing on nonbinary gender presentation. In her free time, she is a LARPer, playing in boffer LARPs and playing, GMing, and writing theater style LARPs. She is an avid reader, board gamer, and table top gamer, who also sings, writes music ( though rarely), and makes adorable jewelry and pins out of sculpy. She is also a member of the Teseracte Players of Boston and looks forward to performing for you this Arisia.
Ariela Housman works in tech by day and moonlights as a professional calligrapher. A geek of many flavors, Ariela consumes SFF in most media, including novels, comics, TV, and movies. She also enjoys tabletop games, costuming, swing dancing, smashing the kyriarchy, and drinking tea.
Diana Hsu has been involved with conventions of one sort or another since 2005, and has been speaking about issues around race, feminism, and social justice in fan spaces since 2011. For more of the Diana Experience, follow her on Twitter at @dromeda. She makes no guarantees about quality.
Walter H. Hunt has been writing for most of his life and was Arisia Author GOH in 2009. His first four Dark Wing novels were published by Tor Books and are now available from Baen as e-books. His novel A Song In Stone deals with Rosslyn Chapel and the Templars. His latest novel Elements of Mind from Spencer Hill Press was published in July 2014, and his 1632 novel 1636: The Cardinal Virtues appeared in 2015. An upcoming alternate-history novel with Eric Flint will appear in 2017. He has a background in history, with a BA from Bowdoin College in Maine, and he speaks two other languages (German and Spanish). A Freemason, Walter H. Hunt has served as Master of two different Lodges in Massachusetts. He is a devoted baseball fan and board gamer; his first published game was published in 2011 by Rio Grande Games. He has been married for more than half of his life, and he and his wife have one daughter who is a product of their affection and unusual joint sense of humor.
Elaine Isaak is the author of The Singer's Crown (Eos, 2005), and its sequels, as well as the "Tales of Bladesend" epic novella series. As E. C. Ambrose, she also writes "The Dark Apostle" series of dark historical fantasy novels about medieval medicine. The Dark Apostle started with Elisha Barber (DAW, 2013), described in a starred Library Journal review as, "painfully elegant", and continuing with Elisha Magus, Elisha Rex and two forthcoming volumes. Elaine lives in New Hampshire with her family where she works part-time as an adventure guide. In addition to writing and teaching, Elaine enjoys taiko drumming, kayaking, rock climbing, and all manner of fiber arts. www.thedarkapostle.com
Felicitas Ivey is the pen name of a very frazzled helpdesk drone at a Boston area university. Felicitas writes LGBTQ Romance with a smattering of Urban Fantasy and Horror of a Lovecraftian nature--monsters beyond space and time that think humans are the tastiest things in the multiverse. She divides her free time between writing and slowly working her way through her yarn stash, even as she adds more to it periodically. Felicitas has three cats who are very sad she isn't spending most of her free time petting them.
Alexander Jablokov's most recent published novel is Brain Thief, a fast-paced AI-hunting adventure, now out in paperback. His most recent story, "The Return of Black Murray" will appear in Asimov's. He is the author of five other novels, including Carve the Sky, Nimbus, and Deepdrive, and a number of short stories. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Colin Janson lives in Somerville and has been an anime fan since the halycon days when Gundam Wing was airing on Toonami. He reads a whole bunch of manga and has a Crunchyroll subscription, so he's about as qualified as you, probably.
Victoria Janssen's novel-length erotica includes The Duke and the Pirate Queen and The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover. The Moonlight Mistress is set during her favorite historical time period, World War One; its electronic-only sequel is titled "Under Her Uniform." Her erotic short stories, many of them historical or speculative, are available in numerous anthologies and as e-books. She reviews for Publishers Weekly. Find out more at http://victoriajanssen.com.
Alex Jarvis is a Meat Popsicle.
Konner Jebb is a 23 year old writer, LGBT activist and nerd. Currently pursuing an MFA from the Solstice Program of Pine Manor, he dreams of using his poetry and novels to better the community. He is a Admin of the Boston Whovians. Lover of geektastic things, he lives with his partner, cat and so many books.
Frederic Jennings is an attorney at Tor Ekeland, PC, where he defends hacktivists, challenges the DMCA's oppressive effect on researchers, and litigates on issues including copyright, trademark, digital privacy, and corporate formation. Prior to joining Tor Ekeland, PC, he was Lead Researcher and Development Coordinator at the International Legal Foundation, where he consulted and researched indigent defense systems in Afghanistan and the West Bank. His prior speaking engagements include: National Lawyers Guild DisOrientation: Alternative Legal Careers Panel (2013, 2014, 2015), Know Your Rites: A Discussion on Magic and the Law (2014), Public Defense on the Front Lines: Criminal Legal Aid Provision in Post-Conflict and Transitional Nations (2013) and The Rights of the Bedouin: Land Disputes, Water Deprivation, and Village Demolition (2012). When not lawyering, he can be found writing, reading, or building improbable machines capable of excessive velocities.
Juliet Kahn has been covering comics professionally for three years, primarily for Comics Alliance and Publishers Weekly. Her first graphic novel, Fabiola & Ylini, will be published by Oni Press in 2018. She is also an employee of Hub Comics in Somerville's Union Square.
Deborah Kaminski is Professor Emerita of Mechanical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is the author of over 80 peer-reviewed articles in technical journals, an invited article in the New York Times, a featured article in Science, with associated podcast, and an engineering textbook published by John Wiley & Sons. Her research specialty is thermal and fluid processes, including solar energy, computational fluid dynamics, and artificial intelligence. Kaminski's debut novel, Damian’s Workshop, is a tale of adventure and discovery where a graduate student is cast back in time to the Fourth Crusade. Kaminski lives with her family in Schenectady, NY.
Faith Karklin was introduced to Arisia in 2008 and has found herself returning every year since. Apparently she can't resist a weekend spent dancing and discussing books. She's a member of a local meet-up group called New England Asexuals. She irregularly updates a blog called "I'm Ace, Ask Me How!" to share some of her thoughts and respond to questions posed by that friends, family, and acquaintances.
Elliott Kay is the author of the military sci-fi series Poor Man's Fight and the fun, steamy urban fantasy series Good Intentions. He has a bachelor’s degree in history and is a former member of the US Coast Guard. Kay has survived a motorcycle crash, severe seasickness, high school in Los Angeles, summers in Phoenix, and winters in Seattle.
Kate Kaynak was born in New Jersey but was able to escape. Her degree from Yale says she was a psych major, but her true senior project was a bawdy songbook for the Marching Band. After serving a 5-year sentence in graduate school, she started teaching psychology around the world for the University of Maryland. While in Turkey, she started up a conversation with a handsome stranger in an airport - and ended up marrying him. Kaynak now lives in New Hampshire, where she enjoys reading, writing, and fighting crime with her amazing superpowers. Her YA paranormal series - the Ganzfield books - start with Minder and tell the story of Maddie, a 16-year-old telepath training at a secret facility. She was one of the founders of Spencer Hill Press, a publishing house created with a mission to discover and launch the careers of talented new authors that was acquired by a New York publisher in 2014, and currently teaches emotional intelligence skills to engineers. www.KateKaynak.com
Abigail Keenan is a big ol’ nerd and a connoisseur of all things geeky and or kinky. They are the owner of Untamed Undies, a feminist and geeky company that provides undies, pasties and toys for folks across the gender spectrum. They are also a contributor to thegeekspectrum.com, where they provide a fun look at sex ed and fandom.
Keffy R.M. Kehril is a science fiction and fantasy writer, editor, and podcaster currently located on Long Island, NY, where he is working toward a PhD in Genetics. His short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, Apex, and Uncanny, as well as in anthologies such as Clockwork Phoenix 5. In 2015, he launched GlitterShip, (http://www.glittership.com) which is a podcast that audio versions of LGBTQ science fiction and fantasy short stories. You can find more about him at http://www.keffy.com or @Keffy on Twitter.
Jeff Keller is a Boston-area song session leader, chantey singer, and occasional filker who has been working to expand, enrich, and revitalize Music Track since Arisia 2012. He's also a vintage dancer, the founder of the local vintage dance band (the Ad Hoc Waltz and Quadrille Band), and a sometime member of the Arisia technical crew and Music Track Manager.
A Jersey Girl currently trapped without good diners or boardwalks in New England, Rachel Kenley (www.rachelkenley.net) is a novelist, workshop leader, radio host, and co-founder of the Writers Business School (www.writersbusinessschool.com). She is the best-selling author of five erotic romance novels and editor/contributor to nine anthologies. When she is not writing she is homeschooling her sons, trying unsuccessfully to keep up with laundry, and laughing as much as possible. She can also be found (perhaps a little too much) on Facebook (www.facebook.com/authorrachelkenley) She is the Vice President of Broad Universe and a member of Romance Writers of America and the International Women’s Writers Guild. She loves reading, chocolate, her morning cup of coffee, and retail therapy. Let's have coffee and shop!
Paul Kenworthy began historic costuming and making armour and swords back in 1974 while he was getting his bachelor's degree in history and working part-time as a shipsmith at Mystic Seaport. He is an avid re-enactor and belongs to a number of groups that recreate various periods. He is the commanding officer of the New England Brigade, an umbrella organization for Union re-enactors in New England, Captain of the Salem Trayned Band, a group that recreates the first militia company in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and a member of the Company of the Wolfe Argent, a group that recreates a Burgundian ordinance company of the 1470s. He is one of the co-founders of the Higgins Armory Sword Guild, a group based in Worcester that studies and interprets Renaissance fencing manuals. He has recently expanded his costuming and prop making into cosplaying anime and video game characters.
In an effort to make all the things, Angela Kessler has so far tried sewing, crochet, knitting, needle felting, embroidery, bookbinding, rugbraiding, woodburning, cheesemaking, canning, glass etching, lucet cord, and tablet weaving (varying from a single completed project through decades of experience). She also enjoys morris dance, Kalevala storytelling, and singing. She has studied but has not yet gotten around to actually trying shoemaking, soapmaking, wet felting, and dyeing.
David Kessler—Co-Producer and Stage Manger of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony. Writer, Logistician, and professional Generalist, studying odd ideas and skills, from calligraphy to juggling, sailing to fire eating, tai chi to Lewis Carroll, and whisky to singing. (www.ouphrontis.com)
Jeremy H. Kessler lives in Greater Boston where he is an instigator. He is also a singer, morris dancer, musician, cheesemaker, drinker, and co-developer of the only known kosher boar's head anywhere. As a singer, he has been deeply involved in local sings of various traditional sorts, including chantey sings and pub sings. As a morris dancer, he dances with the Newtowne Morris Men, is the musician for Pipe Dream Morris, and is the squire of the only Greater Boston morris team to dance the AntiMorris. He has danced the AntiMorris for Terry Pratchett himself, and is quite proud that said author described it--in Wintersmith's author's note--as "a bit creepy".
Lorrie Kim is the author of Snape: A Definitive Reading (Story Spring Publishing, 2016). She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her clever, grumpy, magical spouse and their Harry Potter-reading offspring, one born between Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince and one in gestation during the publication of Deathly Hallows.
Daniel M Kimmel is a Hugo-nominated film critic and author of Jar Jar Binks Must Die. His reviews and essays can be found at NorthShoreMovies.net and Space and Time Magazine. His first novel, Shh! It's a Secret: a novel about Aliens, Hollywood and the Bartender's Guide, launched at Arisia 2013 and was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. His latest novel is Time on My Hands: My misadventures in time travel. Check at the Fantastic Books table for further information.
Born in 1967, Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein has not yet managed to shuffle off the mortal coil, though not for want of trying, apparently. She writes (fiction, music, poetry, recipes, and the occasional political rant), draws, paints, sings, dances, cooks, builds and repairs houses, and occasionally makes an outright fool of herself when confronted with her intellectual heroes. She also has Opinions. No, wait! Don't run!
Ken Kingsgrave-Ernstein is absolutely not the superhero Common Sense Man. He does not spend his days saving various portions of Corporate America from itself. He also does not perform amazing feats of system engineering. He does, however, enjoy reading Science Fiction and the occasional foray into Fantasy. He also enjoys speculating on how to survive the Zombie Apocalypse with skills he learned surviving the Cold War. He also spends spare time (ha, what's that?) with his camera and playing with rope, often at the same time.
Asher Kory is a former literary agent turned software developer. They are a homebrewer, costumer, muay thai enthusiast, and they are a member of the 501st Legion and Rebel Legion Star Wars costuming organizations. They play roller derby as Jedi Mind Trix for the Long Island Roller Rebels.
Ellen Kranzer has been attending science fiction conventions for over 30 years and making music even longer. Filk lets her mix the two hobbies. Ellen is a founding member of M.A.S.S. F.I.L.C. and the club's current treasurer. She has been involved in planning numerous conventions both in and out of fandom.
Matthew Kressel is a multiple Nebula Award-nominated author and World Fantasy Award-nominated editor. His first novel King of Shards was published in October 2015, and the follow-up Queen of Static is out March 2017. His short fiction has or will appear in such venues as Tor.com, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Nightmare, io9.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, Apex Magazine, and the anthologies, After, Naked City, The People of the Book, and other markets. From 2003 to 2010 he published Sybil's Garage, the acclaimed speculative fiction magazine. And he also published the World Fantasy Award-winning Paper Cities. He co-hosts the Fantastic Fiction at KGB series with Ellen Datlow in Manhattan, and is a member of the Altered Fluid writers group. By day he writes software to make other people's lives easier. Find him online at www.matthewkressel.net and @mattkressel on Twitter.
Sioban Krzywicki—I've recently sold my first short story to the Hidden Youth anthology coming out soon. I've been helping run Readercon for 4 years in various roles.
Alisa Kwitney is the multi-published author of adult and YA novels, graphic novels and non-fiction. Her newest novel, Cadaver & Queen, will be published in 2017 by Harlequin Teen. Alisa is also the editor of Liminal Comics, an imprint of Brain Mill Press that publishes love stories for rebels, misfits and outcasts. She has an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia, was an editor at DC Comics/Vertigo, and assisted Neil Gaiman on his book of Norse mythology, due out this February. Want to know more? Visit her at www.alisakwitney.com, http://www.brainmillpress.com/liminal-comics/, follow her on Twitter @akwitney, or like her on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/alisa.kwitney.sheckley/.
Marnen Laibow-Koser is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, software developer, linguistics nerd, and kinkster. He would like to find out how profitable a master’s degree in music can be.
David Larochelle is a PhD student at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania who works at the intersection of computer science and social science. He's worked extensively in information security and is the co-author of Splint, an Open Source tool for detecting security vulnerabilities in C programs. However, more recently he's focused on understanding and building the Internet rather than attacking and defending it. He grew up in the D.C. area but lived in Cambridge over over a decade before moving to Philadelphia where he currently resides. His involvement with fandom began when he joined the William & Mary Science Fiction and Fantasy Club (SKIFFY). He served as Vice President and was named Senator for Life upon gradation.
Cody Lazri is a gender non-binary, polyamorous-identified, bisexual, BPD, NVLD, OCD, compulsive event planner who uses the pronouns e/em/eir/eirs. E has been on staff for Arisia and the Transcending Boundaries Conference for years in a variety of roles, was a founder of the Five College Queer Gender and Sexuality Conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, volunteers for DevOpsDays Boston, and co-found the Boston Area Trans Tech Enthusiasts Meetup. Most of eir work at conferences and conventions focuses on accessibility and diversity. In eir professional life, e is a Platform Engineer and actually loves to document things. Most importantly, e has three cats: Ramona, who recently learned how to play; Linus, a fluffy orange curmudgeon with a cataract; and CiCi, a polydactyl bread thief.
Cassandra Lease is a lifelong resident of Boston, a second-generation SF fan, a writer, a veteran gamer, and an amateur cosplayer under the handle Amazon Pink. Her fanfic can be found under Themiscyra on Archive Of Our Own and under LoreleiLaCroix on FanFiction.net, and she is currently either writing or publishing in the Twilight, Power Rangers, Star Trek and Harry Potter fandoms, in addition to her ongoing work on various original pieces. Her other favorite fandoms include The Little Mermaid, Disney's Haunted Mansion, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Disney's Gargoyles, Steven Universe, Wonder Woman, Ms. Marvel, the DC/CW "Berlantiverse," and virtually anything by Seanan McGuire. Cassandra can be found on both Twitter and Instagram at @themiscyra.
LB Lee is a multivarious entity who was raised by imaginary wolves in a subconscious barn. They make mental health comics, draw pretty pictures, and write stories about reality melting. You should talk to them.
Scott Lefton makes and sells artwork in media including metal, wood, glass, and Photoshop, is occasionally serious about photography, and works as a freelance mechanical design consultant and patent agent. He lives in a big old Victorian house in Melrose, MA with his wife Rachel and a cat.
Genevieve Leonard is a New York based contemporary artist. BFA in film and animation at UArts, MFA from CalArts. Professional screenings include - solo show at 1622 Gallery in Center City Philadelphia titled “Abstract Selves” 2007, screenings at Raleigh Studios Director Series (2004 - Lies Awake), Fantasia (After Dark Selections 2005 - Tattoo), Philadelphia Film Festival (Danger After Dark Series 2004-2005 - Tattoo, TattooII), and Producer’s Club (2012 - Tethered, The Fountainhead).The majority of her professional career is in art education. Genevieve had the privilege to be Associate Director of Digital Art Programs (Visual Effects / Motion Graphics, Film, Animation) and Department Chair of Digital Filmmaking at the Art Institutes. She has since moved to the New York area to pursue her art full time as an active member of ASIFA and creating independent short films. Genevieve continues to be a mentor by teaching 3D animation and digital production at Pratt Institute.
Cecile Leroy—Cellist for Chimney Swifts.
PJ Letersky has been cosplaying for decades and has been a fixture at the FUNimation booths in New York and Boston for the past 10 years. He is both a professional actor and musician, having been the music instructor on the first season of Fox TV's "Fringe", and acting in numerous television shows and movies. Being based out of Connecticut makes it very easy to get to all the location shoots across New York and New England. With the wealth of tv and filming in the area, he is more than willing to give out the information he has learned over the years to folks who want to get into acting and cosplaying. His "alter-ego" is Nauticon's "Jack" who he has been portraying and corrupting innocent con-goers for the past 5+ years in the process. (Soon to be a 6th year this May!) He has also been stage managing off-Broadway shows as well as designing and running lights and sound for those productions.
Benjamin Levy has been a science fiction fan for most of his life. He went to his first science fiction convention when he was 10 years old. He has been involved with Arisia since its inception. In the past he has worked for Arisia as a gopher, Dealers Liaison, Fixed Functions (Exhibits) Division Head, and Assistant Con Chair. Currently, he is the Arisia Corporate Treasurer and the Exhibits Div Head for Arisia'17.
Jet Levy is a a poly, pan/bi sexual, kinky artist and business lady. She is a feminist, an activist, a community member and leader. Art is not an activity of leisure but a passionate demand that our world have a better, brighter tomorrow. Her work can be found splashing across the stage, perched upon the page, blasted through comic books, woven in the fiber arts, breathing new life into up-cycled sustainable art installations, punctuating pop up funnies and clarifying educational notation in morphologically descriptive diagrams.
Megan Lewis is a librarian/archivist in a museum and thus has many books. She has a great fondness for biographical dictionaries. Megan's attended Arisia for over a decade and works Art Show (come buy some art!)
Olivia Li is a comics artist and editor currently living in the Boston area. She was head editor of the Boston Comics Roundtable's last two anthologies, Spellbound (Boston urban fantasy comics) and Boundless (science comics). Olivia is a co-founder of Robot Camp, a new comics collective and publisher. Her favorite stories are about girls with magic and robots with feelings, and vice versa.
Brian Liberge is a genderqueer, professional game designer from Boston's North Shore. As a freelancer he's worked with Kobold Press, Raging Swan Press, Gygax Magazine and the Gamer Assembly. As the owner and Creative Director of Beer Star Games, she's produced games like Pulp! the RPG and BEARD! the Card Game. He loves home-brewed ideas, is honest to a fault, and loves converting content between systems. Additionally she has backgrounds in Theatre Arts and Technology which often comes up in the way he works and his writing.
Derek D Lichter—Derek is a wonderful husband, father, friend, and FNP who was too busy to write his own bio so his spouse abused her privileges to write it for him.
Gordon Linzner is founder and editor emeritus of Space and Time Magazine; author of several novels and scores of short stories; freelance editor; licensed New York City tour guide; and front man for Saboteur Tiger blues band. His latest story appears in the anthology Altered States from Crazy 8 Press.
Adam Lipkin is a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, covering science fiction, fantasy, horror, and romance books (with past forays into general fiction, biography, and young adult). He has written reviews for a number of publications, including The Green Man Review and Rambles. He wrote the horror column, "Fear Factor," for Bookslut, and was also the animation columnist for SMRT-TV.com. He has published hundreds of horror movie reviews at his own blog, http://yendi.livejournal.com, and has also published essays in Salem Press's Critical Survey of Graphic Novels. By day, he works as an Associate Director of Academic Technology at a top-35 university. Adam lives in the suburbs of Boston. He does not have enough bio space to discuss his dog and his cats.
Mike Luoma writes and publishes science fiction, comics, the weekly Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast, and hosts middays on The Point, Vermont's Independent Radio Network, where he's the Music Director. His first novel, 2005's Vatican Assassin - science fiction during an interplanetary Western/Muslim war - introduced "BC", a killer for the New Catholic Church in 2109. The ebook of the novel is available free everywhere! Mike currently writes The Adventures of Alibi Jones, including the latest novel Alibi Jones and The Hornet's Nest and the recent issue two of Alibi's comic book adventures. He released the Introducing... RED HOT! graphic novel this past fall. Hear Mike read his work free each week – look for "Mike Luoma" on iTunes for his Glow-in-the-Dark Radio podcast and free, downloadable audio books. Find out more at http://glowinthedarkradio.com.
Miss M.—Performer, storyteller, costumer, author (minamurray.com/shop), a woman of few words.
James Douglas Macdonald was born in White Plains, New York. After leaving the University of Rochester, where he majored in Medieval Studies, he served in the U. S. Navy. Macdonald left the Navy in 1988 in order to pursue writing full-time. Since then he has lived with his wife and co-author, Debra Doyle, in a big 19th-Century house in Colebrook, New Hampshire, where they write science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults. From 1991 through 1993, as Yog Sysop, he ran the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable on the GEnie computer network; after the death of GEnie, he was the managing sysop for SFF-Net. These days, when not writing novels or running as an EMT with the local ambulance squad, he performs stage magic.
Glenn MacWilliams—Business Director for the past 20 plus years of The Teseracte Players of Boston, New England's Premier Traveling Shadowcast, performing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and others. Webpage: teseracte.com. Teseracte is always available for charity and fund raising events, and Glenn is the General Manager of Magic Dragon Comics in Arlington MA, the place for new comics.
Mitty Magoo is a puppet designer at The Fantastical Puppetarium and multimedia artist based in New Hampshire. A newcomer to the vast world of puppetry, she is a co-organizer of the very first Arisia Puppet Slam, making its debut Sunday night to bring a selection of the finest New England puppeteers to our beloved Con. You can find her work at The Fantastical Pupperarium's table in the art show and she will be participating in "Midnight Maker Crafting Social" Friday night, "Manufacturing Creativity: Breaking Blocks" on Saturday night and moderating as well as participating in "Intro to Puppetry" on Sunday evening along with a few puppeteers including Honey Goodenough & Brenda Huggins.
Becca Mandel is a healer-mage who spends her time prancing about, singing at the top of her lungs, and bending down to touch moss.
Tegan Mannino—Librarian, techie, blogger, bookworm, and all-around geek.
Peter Maranci is founder and editor of the Interregnum RPG APA (RIP). Winner of several amateur video prizes at Arisia. Publisher of "Pete's RuneQuest & Roleplaying!" (www.runequest.org/rq.htm), one of the oldest RPG sites online. Longtime Arisia panelist. Sold a story to a semi-pro mag long ago, but it folded before publishing it (or paying for it, unfortunately). Once boasted that he could do a panel on ear wax and make it interesting. Luckily Arisia hasn't tested that. :D If you've read this far, you're eligible for a valuable prize. Entries must be postmarked before September 13, 1899.
Dan Marsh is a member of the Society of Creative Anarchism (as Grim the Skald); even his wife calls him "Grim," so there's that. He considers himself knowledgeable in the following things, in order of how much he knows: Norse Poetry, Norse Culture, Alliterative Poetry in general (particularly Old English and 14th Century), Medieval (particularly English) poetry in general, Medieval costuming, and Medieval/Renaissance combat. Seriously, if you want to know about alliterative poetry, he'll talk your ear off. He also has been gaming off and on since his parents gave him something called "Dungeons and Dragons" in a bright red-pink-purple box when he was ten. He's also been a fan of anime since he saw something called Akira at a Lunacon in 1990 or so...
Neil Marsh has been involved in numerous live performances at Arisia over the past 11 years. Some by The Post-Meridian Radio Players ("Chicken Heart", "Red Shift: Interplanetary Do-Gooder", "Doctor Who and the Starship of Madness"), and some by Chameleon's Dish ("Mrs. Hawking", "Vivat Regina"). This year, he's directing for Theatre@First, the popular Somerville community theater company for which he has served as a sound designer since 2004. When he's not thinking about theater, Neil is a lifelong fan of radio drama. He co-founded The Post-Meridian Radio Players and served as its Artistic Director for eight years. During that time he created PMRP's Parsec Award-winning audiodrama miniseries, "The Mask of Inanna." Neil is also known for his portrayal of the recurring character Porec in the Blue Sky Red podcast "Second Shift." His next project is a new series of audio shorts entitled "Tales from Eternity Cove."
Shelley Marsh—Rocket scientist by day; cook, knitter, spinner, seamstress, actress, model, singer, and weaver by night. Yes, she sleeps; she just has a messy house.
B. Diane Martin began reading science fiction at age nine, and later that same year she asked for her first telescope. She has a law degree, is a founder of several companies, and has advised start-ups in software, gaming, holography, and other technology areas. Diane (a/k/a She Who Must Be Obeyed) lives with her husband, David G. Shaw, and their son Miles (He Who Will Not Be Ignored) in a Somerville, MA, Victorian home filled with books, games, music, anime, and cookware.
Donna Martinez is a freelance artist originally from New Mexico and has been a resident of Boston for 16 years. Donna is also a member of the Boston Comics Roundtable, contributing stories to Inbound, Hellbound, The Greatest Comics Anthology of All Time, and issues #1 and #3 of In A Single Bound. She is presently happily married to fellow Round Table writer/cartoonist Joey Peters.
Milo Martinez is a semi-professional costumer living in Cambridge. His interests include leather working, costuming technology, craftwork (armor, casting, etc), and villainy. An avid maker since childhood, he uses mixed media and unconventional approaches to solve costuming challenges.
Dan Mazur is a comic book creator, publisher and scholar in Cambridge, Mass. His solo comics include The Jernegan Solution, Hooves of Death, and many anthology contributions. His Ninth Art Press has published The Shirley Jackson Project, What's Your Sign Girl, SubCultures and other anthologies. He is the co-author of Comics: A Global History, 1968 to the Present (Thames and Hudson), and his writings on comics have appeared in the International Journal of Comic Art, Comics Workbook Magazine and the Boston Phoenix. He is a co-founder of the Boston Comics Roundtable and MICE, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo.
Elizabeth McCarty is a scifi wife & mom, feminist, atheist, and liberal fan living in Chicago, IL. She had been a member of the SCA (Atlantia) and then started as a gamer twenty years ago and worked with Keeg.com and GameSpy (as BetaStorm - OSKI) while playing Quake, Team Fortress and Capture the Flag. Professionally, she’s worked as a Project Manager and Product Marketing Manager in the tech business as well as a Meeting/Wedding planner as a side job. Currently, she spends her time volunteering for conventions, usually in promotions, and was the Marketing Division Head for both LoneStarCon 3 and MidAmeriCon II.
Dennis McCunney is a longtime SF fan, and has been helping to run cons like Arisia since the 1970's. For the twelve years he was been a member of Arisia's Hotel Liaison Staff, and for six of those years he edited and designed the Arisia Souvenir Book. He's been involved on one level or another with Arisia, Capclave, Lunacon, Philcon, WorldCon, and World Fantasy, and in the process has come to know a lot of the folks working professionally in SF. When he isn't working on cons he has variously been a graphic designer, iron worker, museum exhibit builder, alternative energy analyst, jr. financial analyst, system/network/telecom administrator, and web journalist and moderator. He currently spends too much time on Google+.
John G. McDaid's fiction has appeared in Asimov's and F&SF. He attended Clarion in 1993 and sold his first story, the Sturgeon Award-winning "Jigoku no mokushiroku," in 1995. He lives in Portsmouth, RI where he juggles writing, music, and citizen journalism. For downloads and blog visit http://harddeadlines.com.
Meg McGinley is a professional geek, in that order. By day, she dons business suits, fights for under privileged children and fills brains of college students as a professor. By night she makes games with her business partners at Games by Play Date that focus on fun and social justice. One of her hobbies is high-fiving strangers. Help a nerd out!
James Meickle's professional life has been almost as weird as him: working on state-level criminal justice and drug policy, studying academic political psychology, building a presidential campaign website, providing web performance expertise to top companies, and most recently improving the reliability of brain scan processing. He currently lives in a poly, kinky, queer home in Somerville where he indulges in hobbies including cooking, event organizing, and crushingly difficult indie roguelikes.
Michael Meissner—Professionally, I am a computer programmer and I work on enhancing the Gnu compiler collection. As a hobby, I am into digital photography, and I've been the official photographer for some of the small renaissance faires in the area. Around 2010 I started thinking about how to disguise my cameras when at faire. Around the same time, I discovered steampunk, and I have made many variations of steampunk and dieselpunk cameras, incorporating my current digital cameras into my various props.
Self acknowledged geek and couch potato Penny Messier never seems to find enough time in the day for the latter. Between work, hanging with friends, drumming, kite flying, movie-going and other various activities, Penny's couch is extremely lonely. In an exclusive interview with said couch, "Arisia bio" found a very disgruntled sofa: she's always gone! She used to spend all day with me but now it's an hour to work and back, and the same to see friends on the weekend, her driver's seat gets more attention than I do! Then she takes time out of work and heads to Arisia while I languish here alone. That's it, the waterbed and I are going on strike...We- Hi! My name is Penny and I would like to apologize for my couch; it's normally a very nice sofa but lately it gone a bit flat. I think I need to buy some new foam for it. Anyways this is me, quirky but fun!!!
Samara Metzler is a Salem MA-based performance artist and teacher, specializing in (frequently geeky) tribal fusion bellydance and living statue work. She has spent her life involved in theatre and holds a Master's in Theatre Education, using that background and training as the springboard in all her endeavors. She is a member of the Plot team for the New Hampshire chapter of Alliance LARP, as well as acting as New Player Contact. Samara came on board as co-producer of the Arisia Geeky Bellydance Show in 2013 and took over as sole producer in 2015.
Danny Miller is a local attorney, gamer, comics aficionado, and SF/F fan (not necessarily in that order) who keeps coming back to Arisia because he enjoys it. He has been “living this lifestyle” since high school, and lives it in eastern Massachusetts. He has had several articles and op-eds printed in the local Jewish newspaper, some of them even having a bit to do with science fiction, and some of them even getting him paid. He continues to like alternate histories, humorous SF/F, and rollicking good adventures with good worldbuilding, and he continues to follow intellectual property issues in the law, because he actually finds them fun to consider. He once tickled a man in Reno just to watch him laugh, turned the tap dance into his crusade, and is always looking to proselytize the uninitiated into the worlds of assorted geekery. (Or, at least get them to come to a team trivia event. Either way.)
Mark J. Millman is a member of the Salem Zouaves/Salem Trayned Band military re-enactment unit, which portrays citizen militias of the 1630s and the early 1860s, and of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, New England's premier vintage-dance company, which performs the social dances of the Federal, Civil War, Gilded Age, Ragtime, and Roaring Twenties eras. Both groups' members make their own historically accurate clothing and study and perform period movement disciplines. He is also the former demonstration co-ordinator and head of historical-combat instruction at the Higgins Armory Museum, and the Steward and a founding member of the Higgins Armory Sword Guild. In addition, he is an experienced fight choreographer, both for the theater and for historical martial-arts demonstrations, and a long-time modern fencer and practitioner of Asian martial arts.
Troy Minkowsky is a published comicbook writer, stand up comedian, and director. The pilot for his webseries "Superlife" can be viewed on Youtube. He is currently working on the short film "The Garden."
Hillary Monahan's YA debut MARY: The Summoning, a YA Horror retelling of the Bloody Mary myth, sold at auction to Hyperion and hit number two on the New York Times e-book bestseller list. MARY: Unleashed released fall 2015. She's also published The Awesome with Ravenstone under the name Eva Darrows, which received starred reviews in both Kirkus and PW. Her next three publications are an adult horror novel in the Gods & Monsters series for Solaris, due out in December of 2016. Spring of 2017 will see the YA contemporary Dead Little Mean Girl under the name Eva Darrows published through Harlequin Teen. Fall of 2017 sees the YA horror The Hollow Girl under Hillary Monahan through Delacorte/Random House.
Ken Mondschein is a PhD in medieval history, college professor, and author, as well as (fittingly for a historian of the Middle Ages and Renaissance) a fencing master and jouster.
Richard Moore—Presently, I am an instructor teaching data science, cloud computing and Hadoop courses. Previously I have held a number of different technology jobs. More importantly, I have volunteered at every Arisia, and a few other conventions too.
Morlock—I'm a frequent writer for Anime Maru, aka "The Onion, but Anime" or "That Crappy Anime Satire Site That Constantly Makes Me Feel Bad About My Choice in Waifu". I feel like this should be longer but I really don't have much more to say. Was this even suppose to be in first person? I guess it's too late now. If you want to keep up with my hipster anime jokes, head over to Anime Maru and check out my twitter @TheMorlock where I hardly post anything. Or you can head over to my small YouTube Channel, Japanophile, which I use slightly more than my twitter.
Sarah "Tashari" Morrison is an aspiring fantasy and children's book illustrator, currently building up her portfolio. In her "spare time" she sews gowns with hoop skirts. Find her work at Tashari.Org.
The shady underworld of the grade school essay black market was indie author Amy J. Murphy's introduction to writing for money. Although her career path took a different (and more legit) direction, she continued to work on personal writing projects until launching the Allies and Enemies series in 2015. The debut title Allies and Enemies: Fallen has ranked in the top 30 for military science fiction as well as space opera on Amazon and was honored as a finalist for Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel for the 2016 Dragon Awards by Dragon Con. Amy is an alum of the University of New Orleans and SFWA member. Learn more at amyjmurphy.com or follow @selatyron.
Maddy Myers is an Editor at The Mary Sue. She previously has worked for Paste Magazine and the Boston Phoenix. Her writing has also appeared at Offworld, iMore, Kill Screen, re/Action, The Border House, Slice of MIT and MIT Technology Review. She plays the keytar and sings in a nerdcore pop-rock band called the Robot Knights.
Emily Nagoski is the author of New York Times bestseller Come as You Are (Simon & Schuster, 2015). She has a Ph.D. in Health Behavior with a doctoral concentration in human sexuality from Indiana University (IU), and a Master’s degree (also from IU) in Counseling, with a clinical internship at the Kinsey Institute Sexual Health Clinic. She also has a B.A. in Psychology, with minors in cognitive science and philosophy, from the University of Delaware. While at IU, Emily taught graduate and undergraduate classes in human sexuality, relationships and communication, stress management, and sex education. A sex nerd among sex nerds, Emily has the lowest Erdős number of any sex educator in the world. She lives in western Massachusetts with two dogs, two cats, and a cartoonist.
Kate Nepveu (pronounced "NEHV-you", the "p" is silent) is a reader, fan, and reviewer. She was born in South Korea, grew up in Massachusetts, and now lives in upstate New York. There, she practices law and is raising a family; in her copious free time, she writes (for her blog, kate-nepveu.dreamwidth.org, her booklog, steelypips.org/weblog/, and Tor.com, where she recently re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) and runs Con or Bust, which helps fans of color/non-white fans attend SFF cons. She's got an overdeveloped sense of responsibility; it's going to get her into trouble some day.
Benjamin Newman has been filking since his college friends dragged him to his first convention his freshman year at Swarthmore. Since then, he has written over 200 songs on a wide range of topics, including SF and fantasy, science, computers, and religion, both singly and in various whimsical juxtapositions. Ben has also organized filk programming for Philcon, ConCertino, and Pi-con.
Brenda Noiseux—Sci-fi geek, community builder and writer for Women Write About Comics. Using my super hero powers for the good of all kind.
Abby Noyce is a cognitive neuroscientist, a knitter, and a theatre geek.
David Nurenberg, Ph.D. just does too much stuff. He's a freelance writer for White Wolf, a self-published novelist, a high school English teacher and an occasional adjunct professor. That explains all the twitching. He's been a GM for 24 years, which explains the severe twitching. He has traveled to over 30 countries and runs two international exchange programs, which explains how he can twitch in several languages. Do not stare directly at David, as contents are under pressure and may detonate, causing minor to moderate injuries. But David comes in peace, really -- at least, that's what he'll insist in court.
Anne Nydam—Essentially self-taught artist making mostly relief block prints, primarily self-published author writing mostly juvenile mostly fantasy, former middle school teacher still making classroom guest visits whenever possible, current stay-at-home mother, and negligent housekeeper, Anne has been creating fantasy worlds since childhood and continues to bring wide-ranging curiosity to the work of art, writing, teaching, and mothering.
Elizabeth O'Malley is part of FanCons.com/AnimeCons.com, the leading web site dedicated to news and information about conventions, contributing to both their website and weekly podcast, AnimeCons TV. She is also the past Vice President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers Guild.
A.J. Odasso's poetry has appeared in a number of strange and wonderful publications, including Sybil's Garage, Mythic Delirium, Jabberwocky, Cabinet des Fées, Midnight Echo, Not One of Us, Dreams & Nightmares, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Stone Telling, Farrago's Wainscot, Through the Gate, Liminality, inkscrawl, Battersea Review, and SWAMP Writing (just to name a few). Her début collection, Lost Books (Flipped Eye Publishing, 2010), was nominated for the 2010 London New Poetry Award and for the 2011 Forward Prize, and was also a finalist for the 2011 People's Book Prize. Her second collection with Flipped Eye, The Dishonesty of Dreams, was released in 2014. She holds degrees from Wellesley College (B.A. in English), University of York (M.A. in Medieval Studies), and Boston University (M.F.A. in Creative Writing), and serves as Senior Poetry Editor at Strange Horizons Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @ajodasso.
Jennifer Old-d'Entremont is a hobbyist costumer with a taste for recreating both sci-fi/fantasy characters as well as original creations of historical and ethnic dress. While work as a medical lab technologist pays the bills, she finds that it's the fannish endeavors that make life interesting. Her soapbox is empowering creative expression through costuming regardless of perceived limitations, and making the hobby accessible to all. She is a chronic organizer and often finds herself involved with conventions in roles ranging from walk-on volunteer to sector director and most stages in between. She is on her fourth year of helping to manage the costuming track of programming here at Arisia. Jennifer lives in Kansas City with her spousal unit and an assortment of furry, four-legged children.
David Olsen is an all-around geek who will happily talk your ear off about stories and games. As such, he fell in love with RPGs upon receiving the Dungeons & Dragons red box for Christmas at the age of nine. Since then, he's campaigned in dozens of worlds and systems, including GMing a few LARPs over the past 15 years. He's done game testing for various independent companies, including Firehose Games and Choice Of Games and even voice acting work for Reactive Studios. You can catch him as a background actor in various feature films or as the fourth season winner of "Beauty and the Geek."
Peter Olszowka has been participating in convention fandom since 1999. He is the architect and lead developer of Zambia, the scheduling software used by Arisia and several other conventions. He is one of three at-large members of the executive board of Arisia. His focus at conventions is generally providing technical services behind the scenes of events. At the most recent WorldCon in Kansas City, he directed the video for the masquerade and was technical director for the video of the Hugo awards ceremony.
Ken Olum is a research professor in the Tufts Institute of Cosmology, where he studies cosmic strings, the possibility of time travel in general relativity, and philosophical issues in cosmology. He lives in Sharon, MA with his partners, Valerie White and Judy Anderson, and his children, Jocelyn and Perry.
What if you could re-live the experience of reading a book or watching a show for the first time? Mark Oshiro provides just such a thing on a daily basis on Mark Reads and Mark Watches, where he chronicles his unspoiled journey through various series. Since 2009, Mark has been subjecting himself to the emotional journey that one takes when they enter a fictional world for the first time. He mixes textual analysis, confessional blogging, and humor to analyze fiction. All of this earned Mark a Hugo nomination in the Fan Writer category in 2013 and 2014, and he has no plans on stopping. Somehow, he's written a YA book and he's still determined to fulfill a lifelong goal in the process: to pet every dog ever.
Dr. Lisa Padol has been attending science fiction conventions since she first got pulled in by the filking in the 1980s. She has been a gamer for even longer, slowly being seduced into running tabletop rpgs and larps, and then into writing larps. She has also written reviews and academic papers on science fiction, fantasy, and gaming. Her dissertation on Modern Arthurian Fiction forced her to go to several conventions and comb through countless used books. She has served on the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards committee for over ten years, which forces her to keep at least vaguely current in the field and to make sure she reads some books outside her comfort zone.
Bethany S. Padron has fostered a love of dressing up with a degree in Costume Technology from UNCSA and is currently the Costume Studio Manager for the University of South Dakota.
Suzanne Palmer is an SF/F author who is a regular contributor to Asimov's and Interzone. She won the Asimov's Readers Award for short story in 2016, and was the second place finalist for the 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. She is also an artist of occasional, impractically large sculpture and a senior Linux system administrator. She is a moderator on Absolute Write and an alumna & former staff member of the Viable Paradise writer's workshop.
Jennifer Pelland is a Boston-area bellydancer and occasional radio theater performer, and a former science fiction writer. She dances at venues as varied as the Athenian Corner Restaurant, the Watch City Steampunk Festival, and this convention. As a writer, she was a a two-time Nebula finalist for her short fiction, and her collection Unwelcome Bodies and novel Machine were published by Apex Publications. She has also written essays for the Hugo nominated books Chicks Unravel Time and Queers Dig Time Lords. You can find her online at www.jenniferpelland.com and www.tassellations.com/zia
Kris Pelletier is a mechanical engineer who got into college with an essay about how she wanted to be B'Elanna Torres growing up and now designs military equipment - not quite a starship, but we're working on it. Her fandom experience spans the gamut from skulking around on Livejournal, attending/volunteering at cons, and being a lead staff member and editor for a multi-fandom podcast. She loves to work with kids, especially when it comes to fostering an appreciation for the STEM disciplines.
As Misty Pendragon, Gayle Blake is a published writer, editor, and jewelry maker. She currently runs a horror podcast, Scream Sisters: Women Who Love Horror. The facebook link is https://facebook.com/screamsisterspodcast. They also publish comics and other media under Scream Sisters Press. She has been doing panels at cons for too many years now, and you would find her on pretty much every Joss Whedon panel. Favorite quote is, "We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty," by Joss Whedon.
A Disney obsessed, comic book reading, Harry Potter loving, sassy feminist, Melissa Perreira-Andrews hails from the North Shore where is she a cog in the corporate machine. She is a member of the Teseracte Players of Boston (her found family), playing multiple roles in a variety of productions. In addition to shadow casting, Melissa volunteers for a leadership conference for high school girls where she has taught a week long course on feminism and the portrayal of women in various forms of media. Catch her craft fails, cooking triumphs, and feminist musings at http://cupcakesandcrossbows.blogspot.com
Leigh Perry is Toni L.P. Kelner in disguise, or maybe vice versa. As Leigh, she writes the Family Skeleton mysteries. The Skeleton Haunts a House, the third, came out in October 2015. As Toni, she's the author of the “Where Are They Now?” mysteries and the Laura Fleming series (all available as ebooks and audiobooks); an Agatha Award winner for short fiction; and the co-editor of New York Times bestselling fantasy/mystery anthologies with Charlaine Harris. Dead But Not Forgotten is their most recent. Leigh/Toni lives just north of Boston, on the Orange Line, with her husband and fellow author Stephen P. Kelner, Jr., their two daughters, and two guinea pigs.
Israel Peskowitz (Izzy) is a professional photographer, proficient plumber, a novice community activist, and amateur fan.
Joey Peters is a writer, cartoonist and beauty contest champion from Boston. His work has appeared in "In a Single Bound", the Boston Phoenix, Leftovers of the Living Dead, Inbound: Comics from Boston and all across the internet. Visit his website at tacolicious.net
Jules Pilowsky is an evolutionary biologist, speculative fiction reader and writer, and purveyor of bizarre fanfictions. Her favorite books include The Dispossessed, His Dark Materials, and Animorphs.
Summer Plum—Cooks a good meal, chronic illness & pain advocate, professional patient, lover of stories & soft critters, strong minded redhead.
Steve E Popkes, his wife, son, dog and cat breed turtles on two acres in Massachusetts. He has been publishing science fiction and fantasy since 1986.
Dr. James Prego is a naturopathic doctor from Long Island, NY. Dr. Prego is a past recipient of the NYANP's Physician of the Year award. He is an adjunct professor of Biology at Molly College and Touro College School of Health Sciences. Dr. Prego is a longtime fan of science fiction and enjoys discussing xenobiology, health in space, life extension, fusions of biology and technology, how natural ways of healing fit in a sci-fi/high-tech world, and many other topics both science related and non-science related. He is the New York Delegate to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and spent 6 years as a board member of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians. Dr. Prego has given talks, written articles, and been a guest on radio and television shows, discussing naturopathic medicine, children's health, detoxification, and other health-related topics. He also has interests in acting/shadowcasting, EMT volunteering, gaming, and more.
Antonia Pugliese is a girl of many talents. She once went for 125 days of school wearing a different costume each day and never repeating. She has costumed several productions for the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players and other theater groups, demonstrates 18th century smallsword with the Higgins Museum Sword Guild, and teaches vintage dance and performs with the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.
Barbara M Pugliese is a historian of both clothing and dance. She is Artistic Director of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers. She teaches historical dance in the Boston area and has been invited to teach in England, Austria and Denmark.
Julia Pugliese is a part-time superhero and a part-time magical girl.
Most commonly known in fandom and elsewhere as Dr. Karen, Karen Purcell DVM has been active in veterinary medicine since her early teens. Sometime during her unending college years, she went to her first convention and her spare time became non-existent. Busy in past years with Masquerade, Costuming, and the Art Show. Despite only a few years living in Raleigh, NC, she has already met the local Honor Harrington fan club and attended their convention, as well as helping out with Balticon. Despite moving 'far foreign', she will be back helping out the Arisia Masquerade this year.
Tori Queeno is the founder and President of the Boston Whovians, a Boston-based Doctor Who fangroup boasting over 1,600 members that hosts meetups and photoshoots around the New England area. Tori is a 24 year old "real adult" aspiring to write, teach literature, and costume for a living. In the meantime, Tori answers lots of phones and works frantically to make the Boston Whovians an entity of somewhat-organized chaos with love and support from a Tenth Doctor/Boyfriend, hedgehog, and cat.
Richard Ralston has been a fan of science fiction and anime since the late 60's. Rick has been staffing conventions the past 15 years on the local and regional level. Rick is also the organizer of the local anime group in Albany, NY. Rick brings a unique point of view to the fandom community.
Harriotte Hurie Ranvig has sung, taught, and performed British Isles/American folk, bluegrass, and classical vocal style of the courts of North India, in the U.S., Canada, and India. She has told stories in English, Hindi and German. Her education and training include seven years study in India, classical western voice training, clown improv and acting workshops. Longtime resident of Somerville, Harriotte coaches individuals for speaking and singing, in tandem with her own singing and writing careers.
Glen Raphael is a nerd-folk musician whose songs cover such topics as quantum physics, bedbugs, gorillas, and the Statue of Liberty's mid-life crisis. Glen has been featured on the Dr. Demento radio program and in many variety shows including TinyDangerousFun!, The Kong Show, and Bindlestiff Family Circus. He has won Best Original Song and Iron Filker awards and was the Interfilk Guest at GAfilk2016. Glen has recorded two studio albums with Mark Dann.
Nalin A. Ratnayake is a former NASA propulsion engineer turned science teacher and fiction writer. He earned a B.S.E. and M.S. in Aerospace Engineering and has published 11 peer-reviewed papers on supersonic airbreathing propulsion, environmentally responsible aviation technologies, and advanced access-to-space systems. Nalin also holds an M.Ed. and currently teaches Physics and Engineering at an urban public high school in Boston. He is triple-licensed as an educator in Physics, English as a Second Language / Sheltered English Immersion, and Teaching Students with Moderate Learning Disabilities. Nalin writes fiction as N.A. Ratnayake. His stories have appeared in Crossed Genres Magazine as well as the post-colonial SF anthology We See A Different Frontier. His sci-fi political thriller novel, Red Soil Through Our Fingers, explores wealth disparity and worker exploitation in a future of corporate-controlled space colonization.
Courtney Rayle is a scientist who has been crafting and costuming for over 20 years. Her costuming interests include everything from hand sewing historical garments and knitting lace attachments to welding stilts and wiring LEDs, or sometimes just wrapping herself in a sleeping bag and pretending to be a wiku worm. Ball gowns, anime get ups, story descriptions, mascot costumes... she really won't say no to anything (and you may recall her as Darkwing Duck from the 2014 masquerade). She has won a number of awards at various conventions for her costumes, and is considered a Master class costumer. If she isn't working on a project or reading fanfics (her one massive productivity weakness), chances are she's actually working at her RL job... although you'll probably still find at least one tiny knitting project stashed underneath her desk.
Victor Raymond PhD is a longtime SF&F reader and fan, and currently serves as a board member of the Carl Brandon Society and the Tekumel Foundation. In the past, he has served as President of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, Chair of WisCon 28, Co-Chair of WisCon 33, and Executive Committee member of Minicon 28 and 33. A professional sociologist, he is a member of the Arts & Sciences faculty of Madison College in Madison, Wisconsin.
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert writes science fiction, horror, dark fantasy, and the occasional poem in between driving her kids around and meeting the incessant demands of her feline overlords. She’s a published author and professional editor with degrees in communication and sociology. Her work has been published in places such as the anthologies The Deep Dark Woods, Killing It Softly, and Wicked Witches. Her poetry has appeared in The Wayfarer: A Journal of Contemplative Literature, Tales of the Zombie War, Eternal Haunted Summer, and Illumen. Visit her online at http://suzannereynoldsalpert.com.
Mark W. Richards—A fan, sometime SMOF, and kinkster, I got started early, reading SF and fantasy as soon as I could reach the bookshelf (which admittedly wasn't very high). I started going to cons as soon as I could after hearing of them (1978), and way too soon I found myself working on them as well. Some years later (early 90s), I discovered kinkdom, both by itself and where it crossed over with fandom. I've been on committees and worked for both conventions and kink events, as well as served on the boards of clubs in both milieus. My latest project is chairing a new NYC area convention, HELIOsphere, later this year and helping to found the club running it. I'm equally comfortable discussing literary science fiction and fantasy, the classics of the field, fanzines, kink activism, and sexual politics... preferably over a couple of pints or some good single malt. Doing it in front of an audience, starting at Arisia 2014, has been an interesting experience which I'm looking forward to repeating.
Julia Rios is a writer, editor, podcaster, and narrator. She was a fiction editor at Strange Horizons from 2012-2015 and is co-editor with Alisa Krasnostein of Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories and the Year's Best YA Speculative Fiction series. Her fiction, articles, interviews, and poems have appeared in Daily Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, Stone Telling, Goblin Fruit, and several other places. She's half-Mexican, but her (fairly dreadful) French is better than her Spanish.
Santiago Rivas is currently celebrating over 30 years as a sci-fi enthusiast, ever since his exposure to works like Tron, Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. However, it was his time at MIT that he became an avid film, theatre, and gamer geek. He has been involved with the Theatre@First acting troupe for over ten years and the Heinlein Society Naughty Nurses for six years. In his copious spare time, when he's not blogging, acting, writing short stories, writing one-act plays involving lightsabers, spending time with his Fabulous Redheaded wife, raising their advanced male prototype, and going out with hot Goths, he takes every opportunity to indulge in RPGs, Steve Jackson/Rio Grande games, and anything related to Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who or Final Fantasy.
LH Roberts is a Salem, MA based funko artist and cosplayer. They are an admin for Boston Whovians, and Chancellor for The Order of Gallifrey, an International Cosplay Resource group. LH is very involved in the Cosplay is Not Consent movement and is the US admin for iCosplay:Anti bullying campaign. They are also known for their Mr. Clever cosplay, which has been featured in The Nerdist, multiple BBC sites and in Doctor Who magazine.
Phoebe Roberts is the theater artist and dramatic writer who created the Mrs. Hawking shows, a dramatic series of steampunk superhero stories that answer the question, "What if Sherlock Holmes were a lady Batman?" More information can be found on the project website, www.mrshawking.com. Roberts's other work in theater and writing can be found at her personal site, www.phoeberoberts.com.
A practicing massage therapist, herbalist, and mom, Nicole Robinson has been enjoying Arisia for the past eight years. She's an expert at playing board and card games with children, enjoys tribal dancing, and has been known to make bad jokes.
Margaret Ronald is the author of Spiral Hunt, Wild Hunt, and Soul Hunt, as well as a number of short stories. Originally from rural Indiana, she now lives outside Boston.
Mink Rose has been a part of the Arisia community for years, even before she began regularly attending in 2007. Though she enjoys being an attendee, she's been doing more work for the convention in recent years, including finally agreeing to be on panels, and becoming an Arisia Corporate member. Mink served as the first Chair of the Diversity Committee for Arisia 2016. She continues to work closely with the Committee for the convention, and does her best to support intersectional feminist work everywhere possible. Mink Rose can be found on twitter & facebook sharing interesting information and connecting folks to resources for anti-bigotry activism. She remains an imperfect human being who is doing her best to get everyone to save the world. (ask me how!)
Grace Rosen is a PhD candidate in biochemistry and biophysics with a specialization in quantitative biology. She is enthusiastic about the opportunity to make scientific concepts so commonly veiled in jargon more accessible for interested con-goers. On most days she can be found in lab using lasers to study biological reactions on a single molecule scale. In her free time she enjoys cartoons, games, cooking, and exercising.
Andy Rosequist generally tries to make the world a better place. He's been involved with Arisia staff for a number of years, though 2017 marks his first year actually being on panels (!). He works in tech, plays games, and is a facial hair enthusiast.
A Joseph Ross has been in fandom since the 1960's. In 1964, he founded the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) Science Fiction Society, then later became a member of MITSFS and NESFA, serving as Vice President of NESFA from 1970-72. He edited Volume I of the NESFA Hymnal in the late 1970's. He was Clerk of Arisia, Incorporated from 1990-92 and President from 1992-94. He is a practicing attorney and figures that if he practices long enough, he may get good at it.
Lauren M. Roy started out as an independent bookseller, moved on to work for a publisher (where she sells books to independent bookstores), and is completing her bookselling hat trick as an author. She is also a freelance writer for tabletop role-playing games. Lauren lives in southeastern Massachusetts with her husband, their cats, and the ghosts of houseplants she forgets to water. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise, the science fiction and fantasy writers’ workshop. She's the author of the Night Owls urban fantasy series and the YA fantasy The Fire Children.
Beth Runnerwolf is a Methodist Shaman, Conrunner, Filker, Communications Educator, Systemic Constellations facilitator, Gamer (paper and dice), and professional tech speak to English translator.
Karen S.—Part-time voice actor, podcaster, and writer of ridiculous fannish fictions. Full-time geek and fanboy dork with a particular fondness for cartoons, blooper reels, and turtles of the ninja variety. She can heard as one quarter of the "Foxes in the Hen House" pop-culture round table podcast, and can be seen reprising her role as Captain Jane T. Kirk in the Post Meridian Radio Players' production of Gender Swapped Star Trek.
Eyal Sagi is a professor of Psychology at a liberal arts college. His research deals with how language and text color our perspective. Recently, this research has focused on the expression of moral values in political and legal texts. His other interests include how the structure of a story reflects its genre, and how language can be used to promote character development. He also has extensive background in computing and computer science from both the software and hardware perspectives.
Kiini Ibura Salaam is an award-winning writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana. Kiini's work is rooted in eroticism, speculative events, and women's perspectives. Her short story collection Ancient, Ancient was co-winner of the 2012 James Tiptree Jr. Award. Her sensual tales of the fantastic, the dark, and the magical have been anthologized in such collections as Dark Matter, Mojo: Conjure Stories, and Dark Eros. Her nonfiction has been published in Ms. Magazine, Essence magazine, and Utne Reader. She's the author of three ebooks (The Notes from the Trenches series) that chronicle the ups and downs of the writing life. Her newly released second collection of short stories is called When the World Wounds and was recently released from Third Man Books in Fall 2016. You can learn more about her at www.kiiniibura.com.
Liz Salazar is a member of the Post-Meridian Radio Players, a local community theater company that performs live audio dramas. In the past, she has participated in panels, as well as PMRP's Gender-Swapped Star Trek performances at Arisia. Liz also talks too much about geeky things as 1/4 of the the "Foxes in the Hen House" podcast (www.soundcloud.com/foxesinthehenhouse). She indulges her geeky and creative urges in a thousand other ways, including writing, tabletop roleplaying games, video games, and chainmail.
Carol Salemi costumes at the Master level and has been involved in all aspects of costuming for almost 40 years, trying her hand at everything from creating, teaching, and competing to judging and masquerade directing. Each competition costume usually involves some new, fun, or challenging technique that keeps it fresh. While best known for Media recreations/cosplay and Native American clothing, her most recent work can be seen on "My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding". Carol has enjoyed working as a medical massage therapist for over 30 years, also working part time for Regal Cinemas, and Sondra Celli Designs with seasonal jobs in the Haunt Industry. She likes creating Steampunk accessories and fashion...so check out her jewelry in the art show!
Dianna Sanchez is the not-so-secret identity of Jenise Aminoff, whose superpower is cooking with small children. She is an MIT alumna, graduate of the 1995 Clarion Workshop, Odyssey Online participant, and former editor of New Myths magazine. Her short fiction appears in Mojo: Conjure Stories and the 2017 Young Explorers's Adventure Guide. Her debut novel, A Witch's Kitchen, was released in September 2016. A Latina geek originally from New Mexico, she now lives in the Boston area with her husband and two daughters.
Victoria Sandbrook is a speculative fiction writer, freelance editor, and Viable Paradise XVIII graduate. Her first story appeared in the anthology Swords & Steam Short Stories (Flame Tree Publications, 2016). She is an avid hiker, sometimes knitter, long-form talker, and initiate baker. She is often found loitering around libraries. She spends most of her days attempting to wrangle a ferocious, destructive, jubilant tiny human. Victoria, her husband, and their daughter live in Brockton, Massachusetts. She reviews books and shares writerly nonsense at victoriasandbrook.com and on Twitter at @vsandbrook.
Lauren Sara is a 28 year theater artist and vocalist, a six-year belly dance performer/student (folkloric,theatrical fusion, sword, and American Tribal Style (improv), and 1+ year Fat Chance Belly Dance American Tribal Style (FCBD ATS). She is co-founder of the Ki-ra Luna ATS Troupe. If you have been a Geeky Belly Dance Show audience member, you have seen Ki-ra Luna as Ewoks, Murder Clowns, and Muppet Chickens. Lauren also dances with the Gypsy Caravan-style Blue Moon Caravan Troupe. Lauren is an animal lover, enjoys hiking and kayaking, photography, and dabbling in makeup artistry. Cheers!
Dori Schendell—I’ve been telling stories to anyone who would listen since I started to talk. As years have gone on my stories have changed. Now I tell stories in two main ways. I write and post adult fiction as a hobby, and I write Nexus Elements for people to interact with and enjoy. The world of Nexus Elements has been one in my head since I was in high school cough years ago. Now I get to see that world come to life in the LARPs that I run!
Micah Schneider joined the Programming Staff for Arisia six years ago. He was previously a co-chair for Transcending Boundaries 2014, a regional GLBTQ conference. Micah completed his Masters degree in history and public history from UMass Amherst in 2011, and works as a middle school math tutor. In his free time, Micah enjoys running, highpointing, all kinds of gaming, and being polyamorous as often as possible. He lives in Western Massachusetts with his family of choice and a small coterie of animal companions.
Kenneth ("Ken") Schneyer received a Nebula nomination for his story, "Selected Program Notes from the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer." In 2014, Stillpoint Digital Press released his first collection, The Law & the Heart. His stories, which often employ weird narrative devices, appear in Lightspeed, Analog, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny, Clockwork Phoenix 3 & 4, Daily Science Fiction, all three of the Escape Artists podcasts, and elsewhere. By day, he teaches legal studies and science fiction literature to college students, and has published articles on the constitutive rhetoric of legal texts. Born in Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with one spouse, two children, and something with fangs. You can find him on Twitter, on Facebook, and at http://ken-schneyer.livejournal.com.
Ben "Books" Schwartz lies to children professionally. Mostly that's done at the LARPing summer camps they run and in the Young Adult stories they write. They're currently hard at work on Event Horizon, a blockbuster-scale sci-fi LARP for adults running in April of 2017. They also think you should send your children to LARP camp, whether at the Wayfinder Experience or elsewhere.
Meredith Schwartz's short fiction appeared in Strange Horizons, Reflection's Edge, and Sleeping Beauty, Indeed. She edited Alleys & Doorways, an anthology of homoerotic urban fantasy. She has committed both screen writing and conrunning, but she is much better now. In her day job she edits a magazine about libraries, but she is here speaking only for herself.
The legendary Mr. Scratch was raised on a parallel Earth where his plane crashed in the Himalayas -- er, the parallel Himalayas. Not ours. There he was taught the secret of clouding men's minds by monks. Parallel monks. Stop laughing. He fought crime for many years until a group of his arch enemies (can you have a "group" of arch enemies?) banded together in a sinister plot to bounce him into a parallel universe. That is, parallel to that one, which they thought of as the real universe but which you think of as a parallel universe. Unless you're also from there, in which case you think of this one as the parallel... Oh, screw it. He is the founder of The Boston BeauTease (www.BostonBeauTease.com), a professional storyteller, a former comic book writer and capo comico of i Sebastiani (the Greatest commedia dell'arte troupe on Earth), gamer and LARP author (he was one of the play-testers for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). He has been involved in Arisia in various aspects for many years.
Kristin Seibert travels the length and breadth of the country to experience and participate in the vast American folk community. She brings that experience to the microphone and calls lively, warm dances that will move your feet and put a smile on your face. In her other life, Kristin is a free-lance theater technician i the Boston-area, specializing in lights and sound.
Jude Shabry (aka peacefrog) found Arisia in 1994 and hasn't been able to stay away since. Jude has attended as an artist, vendor, party host, techie, panelist, yoga teacher, climbing guide, wedding principle, mama, and more.
David G. Shaw was a World Fantasy Award finalist (Special Award--Non-Professional) for 2009, for his two decades of work with Readercon. In his non-Readercon life he has managed to change careers from research biochemist, to founder of Belm Design, a graphic and web design company. Somehow he found the time to marry She Who Must Be Obeyed (B. Diane Martin) and have a son, He Who Will Not Be Ignored (Miles). His scientific research has been published in various academic journals, while his articles about interactive gaming have appeared in The Whole Earth Review and the proceedings of the Computer Game Developer's Conference. In his spare time he cooks and blogs (blog.belm.com) about cooking. He lives and works in Somerville, MA.
Nicholas "phi" Shectman has twice each chaired Arisia and Somerville Open Studios, whose 400 participating artists make it one of the largest single weekend Open Studios events in the country.
Christopher Sheldon-Dante—I'm a huge fan of tabletop and digital games and I am the co-creator of the upcoming video game Descendants: Voidborne. I have played hundreds of video games, dozens of board games, watched dozens of TV series, read dozens of books and I'm opinionated about everything. I'm always up for a good discussion and I'm particularly interested in: game design, cognition, education, artificial intelligence, physics, math and food. Some things I've enjoyed: A Deepness in the Sky, Ender's Game, Cryptonomicon, Star Trek TNG, Stargate SG1, Dominion, Master of Magic, Master of Orion II and Portal.
As a musician and bandleader, Yaron Shragai is primarily focused on the music of the Balkans and on the music used in international folk dance, as well as klezmer music and contra dance music. He plays mainly percussion instruments (doumbek, tapan, defi) and whistle type instruments (recorder, Irish whistle, frula). As a dance leader, Yaron has over a decade of experience leading and teaching recreational Balkan dance and international folk dance, as well as some experience leading traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dancing ("Yiddish dancing") and calling contra dances.
Hildy Silverman is the publisher of Space and Time, a nearly 50-year-old magazine featuring fantasy, horror, and science fiction. She is also the author of several works of short fiction, including "The Vampire Escalator of the Passaic Promenade" (2010, New Blood, Thomas, ed.), "The Darren" (2009, Witch Way to the Mall?, Friesner, ed), "Sappy Meals" (2010, Fangs for the Mammaries, Friesner, ed), "Black Market Magic" (2012, Apocalypse 13, Raetz, ed.), and "The Bionic Mermaid Returns (2014, With Great Power, French, ed.). In 2013, she was a finalist for the WSFA Small Press Award for her story, "The Six Million Dollar Mermaid" (Mermaids 13, French, ed). In the "real" world, she is a Digital Marketing Communications Specialist at Sivantos, Inc.
Emily Simon is thrilled to be returning to Arisia which was her first ever convention in 2014! Since joining the northeast convention circuit, she has won 11 awards for cosplay, been featured in cosplay articles, and led children's events at multiple conventions. When not in princess attire, Emily is a masters student at Stanford University studying to receive a masters in education. She also specializes with young kids Pre-K through 2nd grade. She is thrilled to be bringing back her "Princess Play Date" event for all the young people at Arisia and is excited for an incredible weekend of learning, shadow casts, events, and films.
Hannah Simpson—Unabashed nerd, Red Sox fan, engineering grad, swing dancer, marathoner, standup-comic, and bubbly young Jewish girl who speaks out on transgender issues. She lived here in Boston for eight years attending BU and working for Brandeis, before starting medical school. You may have caught her as a guest panelist discussing life as a transgender woman on MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry show or Fox's Good Day New York. Her writing has appeared on the Guardian, Refinery29, the Advocate, and MarieClaire.com, among others.
Jill R. Singer's earliest memories are of drawing and coloring, and has not stopped making things since. I sew clothes, bags, and quilts; and crochet little animals and hats. I am always doing something, whether it be dan zan ryu ju jitsu, Israeli folkdancing, or music. I play flute, guitar, sing, and a little piano. In terms of science fiction and fantasy, I love all things Joss Whedon (I have seen all his series, and I have read all of his comic books), and am a voracious reader. Recent favorites include Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series and Scott Westerfeld's Uglies/Pretties/Specials series. When I'm not doing all that stuff, I'm a software engineer; designing and implementing user interfaces at AG Mednet in Boston. Lastly, I am a graduate of MIT; and tried to leave Boston but was drawn back and then promptly met my wonderful husband; I have been living here for the past 7 years.
Jamila Sisco is an award-winning costumer with a specialization in anime, video game, and original costumes. She has worked on costumes for over 10 years, usually working on making the big and elaborate come to life. She is the former President of the Northern Lights chapter of the International Costumers' Guild.
Rebecca Slitt is the author of Psy High and an editor for Choice of Games, LLC, a company that produces text-based interactive fiction. Before that, she was a professor of medieval history. She's played D&D for 25 years, LARPed for 20, read mountains of SF and fantasy books, and written Call of Cthulhu games that may or may not suggest that there's a Deep One living near her college dorm.
Sarah Smith's first YA, The Other Side of Dark (ghosts, interracial romance, and a secret from slavery times) won the Agatha (for best mystery) and the Massachusetts Book Award. She has also written Chasing Shakespeares, The Vanished Child and The Knowledge of Water (both New York Times Notable Books), A Citizen of the Country, and horror, SF, and hypertext short stories. "The Boys Go Fishing" appears in NY Times best-selling Death's Excellent Vacation (ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner). Two of her books are being made into plays. She Finally Finished the F*'ing Titanic book, and all the Reisden/Perdita books have been published as ebooks as well (about time). They all have book club questions, interviews, and cool stuff. www.sarahsmith.com/read-ebooks.html FB and Twitter sarahwriter
Kris “Nchanter” Snyder stumbled sideways into fandom in her early 20’s for lack of anything else to keep her out of trouble. With a background in theater, the visual arts, and a love for SF/F books and media fostered by her father from a young age, it soon became obvious that this was where she, and her colorful curls, belonged. Nchanter now helps make fandom go by volunteering for several conventions including Worldcons, Boskone, and Arisia. She was the Convention Chair for Arisia 2016, and is now the Head of Programming for Arisia 2017 and President of Arisia, Inc.
WhateverFloatsYourBoat Productions is the production company for Heide Solbrig, writer, filmmaker, media artist and general curmudgeon. Solbrig's scholarly and media work examines the history of capitalism and concentrates on what some have described as 'economic storytelling', i.e. stories about how economics, history and politics impact us in deeply personal ways. Her film work uses experimental montage or 'bricolage', combining historical footage, interview, illustration and personal-essay narration. Here comic books are cross-platform media feminist autobiographies with a health dose of political history. While Solbrig's work engages with politics, personal narrative and experimental media forms-- she will admit to liking accessible serial narrative quite a bit as well-- She is a fan of Joss Whedon as well as other independent fantasy, science fiction and comic book forms.
Lisa J. Steele is an attorney in Massachusetts and Connecticut. She is a member of the Supreme Judicial Court's Standing Committee on Eyewitness Identification and a former member of the Connecticut Judiciary Committee's Eyewitness Identification Task Force. She has spoken at numerous forensics and attorney conferences about forensics issues. She is also a contributor to Evil Hat's BubbleGumShoe (2016), Fate Core: Worlds in Shadow (2013), and author of GURPS Mysteries (2008) and GURPS Cops (2002).
Raven Stern is a costumer and photographer who enjoys discussing the role of plaid in 19th century fashion, which Hulk is best (Jennifer!), why 1830s hair is amazing, and how pop culture and social issues interact with genre fiction. As a member of the Commonwealth Vintage dancers, you can find her time traveling throughout the Boston area and always happy to talk to people interested in learning more about historical dance or costumes! When she's not dancing, Raven likes to capture the fascinating and crazy world of historical interpretation (and other subjects) with her trusty Canon. You can find more about her adventures and research on all of these topics at her blog: plaidpetticoats.blogspot.com.
Ian Randal Strock is the publisher and owner of Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz), which publishes new and reprint SF in both print and electronic editions. Random House published his first book, The Presidential Book of Lists, in 2008, and Carrel Books published his Ranking the First Ladies and Ranking the Vice Presidents in 2016. His short fiction has appeared in Nature and Analog (from which he won two AnLabs). Previous publishing positions have included stints at Analog, Asimov's, Science Fiction Chronicle, Baen Books, The Daily Free Press, and more. Outside of SF, he's been a tour guide at Niagara Falls, worked on Wall Street and at several start-up companies, and started four businesses himself. For more info: www.IanRandalStrock.com.
Dr. Kit Stubbs is a queer/pansexual roboticist, maker, and entrepreneur who's more interested in people than in technology. Kit earned their Ph.D. in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008. They blog about technological empowerment for sexuality and pleasure, including their experiences and creations, at toymakerproject.com. Kit also organizes teasecraft-boston, a local meetup group for sex/kink-positive makers (teasecraft.com). Kit is the founder of the Effing Foundation for Sex-Positivity (effing.org), a nonprofit whose mission is to reduce sexual shame by fostering sex-positive educational and/or artistic projects.
Martha's Vineyard resident John Sundman is the author of three novels and two novellas that might be considered science fiction. Off-island he’s had a long career in software engineering in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Boston/Cambridge. On-island he’s been a construction worker, a warehouse pallet jockey and a furniture mover/truck driver. He is an intellectual, a working-class hero, and a macho, macho man. He's also a volunteer firefighter, assigned to Tisbury 651, a tower-ladder and the coolest firefighting apparatus on the eastern seaboard. Creation Science, his novel-in-progress, concerns a portal to the center of the Earth on Noman’s Land, the ostensibly uninhabited island a few miles south of the Vineyard. Website: JohnSundman.com.
Sandy "Pink" Sutherland's geekiness trends toward games, books, music, and nature. She's been coming to Arisia since 2005, and can often be found either working Tech or the Art Show.
Sonya Taaffe's short fiction and poetry can be found in the collections Ghost Signs (Aqueduct Press), A Mayse-Bikhl (Papaveria Press), Postcards from the Province of Hyphens (Prime Books), and Singing Innocence and Experience (Prime Books), and in various anthologies including Spelling the Hours: Poetry Celebrating the Forgotten Others of Science and Technology, An Alphabet of Embers: An Anthology of Unclassifiables, and Dreams from the Witch House: Female Voices of Lovecraftian Horror. She is currently senior poetry editor at Strange Horizons; she holds master's degrees in Classics from Brandeis and Yale and once named a Kuiper belt object. She lives in Somerville with her husband and two cats.
Cecilia Tan is "science fiction's premiere pornographer," according to Walter Jon Williams, and "one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature" according to Susie Bright. Her forthcoming novel, Initiates of the Blood, will be published by Tor Books in August 2017, the first of The Vanished Chronicles. She is the author of many books that combine the erotic with the fantastic, including the novels of the Magic University series, Mind Games, and The Velderet, the collections of short stories Edge Plays, White Flames, Black Feathers, and Telepaths Don't Need Safewords, and the web serial The Prince's Boy. She is the founder and editor of Circlet Press, erotic science fiction and fantasy. Her short stories have appeared everywhere from Asimov's and Strange Horizons to Ms. Magazine. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or http://blog.ceciliatan.com.
An eclectic ensemble, The Teseracte Players of Boston have been wowing audiences and time warping around New England for 20 years. What started with Rocky Horror has expanded to a dynamic repertoire of shadow cast entertainment spanning TV shows and movies. Catch them at Arisia 2016 performing Rocky Horror, Dr. Horrible’s SIngALong Blog, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More with Feeling, and their latest project The Princess Bride. Check out www.teseracte.com or like them on Facebook for a listing of upcoming shows.
Theatre@First is an all-volunteer community theater based in Somerville, MA. Founded in 2003, we fill a vital niche in the vibrant Davis Square arts scene. We draw upon the talents and support of individuals and organizations throughout the community to provide opportunities for our participants and audiences to experience quality live theater in a variety of local venues. For more about our current and past productions, as well as volunteer opportunities, please see our website: theatreatfirst.org.
TheoNerd—Andrew Tripp has a Ph.D. in practical theology from Boston University. His scholarship in that area focuses on pastoral theology and lived religion. He has written about religious imagery in comics, noting similarities between the ways identities are formed in religious communities and various fandoms. He is a devoted comic book and superhero nerd, with many long boxes of comics and shelves of graphic novels. He also is fascinated by all things zombie. Due to this, he co-founded the TheoNerd website and podcast with Benjamin Chicka. There they have conversations with each other and guests about topics in nerd culture relevant to religion and theology, and vice versa.
Persis L Thorndike, the mother of an accomplished 21-year-old Novice costumer and filker, is busy sharing her sewing machines, singing (at twice monthly Pub Sings and other singing parties), playing music, worksharing on her local CSA & Fish Shares, and cooking good food for her extended family. She is also holding down several part time jobs ATM. She is not only raising a costumer, but has a background of sewing, organizing, music, and graphics. She collects children's literature and reads avidly, and loves good food and wine. She has experience in fannish and music publishing, running non-profit charity auctions for Interfilk (a filk fan fund), has been on the ConCom of the local Boston area gen and filk cons, and is past Tech Mom to Arisia and Balticon and is Events Div Head for Arisia this year. Free time? Over-committed? Who, her? Don't tell her not to burn the candle at both ends; just tell her where to get more wax! (a Nancy Button in her collection.)
Tikva (raycho) is attending her bazillionth Arisia, and her fourth as a panelist. She's a public health professional, disability activist, baseball addict, and member of a poly family/household. She hosts Geek Love, a weekly radio show on Boston Free Radio, which is kind of like Arisia except all year 'round. You may recognize her via her trusty guide dog, who is small in size but large in swagger. Please do not pet either her or the dog without a whole lot of permission.
Dan Toland is a writer and podcaster with Earth-2.net, specializing in comics ("All We Had" and "Earth-2-In-One" for Earth-2.net: The Show), genre television (Bigger on the Inside, The Edge of Forever), and classic SF literature (Books Without Pictures). His strength is as the strength of ten, because his heart is pure; knows he is the World's Greatest Whovian because he has a mug that says so; and understands that mid-1960s Tales of Suspense was the pinnacle of Western civilization, and will fight any man who disagrees. He once watched the first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. without bursting into flame, and probably owns more comics than you do. (He's not bragging; his family would really like the living room back.) He lives in Boston with a woman of limitless patience, a dog who tries REALLY HARD you guys, and also there is a cat.
Mike Toole is the editor at large at Anime News Network, the internet's largest English-language resource and news portal about Japanese animation. He publishes a biweekly column there, as well as occasionally tackling reviews, interviews, and creating other features for the site. He's also an associate producer with DVD and Blu-Ray publisher Discotek Media; he helped produce a documentary feature for their release of Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, and you can hear his guided commentary on the company's new releases of Lupin the 3rd Part 2 and Arcadia of My Youth. Last Christmas, he wrote, produced, and hosted a TV special for his pals at Crunchyroll, which means he's even been on Comedy Central, just like Hannibal Buress!
Thomas Traina is a former lawyer turned computer forensics consultant and legal technology specialist. Academically, he focuses on civil liberties, constitutional law, speculative bioethics, and comparative law and government in science fiction. Tom got into science fiction through Star Wars, then Star Trek TNG, and snowballed from there. He is also an avid roleplayer and theatre-style LARP writer. When he can afford it, he also enjoys wargames.
Gene Turnbow
Damarie Underhill is a music technologist, tinkerer, caffeine addict, and crafter. Lady Aurora Freyasdottir is the High Priestess of Coven of the Moonlit Merloun and has been a member of the Sacred Order of the Black Forest for over ten years. Overall, the identities are pretty compatible but sometimes all the names get confusing.
Heather Urbanski holds a Master of Arts in Writing and a Ph.D. in English, specializing in Composition and Rhetoric. Her first book, Plagues, Apocalypses, and Bug-Eyed Monsters: How Speculative Fiction Shows Us Our Nightmares (McFarland 2007), a bibliographic survey of the genre, combines her passion for SF as a fan with her academic career. Her second book, the edited collection Writing and the Digital Generation: Essays on New Media Rhetoric (McFarland 2010), focuses on the intersections of rhetoric, popular culture, fandom, and digital media. Her third book, The Science Fiction Reboot, a narrative analysis of reimagined works such as Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, was released in early 2013. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English Studies at Fitchburg State University. Her next projects are two edited collections, this time on social memory and popular culture.
Gabriel Valdez is an activist and media critic. He is helping coordinate campaigns geared to amplify and protect the voices of liberals and progressives - especially those entering activism and politics for the first time. He won national recognition in 2015 from the National Newspaper Association and Local Media Association for criticism focused on the historical meaning of art in the face of fascism. He has previous experience as an investigative reporter, campaign manager, and PAC database manager. It's a strange place to find oneself at the intersection of politics, media criticism, and activism right now.
Mercy E Van Vlack has been a comics pro since 1980, including working as a writer for Richie Rich; an artist on Green Ghost & Lotus (set in Boston), creator of Miranda for Leg Show and Puritan magazines; inker for DC, Malibu, and others; illustrator for numerous fanzines, APAs, anthropomorphics, and SF cons; and artist of many Celtic Calendars and the Celtic Coloring Book. She also draws for private collections, bakes gluten-free cookies and cakes that taste good, and makes Celtic jewelry. Birdwatcher, beekeeper and singer of bawdy songs.
Drew Van Zandt is an engineer, maker, and general geek. He's also on the Board of Directors at the Artisan's Asylum, a hacker/makerspace in Somerville, MA, and also on the Board of Directors of the Firefly Arts Collective. Drew is happiest when he's teaching you to make something or making things himself.
Carolyn VanEseltine reads voraciously, pursues a kaleidoscopic variety of hobbies, and (most pertinently for this bio) played too much Colossal Cave Adventure in her formative years, which explains why she's now a professional game developer specializing in narrative design and interactive fiction. Her core philosophy (recently outlined in a talk at Google): "Artistic expression is a basic human right. Game dev is a form of art. We're moving into an era where anyone can make video games, and that's a GOOD thing." If you want to make games, but don't know where to start, check out her blog at www.sibylmoon.com or ping her on Twitter @mossdogmusic.
Pablo M. A. Vazquez III considers himself many things, including performer, poet, wild fanboy, sometimes scholar/always student, agitator, bard-magus, and whatever else he comes up with. A true lover of Freedom and Passion, he champions love and unity, liberty and danger, creativity and aesthetics. He's a cinephile, DC Comics enthusiast, voracious reader, and avid gamer (tabletop/video). Born alongside the Panama Canal, he strangely does not like extreme heat and views his perfect weather to be something akin to Fimbulwinter, but he definitely is a child of the Caribbean, with all of its mystic glory, tropical paradises and delicious culinary trappings. Pablo spends his time traversing various underground and subcultural communities, ranging from magical lodges and mystic circles, unsanctioned parties and kink events to Underground Rap and radical bookstores to, of course, Science-Fiction and Fantasy fandom.
Michael A. Ventrella is a writer, editor, political blogger, and lawyer - but lately he seems best known for being "that Hodor predictor guy." His latest novel is Bloodsuckers: A Vampire Runs for President. He edits the anthologies Tales from Fortannis and Baker Street Irregulars (with Jonathan Maberry). His short stories have appeared in other anthologies, including Dreamers in Hell, The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Archives, and Rum and Runestones. Michael is one of the founders of the biggest fantasy medieval live action role-playing group in North America and currently runs the Alliance LARP. He is also the founder of Animato! which was the first major magazine dedicated to animated films. He has been quoted as an animation expert in Entertainment Weekly and in various books. His blog (www.MichaelAVentrella.com) interviews other authors, editors, agents, and publishers to get advice for the starting author.
Ursula Vernon
Sabrina Vourvoulias is the author of Ink (Crossed Genres, 2012), a novel that draws on her memories of Guatemala's armed internal conflict, and of the Latinx experience in the United States. It was named to Latinidad's Best Books of 2012. Her short stories have appeared at Uncanny Magazine, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Crossed Genres, and in a number of anthologies, including Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History (Fox and Older, eds.), The Year's Best Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2015 (Twelfth Planet Press; Krasnostein and Rios, eds.), and Latino/a Rising (Wings Press; Goodwin, ed.) in 2017. She is a metro columnist at Philadelphia Magazine, and a contributing writer at City and State Pennsylvania magazine and The Guardian US, and is the Project Editor of the Philadelphia Reentry Reporting Collaborative. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, daughter and a dog who rules the household.
Mark "Justin du Coeur" Waks is a rapidly moving particle. If one pins down his position enough (and doesn't worry about his velocity), one finds him focusing on programming, SCA, fandom, LARP, and Freemasonry. He is currently working on building Querki, a new system for Keeping Track of Your Stuff, and is likely to burble at you about it if you give him even the slightest opening -- be warned.
William C. Walker III is an inveterate gamer in multiple media, lover of sci-fi and fantasy, and veteran gm/dm/storyteller with over twenty years of experience running at least one game, and as many as three concurrently. He is a PhD candidate in Law and Public Policy at Northeastern University, with a focus in renewable energy policy. He has worked as a researcher in nanotechnology and engineering education. He is currently a doctoral fellow for Northeastern University's College of Professional Studies.
Jared Walske lives around Boston and spends his time obsessing over music, comics, movies, and just all sorts of weird forgotten cultural detritus. He occasional writes essays and review for his blog, "The World That's Coming" and is an occasional guest on the anime podcast "Dub Talk." You can follow his ramblings at "http://worldthatscoming.blogspot.com" and at "@Amonduulus" on Twitter.
Tanya Washburn (Selkiechick) has been lurking around the edges of fandom and the SCA for just over 20 years, dabbling in costuming and cooking and fanfiction, among many other things. She is also an active advocate for better access services at conventions, and has worked on access at Arisia, Readercon and Worldcon.
A longtime fan of SF/F, John C. Watson was infected with the anime and manga bug in the early 1990s, and remains a virulent carrier of all three.
T.X. Watson was an editor of Solarpunk Press (solarpunkpress.com), which published solarpunk short fiction from 2015-2016. Watson's first short story publication is scheduled for this Spring, in the Sunvault anthology of solarpunk and eco-speculation. In her free time, Watson attends Hampshire College, where xe is majoring in Science Fiction and Fantasy as a form of activism. They can be found on Tumblr at txwatson.tumblr.com and watsons-solarpunk.tumblr.com. He also blogs at txwatson.com. Watson is nongender, and is fine with most pronouns. Some friends use this as an opportunity to practice with neopronouns -- sie supports this approach.
Kat Weiler—I sing! I dance! I read lots of books! Sometimes I do all three simultaneously (though that never ends well)! Come sing with me!
Susan Weiner has been writing and running LARPs for 13 years, primarily as part of Alleged Entertainment. On the side, she teaches physiology, studies social insect behavior, plays the violin and viola da gamba, cooks weird, overly complicated meals, and does a variety of other things in not nearly enough time.
David Weingart—Fan, conrunner, occasional songwriter, IT consultant, ham radio operator, traveler, runner, hiker, father of two Eagle scouts, lover of peaty whiskies. Recently ran music for Worldcon in Kansas City. Hates writing program bios.
Syd Weinstein was a mentor at the American Film Institute Digital Content Lab and is video designer for Arisia and many Worldcons. He has more than 15 years' experience teaching television production techniques to both children and adults. He has directed countless productions and produced several documentaries. He has been part of Techno-Fandom since 2001. He has been involved in Costuming since 2004 and has been a presentation judge at both Arisia, other regionals, and Worldcons. He also directs and stage manages many masquerades and is a member of the International Costumers Guild.
Sarah Lynn Weintraub is the books manager at Pandemonium Books and Games in Central Square, Cambridge. She is working on getting her masters in library science, when she is not trying to power her way through chronic illness. In her free time, she enjoys watching cheesy gay-coded sci-fi, reading science fiction and fantasy written by women, drinking tea, and annoying her cat. You can find her on twitter @ruarealmonster.
Alan Wexelblat is a poly parent, an amateur photographer, a long-time tabletop RPG and online MMO gamer, and a writer on intellectual property issues. He has been at every Arisia since #2 and worked most of them. This year he is Assistant Division Head for Communications.
Besides attending cons, something she's done since her teen years, Michelle Wexelblat is a mother, wife, friend, extrovert, self employed clinical social worker, and poi spinner. Her talents include writing poetry, prose, helping people heal from trauma, and explaining complex things in simple ways that make sense. She’s getting back into writing through doing text based RPGs.
Henry M. White—A writer, LARPer, storyteller, and student. Currently finishing an MFA in Writing for Children at Simmons College. Writes for and works with The Wayfinder Experience (a LARP camp in New York's Hudson River Valley), posts regularly on fistfulofwits.com, and is preparing to query a middle grade space adventure.
A Vermont-licensed lawyer, Valerie White is a sexual freedom activist and practicing polyamorist. She's executive director of the Sexual Freedom Legal Defense and Education Fund, on the advisory council of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, on the coordinating council of Family Tree, and on the board of Unitarian Universalists for Polyamory Awareness. She speaks nationally on sex and the law.
Nightwing Whitehead was born in 1958. The Barbie doll was "born" in 1959; so for a year she had nothing to do. Since then, she's been making up for lost time by dressing anyone and anything that comes within her reach. She's worked for several theaters, dressed some stars, done some teaching, and has her own business designing and creating costumes for life.
Scott Wilhelm is a licensed biology, physics, and general science teacher with more than 10 years of experience, mostly with high-school-aged learners with learning disabilities and severe behavioral problems. He combines deeply analytical lessons with fun activities to meet high expectations with no tears for a very wide range of ages and abilities.
Stymied in his attempt to have a copy of the Necronomicon placed in every hotel room, Stephen R. Wilk continues to work at a Boston High Tech company and as an editor for the Optical Society of America. In his copious spare time he writes. His "How the Ray Gun Got Its Zap!" has been published by Oxford University Press, "Alloprene" was published in Analog last year. "George Washington and the Dragon" will be published in the forthcoming anthology "Live Free or Dragons"., and his mystery "Unexpected" will appear in the anthology "Murder Ink 2", out in February.
Connie Wilkins began with Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, several of Bruce Coville’s anthologies for kids, Strange Horizons, and various similar publications. Then she was seduced into writing and editing erotica as her alter-ego Sacchi Green. That resulted in publishing scores of erotic stories, some of them also crossing into science fiction and fantasy, and editing thirteen anthologies of lesbian erotica including two Lambda Literary Award winners. She gets back to her roots occasionally by editing books like Time Well Bent: Queer Alternative Histories and co-editing Heiresses of Russ 2012: the Year’s Best Lesbian Speculative Fiction, both for Lethe Press; writing erotic sf/f for Circlet Press; and combining specfic with erotica in an upcoming fairy tale anthology, Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms from Cleis Press.
W. B. J. Williams, author of The Garden at the Roof of the World, holds advanced degrees in anthropology and archeology and is an avid historian, mystic, poet, and author who manages an information security program at a prominent New England start- up. He is noted for his bad puns, and willingness to argue from any perspective. He is endured by his beloved wife and two daughters, and lives in Sharon Massachusetts. When he is not at home or at his computer, he can often be found haunting the various used bookstores of Boston.
Alan Winston encountered Regency dancing at the 1978 Worldcon in Phoenix, and was immediately hooked. When he moved from Los Angeles (where he'd chaired or participated in many convention committees) to the Bay Area in 1985 he co-founded the Bay Area English Regency Society and started leading dances. His interest in historical and traditional dance expanded and became more scholarly but paired with an interest in making fun material widely accessible. Alan now regularly calls and choreographs modern English country dance, contra dances, American Civil War era dances, Victorian-era country dance, and general community dance; some of his dances have entered the general repertoire. He's taught at dance and music camps (BACDS Family Week, BACDS Fall Frolick, Lark in the Morning Camp, Victoria BC Opening Weekend), festivals (NEFFA 2017 will be his fifth time), the SF and El Cerrito Free Folk Festivals), English balls (New Haven, Seattle, Petaluma, BACDS Playford Ball), and other events around the West and East Coasts, as well as at Romance Writers of America conventions, many, many Baycons, Timecon, and the Reno Worldcon. He's found country dance and waltzing to be joyful ways to get out of his head and be present with others; he loves to share that joy.
Barbara A Woodward (Bey) is part of the Boston area Poly and Kink communities. She was member of the Heinlein Society Naughty Nurses for 9 years and still encourages everyone eligible to donate blood. Bey is married to gaming book author, Jonathan L. Woodward, and together with their partner Zeph, the three of them are raising their daughter "Roo." Go to her website, TasksAtBey.com, to see what other fun things she does.
Jonathan Woodward is the author or co-author of over a dozen role-playing game books, including the Hellboy RPG, Trinity, and GURPS Banestorm. He has been an Arisia panelist for over 20 years. He lives near Boston with his wonderfully complicated family.
Trisha J. Wooldridge is the former president of Broad Universe and was a senior editor for Spencer Hill Press for several years. Before that, she started her own freelancing company, A Novel Friend, where she practiced the arcane arts of journalism and freelance editing, both of which she still dabbles in on a fairly regular basis. She’s also a member of New England Horror Writers, the HWA, and SCBWI. Under her full name, she writes grown-up horror short stories that occasionally win awards. She has co-produced the Spencer Hill Press anthologies Unconventional and Doorways to Extra Time. In her child-friendly persona of T.J. Wooldridge, she’s published three novels: The Kelpie, The Earl’s Childe, and Silent Starsong. As if she weren’t busy enough, Trish is also the writing partner for the webcomic Aurelio at www.thevampireaurelio.com. Find out more at www.anovelfriend.com.
Brianna Spacekat Wu is head of development at Giant Spacekat Productions, where she wrote and directed the videogame "Revolution 60". This game is a fully 3D-animated game about girls in space who kick ass, and features professional voice actors such as Amanda Winn-Lee. Brianna is also a frequent contributor to science fiction fanzines. She's known for her high-energy art style featuring tall, skinny women. Wu is six foot two, and a dedicated marathoner. She runs over 55 miles every week, and almost 3,000 miles per year. She is married to four-time Hugo-award-winner Frank Wu.
Frank Wu is a Hugo award-winning artist, writer, and animator. Frank's art has materialized in many books and magazines, including Amazing Stories, wherein his art featured a giant laser gun and iceskating dinosaurs. Frank is also a big fan of giant marine isopods and pycnogonids. He's married to game developer Brianna Spacekat Wu. Along with Brianna, he is a co-founder of the game studio Giant Spacekat, which recently released "Revolution 60". For that game, he designed the spaceships and made up all the technobabble.
Aimee Yermish, PsyD (aimee@davincilearning.org) is a clinical psychologist and educational therapist, providing assessment, consultation, therapy, coaching, remediation, enrichment, and overall strategizing for people of all ages who manifest giftedness and/or disabilities (ADHD, Aspergers, other autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, psychological disorders, etc). In her former lives, she was a molecular biologist, a schoolteacher, a black belt, and a Master Assassin. She also loves to sing, read, ride her bike, run, do a great many crafts, and make long lists of things. She is busy raising a husband, two lovely children, and three cats.
Ellie Younger is a biomedical engineer by day, her professional interests are in how technology improves health and is used to treat all kinds of medical conditions.
Eric Zuckerman is not a real talk show host, but he played one on TV. His fannish semi-improv comedy project, "Eric in the Elevator" has screened at regional West Coast conventions, several WorldCons, Arisia (where he was 2008 Fan Performer GoH), and LunaCon (where he was 2011 Special Guest). More recently (and seriously), he produced "Messages to Orbit", filmed live at WorldCon 2015 in Spokane, and centered on the convention's Astronaut Special Guest. Among his many other nerdly pursuits, he's a geocacher, a gamer, an armchair "fanthropologist", and a compulsive ribbon collector/trader.
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