Eric Flint, Guest of Honor

Eric Flint is one of the hardest working writers in science fiction. After a quarter century of political activism, he finally turned his attention to his writing, winning the Writers of the Future contest in 1993 with his short story, Entropy, and the Strangler and publishing his first novel, Mother of Demons, in 1997. Since then, he’s been working at top speed, publishing dozens of novels, notably the Belisarius and 1632 series, editing reissues of many classic SF authors, as well as the Baen Free Library and Jim Baen’s Universe. He has collaborated with many other authors and editors, including David Drake, Dave Freer, Mercedes Lackey, Mike Resnick, and David Weber. He has been a vocal advocate of online publishing and a critic of Digital Rights Management, releasing all of his own works online with no DRM.

Brad Foster, Artist Guest of Honor

Brad Foster straddles the line between fan and pro in the art world. He founded his small press publishing company, Jabberwocky Graphix, in 1976, and has published the work of over 300 artists from around the world. In the 80s and 90s, he worked in comics and as an illustrator, but is probably best known for his prolific work as a fan artist, for which he has been nominated for the Best Fan Artist Hugo an amazing 21 times, racking up a record 6 wins. His work has been found on the covers and interior pages of fanzines and convention program books, notably the ApolloCon 2008 program book, Askance, The FACT Sheet, and File 770. Recently, his carpetbag characters have been all over the place in support of the Reno in 2011 Worldcon bid.

Juanita Coulson, Fan Guest of Honor

Juanita Coulson has distinguished herself in many areas of SF Fandom, from fanzines to filk. She won the Best Fanzine Hugo for Yandro, which she published along with her husband, Buck, in 1965, with nominations for a 10-year run from 1958-1967. In filk circles, she has been a frequent nominee the Pegasus Award in just about every category. She has been filking since the 50s, when she set several Heinlein lyrics to music and began writing original pieces. She has worked hard to introduce new fans to filk circles, and is recognized as a Den Mother and Ohio Valley Filk Festival Grandmistress. In 1996, she was inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame.

Toni Weisskopf, Toastmaster

Toni Weisskopf is the publisher of Baen Books, and was the first winner of the Triple Crown of Southern Fandom awards – the Rebel, the Phoenix, and the Rubble. She is notable as the editor of such SF anthologies as Cosmic Stories: Adventures in Sol System and Transhuman (with Mark L. Van Name) as well as the mammoth 1997 Southern Fandom Confederation Handbook. Recently, she edited her late husband, Hank Reinhardt’s The Book of Swords.

For a list of additional confirmed participants, click here.