DIVERSICON 24: “Martians, Vulcans, and Women of Valor” July 29-31

This weekend in Minnesota is Diversicon 24 - “Martians, Vulcans, and Women of Valor” at the Best Western Plus—Bandana Square.

Sahtu Press founder Nor Sanavongsay provides this year's convention art. He is a children's book writer and illustrator and the author of "A STICKY MESS" based on a classic Lao folktale. His illustrations appear in Strange Horizons, Little Laos on the Prairie, the Twin Cities Daily Planet, SatJaDham and other publications. He founded Sahtu Press because he believes every community deserves a chance to read stories that reflect their own experiences. You can see more of his art at https://instagram.com/artofnor. He also provided the art for Diversicon 22 and 23.

This year they honor the science fiction contributions of writers Jessica Amanda Salmonson and Naomi Kritzer. They're also recognizing the late Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy and Shirley Jackson. Officers and editors of the Science Fiction Poetry Association will also be recognizing the recent winners of the Rhysling Awards for poem of the year.

Jessica Amanda Salmonson is a recipient of the Lambda Award, World Fantasy Award, and ReaderCon Certificate. She is a novelist: Anthony Shriek, The Golden Naginata, The Swordswoman, etc; short story writer: The Deep Museum, A Silver Thread of Madness, The Complete Weird Epistles of Penelope Pettiweather, Ghost Hunter; and poet: The Death Sonnets, The Ghost Garden. She has edited a number of horror and/or fantasy anthologies (Heroic Visions, Tales by Moonlight) and single-author weird fiction collections such as of Marjorie Bowen, Julian Hawthorne, Sarah Orne Jewett, Vincent O’Sullivan, Mary Heaton Vorse, Fitz-James O’Brien, Harriet Prescott Spofford, and others. She lives with artist and potter Rhonda Boothe and their dogs, on a hillside in a Pacific Northwest military town overlooking Puget Sound from her crumbling spooky looking Edwardian manse.

Naomi Kritzer’s short stories have appeared in Asimov’s SF, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Realms of Fantasy, Strange Horizons and Tales of the Unanticipated. Her novels Fires of the Faithful, Turning the Storm, Freedom’s Gate, Freedom’s Apprentice and Freedom’s Sisters are available from Bantam. Since her last novel came out, she has written an urban fantasy novel about a Minneapolis woman who unexpectedly inherits the Ark of the Covenant; a children’s science fictional shipwreck novel; a children’s portal fantasy; and a YA novel set on a dystopic seastead. She has two e-book short story collections out: Gift of the Winter King and Other Stories, and Comrade Grandmother and Other Stories. Naomi lives in St. Paul with her husband and two daughters.

Orson Welles (1915-1985) directed the Mercury Theatre on the Air broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the films Citizen Kane, The Stranger, Touch of Evil, and The Chimes at Midnight.

Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) was the author of The Lottery and Other Stories, The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Just An Ordinary Day, and Let me Tell You.

Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015) acted in the TV series Mission: Impossible and Star Trek, and directed the films Star Trek III, Star Trek IV, The Good Mother, and Three Men and a Baby. He wrote the memoirs I am not Spock and I am Spock. 

Others attending include Cezarija Abartis, Janice M. Bogstad, Cynthia Booth, Roy C. Booth, Terry A. Garey, Martha A. Hood, Greg L Johnson, Phyllis Ann Karr, Philip E. Kaveny, Russell Letson, Catherine Lundoff, Lyda Morehouse.