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Lecture Speakers: Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman

Ellen Kushner began her career in publishing as a fiction editor in New York City, but left to write her first novel, Swordspoint, which has become a cult classic, hailed as the progenitor of the “mannerpunk” (or “Fantasy of Manners”) school of urban fantasy. Swordspoint was followed by Thomas the Rhymer (World Fantasy Award and the Mythopoeic Award), and two more novels in her “Riverside” series. Her short fiction appears regularly in various anthologies. Ellen Kushner’s fiction has been translated into numerous languages, including Japanese, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latvian and Finnish. She has narrated and co-produced “illuminated” versions of all three of the “Riverside” novels with SueMedia Productions for Neil Gaiman Presents at Audible.com–and won a 2013 Audie Award for Swordspoint. Other recent projects include the urban fantasy anthology Welcome to Bordertown (co-edited with Holly Black), and The Witches of Lublin, a musical audio drama written with Elizabeth Schwartz & Yale Strom (Gabriel, Gracie and Wilbur Awards).

Delia Sherman was born in Tokyo, Japan, and brought up in New York City. Delia’s short fiction for adults has appeared most recently in the anthologies Naked City and Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells. Stories for teen readers have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Steampunk! and Under My Hat. “CATNYP,” a story of a magical New York Between, inspired her first novel for children, Changeling. The sequel, The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen, followed in 2009. The Freedom Maze, a time-travel fantasy set in Louisiana, was awarded the Norton Award, the Prometheus Award, and the Mythopoeic Award. Her recent collection of short fiction, Young Woman in a Garden, has appeared on PW’s list of Best SF of 2014. She has worked as a contributing editor for Tor Books and has co-edited the fantasy anthology The Horns of Elfland with Ellen Kushner and Donald G. Keller, as well as The Essential Bordertown with Terri Windling, as well as two anthologies of Interstitial fiction, Interfictions 1, with Theodora Goss and Interfictions 2, with Christopher Barzak. She is Executive Editor of Interfictions Online: A Journal of Interstitial Arts. (Photo by Austen Burroughs.)

Writing Workshop: Mary Turzillo and Geoffrey A. Landis

Mary Turzillo‘s 1999 Nebula-winner,”Mars Is no Place for Children” and her Analog novel An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl are recommended reading on the International Space Station. Her poetry collection Lovers & Killers won the 2013 Elgin Award. She been a finalist on the British Science Fiction Association, Pushcart, Stoker, Dwarf Stars and Rhysling ballots. Sweet Poison, her Dark Renaissance collaboration with Marge Simon, was a Stoker finalist and their collaboration, Sweet Poison, is on the 2015 Elgin ballot. She’s working on a novel, A Mars Cat and his Boy.

Geoff Landis is a writer, a scientist, and a poet. His short stories have been published in over 20 languages, and have won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best science fiction. He is also the author of the novel Mars Crossing and the story collection Impact Parameter (and Other Quantum Realities). As a scientist, he works for NASA on Mars exploration, and on developing advanced technologies for spaceflight. He was the 2014 recipient Robert A. Heinlein Award “for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings that inspire the human exploration of space.” He lives in Berea Ohio with his wife, poet Mary Turzillo, and four cats.