< Back Virginia DeMarce Literary Author Virginia DeMarce, since retiring as a historian in 2004, has been an active participant in the 1632 alternate history series founded by Eric Flint. She co-wrote three novels with Flint, four solo novels and one solo story collection, and numerous stories in the Ring of Fire anthologies, Grantville Gazette, and 1632 & Beyond, as well as participating in the 1632 Tech Forum on Baen's Bar and presenting material at the near-annual 1632 mini-cons. Other Socials

< Back Sonya Bleakley Multilingual. Traveled quite a bit for some years. Baltimore native, lived in other countries. Went to school for International studies/Asian studies, currently steering towards healthcare. Have been in a car ride to near Canada, and also to Canada at least several times! Other Socials

< Back CosplayOnWords Costuming Cosplay Erin (also known as CosplayOnWords) is a cosplayer, photographer, and convention panelist. After consuming and creating content in fandom spaces for most of their life, Erin got involved in cosplay and photography over the past ten years. Erin’s other notable experience lies in performance and digital media creation both in hobbyist and professional capacities. Currently, Erin prides themself on creating budget-friendly and functional cosplay pieces to smooth their convention experience. Erin has also been working on a series of queer cosplay self portraits to explore representation in media and how many queer people will make their own. For their most recent portrait, they won 2nd Place in Baltimore Comic Con’s Cosplay Photography Competition. Other Socials

< Back Betsy R. Marks Costuming Cosplay I’m a writer, fiber artist, and multimedia designer with over thirty years' experience producing works for commercial, government, and nonprofit organizations. No matter what the medium or environment, whether it's editing video or creating a website, designing or directing for theatre, or working with yarn or fabric, I love novelty and experimentation. I am deeply involved in the workings of both Costume-Con and the International Costumers' Guild and I generally compete in the Master division. I tend to sink deeply into each project, applying new techniques until I have a thorough understanding of the medium, and I adore puzzles. I prefer clean, minimalist design. My inspiration comes from nature, music, color or a specified theme. I’m a native of the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes region of Western New York, home again for the first time in 36 years. And it's a good thing I like snow, because oh man, did we get snow this year! Other Socials http://www.hawkeswood.com

< Back Sabrina Vourvoulias Literary Editor Sabrina Vourvoulias is an award-winning Latina news editor and writer whose work has appeared at The Guardian US, PRI’s The World, NBC Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Philadelphia Magazine, among other venues. She is the senior editor for commentary, ideas, and community engagement at the Opinion desk of the Philadelphia Inquirer. An American citizen from birth, she grew up in Guatemala during the armed internal conflict and moved to the United States when she was a teenager. Vourvoulias is the author of Ink, an immigration-centered dystopia named to Latinidad’s Best Books of 2012, and reissued by Rosarium Publishing in 2018. In 2020, she wrote the Smithsonian Latino Center’s middle-school nonfiction anthology, Nuestra América: 30 Inspiring Latinas/Latinos Who Have Shaped the United States. Her speculative short fiction has been published at Tor.com, Apex, Fantasy, Strange Horizons and Uncanny, among others. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and daughter. Other Socials

< Back George Hrab Music Musician Best known in his home town of Bethlehem, PA as the longtime drummer for The Philadelphia Funk Authority, George Hrab is also an accomplished guitarist, pianist, and songwriter; having written and released nine albums. His larger works include, “Occasional Songs for the Periodic Table”—a 118-song cycle featuring one tune for each element of the periodic table as well as “The Broad Street Score,” a re-imagining of his most popular compositions arranged for string quartet and voice. His streaming series entitled “Seven Songs with George Hrab,” has him expounding on the theory, history, and trivia of seven songs around a common theme. George is also the sparkling personality behind more than 900 episodes of “The Geologic Podcast.” Ranging in tone from incredibly serious to unbearably silly, his award-winning show features weekly musings about science, music, comedy, and life at large. After nearly two decades of producing the show, he was recently inducted in The Podcast Hall of Fame. Other Socials

< Back Glitch Symphony Social Media vtubers Glitch is a pegasus catgirl vtuber who streams on twitch. She enjoys entertaining her audience with cursed chaotic comfortable content. She sings, does art and plays games. In her spare time she enjoys playing games with her friends, achievement hunting, watching anime, reading, mahjong and cooking for her significant other. Some of the games she plays are Final Fantasy XIV, Honkai Starrail, Genshin impact, Monster Hunter, Pokemon and retro playstation and nintendo games. Other Socials

< Back Mary Soon Lee Literary Poet Mary Soon Lee is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers’ Award and the Rhysling Award. An illustrated print edition of her epic-fantasy-told-in-poems, The Sign of the Dragon, was published in January 2025. She hides her online presence with a cryptically-named website (marysoonlee.com) and BlueSky account (@marysoonlee.bsky.social). Other Socials

< Back Tyaz Cosplay Costuming Cosplay Tyaz Cosplay has been sewing since she was 10 and cosplaying for 10 years. Although sewing is her original focus, she has also expanded into EVA foam and thermal plastics to broaden her skills. Her goal is to learn a new technique with each new costume. Other Socials

< Back Somto Ihezue Literary Author Somto Ihezue (He/Him) is an Igbo writer, editor, and filmmaker. He is a Creative Writing MFA student at the University of Maryland, and an alumnus of Clarion West, Tin House, and Milford SF workshops. His works have appeared/are forthcoming in Reactor, Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, POETRY Magazine, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, NIGHTMARE, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Podcastle, Flash Fiction Online, and others. His work has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award (Sydney J. Bounds Awards), the Nommo Awards, the Utopia Awards, and has equally been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the British Science Fiction Award. He is the assistant editor of the NEArts and SFWA-sponsored Publishing Taught Me Anthology, and co-editor of Will This Be A Problem Anthology. Visit his website for more information. Other Socials http:// somtoihezue.com

< Back Rosemary Claire Smith Literary Author Rosemary Claire Smith writes about time travel, space exploration, alternate history, future romances, mythological beings, and dinosaurs past and future. Her story “Apollo in Retrograde” won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. She is a four-time finalist for Analog Magazine's readers award. Her work also appears in Amazing Stories, Fantastic Stories, The Reinvented Heart, The Reinvented Detective, 99 Tiny Terrors, 99 Fleeting Fantasies and elsewhere. Look for her regular book reviews in Analog. As a field archaeologist, Rosemary excavated ancient sites in the U.S. She has never given up her dream of jumping back in time to Bronze Age societies or much farther to the heyday of the dinosaurs. You can come along by playing her interactive adventure game, T-Rex Time Machine. Other Socials http://www.rcwordsmith.com

< Back Elijah Kinch Spector Literary Author Elijah Kinch Spector is a novelist and dandy raised in the Bay Area counterculture who now lives in Brooklyn. He is a British Fantasy Award finalist whose writing has received acclaim from NPR, Reactor, Nerds of a Feather, Foreword, and Paste Magazine, among others. Other Socials