< 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! Anyway, you can find me on the web at www.hawkeswood.com Other Socials

< Back Frank Wu Artist Guest of Honor Born in Philadelphia, Frank Wu has a PhD in Bacterial Genetics and over 20 years of professional experience in biotech patent law. A contributor to the development of the COVID vaccine, Frank also has a passion for science fiction writing and art. A fixture in the science fiction fandom since 1998, Frank Wu has won four Hugo awards for art. Since 2015, Frank Wu has shifted his focus to writing, with the publication of “Season of the Ants,” in Analog, one of the most prestigious publications in science fiction. Frank Wu lives in Dedham, Massachusetts, with his wife, noted tech and political figure Brianna Wu.

< Back Oghenechovwe Ekpeki Literary Author/Editor Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor in Nigeria. He has won the the Otherwise, British Fantasy award, and Nommo award, twice. He has been a finalist in the, Locus, Nommo, Sturgeon and BSFA award, twice. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared and are forthcoming in Tordotcom, Strange Horizons, Galaxy's Edge, Apex, Asimov's and more. He edited Bridging Worlds, the first ever Year's Best African Speculative Fiction anthology, co-edited the groundbreaking Dominion anthology, and the Africa Risen anthology forthcoming on Tordotcom in Nov 2022. You can find him on Twitter. Other Socials https://reactormag.com/first-collection-of-the-years-best-african-speculative-fiction-is-coming-next-month/

< 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 Christiana Ellis Literary Author Christiana is an engineer, podcaster, writer and streamer from the Boston area. She is the author of the fantasy novel, "Nina Kimberly the Merciless", the creator and star of award-winning audio drama "Space Casey", the Dungeon Master of the "So Many Levels" D&D Stream, and the podcaster behind more projects you can shake a stick at. Most recently, she is the author of the slipstream noir novel: "Phyllis Esposito: Interdimensional Private Eye". Other Socials

< Back Diana Peterfreund Literary Author Diana Peterfreund has published fifteen novels for adults, teens, and kids, including the four-book Secret Society Girl series, the “killer unicorn novels” Rampant and Ascendant, For Darkness Shows the Stars (a post-apocalyptic retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion), and Across a Star-Swept Sea (inspired by the classic series The Scarlet Pimpernel). Her middle grade trilogy, Omega City, are contemporary adventure novels for younger readers set in a secret bunker city somewhere under modern Maryland. Her CLUE mysteries were written in partnership with Hasbro to bring the classic board game to life for the modern teen. Diana lives in Maryland with her family. Other Socials

< List of Vendors Maryland Writers' Association Dealer's Room MWA's diverse membership ranges from professional freelancers and published authors, to writers aspiring to be published and those who write as a creative outlet. Members produce both nonfiction and fiction, including novels, short stories, poetry, plays, scripts, speeches, feature articles, and essays. Some work in specific genres such as romance, science fiction, thriller, fantasy, children's literature, travel writing, or biography. MWA strives to: Bring together aspiring, emerging, and established writers of all genres and disciplines Serve as an information and networking resource Help members make contacts that lead to publication Encourage writers to reach their full potential, and Promote writing within Maryland communities The Maryland Writers' Association (MWA) is a voluntary, not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting the art, business, and craft of writing in all its forms. https://marylandwriters.org/index.php

< List of Vendors Rare Dandy Dealer's Room Gothic fashion, handmade with vintage and secondhand materials. https://www.etsy.com/shop/RareDandy

< Back David Walton Literary Author David Walton hails from Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife and eight children. An engineer by day and an author by night, David has won both the John W. Campbell Award and the Philip K. Dick Award for his novels, which have been translated into seven languages. His newest books are the LIVING MEMORY series, dinosaur thrillers involving paleontologists and an ancient genetic technology. Other Socials

< Back Charity Auctions Fandom has a history of giving. At Balticon, you will have opportunities to contribute to several causes. BSFS also maintains a Little Free Library in front of its building in East Baltimore. Books for Kids money is used to purchase books to be distributed through the LFL. Over 900 books have been distributed this year. BSFS Books for Kids raises money at Balticon in several ways. BSFS Books for Kids Balticon holds two auctions to raise money for the BSFS Books for Kids program: Saturday evening during the Masquerade intermission and Sunday afternoon after the Art Auction. Funds raised will be used to purchase books for students to keep on their own. BSFS Books for Kids also collects book donations for local school libraries. Items for the auction are donated by individuals and companies and generally have a Science Fiction or Fantasy theme. To donate items for the auction, contact booksforkids@balticon.org .

< Back Ben Newman Music Filk 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 almost 300 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. Ben's other fannish interests include tabletop and digital game design and a variety of arts and crafts. Other Socials

< Back John Ashmead Literary Scientist/Editor John Ashmead has a BA in physics from Harvard, summa cum laude, and a masters in physics from Princeton. For several years he was an assistant editor for Asimov's SF Magazine. Since then he has worked as a software and database developer. He currently supports a leading optical switch manufacturer (your web pages & email travel over switches he helped build). John has stayed part of the science fiction community. Recently he co-edited Tales from the Miskatonic University. And he has given talks at NASA, Philcon, Capclave, Balticon, and several Worldcons on Time Travel, Invisibility, Practical Telepathy, Artificial Intelligence, the Quantum Internet,... He has published several papers in peer reviewed journals in the areas of time and quantum mechanics, the most recent on "Time dispersion in bound states" proposing practical experiments to see if the rules of quantum mechanics apply to time. His life time ambition: invent a really practical time machine. Other Socials