< Back Akua Lezli Hope Literary Author Akua Lezli Hope, a Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry (SFPA), is a creator & wisdom seeker who creates poems, patterns, stories, music, sculpture, adornments & peace. In print since 1974 with more than 500 poems published in numerous literary magazines & anthologies, she's a third generation New Yorker, whose honors include the NEA, two NYFAs, SFPA & Rhysling awards, NYSCA grants, Pushcart Prize & Best of the Net nominations, 2024 IGNYTE award, among others. She has twice won Rattle’s Poets Respond. Her first collection, EMBOUCHURE, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics, won the Writer’s Digest book award. A Cave Canem fellow, she created the Speculative Sundays Poetry Reading Series, now in its 6th year. Her speculative poetry chapbook, Otherwheres, won the 2021 Elgin Award. Her micro-chapbook, Stratospherics, is in the Quarantine Public Library. She edited the first BIPOC speculative poetry anthology, NOMBONO (2021) & the historic, largest Eye to the Telescope issue #42 on The Sea. Other Socials

< Back Vantura Gaming Gamer An adventurer on his way to the next journey! With the power to travel between worlds, I travel and make friends of all shapes and sizes! I tend to find myself taking impromptu journies, so please bear with me if things get a little strange. I love gaming, and I love making friends. I hope to make lots of friends here and have fun chatting with you all! Other Socials

< Back Honorable Mention "Snow Bear" Hand drawn animation. (This film will not be shown in the Film Festival.) https://youtu.be/xOXolSQcEb4 Previous Next

< Back Concerts and Filk Balticon is home to one of the East Coast’s strongest tracks of filk and fannish music, featuring a variety of concerts, panels, and workshops, plus open circles all three nights. Filk is the musical folk tradition of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan community, consisting primarily of songs that tell or retell stories. The stories vary widely from retelling fairy tales, pirate and seafaring adventures, invention and technology, dragons, mermaids, selkies, NASA, spaceships, alternate universes, historical disasters, wherever or whenever your imagination can take you. Join in at the Classic Filk Singalong (lyrics provided), or come to the theme circles and open filks to listen or perform! Balticon 60’s music track is topped by our Special Guests, the Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra (BGSO). We’re still building the schedule, but we anticipate the BGSO will have a concert in our Main Tent along with a few smaller ensemble and choral performances throughout the con. Concerts In our always-eclectic program of nerdy musicians you might hear anything from harp and acoustic guitar to rock and nerdcore rap. This year’s lineup will be announced early in 2025, but past performers have included: Baltimore Gamer Symphony Orchestra (BGSO) Bob and Sue Esty Maugorn the Stray Sarah Pinsker Madison “Metricula” Roberts Roberta Rogow Devo Spice Theme Circles Theme circles are similar to open filk circles but with a specific topic. In addition to our perennial Classic Filk Sing-Along (with projected lyrics) and Memorial Circle we usually have 2 or 3 other Theme Circles across the weekend. Past topics have included: Drinks Real and Imagined Historical Songs Lullabies Songs of Strong Women Songs of Stan Rogers and Gordon Lightfoot Dance For those who like to get up and move, there will be a Renaissance Dance (with live music) and Hula Hooping, both led by Patches. All ages are welcome! Don’t worry if you don’t know the dances - we’ll help you learn! Attendees are taught the basics of folk dancing during Balticon 58. Filk Lounge Just down the hall from our main music space, you’ll find our Filk Lounge, where you can hang out between programs, chat with performers, grab a quick snack, or rehearse a song. We also use the lounge for some intimate, targeted programming that doesn't require our larger main space. For more information contact filk@balticon.org

< Back Yoshi Gaming Game Master Hello fellow nerds, I am Yoshi! I am the Director of RPG and Tabletop Programming for Balticon 59 and looking forward to seeing you all! This will be my 7th Balticon on staff, and my first year on the BSFS Board of Directors. As for my credentials, I have been an avid player of RPG and Tabletop games of a variety of stripes and systems for the past 23 years. I have played and/or run games of D&D 3.5, 4e, 5e, Pathfinder 1e and 2e, Iron Kingdoms, Starfinder, Traveler, Star Wars, Fallout, Warhammer, Warmachine, Firestorm, and Infinity. In more recent years, I have been streaming behind a virtual avatar (VTuber) with a variety content track including RPGs, Strategy, and Shooter games. Professionally, I have spent the last 9 years with CommVault Systems working as a Senior T2 Support Engineer for the CommVault family of Enterprise Backup, Restore, and Indexing Solutions. I specialize in the Support and Implementation of Cloud Storage Solution Integration with our software. Other Socials

< Back Jim Beall Science Scientist Jim Beall (BS-Math, MBA, PE) has been a nuclear engineer for over 50 years and an avid science fiction reader for even longer. His experience began as a naval officer aboard USS Long Beach (CGN-9), then design, construction, inspection, and assessment with a nuclear utility, an architect engineering firm, and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC). USNRC assignments included senior resident inspector and policy assistant for reactors to three different USNRC Commissioners, earning the agency’s Meritorious and Distinguished Service awards. Duties included research into alternative and speculative energy sources, including coal, oil, hydro, geothermal, tidal, solar, wind, fracking, space-based, heavy water reactors, breeder reactors, fusion, and even anti-matter. These studies supported reviewing energy proposals, assessing technical reports, and drafting speeches. JBIS, Elsevier, Baen Books, and the Interstellar Research Group have published several of his non-fiction articles. Other Socials

Hotel Balticon will once again be at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel , inside the Baltimore Inner Harbor Entertainment District. We are close to multiple shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues, and accessible by public transit or by car. Reserve your Room ADDRESS 202 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21202 PARKING Balticon has secure discounted parking for our guests. Please visit our Parking page for more information. PUBLIC TRANSIT Routes and schedules for bus and light rail are available on the MTA website . BOOK YOUR ROOM Stay in the hotel and never miss a moment! Our room block keeps you part of the con all weekend long. More info... Balticon Room Block Stay in the hotel and never miss a minute of Balticon! We've negotiated the best room rate possible for you at $163 per night (plus taxes) for either a King or Double Queen room. Full details on rooms are available on the hotel's website. By booking through our block, not only do you get the best rate, but you help support us, too. Space is limited! Reserve your Room When you book your room, you can tell the hotel about any special requests for your room. We ask that you also send an email to us at hotel@balticon.org so we can help the hotel pay attention to your request. To make reservations by phone, please use the dedicated Group Reservations number, 1-877-212-5752, and use group code BALTICON 2026. Got Questions? Use this form to submit your addtional room requests, request space on the Party Floor, or any other questions about hotel reservations. You can also email us at hotel@balticon.org Open Room Parties Balticon groups all Room Parties on the same floor to minimize disturbing other attendees and hotel guests. If you're planning a party, whether open or not, let us know and we'll make sure you're on the Party floor. First name Last name Email* I have a question about... Message Submit

< Back Robert J. Sawyer Literary Author Robert J. Sawyer, the 2017 recipient of the Robert A. Heinlein Award, has been called “The dean of Canadian science fiction” by both the CBC and the Ottawa Citizen. He is one of only eight writers ever (and the only Canadian) to win all three of the world’s top awards for best science-fiction novel of the year: the Hugo (which he won for Hominids), the Nebula (which he won for The Terminal Experiment), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won for Mindscan); he has 12 additional Hugo nominations, including eight others for best novel. The ABC TV series FlashForward was based on Rob’s Aurora Award-winning novel of the same name; Rob’s latest novel (his 25th) is The Downloaded. A Guest of Honour at the 2023 Worldcon, a past president of SFWA, a member of the Order of Canada, and one of the initial inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, Rob lives in Toronto. Visit his million-plus-word website at sfwriter.com. Other Socials

< Back Robyn Wyrick Science Scientist Robyn Wyrick is a Maryland-based novelist and AI researcher. His novel, Eviction Notice, is a science-fiction/fantasy about cosmic absurdism, fantasy and satire, love and death, and bravery when it's all you have left. Robyn holds a Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence and an MBA. He works professionally in AI systems integration for the National Institutes of Health, and is founder of Deep Alignment, a research initiative exploring intrinsic AI alignment. Other Socials

< Back Lisa Hertel Art Artist Lisa Hertel is an artist from a long line of artists. A former pharmacist, she works in a variety of media, sometimes mixing them, and will try almost anything. Currently, she produces work in watercolor, alcohol ink (an alcohol soluble dye), encaustics (wax), wire, and ceramics. A long-time convention runner, she's worked in just about every area of conventions, and has broad fannish interests -- it's all good! Other Socials

< Back Ian Randal Strock Literary Author/Editor Ian Randal Strock is a writer, editor, and publisher. He is the owner and editor-in-chief of Gray Rabbit Publications/Fantastic Books (www.FantasticBooks.biz). Previously, he edited and published Artemis Magazine and SFScope. He also worked on the editorial staffs of Analog, Asimov's, Science Fiction Chronicle, and many others. He consider himself a science fiction author, even though 98% of his published words have been non-fiction. He is the author of three books of presidential history and trivia. His first collection of short fiction, "Wandering Through Time," is now available. He has made more than a dozen appearances in Analog (from which he won two AnLab awards), with several stories in Nature and in recent anthologies. He has also worked on Wall Street, and as a tour guide at Niagara Falls. Other Socials http://www.IanRandalStrock.com

< Back Micaiah Johnson Literary Author Micaiah Johnson’s novel The Space Between Worlds is the winner of the 2021 Compton Crook Award. Micaiah was raised in California’s Mojave Desert surrounded by trees named Joshua and women who told stories. She received her Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and her Master of Fine Arts in fiction from Rutgers University–Camden. Her debut novel, The Space Between Worlds, from Hodder in the UK and Crown in the US, was a Sunday Times best seller, New York Times Editor's Choice, Goodreads Best Science Fiction of 2020 finalist, and listed as listed as one of NPR's Best Books of the Last Decade, as well as Best Book of 2020. She now studies American literature at Vanderbilt University, where she focuses on critical race theory and automatons. Other Socials