Whether you love science with your fiction or costumes with your books, at Balticon we do too! Join 1500+ fans of all backgrounds to celebrate Science Fiction and Fantasy with 300+ hours of diverse programming: meet authors, publishers, editors, cosplay experts, Twitch live-streamers, renowned scientists and tech innovators. Sing along with our filkers, see our stunning Art Show and Masquerade, laugh and cry at our Film Festival. We’ve got something for everyone A four day celebration of Science Fiction and Fantasy! Get your geek on Profoundly uncool since 1967 Balticon 59 Testimonials: We are already planning our return in 2026 for your 60th Balticon! ~ Matt B. I had an amazing time at Balticon this year. ~ Ann P. Thank you for all the hard work to make Balticon 59 happen. ~ Helen J. I had a great time. ~ Charles R. I hope you invite the BGSO back again! ~ Dan R. My wife and I have attended every Balticon since 2008 and this year's con was one of the best. The programs were nicely mixed between Writing, Science, History, and Miscellaneous. The speakers and panelists were almost all extremely well informed. We are already registered for next year. ~ George Whether you love science with your fiction or costumes with your books, we do too! While our central theme is writing, literature, and authors, our dynamic program has something everyone can appreciate. Join over fifteen hundred fans of all backgrounds as we gather to celebrate Science Fiction and Fantasy with more than 300 hours of diverse programming, from award-winning authors and publishers to twitch live-streamers, from cosplay experts to renowned scientists and tech innovators. Sing along with our filkers, soak in our stunning Art Show and Masquerade, laugh and cry at our Film Festival. We’ve got something for everyone.Balticon exists to celebrate the creation and appreciation of science fiction and fantasy in all its expressions, by bringing together fans of all backgrounds in a warm, welcoming environment. Marty Gear Memorial Masquerade Scroll through our gallery to view our judges and contestants. A list of this year's winners can be found here. Guests of Honor Jim Butcher Author Guest of Honor Frank Wu Artist Guest of Honor Samantha Mills 2025 Compton Crook Winner The Faithful Sidekicks Music Guest of Honor Jennifer Blackstream Special Guest "Balticon Anywhere" plans to return in 2026! Buy your Membership Adult (25+) $89 Young Adult (13 - 24) $45 Child (12 and under) ALWAYS FREE Virtual Only $30 Workshops FOUR DAYS OF EVENTS TRINKETS FOR SALE Dealers Room & Artist Alley Balticon’s Dealers Room is like a pop-up mini mall of geeky goodness. You’ll find an assortment of vendors with all sorts of fannish delights, including books, games and gaming accessories, collectibles, clothing, jewelry, and more! Just outside the Dealers Room, you’ll find Artist Alley , where you can meet the artists behind the tables, browse a selection of fine art and handcrafted goods, and even commission custom art! GAMES TO PLAY RPGs, Board Games, and Video Games With three full rooms of gaming, there's sure to be something you'll like! Our RPG room has drop-in round-the-clock tabletop role-playing games, including demos of new systems and scheduled games with old favorites. The Board Games room has scheduled drop-in games as well as our game library where you can pick for yourself. And our Video Game room brings you both modern and retro video gaming! COME IN COSTUME Cosplay Contest The Marty Gear Memorial Masquerade is a cosplay contest with history! Individual and Group contestants take the stage for a short presentation showcasing their costuming skills. We'll also have panels all weekend long on how to craft your own costumes, and a chance to interact with some of our cosplay experts! Partners STAY IN THE KNOW Enter your email here Sign Up Thanks for submitting!

< Back The Faithful Sidekicks Music Guest of Honor © The Faithful Sidekicks 2025 The Faithful Sidekicks are the husband and wife Geek Rock duo of Eric and Jen Distad. They write and perform original songs about the things that interest them and have as much fun as possible in the process. Spanning a wide range of genres from alt rock to irish folk, there music is as eclectic as their subjects, which run from rock songs about board games to folk ballads about Star Trek. Their hope is that if they are having fun, you will have even more fun! Eric plays guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and handles most of the lead vocalsJen plays bass, concertina, mandolin, ukelele, extra percussion and adds backing vocals. Together they make acoustic geek comedy rock to leave a smile on your face. The Faithful Sidekicks' Website

< Back Jennifer Blackstream Special Guest Jennifer Blackstream is a USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy and fantasy romance. She is amazed and grateful to have made a writing career out of a Master’s degree in Psychology, hours of couch-detecting watching Murder She Wrote, and endless research into mythology and fairy tales. She firmly believes that whether it’s a village witch deciding she wants to be a private investigator, or a single mother having a go at being a full time writer, it’s never too late for a new adventure. A passionate rock hounder, Jennifer can often be found wandering the foothills of Colorado looking for more geologic treasures. When she’s not looking for rocks, Jennifer can be found watching cozy mysteries or shark movies with her husband, fellow author Jim Butcher, or building another Post-it filled, efficiency-improving binder for life or writing. Jennifer loves to talk about shark movies and Post-its, and she can ramble a bit. You’ve been warned.

< Back Jim Butcher Author Guest of Honor Jim Butcher is the author of the Dresden Files, the Codex Alera, and a new steampunk series, the Cinder Spires. His resume includes a laundry list of skills which were useful a couple of centuries ago, and he plays guitar quite badly. An avid gamer, he plays tabletop games in varying systems, a variety of video games on PC and console, and LARPs whenever he can make time for it. Jim currently resides mostly inside his own head, but his head can generally be found in the mountains outside Denver, Colorado. Jim goes by the moniker Longshot in a number of online locales. He came by this name in the early 1990’s when he decided he would become a published author. Usually only 3 in 1000 who make such an attempt actually manage to become published; of those, only 1 in 10 make enough money to call it a living. The sale of a second series was the breakthrough that let him beat the long odds against attaining a career as a novelist. All the same, he refuses to change his nickname.

< Back Samantha Mills 2025 Compton Crook Winner The Wings Upon Her Back Zenya was a teenager when she ran away from home to join the mechanically-modified warrior sect. She was determined to earn mechanized wings and protect the people and city she loved. Under the strict tutelage of a mercurial, charismatic leader, Zenya became Winged Zemolai. But after twenty-six years of service, Zemolai is disillusioned with her role as an enforcer in an increasingly fascist state. After one tragic act of mercy, she is cast out and loses everything she worked for. As Zemolai fights for her life, she begins to understand the true nature of her sect, her leader, and the gods themselves. © Samantha Mills, 2023 Samantha Mills is a multiple award-winning author living in Southern California. Her debut science fantasy novel, The Wings Upon Her Back , came out in 2024 and won the Compton Crook Award for best SFFH debut in 2025. Her short stories have appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod and others. In addition to winning the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial awards for her short story “Rabbit Test” in 2023, Sam has also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, made the Locus Recommended Reading List and the BSFA long list multiple times, and was included in the best-of anthologies The New Voices of Science Fiction and The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2023.

< 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 Sarah Pinsker Literary Author Sarah Pinsker is the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Philip K Dick, Locus, and Eugie Award winning author of A Song For A New Day, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea, and, most recently, the novella Haunt Sweet Home, published by Tordotcom in 2024. She is also a singer/songwriter with four albums on various independent labels, including 2021's Something to Hold. She was born in New York and has lived all over the US and Canada, but currently lives with her wife and two dogs in Baltimore in a hundred-year-old house surrounded by sentient vines. Other Socials

< Back Emily Anne Lewis Filk/Music Musician Emily got hooked on filk as a member of Sassafrass. Having played Baldur in Sassafrass' production "Sundown" at Balticon 2012, Emily has come back to Balticon ever since then, now serving as the second in command for the Music track. Emily is an avid scifi/fantasy fan and songwriter/singer. Other Socials

< Back Oghenechovwe Ekpeki Literary Author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor in Nigeria. He has won 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 in Twitter https://twitter.com/penprince_ Other Socials

< 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 Lisa Hodorovych Literary Author Writing has always been a constant for Lisa. Ever since she was little, she knew she was going to be an author and now, she is living her dream. When she is not working on her own writing, she is working with others on their stories through her company, Quoth the Writer. She currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, John. When she is not working at all, she is either watching her favorite movies or TV shows, reading, or spending time with her family, friends, and husband. Other Socials

< Back John Ashmead Science Scientist 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