If you have any questions about the convention, technical issues, or just want to stop by to say hello, drop in to the Info Desk / Registration and we'll do what we can to help, or put you in touch with people who can!

The traditional WisCon kickoff event! Our GoH, Darcie Little Badger and Premee Mohamed, read from their work and answer audience questions.

Do you have questions about WisCon Online, your membership, the program, or how to participate in panels or discussion? Or do you just want to hang out and chat? Someone from the Online Con team will be here to help! Video welcome but not required.

ADVANCED SIGN UP ONLY. Workshop session with EJ Fischer

Wonderful speculative goodies from Neon Hemlock

If you have any questions about the convention, technical issues, or just want to stop by to say hello, drop in to the Info Desk / Registration and we'll do what we can to help, or put you in touch with people who can! (Note: Info Desk sessions will not have live captioning, though automatic captions will be turned on)

[Recorded] From Get Out to Sinners, let's examine the larger trends in recent horror films and television shows by and featuring BIPOC writers/directors/actors. Why is this such a prolific genre recently? What kind of cultural work is it doing for audiences, BIPOC and otherwise?

[Recorded] What are the special challenges and pleasures of reading speculative fiction in translation? How do we get started?

What are the latest trends in creating "artificial" intelligences that help us explore our definitions of what it means to be non-human - and to be human? Have we reached the limit yet? Will AI development in real life make these narratives irrelevant or even more important than ever?

Strength the Voice of Your Book. Learn best practices for line editing with this interactive and practical editing talk from book coach Rebecca Zornow.

[Recording] What types of gender expression are portrayed in Stranger Things? From Steve's transformation from toxic to wholesome, to Hopper's changing relationship with women, we talk about how the portrayal of gender expression in Stranger Things evolves and enriches the show, subverting some of the more toxic tropes of the 80s that inspired the show.

[Recorded] From the post-climate-collapse Alberta of The Annual Migration of Clouds to the war-ravaged empire of The Siege of Burning Grass to the Tyrant-ruled land of The Butcher of the Forest, Premee Mohamed's works feature various ends of the world as her characters know them. And those characters and their relationships often don't map easily onto straight, binary worldviews. How do these stories reflect queer sensibilities? What is gained from looking at apocalypes through a queer lens? And what can we learn from the settings and relationships to apply to our own realities?

[Recorded] Come explore ways the speculative fiction community can start being more inclusive of writers, readers, and fans with disabilities. This isn't theoretical, it's about steps we can take right now to make our community more inclusive. from making our webpages and social media output more accessible and using inclusive language, to making submission guidelines more accessible, let's talk about how we as fans and professionals can improve accessibility within the speculative fiction community.

[Recorded] Let's pierce the hype around Machine Learning and investigate the real-world historical contexts and the social, cultural, and economic realities that enable, encourage, and force its deployment. Is this technology the people want? Is this technology good for us? Algorithms of oppression - to use Safiya Noble's term - are intensifying historical/current inequalities. Who is accepting and encouraging that? What other stories can we tell?

Breaking Out of Revision Hell: Revision and Editing Workshop with LaShawn M. Wanak

[Recorded] Spirituality is a complex and sensitive aspect of world and character building. What are some possible ways to handle religion in your fictional worlds? How might characters' beliefs vary from the dominant ones? How can including spirituality and religion enrich your world and characters?

[Recorded] Let's talk about girls and young women who crossdress so they can do male only activities and jobs! What do we like and dislike about it? When do such stories actually explore queer identities, and when are they just a means to achieve heteronormative goals? How has this trope changed over time? How does it compare to other ways crossdressing is used in stories, or to stories about young women challenging gender roles without crossdressing?

We are currently in a new era of proliferating Star Trek TV shows; since Discovery brought Star Trek back to TV in 2017, it has been joined by Lower Decks, Picard, Prodigy, Strange New Worlds, and now Starfleet Academy. What trends and themes do we see emerging in this new era of Star Trek? What elements of Star Trek's legacy - progressive or not - do we see manifesting in these shows? What does the reception of these shows in fandom teach us about how Star Trek is culturally perceived historically and in the present moment? How have the conditions of production for these shows, compared to earlier Star Trek TV, changed (or not changed) the capacities and limitations of Star Trek as a scifi/fantasy story? And regarding Lower Decks, what kind of stories can you tell with animation? How do these stories fit into the canon?

Let's talk strategies for dealing with the dreaded to-be-read pile. How do we add things? Where do we add things? How do we read things from there? Let's reflect on the abundance/excess of reading materials and how you can build your own library without FOMO (fear of missing out).

Vonda N. McIntyre left us too soon, but she finished her last book, The Curve of the World before she died. It's coming out from Aqueduct Press just in time for WisCon 2026. Vonda was noted for her feminist SF, and this book - a history that might have been - is no exception. The speculation takes in many cultures and shows the ways they might have interacted.

[Recorded] Let's talk about how to build worlds, our favorite aspects of worldbuilding, and whether it's important to work out details of the world if they don't actually explicitly get written into the story. How do we keep the worldbuilding from overwhelming writing the story? We'll look at unexpected in-story impacts of choices made in building worlds.

A sub-genre of horror, body horror repulses and disturbs readers by displaying transgressions of the human form. Traditionally, this has often represented a source of conflict, but increasingly diverse narratives also depict the liberatory potential of such bodily transformations.

Do you have questions about WisCon Online, your membership, the program, or how to participate in panels or discussion? Or do you just want to hang out and chat? Someone from the Online Con team will be here to help! Video welcome but not required.

[Recorded] Best Superpowers for Banging returns to discuss that perennial object of supernatural erotic fascination: the vampire! From Interview with the Vampire to Sinners, undead bloodsuckers continue to capture our lascivious imaginations. Join us as we rank the hotness of famous vampires, discuss which vampiric powers would be best for bedroom adventures, and finally answer the age-old question: is Dracula a Wife Guy?

A discussion of everything new and exciting in queer science fiction, fantasy, and horror over the last two years. What great new stories are being told? Who are the exciting new voices to look for? What themes and tropes are popular right now? Panelists will share recommendations and analysis, as well as their thoughts on what they'd like to see more of in the future.

What are the politics of cooperative games? From Sentinals to Prosper with Dragons, cooperative table top games are doing interesting things with diversity in aesthetic and balance in play. What do our favorite games do well? What could they do better?

[Recorded] What does a general strike mean? This panel reviews historical and hypothetical scenarios on organizing, participating, and supporting each other through a general strike. We'll discuss the roles of Unions and lessons learned from the Covid-19 shutdowns.

Heated Rivalry has blown up worldwide, and has a particular appeal for queer fans. What is it that draws us to the show? What are we relating to so much? How do we compare it to other queer sports romances like Yuri!!! On Ice and A League of Their Own? What does a show like this mean to us at this moment when queer communities - and queer athletes - are facing so much moral panic and backlash? And does it mean anything for men's hockey?

One of the myths of capitalist society is that without rich people, we wouldn't have technology and the ability to improve it. In a future without the opportunity to get our inventions stolen by powerful people, how do we imagine technology would continue to grow and spread? What safeguards would need to be in place, and how would they be enforced?

If you have any questions about the convention, technical issues, or just want to stop by to say hello, drop in to the Info Desk / Registration and we'll do what we can to help, or put you in touch with people who can!

Many near-future dystopias in literature now trot out familiar tropes that feel uncomfortably close to our lived reality. How do writers decide what to fictionalize, what to keep literal, and how far to extrapolate? Some writers, from Harlan Ellison to Octavia Butler, have deliberately "shocked" readers in order to wake them up - how do we balance that tradition with the need not to re-traumatize readers who already live with systemic violence, and what does responsible outrage on the page look like now?

So many of us face self-doubt; how do we find the courage to keep writing? When should we quit? Discussion of the line between hope and self-delusion.

Members of the 2025 Otherwise jury and others familiar with the award will discuss the 2025 Otherwise Winner, Luminous by Silvia Park, as well as the honor list titles and other works of gender-exploring speculative fiction from the last year. The panel will also discuss trends that they have seen in speculative fiction in in relation to the exploration and expansion of gender and how that exploration intersects, as it must, with other identity categories.

[Recorded] The world is on fire around us, but life goes on. How do we live in the present without giving in to despair?

[Recorded] The classic "bug-eyed monsters" trope from classic science fiction has given way to thoughtful explorations of sentience and community beyond the warm-blooded model. What are writers trying to achieve when they create characters with exoskeletons and antennae? How do character and plot change when we imagine civilizations that operate within a hive-mind model rather than the individualistic humanoid one?

With Microsoft going all in on Copilot and generative AI tools in Word, and the speculative fiction publishing industry functionally standardized on Microsoft Word for editing and review, how are writers and publishing houses adapting as a business to Generative AI tools? Especially since contract terms are starting to include clauses about not using GenAI tools? Is LibreOffice good enough to support manuscript-sized documents full of Track Changes?

[Recorded] Climate change presents humanity with so many different potential challenges, it's no surprise that fictional imaginings of its effects are already so copious. Both our Guests of Honor, Premee Mohamed and Darcie Little Badger, have used their own scientific backgrounds to highlight climate change in their stories. In this panel they'll discuss their perspectives on climate change as scientists and as writers.

[Recorded] Watching communities across the US coming together to protect their neighbors has been inspiring, even as their stories are often harrowing. We'll examine speculative fiction with themes of collective resistance and/or mutual aid, from Sarah Gailey's Have you Eaten to Disney's Andor, to glean inspiration and lessons on working to counter totalitarian tactics like ICE occupation and abductions.

Asexual creators and fans come together to talk about representation of asexual characters in speculative fiction. How are asexual characters portrayed in relationships, both romantic and queerplatonic? What do we want to see more of? What harmful stereotypes or tropes do we wish would go away? What books and authors do we love?

[Recorded] Spirituality and science can sometimes seem to be in conflict. How do we balance what we know objectively with what we know spiritually? How do we use these points of balance in our creativity, in our activisim, and in our lives? How do we value the soul and our physical existence? What sacrifices happen when these two come into conflict? How do world-changing events such as wars, climate catastrophes, and pandemics cause and shape those conflicts?

Kadidja Vohou-Diab presents, "Narratives of white suffering, grievance, and moral injury in contemporary Japanese anime," and Amanda Ni presents, "Settler colonialism and Butler's Bloodchild." WisCon academic programming is a venue for scholars of SFF to discuss their works in progress with a special attention to social justice. Panels are designed to mimic academic conferences but everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion!

[Recorded] The conversation about inclusive language is ever-evolving and it prompts us to consider a wider realm of possibilities when it comes to gender and identity. What strategies are being used in languages that have grammatical gender? For example, some Latina/Latine authors have been using "ellx" or "elle" to go beyond the gender binary and also challenge the default masculine when referring to groups of people. The gender-neutral third-person neopronoun hn is in use in Icelandic, and Dutch has adopted the gender-neutral pronoun "hen." What has been our reaction when finding the -x or -e and what has been our experience with questioning the default to masculine pronouns? This panel continues this dialogue as we share insights and (possibly) resources.

[Recorded] Martha Wells told us at WisCon in 2023 that writing about Murderbot ended up teaching her a lot about autism and how it related to her own experience. Many authors end up writing topics that interest them, or draw from their own experiences to build a story or environment, and later find out they unintentionally wrote excellent representation for something. Perhaps indicating the author is also representative? Let's talk about our experiences with discovering neurodivergence by writing about them.

David Seitz presents, ""If One Building Could Disappear…": The Politics of Absence in Concetta Principe’s "The Vanishing"", and Cynthia Shin presents "Charles Yu's "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe" and Asian American science fiction" WisCon academic programming is a venue for scholars of SFF to discuss their works in progress with a special attention to social justice. Panels are designed to mimic academic conferences but everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion!

Anarchist utopia, revolution and lesbian religion, revolution on an asteroid mining settlement, and the mysterious precognitive novel-within-a-novel, Revolutionary Moon...