Guests of Honour

MASTER OF CEREMONIES: JAMES BARCLAY

James Barclay is the highly successful author of the two Raven trilogies: Chronicles of The Raven and Legends of The Raven, and the epic fantasy duology, The Ascendants of Estorea. He has written two novellas, Light Stealer and Vault of Deeds. His latest work is the seventh and last Raven novel, Ravensoul.

GUEST OF HONOUR: LISA TUTTLE

Lisa Tuttle won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1974, and went on to write seven novels and numerous short stories (four collections published so far) as well as fiction for young adults and children and several non-fiction books, including Encyclopedia of Feminism. Among her best-known books are Windhaven, written in collaboration with George R.R. Martin, Lost Futures, short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, A Nest of Nightmares (described by Stephen Jones as “without doubt one of the finest collections of horror stories to appear for many years”), The Pillow Friend, and The Mysteries. Her most recent novel was a romantic fantasy set in a Scottish village overwhelmed by creatures and events from ancient legend, The Silver Bough. Her complete short stories (almost 100) are forthcoming in three volumes from Ash Tree Press. Lisa has worked as a journalist – five years as a reporter, reviewer, feature writer and television columnist for The Austin American-Statesman followed by occasional free-lance work for various publications, including Time Out, City Limits and The Bookseller, while she was based in London during the 1980s. Also during that time she taught science fiction classes (reading and writing) for the extra-mural department of the University of London at the City Lit. She’s also been the tutor-in-residence on several Arvon courses – twice at Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, once at the centre in Devon, twice at Moniack Mhor in Scotland. Herself a former Clarion student (New Orleans, 1971, and Seattle, 1972) she returned to teach at Clarion West in 1991. In addition, she’s taught occasional one-day writing workshops in various venues around Britain, and has been involved with informal professional writing groups throughout her career, being one of the founder members (with Howard Waldrop, Tom Reamy, Steven Utley and others) of the Turkey City Writers’ Workshop in Texas, and Writers’ Bloc in London (with Christopher Evans, R.M. Lamming, Garry Kilworth, Robert Holdstock and David Wingrove)., as well as attending the English Milford for a number of years.

Born and raised in Texas, she received a BA in English (Creative Writing) from Syracuse University in 1973. Since 1990, she’s been living in a remote, rural part of Scotland with her husband, Colin Murray, who now works as a freelance editor and writer after many years in publishing, and their daughter, Emily.

GUEST OF HONOUR: GARRY KILWORTH

Garry Kilworth has been writing short-stories and novels for nearly forty years. A Yorkshireman who went walkabout from the age of two, he loves to travel the world with a pack on his back and his wife Annette by his side.

Since the publication of his first novel 'In Solitary' he has written SF, fantasy, children's fiction and, as Garry Douglas, a series of historical war novels.

He is the recipient of both a British Science Fiction Award and World Fantasy Award, both for the same story, 'The Ragthorn' written in collaboration with a Rob Holdstock. He has also been twice shortlisted for the children's Carnegie Medal award and won the Lancashire 'Children's Book of the Year Award' (which is judged by kids so pleases him immensely).

GUEST OF HONOUR: BRYAN TALBOT

Bryan Talbot has produced underground and alternative comics, notably Brainstorm!, science fiction and superhero stories such as Judge Dredd, Nemesis the Warlock, Teknophage, The Nazz and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.

He’s worked on DC Vertigo titles including Hellblazer, Sandman, The Dreaming and Fables and has written and drawn the graphic novels for which he is best known: The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, Heart of Empire, The Tale of One Bad Rat, Alice in Sunderland and Grandville.

In July 2009 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Arts by Sunderland University.

His website is: www.bryan-talbot.com

Previous guests of the convention have included Jasper Fforde, Gail K. Martin, Brian Clemens, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Raymond E. Feist, Robert Holdstock, Ramsey Campbell, Tanith Lee, Charles L. Grant, Dave McKean, George R.R. Martin, Tad Williams, Kim Newman, Christopher Fowler, Robert Rankin, Muriel Grey, Michael Marshall Smith, Terry Brooks and many, many more.