CONFLUX 17 GUESTS OF HONOUR

Amie Kaufman is a New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy. Her latest novel is The Isles of the Gods. Her multi-award winning work has been translated into nearly thirty languages, and has been described as “a game-changer” (Shelf Awareness), “stylistically mesmerising” (Publishers Weekly) and “out-of-this-world awesome” (Kirkus). Several of her series are currently in development for film and TV. Raised in Australia and occasionally Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. She is the host of the podcasts Amie Kaufman on Writing and Pub Dates. Amie lives by the sea in Melbourne with her husband, daughter, and rescue dog, and an extremely large personal library.

Grace Chan is a speculative fiction writer and doctor. She can’t seem to stop scribbling about minds, cyborgs, technology, duplication and duplicity, and alien landscapes. Her short fiction can be found in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Aurealis, Andromeda Spaceways, Etherea, and many other places. Her debut novel, Every Version of You, is about staying in love after mind-uploading into virtual reality (Affirm Press, 2022). You can find her online at www.gracechanwrites.com and on Twitter as @gracechanwrites.

Lisa Fuller is a Murri woman from Queensland, who has lived on Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands (Canberra) since 2006. She is currently doing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Canberra. Lisa is an award-winning writer, sessional academic and freelance writer/editor. Her debut novel, Ghost Bird, has won multiple awards, including the 2020 ACT Book of the Year and the 2020 Queensland Literary Awards Griffith University Young Adult Book Award. She has also had a number of short stories and poems published. Lisa lives in a renovator’s delight with her family and battles her inner critic every day.

Ellen Datlow is a multi-award winning editor who has been editing sf/f/h short fiction for four decades, currently acquiring short stories and novellas for Tor.com and its horror imprint Nightfire. Her most recent anthologies are Body Shocks: Tales of Extreme Horror and Screams from the Dark: 29 Tales of Monsters and the Monstrous. She has edited a Best Horror of the Year anthology for thirty-five years. Datlow is recipient of the Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for “outstanding contribution to the genre,” the Life Achievement Award given by the Horror Writers Association, and Life Achievement Award given by the World Fantasy Convention.

Helen Marshall has won the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award for her two collections of Weird short stories. Her debut novel The Migration  argued for the need to remain hopeful, even in the worst circumstances. It was one of The Guardian’s top science fiction books of the year. She directs the WhatIF Lab at the University of Queensland, which specialises in creative arts, speculative fiction and imagination-led workshops for researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines.

Perry Middlemiss is a sf fan from Melbourne Australia. His first sf convention was Aussiecon, Australia’s first Worldcon in 1975. He liked the idea so much ended up chairing one (1999) and co-chairing another (2010). Apart from con-running he has also produced a number of fanzines, though these days he restricts himself to two titles. He won the Ditmar Award for Best Fan writer in 1988; was the Down Under Fan Fund delegate in 1996; and was awarded the A. Bertram Chandler Award, for services to Australian sf, in 2021.

MASTER OF CEREMONIES

CZ Tacks is an Australian writer and artist who is interested in speculative fiction, strange creatures, and collecting more stationary than they can ever realistically use. Their work ranges from deeply mediocre to actually pretty good, and sometimes wins awards. They are easily identified by their collection of excellent jackets and inability to stop sharing medical history trivia. When they are not writing, Tacks is the head of engagement for Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, the program lead for Conflux and Natcon 2023, and a general nuisance at the local pub.