Guest list

This is the list of guests who attended Nine Worlds in 2013. The 2014 guest list will be different but equally awesome!

Chris Barrie is an impressionist, comedian and actor best loved for his role as Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf. Chris has also starred in The Brittas Empire, and the Tomb Raider films.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Barrie

Rhianna is an award-winning scriptwriter, story designer, and video games author. She has written several major video games including the recent Tomb Raider reboot, and she is also adapting Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels for television. http://www.rhiannapratchett.com/

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of young adult novels like PIRATE CINEMA and LITTLE BROTHER and novels for adults like RAPTURE OF THE NERDS and MAKERS. He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Doctorow

Laurie Penny is a journalist, author and activist. Named by the Telegraph as "without doubt the loudest and most controversial female voice on the radical left", she rose to prominence with her coverage of the anti-cuts movement in the UK and has since covered the activist movements in New York and Cairo. She is well-known as a radical and powerful feminist voice, and is the author of the books Meat Market: Female Flesh Under Capitalism, Discordia: Six Nights In Crisis Athens, and Penny Red: Notes From The New Age Of Dissent. She works as Contributing Editor for the New Statesman, and will be speaking about internet misogyny and feminist activism as part of the Geek Feminism stream.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_Penny
http://www.penny-red.com/tagged/work

Miltos Yerolemou is an English screen and stage actor, perhaps best known for his role as Syrio Forel in the HBO TV series Game of Thrones and children's TV personality 'Mikey' in the long running series Hububb (1997-2003). He will be teaching swordplay classes at the convention, in addition to taking part in panel discussions.

Helen Keen is an award winning science comedian and writer and is the author of the BBC Radio 4 series, It Is Rocket Science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keen

Kieron is a comic book author and has written for several Marvel Comics titles, including Avengers, Iron Man, Thor and X-Men. He is also an award winning video games journalist and is a major contributor to Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kieron_Gillen

Catherine is a fantasy novelist whose first book, The Eyes of a King, was written when she was only 14 years old. She's gone on to complete the trilogy with Voices in the Dark and The Heart at War. Her novels have been translated into 13 languages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Banner

Kai Owen is a Welsh actor best known for playing Rhys Williams in Torchwood, initially in a supporting role and coming into a main part for seasons 3 and 4. He has also appeared in Being Human and Waterloo Road, and played the lead role in BBC series Rocket Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Owen

Tricia Sullivan is a critically acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy novelist. She won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her novel Dreaming in Smoke. Her novel Lightborn was named one of the 10 best sci-fi novels of 2010 by Locus Magazine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricia_Sullivan

Charlie Stross is a Hugo award winning writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. His book Accelerando won the 2006 Locus Award for Best SF Novel. Charlie is the author of several hugely popular novel series including the Laundry Files, Merchant Princes, the Halting State novels, and Saturn's Children.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross. Find him on twitter at @cstross.

FX Artist with roles on Man of Steel, John Carter, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Iron Man 2, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Batman Begins.

Twitter: @eugenievt

Ben Aaronovitch is the author of the best selling Rivers of London series of novels. He is also the author of several Doctor Who novels and TV episodes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Aaronovitch

Paul Cornell is a writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who TV and fiction. Paul has also written for a number of British comics, as well as Marvel Comics and DC Comics -- including X-Men and Batman and Robin. His latest novel, London Falling, pits a team of London police against a supernatural killer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cornell

Kim Newman is an award-winning writer, critic, journalist and broadcaster who lives in London.

He is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine Empire, and writes its popular monthly segment, “Kim Newman’s Video Dungeon”. He also writes for assorted publications including “Video Watchdog” (‘The Perfectionist’s Guide to Fantastic Video’), The Guardian, and Sight & Sound.

His horror novels and short stories have won a number of industry ‘bests’, including the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel for his best-selling Anno Dracula.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Newman

Francis Knight was born and lives in Sussex, England. When not living in her own head, she enjoys SF&F geekery, WWE geekery, teaching her children Monty Python quotes, and boldly going and seeking out new civilizations. She's the author of the recent noir fantasy Fade to Black.

Tom is the author of strange London-based urban fantasy series The Skyscraper Throne, the first of which, The City's Son, was published in 2012. He is also an inventor of monsters, a hugger of bears, an occasional critic and a much more frequent dance floor menace.

Kate Madison is the award-winning director of Lord of the Rings fan film Born of Hope which has over 18 million views on YouTube.

Zen Cho is a Malaysian writer of fantasy and romance based in London. She is a finalist for the 2013 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. http://zencho.org

Roz Kaveney is a writer, critic, and poet, best known for her critical works about pop culture including Reading The Vampire Slayer and From Alien to the Matrix: Reading Science Fiction Film. The first instalment of her Rhapsody Of Blood fantasy tetralogy, Rituals, was shortlisted for the Crawford Award, and the second instalment, Reflections, will appear this summer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roz_Kaveney

Lou Morgan is the author of the "Blood & Feathers" urban fantasy series, published by Solaris. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies from Solaris, PS Publishing and Jurassic London and she is a member of the World Fantasy Convention 2013 team. http://loummorgan.wordpress.com/

Lilian Edwards is a Professor of Internet Law at the University of Strathclyde and a frequent speaker on matters of popular culture and technology. In her public talks she adresses such topics as social media profiles after death, regulation of robots, Facebook privacy, online free speech and Wikileaks. She is co-editor of Law and the Internet, and co-organiser of the Gikii conference on pop tech.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilian_Edwards

Stan Nicholls is a journalist and author most known for his bestselling Orcs series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Nicholls

Cara Ellison is a video game producer, writer and critic, who has written extensively for The Guardian, Rock Paper Shotgun, PC Gamer and Unwinnable. Her site is at http://hardconsonant.com/

Joseph Lidster is a television writer best known for his work on Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures. He started writing tie-in material for the new Doctor Who series in 2005, before joining the Torchwood team to write for the second season in 2008. He has also written content for sites tying in to the BBC's new Sherlock series.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lidster

Anne Gay is a sci-fi writer whose debut Mindsail began a collection of novels that received wide-spread praise from critics.

Robert is the author of 33 fantasy/humour novels, and is still going strong! He started writing in the late 1970's, and his books are a mixture of science fiction, fantasy, the occult, urban legends, running gags, metafiction, steampunk and outrageous characters. The majority of his books are set in either Brentford (and the surrounding area) or Brighton. Many of his characters appear in multiple books, either as main characters or as cameos. Robert tends to write trilogies or multi-book stories.

Stephen Hunt is a fantasy writer whose Jackelian series of novels are considered some of the foremost works of Steampunk fiction. He also runs the online sci-fi and fantasy review site SF Crowsnest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hunt_(author)

Adam Christopher is a novelist and Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning editor, and is the author of Empire State, Seven Wonders, and The Age Atomic. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Adam grew up watching Pertwee-era Doctor Who and listening to The Beatles, which isn’t a bad start for a child of the 80s. In 2006, Adam moved to the North West of England, where, when not writing, he spends his time drinking tea and obsessing over superhero comics and The Cure. You can find Adam online at www.adamchristopher.co.uk and on Twitter as @ghostfinder.

James Moran is a television writer known for his work on Doctor Who and Torchwood, including the episodes "The Fires of Pompeii", "Sleeper", and "Day Three". His feature "Cockneys vs. Zombies" was released in 2012, and he has also written for ITV's Primeval and BBC1's Spooks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Moran_(writer)

Kate Griffin is the name under which Catherine Webb writes fantasy books for adults. First published when a teenager, she’s been writing for just long enough to have started to forget her early plots and characters. She likes big cities, urban magic, Thai food and graffiti-spotting. To keep herself occupied between chapters, she works as a theatre lighting designer, in the happy expectation that two artsy careers create a perfectly balanced life.

Jaine Fenn is a British author, mainly of science fiction. Her novels are set in her sci-fi universe the Hidden Empire, which began with Principles of Angels. Read more about Jaine at www.jainefenn.com.

Laure Eve is a French-British hybrid, author of YA fantasy FEARSOME DREAMER and avid fantasy fan since childhood.
Stuff that lights her fire ranges from Terry Pratchett to LOTR and Game of Thrones memes involving how weirdly stupid Ned Stark is.
She will be joining the ASOIAF/Game of Thrones track organiser to talk about the women of the show, during the Maiden, Mother, Crone session.
Her website can be found here: http://www.laureeve.co.uk/

Gary Russell is a Doctor Who writer. He edited Doctor Who Magazine in the 90s, has written several DW novels and co-wrote the making-of book for the 1996 DW movie. As part of the team creating the new series, he wrote Doctor Who: The Inside Story in 2006, and The Doctor Who Encyclopedia in 2007. He also directed "The Infinite Quest", an animated series tying in the the 2007 Doctor Who series, and wrote Art of The Lord Of The Rings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Russell

Stephanie Saulter is a writer of what she likes to think is literary science fiction. Born in Jamaica, she studied at MIT and went on to spend over fifteen years in the USA before moving to the UK ten years ago. In 2010 she launched the Scriptopus interactive website for writing short fiction. Her debut novel, Gemsigns, was launched at Eastercon this year and will be followed by Binary in April 2014. Stephanie blogs unpredictably at stephaniesaulter.com and tweets slightly more reliably as @scriptopus.

Edmund Weiner is Deputy Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. He co-authored The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary.

Snorri Kristjansson was born in Iceland and is a writer and a teacher, with a background in acting, music and stand-up comedy. He lives in South London with his fiancée. The Viking epic fantasy, Swords of Good Men, is Snorri's first novel, which he will be launching at Nine Worlds.

Marion Gibson is an Associate Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter. Her research looks into the British and American literature of the supernatural from prehistory to the present, focusing on witchcraft, demonology and magical religiosity.

She is currently working on the re-imagining in modern British and American literature of magical beliefs from prehistoric and ‘Dark Age’ cultures such as the ‘Celts’ and ‘Anglo-Saxons’ – work that includes literature, film and historical writing.

Barry Nugent wrote his first story at the young age of 11, after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark, and never looked back. His first novel ‘Paladin’ was published in 1999. In 2004 he self published his next story Unseen Shadows: Fallen Heroes, the first in a trilogy of pulp adventure novels. This is paved the way for Barry to form Unseen Shadows Ltd, a company dedicated to expanding the world created in Fallen Heroes through comics, audio and prose. In his spare time Barry is one of the co-founders of the Geek Syndicate website/podcast which focuses on all aspects of pop culture.

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz is a Filipino writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in a variety of online and print publications including Interzone, Fantasy Magazine and Weird Tales, and her story 'The Song of the Body Cartographer' was nominated for a BSFA Award in 2013. A graduate of the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop, Rochita was the recipient of the 2009 Octavia Butler Scholarship, and the first Filipina writer to attend Clarion West. She writes Movements, a column that looks at genre from a non-western/postcolonial perspective, for Strange Horizons magazine.
http://rcloenenruiz.com/

Benedict Jacka is a British author best known for his Alex Verus series - urban fantasy about a mage based in Camden, London. The series began with Fated and was followed by Cursed and Taken last year.

Jonathan Green is the author of over forty books of speculative fiction, including the Pax Britannia series set in an alternative steampunk universe. http://jonathangreenauthor.blogspot.co.uk

Liz is the author of the YA urban fantasy series The Blackhart Legacy published by Pan Macmillan's Tor imprint. The first book, Banished, is due to hit the shelves Spring 2014. When Liz isn't making stuff up she hangs around coffee shops, chatting to friends, reading all kinds of fiction and wading through stacks of comics, whilst pondering her survival plans for the zombiepocalypse.

Raven Dane is a fantasy author. She who won the award for Best Steampunk Novel 2012 for her book, 'Cyrus Darian And The Technomicron'.

Emilly Ladybird is the alter ego of award winning steampunk designer and crafts author Jema Hewitt. Trained as a theatrical costumier, Jema creates costume, jewellery and works of art for museums and private collectors as well as writing how-to books to inspire others. Her how-to book 'Steampunk Emporium' was awarded 'Best Non-Fiction Book 2012' by the Victorian Steampunk Society. http://steampunkjewellery.blogspot.co.uk

James Swallow is an award-winning author and multi-media scriptwriter. His novels Fear To Tread and Nemesis were New York Times Bestsellers in 2012 and 2010. He has worked on Blake's 7, Stargate, and Doctor Who, and is the only British writer to have worked on Star Trek. He was nominated for a 2012 BAFTA for his work on the video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Swallow

Juliet Mushens is an agent in the UK literary division of The Agency Group where she represents a bestselling list of fiction and non-fiction writers, with an emphasis on debut fiction. She was named as a Bookseller Rising Star in 2012 and shortlisted for the Kim Scott Walwyn prize in 2013. You can follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/mushenska

Jo Fletcher is an award-winning poet, writer and journalist. She is founder and publisher of the specialist UK and USA SF/F/H imprint Jo Fletcher Books, part of Quercus Editions, and during her 25 years as a publisher has worked with many of the greats of the field, including Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Sir Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Stephen Donaldson and Charlaine Harris.

Caroline Hooton is a lawyer, book review blogger and (as yet) unpublished writer of YA speculative fiction. She has an MA in Creative Writing (Novels) from City University and has been a member of the T Party since 2007. She is represented by Catherine Pellegrino & Associates.

Tim Pilcher is a pop culture expert and has worked in and around the comics industry for over 25 years as a writer and editor. He started as an assistant editor at DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, based in London, working on ground-breaking titles like The Extremist by Peter Milligan & Ted McKeever; Enigma and Face by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo; The Mystery Play by Grant Morrison & Jon J Muth, Rogan Gosh by Peter Milligan & Brendan McCarthy; and Kill Your Boyfriend by Grant Morrison & Phillip Bond.
In 1992 he co-founded of the bi-lingual comics publishing house, Les Cartoonistes Dangereux, with Paul Peart, Brad Brooks, Dylan Horrocks and others. They published several critically acclaimed one-off graphic novels in English and French, including White Death by Robbie Morrison & Charlie Adlard, The Malice Family by Fareed Choudhury, Aunt Connie and the Plague of Beards by Jonathan Edwards and the first appearance of Fred the Clown by Roger Langridge.
He has written comics for the BBC, DeAgostini, Weldon Owen and the Young Telegraph and has worked for numerous book publishers including Penguin Children's Books and Dorling Kindersley.
As a journalist he has written for Deadline, Comic World, Tripwire, Education Today, Comics Forum, Criminal Justice Matters and G-Spot Magazine and Star Trek Magazine. Pilcher became an associate editor at Comics International and has written numerous books on comics including The Complete Cartooning Course and The Essential Guide to World Comics with Brad Brooks. He has also contributed to numerous other books including, Comix: The Underground Revolution, 500 Comicbook Action Heroes, The Slings and Arrows Comic Guide (1st Edition), 500 Essential Graphic Novels and War Comics: A Graphic History. His Erotic Comics: A Graphic History Volumes 1 & 2,were the first serious survey of this genre in over 20 years. The books were Publication of the Year finalists in the 2010 UK Erotic Awards.
He regular gives talks on everything from Tijuana Bibles, Indian comics, the history of Ecstasy and other esoteric subjects, and is the Chair of The Comic Book Alliance (www.comicbookalliance.co.uk), a not-for-profit organisation and "The Voice of the British Comics Industry" promoting books, graphic novels, webcomics and sequential art in its many forms. He occasionally updates his intermittent blog, Sex, Drugs and Comic Books (www.sexdrugsandcomicbooks.blogspot.com).
His memoir of working at Vertigo UK called Comic Book Babylon: A Cautionary Tale of Sex, Drugs and Comics will be published at the end of 2013.

Sara Jayne Townsend is a writer of crime and horror fiction. She is the author of two published novels, and a collection of short horror stories (SOUL SCREAMS, published by Stumar Press). When she's not writing she likes playing video games and D&D, and watching 'Buffy' reruns.

She lives in Surrey with her guitarist husband and two cats, and she founder and Chair of the T Party Writers' Group. Her website can be found at http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com.

Stephanie Saulter writes what she likes to think is literary science fiction. Born in Jamaica, she earned her degree at MIT and spent over a decade in the USA before moving to the UK in 2003. She’s the author of the ®Evolution trilogy: Gemsigns, Binary and Regeneration are set in a near-future London, and use the lens of an altered humanity to take a new look at the old issues of race, class, inequality and social conflict. Stephanie’s been coming to Nine Worlds since the beginning. She lives in London.

Gaie Sebold’s debut novel introduced brothel-owning ex-avatar of sex and war, Babylon Steel (Solaris, 2012); the sequel, Dangerous Gifts, came out in February 2013. She is now working on a steampunk fantasy: Shanghai Sparrow, due in 2014.

She has published a number of short stories, three of which have received honourable mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. She has also won awards for poetry (her first collection, Urban Fox, is published by Tall Lighthouse). She writes and runs writing workshops, reads obsessively, gardens amateurishly, and sometimes hits people with latex weapons. http://gaiesebold.com

Amanda Rutter is the editor for Strange Chemistry books, taking the role on in November 2011. Prior to that she was a blogger at Floor to Ceiling Books. She reads. A lot.

Iona Sharma is a writer and editor, involved with science fiction and fantasy fandom for the last twelve years. Her most recent published work is "All The Way Out To The Stars", in Chicks Unravel Time, an anthology of women writers analysing Doctor Who. She also writes on queer and feminist politics, and land rights.

Ian Drury read modern history at New College, Oxford and became a magazine editor before moving into book publishing. As Publishing Director at W&N he published bestsellers REAL BRAVO TWO ZERO (Michael Asher), BLENHEIM (Charles Spencer) and LAST POST (Max Arthur). He joined Sheil Land in 2007 and has built a client list noted for Fantasy/SF and Historical Fiction. Genre clients include Elspeth Cooper, Clifford Beal, Janet Edwards, Jaine Fenn, Peter Higgins, Aidan Harte, Mark Lawrence, Libby McGugan and Stephanie Saulter.

Anne Perry is an editor at Hodder & Stoughton, helping oversee and commission their science fiction, fantasy and horror list. She's also the editor of Hodderscape, Hodder's new online community for discussing all things speculative, fantastic and dodo-related. She sits on the board of The Kitschies, the annual award for genre's most progressive, intelligent and entertaining fiction, and spends much of her spare time thinking about monster movies.

Jonathan L. Howard is an author, game designer, and scriptwriter, creator of Johannes Cabal (a necromancer of some little infamy), and the YA SF series “The Russalka Chronicles.” He can be found on Twitter as @jonathanlhoward and at his site www.jonathanlhoward.com.

Head of Strategy and Planning, LadyGeek

Lucie led the Remarkable Woman Campaign which has now become the benchmark for speaking to women by Marketing Magazine. She is currently leading the Little Miss Geek campaign which has the support of Boris Johnson, and is helping thousands of girls to revolutionise the way technology is taught in schools.

@ladygeek

Una McCormack is a lecturer in creative writing at Anglia Ruskin University and author of numerous Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels, Doctor Who novels and short stories. She recently contributed to the Hugo awards nominated Chicks Unravel Time: Women Journey Through Every Season of Doctor Who.

Growing up in the outskirts of London, Dr Jenny Alexander fell in love with science fiction and fantasy via the local public library (yes, let's support those). She caught the tail end of second wave feminism and belonged to a (probably less than stellar) feminist poetry collective whilst studying English Literature at Newcastle University. She has a PhD in 19thC anarchist autobiography and has published on popular culture and sexuality. She lectures in media, advertising, popular culture and the environment at Bournemouth

(Managing Director/Executive Producer)
A former BBC Executive specializing in new media, Andrew Mark Sewell has worked extensively as a Producer, Director and Executive Producer during which time he has developed, packaged and produced a number of prominent drama and multimedia projects.
Sewell is currently Executive Producer on the television reboot of the classic cult science fiction series Blake’s 7 in partnership with Georgeville TV, the independent US TV studio co-founded by Marc Rosen (Harry Potter, Threshold) and Leon Clarance of Motion Picture Capital. The series is written by Joe Pokaski (Heroes, CSI) and directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale).
Past credits include the UKTV simulcast event Haunted (shortlisted for the Montreux e-Rose), Dig Egypt, The Old Grey Whistle Test and Tomorrow’s World+. Sewell has also lectured at notable media festivals and events in UK and Europe on recognizing and harnessing the opportunities of new media. Other factual TV credits include documentaries Echoes of the Past (UK History), Barcelona Burnout (Men and Motors) and Secrets of the Paranormal (UK Horizons).
Sewell was UK Producer of critically acclaimed independent feature Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont featuring Joan Plowright, Anna Massey, Robert Lang, Rupert Friend and Zoe Tapper. He is also the producer/director for the popular BBC Radio 4 Extra audio drama series based on the cult SF series Blake’s 7 featuring Daniela Nardini (This Life), Derek Riddell (No Angels), Colin Salmon (James Bond, Arrow) and Keeley Hawes (Spooks, Ashes to Ashes).
More recently, Sewell staged Tim Arnold’s Shakespeare-inspired rock album Sonnet 155 at the Almeida Theatre featuring Richard Briers, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hattie Morahan, Paul McGann and Lisa Dillon. Upcoming films include the psychosexual horror Damnation featuring Jacob James and the supernatural thriller Roundabout slated to shoot in Canada later this year.

Emma drinks far too much tea, writes dark short stories and fantastical novels and is also a professional audio book narrator. Her new Split Worlds series, described as “JK Rowling meets Georgette Heyer” by the Guardian, was recently published by Angry Robot Books. Her hobbies include dressmaking and gaming of all kinds. She blogs at www.enewman.co.uk, rarely gets enough sleep and refuses to eat mushrooms. You can sign up for a year and a day of free weekly Split Worlds stories at www.splitworlds.com/stories

Senior Animator on John Carter, Clash of the Titans, Sylvian Chaumet's The Illusionist, and Narnia II and III; teaches creature animation at the Animation Workshop in Denmark; currently drawing a graphic novel, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, for Pantheon Books.

Alistair Lock is a well-respected audio professional best known for his work on the all-new Blake’s 7 audio adventures and the Big Finish Productions’ series of officially-licensed Doctor Who audio plays, which more than one reviewer described as ‘cinematic’.
His association with Blake’s 7 dates back to when he was the director/sound designer on Magic Bullet’s controversial Kaldor City series, an ultra-violent tale of power, sex and intrigue inspired by Blake’s 7. He is now best known as the voice of the synthetic intelligence known only as Zen.
Prior to this, he has worked on a number of independent Doctor Who stories produced during the television series’ hiatus. Credits include BBV’s Doctor Who spin-off audio plays, notably “Republica” and “Prosperity Island”, along with direct-to-video releases, including “The Airzone Solution”, “More than a Messiah” and the “Auton” trilogy series. He also did post-production on the popular UNIT video story “Downtime”.
Alistair is also an accomplished composer and has provided scores for Sapphire & Steel, Doctor Who and Bennie Summerfield audio adventures. Other music credits include the infamous remix of Madonna’s Open Your Heart.

Tony Keen teaches myth for the Open University, and is interested in the continuing reworking of stories and characters throughout history. He also teaches Fantastic London for Middlesex University and the University of Notre Dame. He writes science fiction criticism, which has been published in Foundation, Vector and Strange Horizons, and is co-editing a volume on Iain Banks, for publication in 2014. He contributed to the issue of Vector on female sf writers. He also wrote crossover fics for the BBC's Archers webpage.

David A McIntee has written tie-in novels in many franchises, including Dr Who, Star Trek, Space 1999, Final Destination and Sherlock Holmes. He has also written comics, audio plays for Big Finish, and nonfiction books about subjects such as Star Trek and the Aliens and Predator franchises, and most recently has been writing for history publisher Osprey.

Dr. Meg Barker is a sexuality and gender academic/activist and fan of all of the Whedonverses. Meg has written academically on Buffy and on the slash fiction based on the Buffyverse. They will reflect on the gender representations in Buffy and beyond, and why Avengers Assemble should have featured a female Hulk.

Amy McCulloch is a commissioning editor at HarperVoyager, where she edits brilliant new stars of SF, Fantasy and YA. She is also an author, and her first YA fantasy novel THE OATHBREAKER’S SHADOW debuted in June 2013 from Random House Children’s Books.

Kirstin Irving and Jon Stone are acclaimed poets and geeks who've been publishing Fuselit magazine since 2005. Jon Stone (The School of Forgery, Salt Publishing, 2012) and Kirsten Irving (Never Never Never Come Back, Salt Publishing, 2012) are the editors and publishers behind Coin Opera 2: Fulminare's Revenge, a book of computer game poems featured on Eurogamer, RockPaperShotgun and GameCritics.com, introduce and explain a variety of new poetic forms inspired by games like Jenga and dominoes, and video game genres like beat 'em ups and JRPGS.

Chris Geary is Creative Director of InkShot.com, and recently released ‘International Aces’, a graphic novel series telling the true life stories of the top pilots from the First World War. He also co-wrote and drew ‘Commitment‘, a business Graphic Novel about Risk Management. Previous stories appear in a selection of Small Press comics, FutureQuake, Zarjaz and OmnivistaScope.
chrisgearyonline.com
Twitter: @InkShotcom @ChrisAGeary

Chris Farnell is a freelance writer, blogger and the author of Mark II, published by Tindal Street Press. He has written for Bad Reputation and The Literary Platform, as well as contributing to The Trial at the Science Museum’s Zombie Weekend. https://twitter.com/thebrainofchris

Dan Boultwood discusses his first solo creator owned series flying solo ' It Came! for Titan Comics. It Came! is a 1950′s comedy B-Movie style series in 4 parts. It’s a story about how a misogynist scientist and his comely assistant try to save the earth from a giant robot. Said robot is hell-bent on killing us all in our beds, while we sleep soundly dreaming about nice stuff…like bunnies and cricket. Dan will be discussing this new project and many other things with Kerensa Bryant of 'Geek Girl'. He’s formerly known for collaborating with writer Tony Lee on a number of projects including Hope Falls, The Baker Street Irregulars and Prince of Baghad for DFC.

Anne Gay is the author of four adult SF novels, five YA novels and numerous short stories. She is on the committee of the Gemmell Awards for Fantasy and has taught many creative writing workshops. As Anne Nicholls, psychotherapist, she has had two self-help books published in various languages and often broadcasts on national radio.

Multi award winning artists Glenn Fabry talks about his career and latest collaborations. Glenn Fabry is a British comic artist known for his detailed, realistic ink and color work. His art can be found gracing the pages of Slaine, Judge Dredd, Preacher, Sandman, Thor, Neverwhere, and the Magic the Gathering card game, just to name a few. Glenn has also produced covers for computer and fantasy magazines, computer games, caricature posters, newspaper strip work, TV advertising, work for Paramount Pictures and even Marvel rides at Universal Studios.

Hannah Eiseman-Renyard is a copywriter and editor by day, and a blogger and performance poet by night. She studied English Literature with Creative Writing at UEA and has been published in magazines, chapbooks, on various blogs and in the Guardian and the Indie. She runs the Whippersnapper Presss (www.whippersnapperpress.com) for short, sharp, funny creative writing. Hannah has been described as 'fine' by three therapists', 'of good character' by a high court judge, and as 'a rotten brat' by her mother.

David Leach discusses Humour in Comics. David Leach is a British cartoonist who started writing and drawing Psycho Gran for the classic 1980s UK kid's comic Oink! Went on to co-write and co-illustrate an issue of the Toxic Crusaders for Marvel US. For the cult British comic Toxic! he co-wrote and co-illustrated The Driver and scripted and illustrated The Dinner Ladies From Hell. For British humour titles Gas and UT he scripted and illustrated Arthur Pilkington, Chartered Barbarian and Edith Appleby: OAP Warrior for Brain Damage. Leach has also scripted Spider-Man newspaper strips for the UKs Funday Times, Ren and Stimpy for the Young Telegraph and Wallace and Gromit for Titan. He's also written for Casper the Friendly Ghost, Action Man and LEGO Adventures. As a former Marvel UK editor, Leach edited and scripted Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butt-head, The Glam Metal Detectives and Rugrats. Currently at Titan Magazines where he's the editor and show runner of the Sun's Wallace and Gromit newspaper strip, as well as editor of Lenore and the UK SpongeBob SquarePants magazine and SpongeBob Comics. In 2011, Leach returned to Psycho Gran for Nemi magazine, Spirit of Hope (Japanese Tsunami appeal book 2011), Lenore issue 3 and David Lloyd's digital only comic Aces Weekly (issue 5). In 2012 David wrote his first gag for Private Eye!

Tom is the author of strange London-based urban fantasy series The Skyscraper Throne, the first of which, The City's Son, was published in 2012. He is also an inventor of monsters, a hugger of bears, an occasional critic and a much more frequent dance floor menace.

Grant Perkins is a comic book artist and writer; he works and lives in South East England. His publishing credits include 2000ad, Image comics, Digital Webbing Presents, Cereal Geek, Hero Happy Hour and more. He has been freelancing in the comic book field for over ten years. Grant will be sitting on several panels over the course of the weekend.

Gary Couzens has sold over 40 stories to F & SF, Interzone, Black Static, Crimewave, The Third Alternative and other magazines and anthologies, and had a collection published by Elastic Press in 2003. He edited the anthology Extended Play (Elastic Press) which in 2007 won the British Fantasy Award for Best Anthology.

Rian studied at the LCP in London before briefly working for an advertising agency, i-D magazine, Smash Hits magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. Having cut his teeth drawing comics for Paul Gravett's seminal alternative press comic magazine "Escape", for Belgium's Magic Strip he co-wrote and drew the graphic novel "The Science Service", published in five languages.

This was followed by "Dare", an "iconoclastic revamp of the '50s comic hero Dan Dare" with Eisner-award winning writer Grant Morrison for Fleetway's experimental Revolver magazine. He then moved to the legendary 2000AD, where he drew Really and Truly (again with Morrison), Tales from beyond Science (with Mark Millar, Alan McKenzie and John Smith) and the classic character RoboHunter with Peter Hogan. These strips and more have recently been collected and republished in the hardback collection, "Yesterday's Tomorrows", which was recently launched at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. (Knockabout, 2008).

Hughes has since worked extensively for the British and American comic industries as both designer, typographer and illustrator, notably creating many logo designs for DC and Marvel, including Batman and Robin, Batgirl, the X-Men, Captain America, Wolverine, The Spirit, The Invisibles, Shade the Changing Man, The Atom and more. Work also includes title sequences for The Box, poster designs for Tokyo fashion company Jun Co.'s Yellow Boots chain, the animated on-board safety film for Virgin Airlines, Eurostar's poster campaign, a collection of Hawaiian shirts, a range for Swatch and a BDA International Gold Award and Creative Use of Print Award-winning brochure for MTV Europe's Music Awards, written by Alan Moore, numerous book covers including the BBC Radio Drama version of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

He has designed CDs and vinyl sleeves for indie labels such as Transient and Automatic as well as mainstream acts like Geri Halliwell, with whom he recently collaborated as illustrator on a series of six children's books. His advertising typography earned a Campaign Press Awards Silver in 1996 and a Merit Award from the New York Art Director's Club in 2000. He was an early contributor to FontShop's seminal FontFont range, and now fonts designed for clients such as Mac User, 2000AD, Newquay Steam and PC Format magazine are released via his own label, Device Fonts. He has contributed to numerous design annuals, books and international exhibitions, lectured widely both in the UK and internationally, and a one-man show of his work was held recently at the Conningsby Gallery, London.

The book "Art, Commercial", is a retrospective monograph collecting his design and illustration work. Recent books include "Cult-ure: Ideas can be Dangerous" and "Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s", and his comic strips have been collected in "Yesterdays Tomorrows", which was launched recently at the ICA, London.

He has an extensive collection of Thunderbirds memorabilia, a fridge full of vodka, and a stack of easy listening albums which he plays very quietly.

Grace Black is the brilliant new voice behind the newest vampire Ebook collection: the crimson blood series. A talented author, she has written and published one teen novel and has worked as a marketing executive and journalist for the last 3 years. Her technical writing is published in several scientific publications each month. For more information email her at GraceBlackBooks@gmail.com

Jennifer Williams is a fantasy writer from South East London with a love of history, animation and very large swords, and her debut fantasy novel The Copper Promise comes out from Headline in Spring 2014. When not frowning at notebooks in cafes or fiddling with maps of imaginary places, she can often be found gesticulating wildly at her games console or haunting bookshops. She blogs about writing and nonsense at www.sennydreadful.co.uk

Kiruna's most recent venture is Guiseppe Tornorte's film, 'The Best Offer' appearing alongside Geoffry Rush. She can also be seen in Ricky Gervais' 'Life's Too Short', the BBC's, 'All The Small Things' and 'EastEnders' and Channel 4's, 'Cast-offs'. Kiruna is a actress with dwarfism and has for many years been a campaigner for disability rights and the promotion of disability inclusive arts practices.

She will be joining the Game of Thrones track organiser on Sunday to give her thoughts about portrayals of disabled characters on Game of Thrones.

David Tallerman is the author of the comic fantasy novels Giant Thief and Crown Thief, as well as the absurdist steampunk graphic novel Endangered Weapon B: Mechanimal Science. A second sequel to Giant Thief, Prince Thief, is due for release later this year. Find out more at www.davidtallerman.net.

Kit Cox is the author of "How to bag a Jabberwock :A practical guide to monster hunting", the creator of the Steve Jackson Game "Evil Ted", a host for Hendrick's Gin, and an actor

John Walker is a co-director of Rock, Paper, Shotgun, fighter for justice, and professional grumbler. With fifteen years in the business, he pretends the "veteran" status people keep giving him is because he survived the Great Games Criticism War of the late 90s.

Marcus Gipps joined Gollancz as an Editor at the beginning of 2011, and is greatly enjoying the chance to work on the kind of books he’s always read. His shelves at home are groaning. Previously, he spent ten years as a bookseller for Blackwell’s, ending up as Sales Manager for their flagship London shop on Charing Cross Road. He lives with his partner, a historian and novelist, and their very small child, who is going to know more about SFF then anyone else at nursery. This may not be a good thing.

Jonathan Oliver is the Editor in Chief of Solaris, Abaddon Books and Ravenstone. He’s written two novels and a whole bunch of short stories.

Tom Hunter is the director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the UK's most prestigious prize for science fiction literature, and editor-in-chief for arts & culture website LondonCalling.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @ClarkeAward

Rebecca Levene has been involved with books, TV and video games for the last 20 years. She’s written fantasy, horror, SF, comedy sketches, soap operas, erotic fiction, lots and lots of zombies and a beginner’s guide to poker.

Toby Frost is author of the Space Captain Smith books and other science fiction and fantasy.

No More Page 3 began in Summer 2012, when, during the Olympics, Lucy-Anne Holmes picked up a copy of The Sun and felt outraged that despite the tremendous achievements of athletes such as Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Ennis the largest and most prominent image of a woman in the newspaper was a picture of a topless model.

Lucy sent a letter to Dominic Mohan (and still eagerly awaits his reply), and started an online petition. Soon offers of support were flooding in and in January 2013 the No More Page 3 team was formed. This is a team of people who have largely never met, and yet work closely together to sustain a vibrant and well-supported campaign.

Twitter: @NoMorePage3

Dr Tade Thompson is a consultant psychiatrist, writer and occasional visual artist. He is a lifelong fan of all things in the spectrum of sci-fi/fantasy and has studied social anthropology at Brunel University.

Founder of the Twitter Youth Feminist Army

Lilinaz Evans is a 15 year old feminist online activist from London who has co-founded the Twitter Youth Feminist Army and works with SPARKsummit. You can hear more from Lili at her blog, Jellypop: jellyandlilipop.wordpress.com

Twitter: @lilinaz_evans / @_TYFA

Girlguiding Volunteer, WAGGGS Stop The Violence Network

Tracy Hawkes is a leader with Girlguiding, the UK's leading voluntary organisation for girls and young women. As a member of Girlguiding, she participated in the European "Stop The Violence" seminar organised by The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). Since then, Tracy has been working with Nottingham Women's Centre and other feminist networks to provide training and opportunities for young people and those who work with them. Tracy is also a qualified teacher and works in a wide range of establishments in the East Midlands.

Twitter: @tracytruffles

Geeked is an illustration-led quarterly magazine with an urban feminist slant on art, culture and gender.

Twitter: @GeekedMagazine

Sofia Hericson (Editor / Art Director) is a multi-media artist based in London. She works as a Visual Merchandiser and Graphic Designer at one of the coolest bookshops in the world! Her favourite colour is orange. www.sofiahericson.com Contact her at sofia@geekedmagazine.com

Samantha Langsdale (Editor / PR) is in the writing-up stages of her PhD at SOAS, in London. Though she hails from the southern US, she is a long-time resident of the Big Smoke. Sam is a fierce feminist, loves profanity, and is constantly trying to convince her partner to have, ‘just one more pint’.
Contact her at samantha@geekedmagazine.com

Alison Morton is the author of INCEPTIO, the first of a series of alternate history thrillers set in a 21st century Roman society ruled by women. Raised by a feminist mother to make no distinction between gender roles, and having lived through the 1970s, she is bewildered by why equality isn't normal and annoyed to find it's still an issue in 2013.

Twitter: @alison_morton

Charlee Cheverton is a freelance writer, mother, feminist and Stargate geek. Her hobbies include yoga, tinkering with websites and wild hypocrisy. She writes a blog about self-development and her latest project, Make Up Down, helps women to challenge cultural ideals of beauty.

Twitter: @CharleeSays

Character TD/Rigger with roles on John Carter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Lost in Space.

From Doctor Who fan to Doctor Who star, Matthew Waterhouse was launched in to the public eye in 1980 as boy genius Adric, the youngest companion on the series and at a time of notable turmoil and tension between the cast and crew. Matthew will discuss his experiences and his recent book 'Blue Box Boy' with Robert Dick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Waterhouse

Perhaps one of the most popular and larger than life characters from the recent years of Doctor Who, Simon Fisher-Becker appeared as the blue-skinned oracle Dorium Maldovar in series 5 and 6, he is also famous for his work on Harry Potter and the Doctor Who Big Finish Audio dramas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fisher-Becker

Born and raised in Madrid and currently living in London, Guillermo Ortego broke into Marvel Comics alongside Paco Díaz on titles such as Wolverine Vs. Thor, Dark Wolverine or Wolverine: Mr. X. Then off to DC Comics with Green Arrow and JLA 80 Page Giant and back to Marvel with Italian artist Emanuela Lupacchino on Peter David’s X-Factor.
After a successful year run on the book, they were put in charge of Marvel’s second graphic novel based on ABC's TV show Castle, with Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly-Sue DeConnick on the script. Once it was released in October 2012, they started working for Valiant Comics’ recently re-launched Archer & Armstrong.
His most recent work includes DC Comics’ Green Lantern #19 and Worlds’ Finest #15 as well as monthly covers for Dynamite Comics with Indonesian penciller Ardian Syaf.
http://willortego.com/

Abigail Gibbs was born and raised in deepest, darkest Devon. She is currently studying for a BA in English at the University of Oxford and considers herself a professional student, as the real world is yet to catch up with her. Her greatest fear is blood and she is a great advocate of vegetarianism, which logically led to the writing of her first novel, Dinner With A Vampire. At age fifteen, she began posting serially online under the pseudonym Canse12, and after three years in the internet limelight, set her sights towards total world domination. She splits her time between her studies, stories and family, and uses coffee to survive all three

Deadly Knitshade of Whodunnknit is a lone wool-hungry wolf whose knits and makes aren’t content with lurking in the shadows of conventional knitting and craft. Instilled with eerie craft powers, she is subject to constant unexpected ‘yarnstorms’ and 'craftstorms' leaving woolly debris, googly eyes and all kinds of crafty chaos around the city.
She is also the founding member of London's graffiti knitting group, runs the Stitch London craft community single-handed, and has written four kooky little knitting books. It is rumoured she never sleeps.
We're very excited to have her along to speak at the Knitting track to talk about yarnbombing.
http://www.whodunnknit.com/

Den Patrick lives and works in London. His first three books for Gollancz, the War Manuals, are released autumn of 2013. Three novels, The Erebus Sequence, are in the works and will be published by Gollancz beginning in 2014. www.denpatrick.com

Zoe is a sexuality activist and blogger with interests in feminism, sexual health, and technology. She is the author of the book and blog, Girl With A One Track Mind (winner of the Best British/Irish Blog of 2006 and 2007).

http://girlwithaonetrackmind.blogspot.co.uk/

Professor Ian Stewart is a mathematician, science and science fiction writer. He's worked on the Science of the Discworld series, as well as Flatterland and Wheelers (with J. Cohen)

Danie Ware is the publicist and event organiser for cult entertainment retailer Forbidden Planet. She has worked closely with a wide-range of genre authors and has been immersed in the science-fiction and fantasy community for the past decade. An early adopter of blogging, social media and a familiar face at conventions, she appears on panels as an expert on genre marketing and retailing.

Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the hugely popular Shadows of the Apt series of fantasy novels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky

Susan Bartholomew is the author of medieval fantasy novel The Lake of Destiny. Her second novel The World Below will be published later this year. Some of Susan's short stories can be read on her website www.faceinterface.co.uk. She writes poetry and has read her poems at conventions including Eastercon and FantasyCon.

Susan will be joining us to talk about both the women and the men of the ASOIAF books, in the sessions 'Warrior Women and the Armour of Courtesy' and 'There Are No True Knights'.

After dropping out of university in Madrid, Cristina Macía began her career as translator with American comics in Barcelona and is now classed among the top sf and fantasy translators in Spain, especially for her Spanish Game of Thrones. This accounted for 10% of all sales of George Martin books worldwide, including in English. As well, she translated Terry Pratchett and many other writers. She also writes cookbooks, organises festivals, and has authored a best-selling young adult novel, Haunted House.

She will be joining the ASOIAF track organiser to talk about the men of Game of Thrones during the session titled 'There Are No True Knights'.

Dr Jack Cohen is a biologist, science and science fiction writer. He's worked on the Science of the Discworld series, as well as Flatterland and Wheelers (with I. Stewart).

Mark Pilkington is the co-founder of Strange Attractor, an events series and publisher exploring the fringes of human knowledge. His film Mirage Men explores the truth behind UFO stories and the US Government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pilkington_(writer)