And, if not directly relevant, who can forget "Unknown Number" as a 2022 Hugo finalist for Best Short Story, self-published on Twitter.
Since I mentioned the souvenir book, managing editor Ella Kliger describes on page 60 how she assembled an ad hoc jury to review IIRC over 100 poetry submissions while on deadline for other things. dQniel Kaufman created unique graphical treatments for each poem we published. Very proud of the team.
And my greatest bias is to promote the selflessness and excellence of our Worldcon staff! For the glory of fandom. Fan writing for fandom's annual main event.
I do think that the fact that Brandon's generosity contributing this writing in service to the community, as a fan writer and Worldcon volunteer, is inextricably part of why his contribution is so remarkable and valuable. He went above and beyond, like so many others who contributed to the Worldcon.
IMO Con-Verse helped the special Hugo Award category of Best Poem be successful, and encouraged us to lean in and devote about 30 pages of the souvenir program book to Brandon's work and selected reprints from 11 other speculative poets (not a small lift for the book's managing editor!).
I have bias too! As director of publications for Seattle Worldcon 2025, it was a pleasure to have Brandon on our writing staff and publish his work. Having him both as poet laureate and as a columnist educating the community about speculative poetry helped us in innumerable ways!
But—shrug?—reasonable opinions may vary. I would just hate to see confusion splitting votes and potentially costing Brandon a finalist slot. (10/10)
In light of all this I favor nominating work in the category where it seems most natural, and when in doubt, ask the writer for their preference. For me, in the Con-Verse situation, that’s Best Fan Writer, not Best Related Work. (9/n)
But this would involve displacing another finalist, so we can expect most administrators to use this power conservatively, in no-reasonable-person-could-argue-otherwise situations, such as resolving word count discrepancies between short stories and novelettes. (8/n)
WSFS Const. 3.8.2 arguably gives the Administrator authority to pool votes and place Brandon on the ballot in this situation (“The Worldcon Committee shall determine the eligibility of nominees and assignment to the proper category of works nominated in more than one category”). (7/n)
And as a nominator, I’m happy to take an “all of the above” approach and let the Hugo Administrator sort out thorny eligibility questions. But this could be sticky should Brandon have sufficient votes to be a finalist in one category, but find those votes split across two or more categories. (6/n)
I can be persuaded that Con-Verse alone is a distinct corpus of work from Con-Verse plus the five poems he contributed as Worldcon poet laureate, plus any other eligible fan writing he produced which I am not aware of (do skeets count?). (5/n)
Ultimately I think Mari wins this argument, but be careful you don’t win the argument and lose the war. (4/n)
Mari cites the poems he blessed the Worldcon with, but as Brandon himself points out these are individually (but not collectively) eligible for Best Poem. So isn’t all of this work eligible in different categories? Well… kind of, not really? (3/n)
Brandon's Con-Verse columns are quintessential fan writing (YT&T is not even a semiprozine and he received no compensation), and to my knowledge constitute the entire corpus of his fan writing in 2025. (2/n)
I do think this is a tricky situation. The WSFS Constitution requires a Best Related Work finalist to be "not eligible in any other category." Not all essay series constitute fan writing; Sarah Gailey's series which Mari cites appeared in a professional publication, Reactor.com, so it wasn't. (1/n)
I am happy if folks nominate Brandon O'Brien for Best Fan Writer; Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow for Best Fanzine; and Con-Verse for Best Related Work. I will mark my ballot accordingly.
The Seattle Worldcon blog is called Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow and featured four regular columns (including Con-Verse). It ran 78 columns in calendar year 2025 from 18 fan writers. The category I would suggest for it is Best Fanzine, while any individual writers are eligible for Best Fan Writer.
I think best fan writer is the appropriate nomination for Con-Verse!
As told by the late dancer and choreographer Agnes DeMille.
New episode is out! It's a Seattle Worldcon report, featuring interviews with @therisingtithes.bsky.social & @kaitlyncasimo.bsky.social, coffee & hiking sidequests, and sounds around town:
ancillaryreviewofbooks.org/2025/08/25/a...
Thank you for your writing (on top of all your other work!).
Freebies Lounge already has four pallets of free books in storage with a fifth pallet arriving tomorrow (leave space).
Hi Owen--in Seattle we're still proud to say DEI and won't be bullied by Trumpists. Here's video of our Governor Bob Ferguson addressing the issue, on which he has full support from Seattle's mayor, council, and county executive: www.instagram.com/reel/DKf8ddn...
Rachel S. Cordasco has contributed fan writing to Seattle Worldcon's Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow blog and her work is outstanding.
The Worldcon souvenir book is locked and delivered to the printer and looks marvelous.
The only reasoning I see Hannah advancing is an argument that people over 55 don't understand LLMs. Perhaps they were inspired to go down this ugly road by a stereotype about conrunners being old and out of touch or something. Probably doesn't merit further discussion.
The gentleman above you is mistaken to think "I don’t think either of the people who wrote these statements is under the age of 55" is a fair comment--it is an ad hominem against individuals you don't seem to have any knowledge of, and is ageist AF.
Both individuals are under 55, one of them under 45, and this comment is appalling.
If you need a distraction, I'm going to be posting a few non-spoilery set photos over the weeks as a lead-up to the Murderbot premiere on May 16. (It's fun for me! I hope it's fun for you.) @troyce.bsky.social took these photos. #murderbot
