The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention (

Worldcon Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

), also known as Sasquan, was held on August 19–23, 2015 at the

Spokane Convention Center Spokane Convention Center is the primary convention center in Spokane, Washington, Spokane, Washington (state), Washington, in the Pacific Northwest, northwest United States, and consists of two interconnected buildings along the south bank of the ...

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

, United States. The convention was chaired by Sally Woehrle.

Participants

Guests of Honor

* artist Brad Foster * author

David Gerrold David Gerrold (born Jerrold David Friedman; January 24, 1944)Reginald, R. (September 12, 2010)''Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, Volume 2'' Borgo Press p. 911. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved June 23, 2013. is an American science fict ...

* author

Vonda McIntyre Vonda Neel McIntyre () was an American science fiction writer and biologist. Early life and education Vonda N. McIntyre was born in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of H. Neel and Vonda B. Keith McIntyre, who were born in Poland, Ohio. She ...

* filker Tom Smith * fa
Leslie Turek

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

astronaut Kjell Lindgren participated from Earth orbit as Sasquan's Special Guest while aboard the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

Programming and events

Masquerade

The Sasquan

masquerade Masquerade or Masquerades may refer to: Books * ''Masquerade'' (book), a 1979 children's book by Kit Williams that sparked a worldwide treasure hunt * ''Masquerades'' (novel), a 1995 Forgotten Realms novel by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb * ''Masq ...

was held in the

First Interstate Center for the Arts The First Interstate Center for the Arts is a 2,609-seat theater and entertainment venue in Spokane, Washington. It is located in Downtown Spokane along the south bank of the Spokane River adjacent to the Spokane Convention Center. The facility i ...

(then known as the INB Performing Arts Center), on same campus as the Convention Center, in the evening of Friday, August 21. There were 45 entrants competing for ten major awards. The Sasquan Masquerade Director was Sharon Sbarsky.Kevin Roche
was the master of ceremonies and the judges were

Brad W. Foster Brad W. Foster (born April 26, 1955) is an American illustrator, cartoonist, writer and publisher. He has also been Artist Science fiction convention#Guests of Honor, Guest of Honor at multiple conventions such as ArmadilloCon 10, Conestoga 9, Ar ...

, Sandy Pettinger, Kathy Sanders, and Syd Weinstein. The workmanship judges were Tanglwyst de Holloway and Michele Weinstein. The winners, across four experience-based categories, were:

Young Fan division

* Best Comic: " Ms. Marvel" by Sashti Ramadorai * Best Media: "

Arya Stark Arya Stark is a fictional character in American author George R. R. Martin's ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' epic fantasy novel series and its HBO television adaptation ''Game of Thrones'', where she was portrayed by English actress Maisie Williams. ...

" by Alexis Davis * Best in Class: "

Emma Swan Emma Swan is a Character (arts), fictional character and the protagonist of American Broadcasting Company, ABC's Television program, television series ''Once Upon a Time (TV series), Once Upon a Time''. She is portrayed by Jennifer Morrison as a ...

" by Melinda Kilbourne

Novice division

Workmanship awards: * Honorable Mention: "Red" by Megan * Best Use of Traditional Materials: "San" (Princess Mononoke) by Casandra Friend * Best Woodworking Magic: "Ashe and Lux" (League of Legends) by Rachelle Henning and Tori Wheeler * Best Accessory: "Fauntal" by Ashlee * Best Use of Recycled Materials: "Immortan Joanna" by Claire Stromberg * Judge's Choice (de Holloway): "Octopus Dress" by Desiree Gould * Judge's Choice (Weinstein): "Don't Blink" by Paulina Crownhart and Julia Buragino * Rising Star Award: "We Are Groot" by Jason Giddings * Best in Class: "We Are Groot" by Jason Giddings Presentation awards: * Honorable Mention: "Don't Blink" by Paulina Crownhart and Julia Buragino * Dead Ringer Award: "The Captain" (Captain Kangaroo) by Robert Mitchell * Best Re-Creation: "Immortan Joanna" by Claire Stromberg * Best in Class: "We Are Groot" by Jason Giddings

Journeyman division

Workmanship awards: * Honorable Mention: "Luigi" by Bevan Rogers * Honorable Mention (Transformation): "Diana Prince/Wonder Woman" by Denise Tanaka * Best Use of Non-Traditional Materials: "Sleeping Beauty, the Vintage Edition" by Hal Bass, Sharon Bass, Barbara Galler-Smith, Janine Wardale, John Wardale, and Ita Vandenbroek * Best Use of Materials That Hate You: "Theia the Tabbybrook Mage" by Natalie Rogers * Best Patterning and Fitting: "Marian Keiffer" by Debi "7 of Eowyn" Schwartz * Worst Infection of the Beading Disease: Tie:- ** "Doctor Who Time Lords" by Carol Hamill and Forrest Nelson ** "Victorian Justice League" by Barbara Hoffert, Mark Ezell, Ellie Ezell, Ann Ezell, Zachary Brant, and Kathryn Brant * Rising Star Award: "Blood Dragon Lord" by Lesli Jones * Best in Class: "Blood Dragon Lord" by Lesli Jones Presentation awards: * Most Beautiful: "Marian Keiffer" by Debi "7 of Eowyn" Schwartz * Best Re-Creation: "Doctor Who Time Lords" by Carol Hamill and Forrest Nelson * Best in Class: "Blood Dragon Lord" by Lesli Jones

Master division

Workmanship awards: * Best Use of a Sweater Pattern: "Knit Klingon Warrior" by Shael Hawman * Best Use of Light Refraction: "Dreams of a Rainbow" by Susan Torgerson and Chris Corbitt * Best Use of Shower Accessories: "Rainbow Jellyfish" by Orchid Cavett * Best Dyeing: "Senator Padmé Amidala" by Torrey Stenmark * Most Skill-Sets in a Single Bound: "Professor R. Miles Levell, Gentleman Time Traveler" by Richard Miles * Go Big or Go Home Award: "Princess Marshmallow" by Lance Ikegawa * Rising Star Award: Tie:- ** "Knit Klingon Warrior" by Shael Hawman ** "Rainbow Jellyfish" by Orchid Cavett Presentation awards: * Honorable Mention: "Rainbow Jellyfish" by Orchid Cavett * Honorable Mention: "Senator Padmé Amidala" by Torrey Stenmark * Best Critter: "Roll for Initiative" by Jonnalyn Wolfcat, Melissa Quinn, Alita Quinn, and Anita Taylor * Most Beautiful: "Princess Marshmallow" by Lance Ikegawa * Best in Class: "Professor R. Miles Levell, Gentleman Time Traveler" by Richard Miles

Overall

* Best in Show (workmanship): "Roll for Initiative" by Jonnalyn Wolfcat et al. * Best in Show (presentation): "Victorian Justice League" by Barbara Hoffert, Ann Ezell, Mark Ezell, Kathryn Brant, Zach Brant, Ellie Ezell

Awards

Of the 2,122 valid nominating ballots, 2,119 were submitted online and 3 on paper. The year's final ballot was dominated by slates organized as the "

Sad Puppies Sad Puppies was an unsuccessful right-wing anti-diversity voting campaign run from 2013 to 2017 and intended to influence the outcome of the annual Hugo Awards, the longest-running prize (since 1953) for science fiction or fantasy works. It wa ...

" and " Rabid Puppies". The controversy brought international press attention to the awards process and caused several nominees to withdraw from consideration. However, only one slate candidate won an award, and in the five categories in which only slate candidates were nominated, no award was given.

2015 Hugo Awards

* Best Novel: '' The Three-Body Problem'', by

Cixin Liu Liu Cixin (, pronounced ; born 23 June 1963) is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. In English translations of his works, his name is given as Cixin Liu. He is sometimes called "''Da'' Liu" ("Big Liu") by his fellow sc ...

, translated by

Ken Liu , birth_date = , birth_place = Lanzhou, Gansu, China , occupation = , nationality = American , period = , genre = Science fiction, fantasy , subject = , movement = , notableworks= * '' The Paper Menagerie'' (2011 ...

(

Tor Books Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles. History Tor was founded by Tom Doherty, ...

) * Best Novella: no award * Best Novelette: "

The Day the World Turned Upside Down "The Day The World Turned Upside Down" is a magical realismAu ...

", by

Thomas Olde Heuvelt Thomas Olde Heuvelt (born 16 April 1983) is a Dutch horror writer. His short stories have received the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, the Dutch Paul Harland Prize, and have been nominated for two additional Hugo Awards and a World Fantasy Awar ...

(''

Lightspeed Magazine ''Lightspeed'' is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine edited and published by John Joseph Adams. The first issue was published in June 2010 and it has maintained a regular monthly schedule since. The magazine published four o ...

'', April 2014) * Best Short Story: no award * Best Related Work: no award * Best Graphic Story: '' Ms. Marvel'', "Volume 1: No Normal", written by G. Willow Wilson, illustrated by

Adrian Alphona Adrian Alphona is a Filipino-Canadian comic book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' ''Runaways (comics), Runaways'', which he co-created with writer Brian K. Vaughan. Slated to be pencilling the second volume of ''Spider-Man Loves M ...

and Jake Wyatt (

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

) * Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Comic book teams 1969 team The 1969 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), Guardians of the Galaxy were the origi ...

'', written by

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1996). He then began working as a director, starting wi ...

and

Nicole Perlman Nicole Perlman (born December 10, 1981) is an American screenwriter, best known for co-writing the Marvel Cinematic Universe film ''Guardians of the Galaxy'' (2014), and the story for Marvel's '' Captain Marvel'' (2019), and for '' Pokémon Detect ...

; directed by James Gunn *

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form The Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation is given each year for theatrical films, television episodes, or other dramatized works related to science fiction or fantasy released in the previous calendar year. Originally the award covered both ...

: ''

Orphan Black ''Orphan Black'' is a Canadian science-fiction thriller television series created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett and starring Tatiana Maslany. The series focuses on Sarah Manning, one of several genetically identica ...

'', "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried", written by Graham Manson, directed by

John Fawcett John Fawcett may refer to: In the arts *John Fawcett (actor died 1793), British actor *John Fawcett (actor) (1768–1837), his son, English actor and playwright *John Fawcett (director) (born 1968), Canadian director of film and television *John Fa ...

(

Temple Street Productions Temple Street Productions was a Toronto-based Canadian television & digital media production studio. Formed in 1996 by Patrick Whitley and Sheila Hockin, it was sold to Ivan Schneeberg and David Fortier—who had led the studio's drama unit since ...

Space Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...

) * Best Professional Editor, Long Form: no award * Best Professional Editor, Short Form: no award * Best Professional Artist: Julie Dillon * Best Semiprozine: ''

'', edited by

John Joseph Adams John Joseph Adams (born July 31, 1976) is an American science fiction and fantasy editor, critic, and publisher. Career Editor Adams worked as Assistant Editor at ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' from May 2001 to December 2009. In ...

, Wendy N. Wagner, Stefan Rudnicki, Rich Horton, and Christie Yant * Best Fanzine: ''

Journey Planet Journey Planet is an Irish-American science fiction fanzine currently edited by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia and various other co-editors. It has been nominated twelve times for the Hugo Award for Best Fanzine, winning in 2015. Descripti ...

'', edited by James Bacon, Chris Garcia, Alissa McKersie, Colin Harris, and Helen Montgomery * Best Fancast: ''Galactic Suburbia Podcast'', by Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (presenters) and Andrew Finch (producer) * Best Fan Writer: Laura J. Mixon * Best Fan Artist: Elizabeth Leggett

Art Show Awards

* Best Convention Theme: "Whatever Happened to Bigfoot" by Sandra Ackley * Best 3D Non-Jewelry: "Just Keeping an Eye on Things" by Mark Chapman * Best 3D Jewelry: "Lapis Dragon" by Arlin Robins * Best 2D Color: "The Dala Horse" by Julie Dillon * Best 2D Monochrome: "Othello" b
M. Scott Hammond
* Judges Choice: "Resurrection of Perspective" by Andy VanOverberghe * Body of Work: Andy VanOverberghe * Staff Choice: "Tracking a Giant" by Jeff Sturgeon * Fan Choice: "Tang Horse" by Elizabeth Berrien * GOH Choice: "Circles of Quanta 2" by Andy VanOverberghe

Other awards

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer The ''Astounding'' Award for Best New Writer (formerly the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer) is given annually to the best new writer whose first professional work of science fiction or fantasy was published within the two previous ...

Wesley Chu Wesley Chu (朱恆昱) (born September 23, 1976, in Taipei) is a Taiwanese American author of speculative fiction. Early life and career Chu was born in Taipei in 1976 and originally raised by his grandparents in Taiwan while his parents were s ...

* Special Committee Award:

Jay Lake Joseph Edward "Jay" Lake, Jr. (June 6, 1964 – June 1, 2014) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for B ...

* First Fandom Hall of Fame award:

Julian May Julian Clare May (July 10, 1931 – October 17, 2017) was an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also used several literary pseudonyms. She is best known for her '' Saga of Pliocene Exile'' (''Saga of the ...

Margaret Brundage Margaret Brundage, born Margaret Hedda Johnson (December 9, 1900April 9, 1976), was an American illustrator and painter who is remembered chiefly for having illustrated the pulp magazine ''Weird Tales''. Working in pastels on illustration board, ...

(posthumous),

Bruce Pelz Bruce Edward Pelz (August 11, 1936 – May 9, 2002) was a US science fiction fan. He was highly active in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) and a major SMOF, co-chairing the 30th World Science Fiction Convention. He also wrote f ...

(posthumous),

F. Orlin Tremaine Frederick Orlin Tremaine (January 7, 1899 – October 22, 1956) was an American science fiction magazine editor, most notably of the influential '' Astounding Stories''. He edited a number of other magazines, headed several publishing companie ...

(posthumous) * Sam Moskowitz Archive Award: David Aronovitz * Forrest J. Ackerman Big Heart Award: Ben Yalow

Staff

After the "Spokane in 2015" bid chaired by Alex von Thorn won the site selection vote
Sally Woehrle
an
Bobbie DuFault
were announced as co-chairs of the convention on behalf of the Seattle Westercon Organizing Committee. DuFault died suddenly on the morning of September 14, 2013. The convention announced that Sally Woehrle would serve as chair wit
Glenn GlazerPierre Pettinger
and Mike Willmoth as vice-chairs.

Site selection

The location was selected on August 31, 2013, by the members of the

71st World Science Fiction Convention The 71st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as LoneStarCon 3, was held on 29 August–2 September 2013 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and Marriott Rivercenter in San Antonio, Texas, United States. The convention ...

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

. Three committees announced bids and qualified to be on the site selection ballot for the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention: * Helsinki in 2015, bid chair Eemeli Aro, would be held August 6-10, 2015 * Orlando in 2015, bid chair Adam Beaton, would be held September 2-6, 2015 * Spokane in 2015, bid chair Alex von Thorn, would be held August 19-23, 2015 The first contested Worldcon selection since the 2007 vote for the 2009 Worldcon site saw active campaigning and drew celebrity endorsements. Authors

George R. R. Martin George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948) also known by the initials G.R.R.M. is an American author, television writer, and television producer. He is best known as the author of the unfinished series of Hi ...

and

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born 17 July 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of th ...

publicly supported the Helsinki bid and encouraged their fans to vote while artist

Phil Foglio Philip Peter Foglio (born May 1, 1956) is an American cartoonist and comic book artist known for his humorous science fiction and fantasy art. Early life and career Foglio was born on May 1, 1956, in Mount Vernon, New York, and moved with his fa ...

declared his support for Spokane's bid and artist

Bob Eggleton Bob Eggleton (born September 13, 1960) is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction, horror artist. Eggleton is a nine-time Hugo Award–winner for Best Pro Artist in science fiction and fantasy, first winning in 1994. He won the Hu ...

declared his support for Orlando. Spokane won the site selection contest on the third round of ballot counting in Australian-style

preferential ballot Ranked voting is any voting system that uses voters' Ordinal utility, rankings of candidates to choose a single winner or multiple winners. More formally, a ranked vote system depends only on voters' total order, order of preference of the cand ...

ing. Spokane finished with 645 votes, gaining a majority over Helsinki with 610. Orlando was dropped in the second round with 307 votes and "none of the above" had been eliminated in the first round.

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, and Locust Grove, Virginia, each received multiple write-in votes with Pyongyang and other hoax sites receiving single write-in votes.

Future site selection

Four committees announced bids to host the

75th World Science Fiction Convention The 75th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Worldcon 75, was held on 9–13 August 2017 at the Helsinki Exhibition and Convention Centre in Helsinki, Finland. The convention chair was Jukka Halme, and the vice-chairs wer ...

and filed all of the required paperwork by the February 2015 deadline: "Nippon in 2017", "Montréal in 2017", "Helsinki in 2017", and "Washington D.C. in 2017". The 2017 site selected by the voters was announced during the convention's third World Science Fiction Society business meeting, on Saturday, August 22, 2015. With 1363 votes out of 2625 valid ballots, Helsinki won on the first ballot and will operate as "Worldcon 75". DC17 ran second with 878 votes, Montréal third with 228, and Nippon fourth with 120.

References

External links

Sasquan official website

"Come to Sasquan" by Visit Spokane
{{DEFAULTSORT:World Science Fiction Convention 073 2010s in Spokane, Washington 2015 conferences 2015 in Washington (state) August 2015 in the United States Culture of Spokane, Washington Science fiction conventions in the United States Worldcon