Guests of Honor
Every year, BayCon welcomes creators, thinkers, and trailblazers whose work reshapes the way we imagine the universe and our place within it. In keeping with this year’s theme, “The Answer,” our Guests of Honor represent the voices asking bold questions, telling unforgettable stories, and guiding fandom toward deeper meaning, stranger worlds, and greater joy. Whether through words, art, performance, or scholarship, these individuals help us explore life, the universe, and everything; humor, heart, and brilliance. Join us in celebrating the people who make the questions worth asking, and the answer worth chasing!
Sumiko Saulson
BAYCON 42’s POET-IN-RESIDENCE
award-winning poet and author: a distinctive voice in speculative fiction
Sumiko is a two-time Bram Stoker Award® finalist for poetry, recognized for The Rat King (2022, Dooky Zines) and Melancholia (2024, Bludgeoned Girls Press). Their writing blends horror, Afrosurrealism, and speculative themes to explore grief, identity, and resilience. They are also an Elgin Award nominee and the recipient of the 2018 Afrosurrealist Writers Award and the 2021 Ladies of Horror Readers’ Choice Award.
Their most recent novel, Somnalia: The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi (Mocha Memoirs Press), is a powerful journey of transformation set in a surreal, mythic landscape.
Sumiko brings a distinct voice to speculative literature and poetry. Their presence at BayCon 42 reminds us that meaning can be found in metaphor, memory, and the magic of language.
Charlie Jane Anders
AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, PODCASTER, REVIEWER, and a FOUNDING EDITOR of IO9
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of Lessons in Magic and Disaster, available now from Tor Books. Her other novels include All the Birds in the Sky, The City in the Middle of the Night and the young-adult Unstoppable trilogy. She’s also the author of the short story collection Even Greater Mistakes, and Never Say You Can’t Survive, a book about how to use creative writing to get through hard times. She’s won the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, Lambda Literary, Crawford and Locus Awards. She co-created Escapade, a transgender superhero, for Marvel Comics and wrote her into the long-running New Mutants comic. And she’s currently the science fiction and fantasy book reviewer for the Washington Post. With Annalee Newitz, she co-hosts the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct.
Annalee Newitz
AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, JOURNALIST, EDITOR, and FOUNDER of IO9
Annalee Newitz writes science fiction and nonfiction. They are the author of four novels: Automatic Noodle, The Terraformers, The Future of Another Timeline, and Autonomous, which won the Lambda Literary Award. As a science journalist, they are the author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind, Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and Scatter, Adapt and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, which was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize in science. They are a writer for the New York Times and elsewhere, and have a monthly column in New Scientist. They have published in The Washington Post, Slate, Scientific American, Ars Technica, The New Yorker, and Technology Review, among others. They are the co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast Our Opinions Are Correct, and have contributed to the public radio shows Science Friday, On the Media, KQED Forum, and Here and Now. Previously, they were the founder of io9, and served as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.
Jenay Marontate
THE KITCHEN WITCH BRINGS HER MAGIC to BAYCON 42!
Jenay was born and raised in the mountains of the pacific northwest. Being from such a lush green environment herbal medicine and herb lore was a common practice in her family. Giving thanks to the earth and honoring the old ways was just everyday wisdom that her family shared. Her love for tea started at an early age with a before bed ritual of peppermint and chamomile tea. As time went on and tastes changed, the real love affair with tea proper started in New Orleans when she had her tea leaves read for the first time. This opened the door to not only a love affair with tea but a dedication to Tea Magic. Today Jenay resides in Lodi, California with her family, this is where her beloved tea company Kitchen Witch Gourmet manufacturing warehouse is located.
Desmond Crisis
THE GUIDE OF BAYCON 42
digital lifestyle evangelist, emmy®-nominated host, and founder of the otaku patrol group
Once called “…The cult leader of the cyberpunks” Desmond Crisis first emerged as a console game developer, local underground DJ, technology enthusiast and early BayCon attendee. His unique career places him at the epicenter of techno-social change, and spans all forms of media, from SEGA to the Sci-Fi Channel. In 1993, Desmond and other like-minded “new early adopters” founded the Otaku Patrol Group. This group of friends exploited early nineties beta tech access, blurring the line between urban reality and science-fiction. OPG supported artists, non-profits, and emergency response organizations. Their experiences were shared in documentaries and articles from Germany to New Zealand to Next Step on Discovery Channel. OPG was also featured in UK Channel Four’s inaugural episode of the youth lifestyle flagship, Passengers. Desmond Crisis has also appeared on the pages of The Cyberpunk Handbook and in the wildly prescient 1994 techno-documentary, Synthetic Pleasures.He was tapped as a nominator and evaluator for the first ever Interactive Media Festival, traveling the world to see and describe first experiences of interactive art and media. As host and correspondent on Sci-Fi Channel shows Cool Tech, CNET Central, The Web, and The New Edge, Desmond’s voice was among the first to describe the birth of the consumer Internet and the explosion of related technologies. His daily radio talk show, The Desmond Crisis Program, gathered the voices of both innovators and enthusiasts, quickly establishing the show’s reputation as “BS detector” in the flood of technology news. Desmond continues to DJ online, specializing in retrowave, cyberpunk, and gothic-Industrial styles. He’s active in amateur radio, retro video gaming events, public mesh networks, FPV drones, 3-D printing and tech-making.