Guests of Honor

Linda D. Addison – Author Guest of Honor

(born September 8, 1952) is an American poet and writer of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Addison is the first African-American winner of the Bram Stoker Award, which she won four times. The first two awards were for her poetry collections Consumed, Reduced to Beautiful Grey Ashes (2001)^[1] and Being Full of Light, Insubstantial (2007).^[2] Her poetry and fiction collection How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend won the 2011 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection.^[3] She received a fourth HWA Bram Stoker for the collection The Four Elements, written with Marge Simon, Rain Graves, and Charlee Jacob. Addison is a founding member of the CITH (Circles in the Hair) writing group

http://www.cith.org/linda/

Crystal Connor – Multimedia Guest of Honor

I am an award-winning Master Imaginationist. I work for the Department of Sleep Prevention as the Chief Operating Officer for the Bad Dreams & Nightmare Division. I also moonlight as photographer for Instagram. Or in layman’s terms I write horror and take tons of selfies. I am a Washington State native, and I love everything to do with monsters, bad guys (as in evil-geniuses & super-villains. Not those kind my mother warned me about), rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high-heeled shoes & unreasonably priced handbags. When I’m not terrorizing my readers or racking up frequent flyers miles by gallivanting all over the country attending fan conventions and writer’s conferences I review indie horror and science fiction films for both my personal blog and HorrorAddicts.net and judge horror films for the Seattle Crypticon and the Bleedingham film festivals.

https://www.wordsmithcrystalconnor.com/

Bushmama Africa – Artist Guest of Honor

I chose this name in 1996 after deciding that I wanted my name to personify something outside of my self, something natural, something connected to the source of life. Since everything we need medicinally comes from the bush I wanted to be associated with health and healing. My belief is a mama is the essence of Goddess work therefore I had to claim that. Africa was added in 2003 after learning about the Africa Family with the film” Move”. I joined solidarity with the family after screening “Move” for The Oakland Hip Hop Film Festival that I created with Kevin Epps. Meeting Romona Africa changed my life. It was Romona who helped me see how after 400yrs our government continues to prey on Black People who want true liberation and freedom. The name Bushmama Africa has followed me into theaters and venues all over the bay area where I’ve hosted or produced or performed. I continue to perform but this page is dedicate to my art work.

http://healerwoman.yolasite.com/