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Our Super Secret Guests are…
Delia Sherman and Ellen Kushner!

Ellen Kushner is a woman of many talents. She’s an award-winning author (Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners, Thomas the Rhymer, The Privilege of the Sword, The Golden Dreydl, and The Fall of Kings, co-written with Delia Sherman) as well as the radio host of PRI’s Sound & Spirit, which Bill Moyers called “the best program on public radio, bar none.” Ellen is the co-founder of the Interstitial Arts Foundation, an organization encouraging creativity that falls between genre categories. She is well known for spoken word works such as Esther: the Feast of Masks with Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, and The Golden Dreydl: a Klezmer ‘Nutcracker’ for Chanukah In 2008, Vital Theatre in New York City commissioned her to script a fullscale theatrical version. “The Klezmer Nutcracker” played to sold-out audiences, with Kushner in the role of the magical Tante Miriam, throughout the 2008-09 holiday season. And she sings, too! Ellen performs a musical telling of Thomas the Rhymer. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to see this wonderful work performed here at GAFilk. Ellen is currently working on a live staged version of The Witches of Lublin and a musical, The Bone Chandelier, with composer Ben Moore. You can read more about her at her website www.ellenkushner.com

Ellen currently lives in New York City with her beautiful partner…

Delia Sherman is ALSO an award-winning novelist (Through a Brazen Mirror, The Porcelain Dove, Changeling, The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen, and The Freedom Maze, a time-travel fantasy set in Louisiana, which will be published in 2010.) Her short fiction has appeared in Realms of Fantasy and Poe. Her short stories for younger readers have appeared in numerous anthologies. Delia has judged the Crawford Award for Best First Fantasy Novel, The James Tiptree, Jr. Award for Fantastic Fiction, and the World Fantasy Award. She has served on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree Jr. Award, and is a founding member and past officer of the Interstitial Arts Foundation. Delia has worked as a contributing editor for Tor Books and has co-edited the fantasy anthology The Horns of Elfland with Ellen Kushner and Donald G. Keller, as well as The Essential Bordertown with Terri Windling. She had co-edited two anthologies of Interstitial fiction: Interficitons 1, with Theodora Goss, and the recently released Interfictions 2, with Christopher Barzak. She teaches SF and Fantasy writing at Odyssey: the Fantasy Writing Workshop, and the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers’ Workshop, as well as workshops at colleges and science fiction conventions all over the country. She is a charming person and a snazzy dresser. Learn more about Delia at her website, www.deliasherman.com.

Photo by Ellen Datlow, used by permission

You can get more information about Gafilk,and register for the convention, online at http://www.gafilk.org/

Don’t forget that today is the last day to buy Gafilk 12 memberships at the prereg price. Tomorrow the price goes up, and we will reveal who our Super Secret Guest will be!

You can get more information and register online at http://www.gafilk.org/

Emma Bull is a science fiction and fantasy author whose best-known novel is War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of urban fantasy. She wrote the screenplay and played a cameo role for War for the Oaks when it was made into an 11-minute mini-film designed to look like a film trailer. Her 1991 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel Bone Dance was nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards, followed by her 1994 novel Finder, set in Terri Windling’s Borderland shared universe. Along with filker Nate Bucklin, Emma and husband Will Shetterly were members of the writing group The Scribblies, which also included Pamela Dean, Kara Dalkey, Patricia Wrede and Steven Brust. With Steven Brust, Bull wrote Freedom and Necessity in 1997, an epistolary novel with subtle fantasy elements set during the 19th century United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Chartist movement. She sang in the rock-funk band Cats Laughing, and both sang and played guitar in the folk duo The Flash Girls while living in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Will Shetterly is an American fantasy and comic book writer best-known for his 1997 novel Dogland, inspired by his childhood at the tourist attraction Dog Land owned by his parents. In 1991 Will won the Minnesota Book Award for Fantasy and Science Fiction for his novel Elsewhere, and was a finalist with Nevernever; both books are set in Terri Windling’s The Borderland Series shared universe. He has also written short stories for various Borderland anthologies. Shetterly created the comic book character Captain Confederacy, played a small role in the film Toxic Zombies, and ran for governor of Minnesota in 1994 on the Grassroots Party ticket. He placed third out of six candidates. Together Will Shetterly and Emma Bull created and edited the five anthologies in the Liavek shared universe.

Emma and Will currently live in Arizona.

You can get more information about Gafilk at our website at http://www.gafilk.org/.

“Hey sibs, it’s that time again!”
“Time to make a Babylon Five sculpture out of chocolate?”
“Time to recap scenes from last weeks episode?”
“No, no. It’s time to remind everyone that the deadline for getting memberships for Gafilk at the low, low registration price of $30 is this weekend! On Monday the price goes up, when we reveal the identities of our Super Secret Guests!”
“Is one of them Barack Obama?”
“Iiiiiiiiiiiii….think he’s gonna be a bit busy in January. But I can tell you that our already announced guests this year include:

Guests of Honour: Barry and Sally Childs-Helton
Toastmaster: Larry Kirby
Interfilk Guest: Harold Feld

Plus, of course, not one but two Super Secret Guests! It’s going to be really exciting!”

“Wow, I can’t wait”
“Me either!”
“Well, what are you waiting for? Go get your memberships right now! Supplies are running out!
“No they’re not!”
“Ssshhhhhh. This is called marketing!”

Gafilk 2009 will be held in Atlanta, GA on January 9-11, 2009. More details can be found at http://www.gafilk.org/, including hotel information. Hotel reservations should be made by December 25, 2009 to guarantee the convention rate.

Hope to see everyone there!