When Balticon 49 kicks off next Memorial Day Weekend (May 22-25, 2015), Hugo-winning novelist Jo Walton will be Guest of Honor, on a slate that includes Artist Guest Ruth Sanderson, Music Guest Erica Neely, and 2014 Compton Crook Award Winner Charles E. Gannon.

And if I personally think that “ghost of honor” is a dubious concept that lost its novelty 20 years ago, I certainly can’t otherwise fault Balticon for wanting to pay tribute to its two Ghosts of Honor CJ Henderson and Fan Ghost of Honor Joe Mayhew.

The con also will host the presentation of the 2015 Robert Heinlein Award, and the 2015 Compton Crook Award for best first novel in the field.

The full press release follows the jump.

Greetings! The Baltimore Science Fiction Society, Inc. announces the 49th year of its exciting annual convention

BALTICON 49 — the Maryland Regional Science Fiction Convention

will be held Memorial Day Weekend at The Hunt Valley Inn(a Wyndham Affiliate), May 22-25, 2015, from 2PM Friday through 5PM Monday. Most scheduled activities end by 2 AM each night while some, such as Open Filk have extended hours and the Anime and Video Rooms stay open around the clock. Program tracks include lectures, discussion panels, and workshops in Anime, Art, Costuming, Fandom, Filmmaking, Gaming, Performing Arts, Skeptical Thinking, and Video/TV/Film, as well as extensive Literary/New Media Programming for editors, readers, small press publishers, writers, and web professionals and consumers.

Join Guest of Honor, science fiction and fantasy author and poet Jo Walton, Artist Guest Ruth Sanderson, Music Guest Erica Neely, and 2014 Compton Crook Award Winner Charles E. Gannon, for a weekend of discussion panels, entertainment, and educational presentations and workshops. Attend tributes to Ghost of Honor CJ Henderson and Fan Ghost of Honor Joe Mayhew, presentations of the 2015 Robert Heinlein Award, the 2015 Compton Crook Award for best first novel in the field, Young Writer’s, Amateur Writers and Poetry Contest awards, dances, launch events and many special events. Workshops offered include Writers and Poetry Workshops, workshops on fine art and crafts skills, web production, and more. Balticon showcases the talents of hundreds of literary, art, music, podcasting and other SF&F professionals.

Balticon’s internationally famous science program presents briefings from premier researchers and experts, in fields like astronomy, biology, computer science, cryogenics, planetology, physics, robotics, and paleontology.

Functions include vendor room, concerts, dance instruction, indie film premiers, Anime and Video rooms, board, card, LARP and RPG gaming, the largest regional SF&F art show with silent auction, print shop and Artists Alley, as well as our annual Masquerade. The 12^th Annual competitive Balticon Sunday Night Short Film Festival presents works by independent SF, fantasy, and horror filmmakers.

A mail-in registration form can be downloaded from  http://www.balticon.org for discounted purchase of weekend membership. At-the-door membership rates will be announced May 1, 2015. Hotel rooms at convention rates will soon be available, please contact The Hunt Valley Inn at 410-785-7000 or call the toll-free line, 866-764-8359, for more information. Note that you must be a registered member of Balticon to get the convention rate. Flyers are available by calling BSFS or can be downloaded from http://www.balticon.org/B49_flyer_6.pdf .

Media representatives may contact Steve Clark of BSFS at [email protected].

All other inquiries please contact:           BALTICON 49

P.O. Box 686  Baltimore, MD   21203-0686

Phone: +01 410-563-2737                         Email: [email protected]                  On the web: www.balticon.org