Meet Our Guests
Guest of Honor
Grant Stone
One of the original instigators of Swancon, it is an absolute honor to welcome back Grant Stone to celebrate the festival’s golden anniversary.
Grant is an archivist, bibliographer, librarian, collector, organiser, publicist, publisher, reviewer, critic, fan and botanist by training.
He was a radio presenter on the radio station RTRFM of the Faster Than Light Radio Show, as well as being the main force in the Murdoch University library special collections of popular culture material.
In 1996 he was the recipient of the Chandler Award for Australian science fiction. He has been involved with laughter yoga for some years.
Guest of Honor
Kathleen Jennings
Kathleen Jennings is an illustrator and writer based in Brisbane, Australia.
As an illustrator, she has won one World Fantasy Award (and been a finalist three other times), has been shortlisted once for the Hugos, and once for the Locus Awards, as well as winning a number of Ditmars.
As a writer, she has won a British Fantasy Award (the Sydney J Bounds Award) and two Ditmars and been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Awards, the Courier-Mail People’s Choice Book of the Year Award, the Crawford Award, the Australian Shadows Award, the Eugie Foster Memorial Award, and several Aurealis Awards. She has an MPhil and a PhD in Creative Writing.
Guest of Honor
Samantha Murray
Samantha Murray is a speculative fiction writer hailing from WA.
Her short fiction has appeared in delightful venues such as Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Interzone, Lightspeed, Fantasy Magazine, and many other places.
Her story, “Of Sight, of Mind, of Heart” won an Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story, and “Preserved in Amber” won for Best Science Fiction Novella. Her novelette “Singles’ Day” featured in The Best Science Fiction of the Year, volume 4 edited by Neil Clarke, and she has travelled to Hollywood as a winner of the Writers of the Future Competition.
Samantha’s stories have been translated into Chinese and Vietnamese, and she was an invited guest of honour at APSFCON (Another Planet Science Fiction Con) in Beijing in 2019.
Fan Guest of Honor
Kaneda Cruz
Kaneda is proud action nerd who loves all things Movies, Games, Martial Arts and Science Fiction.
As a practitioner of Martial Arts and Japanese Swordsmanship/Ko-Ryu Bujutsu for over 35 years, he has made his love of Martial Arts part of his career as a stunt performer, professional action/fight choreographer for stage, film and Danger Cabaret entertainment.
Since moving to Perth and discovering Science fiction conventions, Swancon being his 1st one (2004).
He has contributed his time and talents to various conventions in Perth and interstate from panels, community performances, and demonstrations purely to share his passions and to entertain the community that he is proud to be a part of.
Invited Guest
Wole Talabi
Wole Talabi is an engineer, writer, and editor from Nigeria. He is the author of the acclaimed fantasy novel SHIGIDI AND THE BRASS HEAD OF OBALUFON, which was nominated for the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards.
His next novel is the forthcoming sci-fi thriller THE FIST OF MEMORY. His short fiction has appeared in places like Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and The Africa Risen anthology and is collected in the books CONVERGENCE PROBLEMS and INCOMPLETE SOLUTIONS. He been a finalist for the Hugo, Nommo, BSFA, Sidewise, Ignyte and Crawford awards, as well as the Caine Prize for African Writing.
He has edited five anthologies. He likes scuba diving, elegant equations, and oddly shaped things. He currently lives in Perth, Australia. Find him at wtalabi.wordpress.com and at @wtalabi online.
Local Guest
BERNICE BARRY
Bernice Barry is a writer and historian with a background in education. Her previous books (The Mind That Shines, 2016, A Lady’s Pen, 2023, Sarah Evans, 2024,) include historical fiction and non-fiction, reflecting her passion for discovering and telling women’s stories where truth has been dimmed or obscured by time.
Her latest work, The Names of a Hare, is magic realism historical fantasy set in 1620s Cornwall.
Local Guest
AŚKA
Aśka (pronounced ‘Ash-ka’), she/they, is an award winning comics maker, energetic visual storyteller and an ex-quantum physicist. A hugely engaging and popular presenter, Aśka is passionate about visual literacy education.
Alongside a catalogue of self-published comics, she has traditionally published more than a dozen books and graphic novels. Recent titles include the Stonewall Award Notable YA graphic novel “Stars in Their Eyes”, which was also a CBCA Notable Book and nominated for the Comics Art Awards of Australia.
Her latest physics-meets-road-trip YA graphic novel, “The Friendship Paradox”, is out this year with Allen & Unwin.
Aśka is the recipient of multiple government arts grants, prizes and fellowships. Aśka is also the Programming Director for the Perth Comic Arts Festival, a regular contributor to The School Magazine, a former Illustrator Co-ordinator for the WA branch of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, has singlehandedly run an animation festival, and held a solo art exhibition exploring numbers in nature.
Whenever they can, Aśka travels across Australia teaching students of all ages how to write with pictures.
