2023 StokerCon Report

StokerCon, sponsored by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), was held June 15-18, 2023, on the virtual Hopin platform and in person at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Hotel at Station Square in Pittsburgh PA. Guests of honor were Jewelle Gomez, Owl Goingback, Alma Katsu, Daniel Kraus, Cynthia Pelayo, and Wrath James White, with Kevin Wetmore as Stoker Awards emcee. Elizabeth Massie, Nuzo Onoh, and John Saul received Lifetime Achievement Awards. Co-chair Michael Arnzen said, “This StokerCon was scary good. By all reports, the con was hugely successful, with a warm sense of camaraderie and unification, as writers assembled together eager to talk shop about today’s horror genre. There was a high number of new authors present, and many people connected with online friends in real life, or otherwise attended a convention, for the very first time.”

There were more than 600 attendees, including 140 virtual (some with hybrid registrations). The convention featured more than 60 in-person and20 virtual panels, plus more than 35 in-person and 30 virtual author readings. There were 298 total program participants and many in-person offerings were live-streamed. Scheduled panels included “You Can’t Get There From Here: Tales of Weird Pittsburgh” with Douglas Gwilym, Gwendolyn Kiste, Michelle Renee Lane, Frank Oreto, Nelson Pyles, and Stephanie M. Wytovich; “Exploring the Canon of Queer Horror” with Paula D. Ashe, Aaron Dries, Maxwell I. Gold, Jewelle Gomez, Eric LaRocca, Hailey Piper, and Ally Wilkes; and “The Cannibal Panel” with Owl Goingback, Gwendolyn Kiste, E.V. Knight, Rebecca Rowland, Sara Tantlinger, and Wrath James White. There were also GoH panels and interviews.

The Bram Stoker Awards were held the evening of Saturday, June 17. Lisa Morton was the keynote speaker, and spoke about the history of StokerCon and the significance of horror fiction: “I believe that as horror writers our voices will only become louder and harder to ignore as we move into that same future that we have been warning everyone about for decades, and that we know how to fight. We are the ones who always stared into the darkness and forced it to serve us, but we also know that we must never serve it.” The banquet had a little over 200 diners, and around 300 people attended the ceremony in person; approximately 225 viewers watched the livestream. Within two weeks of posting, the video accrued over 2,700 views on YouTube. Other awards presented during the weekend included the Final Frame Short Film Competition, whose grand prize winner was The Queue, written and directed by Michael Rich.

Next year’s StokerCon is planned for San Diego CA from May 30 – June 2, 2024. Guests of honor include Paula Guran, Jonathan Maberry, and Paul Tremblay. For more information about StokerCon visit <www.stokercon2023.com/>, and for more information about the HWA visit <horror.org/>.

Photos by Lynne Hansen, Kate Maruyama, John
Palisano, and Emily Flummox

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