Guests of Honor

Anton Petersen

Photo of Anton Petersen with glasses, smiling, and a purple shirt bearing a white unicorn.

I am honored and thrilled to be invited as a Fan Guest of Honor at Capricon 47! This is my first adventure as a Guest of Honor so please be patient with me as I navigate the unknown.

My convention experience started by attending a few creation cons back in the 80’s and early 90’s. My first convention on staff was a local Minneapolis event called Convergence in 1999. Since then I have added more conventions in multiple genres from steampunk to anime.

My main area of expertise is working with the Guests of Honor at an event which is the reason I am a bit anxious about being an actual guest. Over the years I have worked with many wonderful people from actors to authors to game designers and musicians.

I live in the Minneapolis area and four years ago I decided to take the plunge and start my own convention. I run Quantum-Con which takes place May 21-23, before Memorial Day weekend. It is a smaller convention which focuses on the Paranormal for programming but the event runs the gamut from Sci-Fi to Anime to Rock bands!.

I am really looking forward to speaking with all of you so make sure to say hi!

Mary Robinette Kowal

A photo of Mary Robinette Kowal smiling at the camera. She appears to be a white woman with short brown hair featuring some gray streaks wearing glasses. She is holding a sprawl of older books, the frontmost one's cover reads Acme Library, wearing a blue coat, an off-white scarf, and light brown gloves.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the USA Today Bestselling author of twelve novels, including Apprehension, The Spare Man, and the Lady Astronaut series. Her novel The Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen works to achieve the “triple crown,” winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards in a single year. She is also a four-time Hugo winner, a recipient of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and a former President of SFWA.

Her storytelling is uniquely shaped by a twenty-year career as a professional puppeteer. Performing for Jim Henson Productions and LazyTown, she earned two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence—the highest honor in American puppetry. This background in physical performance informs the body language and characterization found in her prose.

Mary Robinette is a core cast member of the Hugo-winning podcast Writing Excuses and an acclaimed audiobook narrator for authors such as Neal Stephenson and Seanan McGuire. A collector of vintage manual typewriters, she lives with her husband Robert, their dog Guppy, and their cat Elsie, who uses Augmentative Interspecies Communication buttons to “talk.” She also has the distinct honor of having an asteroid, (52691) Maryrobinettek, named after her.