The World Fantasy Convention in Washington D.C. happened.
Unsurprisingly, I find myself missing people already. Fortunately the post-con blues were lessened this time by a gradual withdrawal: I had the lovely company of Madeline Ashby, David Nickle, and Michael Rowe at Reagan Airport, then Gillian Chan on the plane ride, and then Michael again on the car ride home.
Much of my time was spent with roommates and friends C.S.E. Cooney, Patty Templeton, and Nicole Kornher-Stace. Late-night shenanigans were a common occurrence and always welcome. I also managed to spend a good deal of time with my close friend Ann VanderMeer, whom I hadn’t seen in person since WFC 2012 in Toronto.
We managed to restrict most of our meals fruits and veggies kept in our room and the con suite – there was a fairly good selection – though there were a few lovely dinners: one with the VanderMeers, Peter Straub, Thomas Olde Heuvelt and Singha Samwel, Desirina Boskovitch, Jeremy Zerfoss, and Stephen H. Segal; another with Nicole, Patty, Claire, and Mike and Anita Allen; and another with Patty, John O’Neill and Elwin Cotman.
I managed to keep my book purchases to a minimum this year. Books purchased include Monstrous Affections from Small Beer Press and Patty’s There Is No Lovely End, amongst a few others.
Sofia Samatar took the Best Novel award for her superb A Stranger in Olondria. I’ve rarely been more pleased about a win. Her acceptance speech gracefully addressed the topic of the award itself, a bust of H.P. Lovecraft. There’s been an ongoing discussion on the issue of representing an international award with the bust of a well-known racist, and I hope Sofia’s tactful appeal to community and ongoing debate will help further the discussion.
A full list of the award winners can be found here.
Dominik Parisien 