Guests of Honor for 2010 include:

Karl Schroeder

Karl is an award-winning Canadian science fiction author. His novels present far-future speculations on topics such as nanotechnology, terraforming, augmented reality and interstellar travel, and have a deeply philosophical streak. One of his concepts, known as thalience, has gained some currency in the artificial intelligence and computer networking communities.

Spider Robinson

Since he began writing professionally in 1972, Spider Robinson has won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, three Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award, and countless other international and regional awards. Most of his 36 books are still in print, in 10 languages. His short work has appeared in magazines around the planet, from Omni and Analog to Xhurnal Izobretatel i Rationalizator (Moscow), and in numerous anthologies. The Usenet newsgroup alt.callahans and its many internet offshoots, inspired by his Callahan’s Place series, for many years constituted one of the largest non-porn networks in cyberspace.

Spider is caring for his wife and may be able to attend via a virtual presence.

Jeanne Robinson

Spider has been married for over 30 years to Jeanne Robinson, a Boston-born writer, choreographer, former Modern dancer, and teacher of dance and the Alexander Technique. The Robinsons collaborated on the classic Hugo-, Nebula- and Locus-winning STARDANCE TRILOGY, which created the concept and basic principles of zero-gravity dance. Jeanne was on NASA's short list for a Space Shuttle seat, to try out zero-gee dance in practice — until the Challenger Tragedy ended the Civilian In Space programme. She is currently writing, co-producing and choreographing a short film about zero gravity dance, titled "Stardance."

Jeanne Robinson has entered palliative care and will not be attending.

Joe Brockmeier

In 1999 Joe started writing about Linux as a freelancer. That experience eventually morphed into a career focused on writing about Linux and open source as a technology journalist, more or less full time. In 2005, Joe joined Linux.com as editorial director, and in 2007 Joe was with “Linux Magazine” as editor in chief. In the February of 2008, Joe started with Novell as the community manager for openSUSE.

Howard Tayler

Howard Tayler is the author and artist of the Hugo nominated science fiction comic strip Schlock Mercenary (www.schlockmercenary.com), which has been running daily online since 2000. Prior to becoming a full-time cartoonist, Howard ran a small record production company and worked as a product manager for Novell. When Howard has spare time he paints pewter miniatures and plays role-playing games. Howard lives in Orem, Utah with his wife and four kids.

Marcel Gagné

Marcel's just this guy, you know? He's also an award-winning columnist, book author, public speaker, radio and television personality. As creator of the famous (or infamous) "Cooking With Linux" column which ran for tens years in the Linux Journal, Marcel is a well known voice in the Linux and open source universe. He now writes a monthly column for LinuxPro Magazine and Ubuntu User magazine. He's also a published science fiction author and editor, a private pilot, a past Editor in Chief, a serious science and technology geek, and was once a Top 40 disc jockey. He folds a mean origami T-Rex.

i3Detroit

What does i3 stand for: Imagine, Innovate & Inspire. i3 Detroit is a collaborative environment for people to explore the balance between technology, art and culture. They feel the best way to create this environment is to bring like mind people together that share a common passion for technology, art and culture. Their goal is to stay a community resource through continuous hosting of various classes and events. They have created an environment that promotes learning in a fun non-traditional format.

Nifties for 2010 include:

Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines began writing in the early 90s, while working on a degree in psychology from Michigan State University. His first professional sale was the award-winning “Blade of the Bunny,” which took first place in the 1998 Writers of the Future competition and was published in Writers of the Future XV. For many years, he focused on short fiction. His work has appeared in more than forty magazines and anthologies. During this time, he also picked up a Masters degree in English from Eastern Michigan University. His first published fantasy novel was Goblin Quest, a funny, popular tale about a nearsighted goblin runt named Jig. Thanks to the work of his wonderful agent, the book has since been translated into several other languages, and was picked up by DAW Books, along with sequels Goblin Hero and Goblin War. He’s now working on a new series about a trio of butt-kicking princesses. The Stepsister Scheme came out in January of 2009, and DAW has contracted him for three more books in the series. Jim lives in mid-Michigan with his wife and children, who have always shown remarkable tolerance for his bizarre and obsessive writing habits.

Adrian "Irongeek" Crenshaw

Adrian Crenshaw has worked in the IT industry for the last twelve years. He runs the information security website Irongeek.com, which specializes in videos and articles that illustrate how to use various pen-testing and security tools. He did the cert chase for awhile (MCSE NT 4, CNE, A+, Network+. i-Net+) but stopped once he had to start paying for the tests himself. He's currently working on a Masters in Security Informatics, and is interested in obtaining a network security/research/teaching job in academia.

Mike Gould and Wayne Gillis produced the original 1970's light shows at Relax-icon, ConFusion and the World Science Fiction Convention, where Robert Heinlein was GoH. After decades of gafia, the 2010 mix adds veejay David Bloom and fanboy Steve Rich to deliver synapse-tastic laser/computer imagery. Illuminatus 2.1 was featured in MAKE magazine 20, with a ten-page spread detailing how to build its Open Source "Laser Lunch Box" light-show appliance. Boxen have since appeared in Uncommon Sense, No Limits Media, and NY1. Mike, Wayne, David and Steve continue to make personal appearances - at POPtech and Ignite, MakerFaire and TEDx. More info at www.LaserLunchBox.com.

Michael Z. Williamson

Michael Z. Williamson is variously an immigrant from the UK and Canada, a 25 year veteran of the US Army and USAF, a bladesmith, and the author of nine novels and numerous short works. He's also been a guest on The Best Defense and is Editor-At-Large for Survivalblog. When not otherwise engaged, he tests and reviews products and gear for the next zombie apocalypse.

Sarah Monette

I was born and raised in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, one of the secret cities of the Manhattan Project. I studied English and Classics in college, and have gone on to get my M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature. My novels are published by Ace Books; I also have a collaboration with Elizabeth Bear, A Companion to Wolves, from Tor. My short stories have appeared in lots of different places, including Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Alchemy, Weird Tales, and Strange Horizons. I collect books, and my husband collects computer parts, so our living space is the constantly contested border between these two imperial ambitions.

Tobias Buckell

Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer who grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is a Clarion graduate, Writers of The Future winner, and Campbell Award for Best New SF Writer Finalist.

Cherie Priest

Cherie Priest is the author of seven novels, including the steampunk pulp adventure Boneshaker and the Blooker-award winning Four and Twenty Blackbirds, as well as Fathom, Wings to the Kingdom, and the Endeavour-nominated Not Flesh Nor Feathers from Tor. Her novellas Dreadful Skin and Those Who Went Remain There Still are published by Subterranean Press. She has four more books forthcoming — one from Tor (Dreadnought), one from Subterranean (Clementine), and two from Bantam (Bloodshot and Hellbent). Her short stories and nonfiction articles have appeared in such fine publications as Weird Tales, Subterranean Magazine, Publishers Weekly, and the Stoker-nominated anthology Aegri Somnia from Apex. Though she spent most of her life in the southeast, she presently lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband and a fat black cat.

The Ferrett

Ferrett Steinmetz is a blogger and science fiction writer. His fiction has been published in Asimov's, GUD Magazine, and Pseudopod, among many other places - but he's currently better known for his journal, The Watchtower of Destruction (theferrett.livejournal.com), which has several thousand readers who tune in daily to listen to his mix of bad puns, sexual innuendo, and relationship advice. Some day, he'll be “that amazing speculative fiction writer” and not “that guy who writes the sex quizzes.” Until then, he'll keep pluggin'.

Eric S. Raymond

Eric is most famous as the author of the Cathedral and the Bazaar (the complete text of which is available on his web page), the book that first described the OpenSource development model, convinced Netscape to open their source code, launched the Mozilla web browser project, and introduced Linux to Wall Street in 1998. He's also the editor of The New Hacker's Dictionary (the online version of which is known as the Jargon File), and president of the OpenSource Initiative. He's also been going to ScienceFiction conventions since the 1970's, and has more science fiction books in his basement than most big-city libraries.

Kyle Rankin

Kyle Rankin is a systems architect for Quinstreet Inc.; the current president of the North Bay Linux Users' Group; the author of The Official Ubuntu Server Book, Knoppix Hacks, Knoppix Pocket Reference, Linux Multimedia Hacks, and Ubuntu Hacks; and a contributer to a number of other O'Reilly books. Rankin is a columnist for Linux Journal, has written for PC Magazine, TechTarget websites and other publications. He speaks frequently on Open Source software including at OSCON, Linux World Expo, SCALE, Penguicon, and a number of Linux Users' Groups.

Shawn Powers

Shawn Powers works in a school district in Michigan as the Technology Director and also an Associate Editor for Linux Journal. Shawn owns a few guitars, but doesn’t play them often or well. He collects video files (TV Shows, movies, etc), and enjoys watching documentaries, Star Trek, and Stargate.

Bill Childers

Bill hails from sunny Silicon Valley, where he lives with his better half and brood of two. When he's not twittering, he works as an IT manager at Dash Navigation, helping to ensure humanity can find it's way to specified destinations. Once a year, he ventures out of the cube to manage IT for the Garlic Gilroy Festival. Bill coauthored Ubuntu Hacks with the infamous Kyle Rankin, and has contributed to other O'Reilly books. He is also Virtual Editor for Linux Journal, and one half of the Point/Counterpoint team. He's the mastermind behind Billix: 256MB of system administration power that runs on your finger! In his free time, Bill enjoys watching Mythbusters and not trying what he sees at home, even though he is a trained professional.

Greg Williams

Greg Williams has worked as (among other things) a camp counselor, cop, armored truck driver, bill collector, helpdesk engineer, and technical manager, which all require dealing with hostile audiences and having a good sense of humor. Greg's undergrad degree was in Law Enforcement, with a minor in Theatre qualifying him to either be a cop, or on Miami Vice. (Hey, it was the 80's ok?) His unfortunate unappreciated career in community theatre forced led him into improv comedy, which he has been inflicting on providing for fannish audiences in various forms for over ten years.

Dawn Kuczwara

Dawn Kuczwara's acting career began at birth, when she realized that PRETENDING various emotional states got her pretty much anything she wanted. These acquired talents served her well when, in second grade, she managed to win the lead part in the Christmas pageant, beating out the other cute blonde girl in the class for the part. It was all downhill from there. As a theater student in college, Dawn auditioned for, and won, the John Belushi Memorial scholarship from The Second City, and immediately after that changed her major from theater to computer science. But she has remained involved in acting, performing off and on with the fannish improv troupe, Space Time Theater.

Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal is the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and the author of Shades of Milk and Honey, published by Tor Books in 2010. Her short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Cosmos and Asimov's. Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, lives in Portland, OR with her husband Rob and eight manual typewriters. She is serving her second term as Secretary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. In addition to her writing, she also performs as a voice actor, recording fiction for authors such as Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi. Visit www.maryrobinettekowal.com

Mary Turzillo

Mary Turzillo's “Mars Is no Place for Children” won the 1999 Nebula, and An Old-Fashioned Martian Girl, her first novel, appeared in Analog. Among other magazines, Asimov's, F& SF, Interzone, SF Age, Weird Tales, Oceans of the Mind, Electric Velocipede, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, Goblin Fruit, and Strange Horizons have published/will soon publish her fiction and poetry. Her story “Scout” is slated for publication in George Scithers’ cool new magazine Cat Tales. Your Cat & Other Space Aliens, appeared from vanZeno press this August. Her longer stories Ewaipanoma (Sam’s Dot, ed.Tyree Campbell) and American Portmanteau Theater (Scrybe Press, ed. Nathaniel Barker) will appear as chapbooks in 2008. She is working on Dragon Soup, a splendid collaboration of poetry, art, and fiction with award-winning artist/writer Marge Simon. Heart's Journey, Mars Quest, a novel about the adventures of Marcus and Zora Smithe (parents of her plucky Martian girl hero Kapera) is in the works.

An Emeritus Professor at Kent State University, she founded Cajun Sushi Hamsters and has taught in NASA's Science through Arts. Her favorite people include her son, Jack Brizzi, Jr., and her husband, writer-scientist Geoffrey A. Landis.

Geoff and Mary have two cats: Lurker At The Threshold and Mahasamatman-But-His-Friends-Call-Him-Sam. The cats claim that her fascination with the color turquoise is evidence of a forgotten alien abduction.

Sarah Hoyt

A noted author and past GOH, Sarah Hoyt writes fiction in various genres. Most notably, the first book in her Shakespearean fantasy series "Ill Met by Moonlight", was a finalist for the 2002 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award (which was instead won by Lois McMaster Bujold). Her Musketeer's series includes "Death of a Musketeer", "The Musketeer's Seamstress", as well as "The Musketeer's Apprentice" and the soon to be published "A Death in Gascony" from Berkley Prime Crime. Her favorite genre, however, remains science fiction and fantasy, and Hoyt is a prolific writer with dozens of short stories published to her credit. Her shifter series include "Draw One in the Dark" and "Gentleman Takes a Chance" an urban fantasy adventure from Baen Books.

Daniel M. Hoyt

Daniel M. Hoyt makes his living as a systems architect for rocket trajectory software, when not writing or stressing out from living with two teenaged sons. Since his first sale to Analog, in which he discovered with a shock that it's possible to get paid to lie (without getting arrested), Dan has sold several stories to other magazines and anthologies, most recently to Esther Friesner's suburban fantasy anthologies ("Witch Way to the Mall", "Strip Mauled", and "Fangs for the Mammaries"), and to Mike Brotherton's groundbreaking NSF-funded online anthology, "Diamonds in the Sky". Dan has even crossed over to the dark side of anthology editing with "Fate Fantastic"(DAW) and "Better Off Undead"(DAW). Catch up with him at www.danielmhoyt.com

Patrick Rothfuss

Patrick Rothfuss sprung fully formed from Marge Rothfuss, his mother, in Madison Wisconsin. In a mere three months, Pat grew to the height of a man while teaching himself to read and write using only a shovel and a dead cat.

When the voices told him to, Pat left home to attend college in at University Wisconsin Stevens Point where he joined Slytherin house and had many wonderful adventures. After graduating, Pat evolved into a being of pure light and energy. Then he went to grad school and evolved even further into being composed entirely of bile, anger, binder twine, and sweet, sweet, methadone. After grad school Pat joined forces with five plucky Japanese schoolgirls to form a giant robot that fights crime.

Through all of this Pat has read fantasy, watched fantasy, and written fantasy. Some academics have suggested that Pat eats, sleeps, and breathes fantasy, but this is simply untrue. The truth is that Pat eats burritos, sleeps like a drooly baby, and breathes a white-hot plasma composed of molten gold and rage.

Chris Hallbeck

Chris Hallbeck is the creator of the single panel comic strip The Book of Biff. The comic follows the solitary life of Biff, a child-like mad scientist obsessed with spaghetti, toasters and time travel. The comic was originally online from 1995-1998 and relaunched in 2006. Chris was an illustration major and has worked in graphic and web design. Besides writing and illustrating the comic which runs 5 days a week Chris has been known to play guitar, write songs and drink lots of tea. He lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and son.

Doselle Young

Doselle Young is an author, graphic novelist and story consultant. For comics, he has penned stories for Vertigo's critically acclaimed anthologies Gangland, Heart Throbs and Strange Adventures as well as working on well-known characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman. Characters he has created for Wildstorm Productions include Jon Farmer, Professor Q, The Metropolitan and for the DC universe, the Wonder Woman character Nu'Bia (a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Comics character based on the pre-Crisis character Nubia, created by Robert Kanigher and Don Heck in the 1970s). Doselle also works as a paid consultant for feature films and television. He is a member of the Brights movement and an advocate for a naturalistic worldview. His prose story "Housework" appears in the science-fiction/super hero anthology The Darker Mask (Tor/August 2008).

Tom Smith

The man who describes himself as a "Singer, dreamer, punster, flirt, and generally one of the most manic people in the history of SF Fandom" is coming to PenguiCon! And he's going to practice his filking at Warp Speed wiles on all of us. Its rumored that Tom can't spend more than ten minutes in one place without a new song popping out of him - on almost any topic you can imagine. Tom has also been compared (by Larry Niven) to Tom Lehrer, hopefully for the political and humor content of his songwriting, and not for his piano playing!

Luke Ski

“The Great Luke Ski”, otherwise known as Luke Sienkowski, writes, records and performs comedy music on a variety of pop culture subjects ranging from Lord of the Rings and Star Wars to Spider-Man and Keanu Reeves. Luke has enjoyed repeated success on “the Dr Demento Show”, by taking top honors with the #1 most requested songs of both 2002 (“Peter Parker”) and 2003 (“Stealing Like a Hobbit”), making him the first artist in 20 years to have the #1 song for two years in a row, as well as garnering him the position of “Dr. Demento’s Most Requested Artist of the 21st Century”.

Power Salad

Power Salad is a comedy music group heard frequently on the "Dr. Demento Show" and elsewhere. Performing member Chris Mezzolesta represents Power Salad at live performances. Craig Marks is lyricist and idea man behind Power Salad. By day he is a computer-type-guy for a large Akron hospital, but looms over his PC keyboard like a geyser of dementia just waiting to blow out another funny song. Ol' Demented Faithful. Chris Mezzolesta is a musician and voice actor (the goods are at https://www.voiceguy1.com) and plays all instruments and sings all vocal parts except where impossible.

Insane Ian

Insane Ian is a comedian from Baltimore, MD who enjoys writing bios about himself in the third person. When he's not managing his local video game chain or writing reviews of video games, he specializes in comedy music about....gee, I wonder...video games? Yes, yes he does.

Bill Roper

Bill Roper has been filking for over a quarter of a century, during which time he’s written a great many songs and put out three albums, two of which are actually in print. When he’s not filking, he’s working on various conventions, although he’s sworn off Worldcons after running the Exhibits Division for Chicon 2000, which put a great crimp in his songwriting. He’s also (along with his wife, Gretchen) a founding member of SpaceTime Theater, Chicagoland’s favorite non-resident science-fiction comedy improv troupe. Bill and Gretchen have their own small record label, Dodeka Records, and have been seen selling filk music at numerous Midwestern conventions. They’re also members of the Filk Hall of Fame and the Dorsai Irregulars.

Devo Spice

Devo Spice is a nerdcore and comedy rapper from New Jersey who has become one of the most popular artists on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show. Devo Spice founded the comedy rap group Sudden Death whose songs "Cellular Degeneration", "Getting Old Sucks" and "Pillagers" were the numbers 1, 2, and 4 most requested songs on Dr. Demento in 2007. In 2009 Devo Spice's song "Platform Wars" which parodies Apple's I'm A Mac commercials was the 4th most requested song of the year.

Worm Quartet

Worm Quartet is a one-man band from Rochester, NY known for spewing hyperspeed lyrical lunacy over catchy synthesized punk. Worm Quartet is a regular on the legendary Dr. Demento radio show, and had the most requested song of 2004 with the ex-girlfriend ode "Great Idea For A Song". They insist on referring to themselves in the plural despite the fact that the sole member of Worm Quartet is a 6'4" 300-lb. maniac who insists on being called "Shoebox." In addition to all this stupid Worm Quartet stuff, Shoebox is also the new writer of the syndicated "PartiallyClips" comic (https://www.partiallyclips.com).

Toyboat

Take classic rock, hard edged 70s British style blues rock and 80s hard rock, add filk and you have Toyboat. They play a combination of classic filk songs, in a style you have never heard them done on before, and their own SF-F songs.

Tonks and The Aurors

Tonks & the Aurors is an Ann Arbor-based Wizard Rock (music about Harry Potter) band that has been performing around the country since August 2007. Fronted by Steph Anderson, the band plays songs from the perspective of Nymphadora Tonks. Steph’s love for Harry Potter, and classic rock roots has earned her the title of “The Bruce Springsteen of Wizard Rock.” This past November, Tonks & the Aurors released their third full-length album, "We are Magic," which has been earning rave reviews from fans all over the world. You can find out more about Tonks & the Aurors at www.tonksandtheaurors.com or www.myspace.com/tonksandtheaurors. You can follow Steph on twitter @tonksNtheaurors

Carrie Dahlby

Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Carrie got a degree in Music Performance from Augsburg College and has appeared in opera and choir performances in the Chicago area she now calls home, and as far away as Europe.She discovered the world of funny music (also known as "dementia") in 2003 and since then, the dementia community began to notice her vocal and performing talent. She soon started to appear on stage with the great Luke Ski at conventions.

19 Action News

19 Action News is sci-fi indie rock from Cleveland, Ohio. Formed in 2007, 19 Action News was founded by folk rocker Joshua Gardner and accomplished underground hip-hop producer, Jacob Dahlke. With nods to a wide variety of influences (from Bruce Springsteen and Apples in Stereo to Danger Mouse and Gift of Gab), 19 Action News added Kayla Smith on bass and has crafted out a unique and unforgettable sound that seamlessly blends rock and roll with elements of underground hip-hop and indie pop.

Frank Hayes

Frank Hayes: Filk musician. Tech journalist. Linux user. Alarm clock to the stars.Frank has been writing about technology almost as long as he’s been writing songs. He’s been a highly respected reporter for tech magazines and newspapers including BYTEand Computerworld, where his award-winning column “Frankly Speaking” ran for more than 12 years and was frequently translated into languages ranging from Spanish to Chinese and Hungarian.

Guests' Attendance:

Our Guests of Honor and other invited Guests commit to attending Penguicon long in advance of the actual event. Along the way (and generally at the very last moment!) circumstances beyond everyone's control may happen, resulting in the Guest not being able to attend the convention as planned. Though this is rare, it can happen. If we are made aware of a Guest's inability to attend far enough in advance, Penguicon will attempt to invite another Guest as a replacement. However, this may not always be possible. In either case, Penguicon can make no guarantee that a particular guest will be able to attend the convention, and can not be liable for the results of a Guest's cancellation.

As we get more confirmation on people coming, we will update this page.
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