Welcome to StokerCon! Now what? If you’re a first-time attendee, new to the horror community, or simply seeking a better handle on how to keep up with everything happening at StokerCon, this is the panel for you. A group of StokerCon veterans and organizers will help you know what to expect, how to plan your time, what our different programming options offer, and how to meet your favorite horror writers without scaring them. Drop into for a crash course on navigating the ins and outs of the HWA’s annual convention.
Author/Teacher/Storyteller/Vice President Horror Writers Association
I’m the author of Sinister Ascension, the horror anthologies Hell at the Way Station (Winner of the African Literary award for Best Anthology)and Hell at Brooklyn Tea. My works have been featured in Blackened Roots, The Chaos Clock, Under Twin Suns, Even in the Grave, New York State... Read More →
academic and creative writer/editor/professor, RJ Joseph, Writer/Speaker
Rhonda Jackson Garcia, AKA RJ Joseph, is a Stoker Award™ and Shirley Jackson Award nominated, Texas based academic and creative writer/professor whose writing regularly focuses on the intersections of gender and race in the horror and romance genres and popular culture. She has... Read More →
Hello, I am a fiction writer with many writing projects in various forms of development. I have recently been published in the anthology: Satan Rides Your Daughter Again and have had some poetry published online at misfitsmiscellany.com Some of my favorite writers are: Grady Hendrix... Read More →
Jonathan Lees has spent over twenty years championing filmmakers through his programming work with the New York Underground Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, TromaDance, and currently at the Final Frame Horror Short Film Competition at StokerCon. He has recently produced arcane texts such as "We Have (Never) Been Here Before" in The Rack (Vol. II) and “To What Do We Owe This Pleasure” from the Bram Stoker Award nominated, Long Division: Stories of Social Decay, Societal Collapse and Bad Manners. Other stories in print... Read More →
L. Marie Wood is an award-winning psychological horror author and screenwriter. She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. Her screenplays have won Best Horror, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards at several film festivals.Wood... Read More →
James Chambers is the Bram Stoker Award® and Scribe Award-winning editor and author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World, On the Night Border, On the Hierophant Road, the graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, and editor of Under Twin... Read More →
A previous StokerCon chair, KC Grifant is an award-winning writer based in Southern California who creates internationally published horror, fantasy, science fiction, and weird west stories. Dozens of her short stories have appeared in podcasts, magazines, games, and Stoker-nominated... Read More →
Laura Blackwell is a Shirley Jackson Award-winning writer of speculative fiction. Her stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies including Nightmare, PseudoPod, CatsCast, and Shirley Jackson Award-winner Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic. She is copy editor for The Deadlands... Read More →
James Chambers is the Bram Stoker Award® and Scribe Award-winning editor and author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World, On the Night Border, On the Hierophant Road, the graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, and editor of Under Twin... Read More →
Come join the celebration of the start of StokerCon 2026! Meet our Guests of Honor, HWA officers and trustees, StokerCon Governing Board co-chairs, and friends old and new.
This event is catered with a cash bar. The bar accepts credit/debit cards, or, if you are staying at the Westin, you can charge drinks to your room. No cash accepted.
L. Marie Wood is an award-winning psychological horror author and screenwriter. She won the Golden Stake Award for her novel The Promise Keeper. Her screenplays have won Best Horror, Best Afrofuturism/Horror/Sci-Fi, and Best Short Screenplay awards at several film festivals.Wood... Read More →
editor/anthologist/writer, VanderMeer Creative, Inc.
Ann VanderMeer is an award-winning editor & anthologist. She currently serves as an acquiring editor for Reactormag.com. She was the editor-in-chief for Weird Tales, during which time she won the Hugo Award. Along with multiple other nominations, she has won a World Fantasy Award... Read More →
Rachel Harrison is the New York Times Bestselling author of PLAY NICE, SO THIRSTY, BLACK SHEEP, SUCH SHARP TEETH, CACKLE, and THE RETURN. Her short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and in her debut story collection BAD DOLLS.
Her next novel,KISS SLAY REPLAY,is out this September from Berkley in the US and Titan in the UK... Read More →
Decades of experience in horror, television, science fiction,thriller writing, movie scripting. Strong opinions on AI, the future of our civilization, esoteric spirituality. Weird poetry.The book I won the Bram Stoker for: Black Butterflies. My new horror novel (written with Ma... Read More →
Stephen King, John Kennedy Toole, cats, birds (wild ones, not pets), New Orleans, Jaws, Goodfellas, international food, travel, old music (mainly 1960s - 1980s)
James Tynion IV is the writer of the New York Times Best-Selling BATMAN/TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES cross-over for DC Comics and IDW Publishing, as well as the bi-weekly DETECTIVE COMICS, a key title in DC Comics' Rebirth initiative.He is best known for his work on the Batman titles... Read More →
A fun, late-night programming piece, not at all a serious discussion--though it might just get intense!
Nine participants and one host. Two teams of three. Three judges. An intrepid group who will strive to answer the age old question: "Which monster would win in a fight?" In each round, each team will randomly be assigned a monster out of classic horror or folklore and a random setting will be chosen (or provided by the audience). Each team will then make their case for why their monster would defeat the other team's monster, how their powers or characteristics would match up, and how their environment might be a factor. After the cases are presented, the judges will assess the arguments and decide the winner! Tongue-in-cheek! Outlandish! Deeply meaningful! Place yer bets and let fate decide!
James Chambers is the Bram Stoker Award® and Scribe Award-winning editor and author of A Bright and Beautiful Eternal World, On the Night Border, On the Hierophant Road, the graphic novel, Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Forgotten Lore of Edgar Allan Poe, and editor of Under Twin... Read More →
Thursday June 4, 2026 11:00pm - 11:59pm EDT Westmoreland
