Ken MacLeod, Writer Guest of Honour / Salon.com interview
Ken MacLeod burst into view in the mid-1990s with The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal, and The Cassini Division, three mindboggling novels of humanity and posthumanity in the centuries just ahead. High-tech, political, contentious, and very funny, the first two novels both won the "Prometheus" award for libertarian SF, surely the first time that award has gone to a left-wing Scot. MacLeod's SF is in the best tradition of John W. Campbell, always "asking the next question" and sparing no sacred cows, even his own. He is one of the most exciting and discussed writers of the decade. His latest novel is The Sky Road, published in Britain in 1999 and forthcoming in America in August 2000.

Jo Walton, Fan Guest of Honour / Jo's webpage
Welsh fan Jo Walton is perhaps the first truly great fanwriter of the new online fandom. Yes, Usenet and Fidonet and the bulletin boards have featured fine work for over two decades. But just as it took some time for the fandom of mimeographed fanzines to produce Walt Willis and Lee Hoffman, it's only now that we find in Jo Walton that warm, strong, brilliant writerly voice that makes us say, yes, this is what online fanwriting could be, this is what this stuff is for. The Usenet newsgroups rec.arts.sf.fandom, rec.arts.sf.composition, and rec.arts.sf.written are hard to imagine without her. Her first novel, The King's Peace, will appear in the US this fall -- but her fanwriting continues, and continues to strengthen us thereby.

Leslie Fish, Musician Guest of Honor / Autobiography
Leslie Fish is a name that's practically synonymous with SF-related music, whether you call it folk or filk. She's written over a hundred songs on subjects ranging from the space program ("Hope Eyrie," "Step by Step") to Star Trek ("Banned from Argo," the most notorious Star Trek song extant) to politics ("No High Ground," "Jefferson and Liberty") to rampant silliness ("I Believe the Cats Are Taking Over") to just about any subject you can name. She's written many melodies for others' lyrics, including three tapes' worth of Rudyard Kipling's poetry. One of her songs, "Carmen Miranda's Ghost," inspired a short-story anthology. She has a powerful singing voice and is a skilled finger-picker on her 12-string guitar named Monster. She's a great storyteller, too.