Andrea Hairston will be joining Sheree Renée Thomas in hosting the Hugo Awards Ceremony 2021 during DisCon III, the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), to be held in Washington, DC., December 15-19, 2021.
Malka Older, one of the Special Guests at the convention, had originally been scheduled to co-host, but because her children are too young to be vaccinated, she made the difficult decision to withdraw from in-person events. “I’m happy that our existing hybrid structure meant that we were able to move all of Malka’s other events to the virtual part of the convention,” said Mary Robinette Kowal, Chair of DisCon III.
Older said, “I really appreciate everything the con has done to make the convention safe, and I think their measures are probably as good as they can be. I had hoped that everyone in my family would be able to be vaccinated by this time. But in this evolving situation, I’m being extra careful.”
Sheree Renee Thomas, DisCon III’s other Special Guest and co-host, suggested Andrea Hairston as her new co-host, and Hairston quickly accepted the invitation to become part of the event. “I am a great admirer and witness to the brilliance and excellence that Andrea brings to whatever she does. I’m thrilled that she will bring her special voice and presence to the Hugo Awards stage. It’s an exciting time, and I look forward to a wonderful celebration of this year’s excellent finalists and an entertaining evening,” said Thomas.
Older said, “As sorry as I am to miss being at the ceremony in person, I’m thrilled that Andrea will be doing it with Sheree! I love her work and I know she’ll be fantastic as host.”
Andrea Hairston is a novelist, playwright, and scholar. Her novels: : Master of Poisons, on the Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2020; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Mindscape, shortlisted for the Phillip K. Dick and Otherwise Awards and winner of the Carl Brandon Award. Lonely Stardust is a collection of essays and plays. Her play, Thunderbird at the Next World Theatre, appears in Geek Theater. A novelette, “Saltwater Railroad,” was published by Lightspeed Magazine. “Dumb House,” a short story appears in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl. Andrea received the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts Distinguished Scholarship Award in 2011 and has gotten grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. . “Seven Generations Algorithm,” a short story is in Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Pan Morigan, and Troy L. Wiggins. Redwood and Wildfire, winner of the Otherwise and Carl Brandon Awards, will be out February 1, 2022 from Tordotcom. In her spare time, Andrea is the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College and the Artistic Director of Chrysalis Theatre.
Sheree Renée Thomas is an award-winning fiction writer, poet, and editor. Her work is inspired by myth and folklore, music, natural science, and the genius of the Mississippi Delta. Nine Bar Blues: Stories from an Ancient Future (Third Man Books, May 2020), her fiction collection, was honored as 2021 Finalist for the Ignyte, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. She is also the author of two multigenre/hybrid collections, Sleeping Under the Tree of Life (Aqueduct Press, July 2016), longlisted for the 2016 Otherwise Award and honored with a Publishers Weekly Starred Review and Shotgun Lullabies (Aqueduct January 2011). She edited the World Fantasy-winning groundbreaking black speculative fiction anthologies, Dark Matter (Grand Central, 2000 and 2004) and is the first to introduce W.E.B. Du Bois’s science fiction short stories. Her work is widely anthologized and appears in The Big Book of Modern Fantasy edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer (Vintage, 2020). She is the Associate Editor of the historic Black arts literary journal, Obsidian: Literature & the Arts in the African Diaspora, founded in 1975 and is the Editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, founded in 1949. She also writes book reviews for Asimov’s. She was recently honored as a 2020 World Fantasy Award Finalist in the Special Award – Professional category for contributions to the genre and is the Co-Host of the 2021 Hugo Awards Ceremony at DisCon III in Washington, DC with Andrea Hairston. Sheree is the Guest of Honor of Wiscon 45 and a Guest of Honor of StokerCon 2022. She is a Marvel writer and contributor to the anthology, Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda edited by Jesse J. Holland (Titan, March 2021) and collaborated with Janelle Monáe on the artist’s forthcoming fiction collection, The Memory Librarian and Other Stories from Dirty Computer (Harper Voyager, April 2022). Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, a new anthology she co-edited with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki and Zelda Knight is forthcoming from Tordotcom Publishing in 2022. A former New Yorker, she lives in her hometown, Memphis, Tennessee near a mighty river and a pyramid.
DisCon III, the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), will be held in Washington, DC., December 15-19, 2021. DisCon III is the third World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) held in Washington DC, USA. Worldcon is the annual gathering of science fiction and fantasy fans, writers, artists, musicians, and other creators from across the globe. DisCon III will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, on December 15-19, 2021.
Worldcon originally focused on and still has a strong emphasis on science fiction and fantasy literature but has grown to include genre television, movies, animation, games, and other popular media as well. It has truly become the world’s fair of science fiction and fantasy fandom. No other event brings together fans and creators, regardless of genre or medium, under one big tent with the intimacy of Worldcon.
DisCon III is sponsored by the Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association, Inc. (BWAWA, Inc.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Maryland.
First held in New York City in 1939, Worldcon moves around the globe, held in a different city and organized by a different volunteer organization each year. Previous DC-based Worldcons were DisCon I in 1963 and DisCon II in 1974.
“World Science Fiction Society,” “WSFS,” “World Science Fiction Convention,” “Worldcon,” “NASFiC,” “Hugo Award,” the Hugo Award Logo, and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Trophy Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.
For more information on DisCon III, Worldcon, and how to become a member of the 79th Worldcon, visit http://www.discon3.org.