This is the website for Balticon 51 from Memorial Day Weekend in 2017. For the 2018 Balticon  52 website, go here.

 
Balticon Events
Available on DVD!

Many Balticon events are recorded and are available on DVD, including Events and GoH Presentations, DVD sets starting with Balticon 40 (2006), Masquerade sets starting with Balticon 27 (1993) and Parody Play performances.

Orders help support the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Find detailed information about available DVDs here; download the order form here.


Donate to BSFS Books for Kids


Balticon Code of Conduct


Sponsored by the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization.

Balticon is run entirely by volunteers.

BalticonTM is a service mark of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. © 2017 BSFS, Inc.

P.O. Box 686
Baltimore, MD 21203-0686

Email: balticoninfo@balticon.org

Phone: 410-JOE-BSFS (563-2737)

We’re adding another Special Guest!

It’s been an interesting couple of days since Eric let us know that he would be unable to attend Balticon. A few lemons, and we are busy making lemonade here in Baltimore. Thursday we announced that Steven Brust would be attending as a Special Guest, and today we’d like to let you know that S.M. Stirling will also be coming!

We know we have a lot of alternate history fans coming to Balticon, and Stephen Stirling brings different views of alternate history to those fans. His Emberverse series chronicles several generations living in the area of Oregon in the years after technology ceases to function.And our Sunday Night Short Film Festival has an incredible lineup planned by its new Director, Rob Hatch. He has some great films lined up and we will be highlighting some of them here in the next few days.

Everything’s coming to together for us to have a fabulous Balticon this year!


Steven Brust

S.M. Stirling

BSFS & Balticon are sad to announce that our Guest of Honor, Eric Flint, will not be able to travel to our convention due to health constraints; he will, however, be attending some sessions via Video Teleconference. We are sure you will all join us in wishing him and his family the best.

Author and musician Steven Brust, the author of the Draegara fantasy novels, the Incrementalists secret-history series, To Reign In Hell, and Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill will be joining us as a Special Guest. We hear he’s a great guest!

The 1632 MiniCon is still a go. All of the other contributors to the 1632 universe are still coming to Balticon, so the 1632 Programming will carry on at full speed.

What is Balticon?

Join members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society as we embark on the second fifty years of Balticon, the premier non-profit fan-run Science Fiction Convention in the Mid-Atlantic region.

We’ll have multiple tracks of Programming over the four day weekend, featuring authors, artists, scientists, musicians, podcasters, publishers, editors, costumers and other creative SF luminaries. Visit our Art Show and Dealers Room, attend one of our concerts or a dance, or take a break in the Gaming room or Video or Anime Room if you can tear yourself away from our entertaining and educational panels. Attend a Writer’s or Poetry Workshop, watch the Masquerade, or learn a new craft.

Balticon welcomes Eric Flint as our Guest of Honor. His alternate history novel 1632 was published in 2000, and has led to a long-running series with many novels and anthologies in print. Balticon 51 will host the 1632 Minicon, which celebrates Eric’s 1632 series, about the town of Grantville, West Virginia, transported from the year 2000 to Thuringia, Germany of 1631.

Donato Giancola joins us as Artist Guest of Honor. Donato has been creating his fantastic art for the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and gaming communities for many years, and this year he will share his talents with us at Balticon. Our Filk Guest is Amy McNally, fiddler extraordinaire, and our 2016 and 2017 Compton Crook winners Fran Wilde and Ada Palmer will be there too.

So come and join with us to celebrate all of our guests, along with the 2017 Compton Crook winner.  (Robert Sawyer unfortunately had another commitment and will accept his award via Skype.) There is sure to be something that will interest you!

1632 Minicon

The 1632 Minicon celebrates Balticon Author Guest of Honor Eric Flint’s 1632 series, about the town of Grantville, West Virginia, transported from the year 2000 to Thuringia, Germany of 1631—that’s right, while the Thirty Years War is raging. The Minicon provides a venue for the many collaborators and fans of the 1632 universe to get  together. Editors Walt Boyes and Bjorn Hasseler will talk about how to write for the online magazine Grantville Gazette, a SFWA pro venue set in and relating to the 1632 universe. Other planned Minicon events include a mass autographing session and a program track developed by Joy Ward and Walt Boyes and presented by 1632 universe authors. These will include the famous Weird Tech panel (moderated by Rick Boatright) and Eric’s “Snerking the Plots” presentation (where he tells you what he has in mind for the future of the series)!

Guest of Honor
Eric Flint

Creator of the 1632 universe.
(attending remotely)
Artist Guest of Honor
Donato Giancola

Donato’s paintings have graced the covers of over 300 novels.
  Fan Guest of Honor
Geri Sullivan

Spearheaded the MidAmericon II Video Archeology Project to restore film of 1970s conventions.
Filk Guest
Amy McNally

Accomplished folk and Celtic fiddler.
  2016 Compton Crook Award Winner
Fran Wilde
2017 Compton Crook Award Winner
Ada Palmer
2017 Heinlein Award Winner
Robert J. Sawyer

(accepting by Skype)