Special Guests

Edie Stern

A fan for nearly 50 years, Edie Stern has been webmaster for the Fan History Project at FANAC.org since 2016 and runs the Fan History YouTube Channel, the FANAC Zoom Series and is Secretary of the Maritime Music & Tradition Society. She is fannishly omnivorous – she’s chaired conventions and the South Florida Science Fiction Society. She’s a club fan, and was a stalwart of South Florida fandom for over 20 years. Edie’s been a filker, pubbed her ish, and worked on many conventions, including running the program for MagiCon (1992 Worldcon). With her husband, Joe Siclari, she collects science fiction and fantasy art, and has assembled a dozen historical art exhibits for World Fantasy Conventions and Boskones.  She can honestly claim to be part of Second Fandom, having started reading science fiction in 1959 and having been adopted by Lee Hoffman (Chicon 4 GoH) as her twin sister. In 2016, Edie was a co-recipient of the Big Heart Award, and in 2024 the co-recipient of the Sam Moskowitz Archive Award.  Edie was elected Fellow of NESFA in 2012.

The rest of the time, Edie is a technologist. She received the 2012 Kate Gleason Award for lifetime achievement from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is an inventor on 205 issued US patents. After retiring as a Distinguished Engineer from IBM, she went on to Amicus Brain, an AI technology startup. She is now *retired*.

Edie at Fancyclopedia

Joe Siclari

A fan since 1965, Joe Siclari started reading science fiction almost a decade earlier with Murray Leinster’s Forgotten Planet. Joe has been active in almost every aspect of fandom. He has published over 100 fanzines, many convention publications, started several S-F clubs and now long-running conventions (Tropicon, SMOFcon, FanHistoricon and the Travelling Fete). Joe chaired MagiCon, the 50th Worldcon in 1992, and has worked on hundreds of other conventions.

Joe was elected a Fellow of NESFA in 1997.  In 2005, he was selected as the Down Under Fan Fund (DUFF) delegate; in 2016, he and his wife, Edie Stern, were recipients of the fannish Big Heart Award, and in 2022, they were Fan Guests of Honor at Chicon 8, the 80th Worldcon. In 2024, they were the recipients of the Corflu Lifetime  Achievement Award in 2024 they were also given the First Fandom’s Sam Moskowitz Archive Award.

Joe’s long-time SF interest is fanhistory. Since 1994 he has chaired the FANAC Fan History Project which has put over 600,000 pages of fan material online at FANAC.org. FANAC also sponsors Fancyclopedia 3, the Fan History YouTube channel and the FANAC FanHistory Zoom series. He has written about fandom for science fiction reference books, co-edited the Hugo nominated Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches with Mike Resnick and published Harry Warner’s A Wealth of Fable.

Joe has an enormous collection of fan publications and a museum of fannish memorabilia; parts have been exhibited at many Worldcons and other conventions since 1989. Joe and Edie also collect SF art and have done about 15 historical art exhibits at Boskone, World Fantasy Con and other conventions. In 2022, they were Fan Guests of Honor at Worldcon (Chicon 8),  and in 2024, they were the recipient of the Corflu 41 Lifetime  Achievement Award.

Joe at Fancylopedia

Joe Siclari Bibliography

Worldcon Guest of Honor Speeches, ISFiC Press, 2006 (Non-fiction anthology, co-edited with Mike Resnick)