If you haven't purchased your attending membership for Worldcon yet, what are you waiting for?

On February 1, our attending membership prices will increase by $20. Get the lower price right now by visiting our registration page.
An attending membership gets you all rights of a supporting membership, plus admission to all general weekend events. The price of a supporting membership ($50) will not increase. Information on how to register is here: http://www.worldcon76.org/membership/how-to-register

Equally important: January 31 is the final day you may start an installment payment plan and lock in the current price by making a down payment. With this rate increase on February 1, no new installment plans may be started. Members with existing payment plans are reminded they must finish paying their balance due by June 1, 2018.

Just announced!

Participants in the Academic Track will have a chance at winning a “Best Academic Track Paper” cash prize from The Heinlein Society.  This $250 prize will be awarded based on the presentations as given at Worldcon 76.  Given this new opportunity, we will extend the submission deadline to March 1st.

Science fiction always plays a part in recreating our world and directing civilization's progress. While much SF takes place in a hypothetical "future," the entire body of speculative literature influences and interacts with our world—suggesting potentialities, solutions, organizational methods, alternative cultures, and paths to follow or avoid. In that spirit, the 76th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in San José, California has chosen "Make the Future" for its overarching theme.

The Academic Track Committee welcomes proposals for scholarly presentations, especially those that study content tied to our "Make the Future" convention theme, such as the following examples:

• Any and all utopian or futurist novels, short stories, comic books, or other media
• Classic SF works that changed the direction of their era
• Dystopian novels, comic books, and other media that portray catastrophic scenarios to prevent them from happening in reality (1984, The Handmaid's Tale, The Water Knife, Bitch Planet, etc.)
• SF groups as progressive communities ("slan shacks," writers' colonies, online communities, etc.)
• Ties between SF literature and socio-political movements
• Ties between maker culture and science fiction, including DIY art and music, steampunk, deiselpunk, and any other design aesthetics 
• Major movements in the SF genre's history

An important reminder: if you wish to nominate works for the 2018 Hugo Awards, you must be a qualified member of the World Science Fiction Society by December 31, 2017.

(To clarify: this is just to qualify to *nominate* for the Hugos. To vote on the final ballot you must be a supporting or attending member of Worldcon 76. Nominations will not actually open until early 2018)

There are 3 ways you can qualify as a member to nominate works:

1. Have been a supporting or attending member of the most recent World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon 75 (Helsinki, August 2017)
   
   
2. Register as a supporting or attending member of the 2018 World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon 76 in San Jose. This happens to be our favorite.  (This also qualifies you to vote on the final ballot.)
   http://www.worldcon76.org/membership/how-to-register
   
   
3. Register as a supporting or attending member of the 2019 World Science Fiction Convention, Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon

On Saturday, December 2, Worldcon 76 in San Jose and Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon (the 76th and 77th World Science Fiction Conventions) issued the following joint announcement:

The Hugo Awards, presented first in 1953 and annually since 1955, are science fiction’s most prestigious award, and one of the World Science Fiction Convention’s unique and distinguished institutions.

Just this summer, the Hugo Awards were recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction award.

Since 1993,  Worldcon committees have had the option of awarding Retrospective Hugo Awards for past Worldcon years (1939 onwards) where they had not been presented a multiple of 25 years prior to the contemporary convention, with the exception of the hiatus during World War II when no Worldcon was convened.

This summer, however, a revision to the rules was ratified which gives Worldcon 76 in San Jose and Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon an opportunity which, if neglected, won’t return for another quarter century.

With that opportunity in mind, we are pleased to announce that Worldcon 76 will be presenting the 1943 and Dublin 2019 the 1944 Retrospective Hugo Awards during their respective conferences:

Worldcon 76 in San Jose invites you on the evening of August 16, 2018,  to walk the red carpet back through time to a 1943 Worldcon that never was, and celebrate with other fans the works of 1942.

Dublin 2019, An Irish Worldcon is planning a First Night extravaganza, combining Opening Ceremonies and the Retro Hugos, celebrating the past, present and future of both the genre and Worldcon.

During those tumultuous years, there was no shortage of speculative fiction, including the introductory versions of works destined to become classics. Live and animated cinematic works of all lengths provided escape to people around the world.

We invite you now to join us on a brief visual tour of those years, some of the marvelous, the strange, the terrifying and the wonderful works of genre, and help us select the Retro Hugos for works of 1942 and 1943.
As we make our future tomorrow, so too we can celebrate these Visions of Future Past.

View the 1942 retrospective video

 View the 1943 retrospective video