A WorldCon Offsite Reading: Humankind
Join us for an IFP Offsite Worldcon Reading!Date: Thursday, August 14th, 2025
Time: 7:00pm PST — 9:00pm PST
Location: Seattle Beer Co. 1427 Western Ave
Free to attend, 21+, RSVP Here
Featured ReadersAndrea BlytheAndrea Blythe is an author, poet, and game writer. Necessary Poisons is her fourth collection of poetry. Her previous chapbooks include Twelve: Poems Inspired by the Brothers Grimm Tale (Interstellar Flight Press, 2020); Your Molten Heart / A Seed to Hatch (2018), a Kickstarter-funded collection of erasure poems; and Every Girl Becomes the Wolf (Finishing Line Press, 2018), a collaborative chapbook she coauthored with Laura Madeline Wiseman. She is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association and the Horror Writers Association. Find her on Twitter @AndreaBlythe or at www.andreablythe.com.
Priya SridharA 2016 MBA graduate and published author, Priya Sridhar has been writing fantasy and science fiction for fifteen years, and counting. Capstone published the Powered series, and Unnerving Press published Offstage Offerings. Priya lives in Miami, Florida with her family.
Adria BailtonAdria Bailton (she/they) imagines entire worlds and universes to share while spending her days studying atoms, the smallest unit of matter. More of their stories where they strive to create characters that reflect their own bisexuality, neurodiversity, and disability appear in Worlds of Possibility, The Colored Lens, and Constelación, among others. Her debut YA science fiction novel, Worlds Divide, is forthcoming from Balance of Seven Press in Spring 2026. They create from the US PNW, on the traditional territory of several Indigenous nations, including the Stillaguamish, Suquamish, and Duwamish. Find her at www.adriabailton.com
Alex KingsleyAlex Kingsley (they/them) is a writer, comedian, game designer, and playwright. They are a co-founder of the new media company Strong Branch Productions, where they write and direct sci-fi comedy podcast The Stench of Adventure and other shows. Their debut novel Empress of Dust was published by Space Wizard Science Fantasy in Fall 2024, and the sequel Relic of Haven comes out in Fall 2025. Their short fiction has appeared in Translunar Travelers Lounge, Radon Journal, Sci-Fi Lampoon, and more. In 2023, they published their short story collection, The Strange Garden and Other Weird Tales. Alex’s sci-fi plays have been produced in LA, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Alex’s SFF-related non-fiction has appeared in Interstellar Flight Magazine and Ancillary Review of Books. Their games can be downloaded pay-what-you-will at alexyquest.itch.io. This Fall, they will begin their graduate studies in speculative fiction at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
John CiminelloJohn Ciminello is author of three chapbooks of poetry. His work has appeared in several anthologies such as Songs from the Flowering Mountains (2021) and Heartbeat of the Universe (2024). He resides in Naselle, on the southwest coast of Washington. Each morning, he does a walkabout in the woods to taste the sweet moist maritime air of beginnings. His poetry is an expansion of what he sees and feels through the cedar, raven, basalt, and mushroom worlds. He takes in the outside world then travels inward. His poems are a blend of musings, missions, medicine and mischief.
Christopher CokinosChristopher Cokinos’s 2024 nonfiction book, Still as Bright: An Illuminating History of the Moon from Antiquity to Tomorrow, came out from Pegasus to high praise from Kirkus, Sky & Telescope and other venues. It was a “Best of” in the Globe & Mail’s 2024 list. Last year he also led an all-artists lunar surface analog mission at the SAM facility at Biosphere 2. He’s had work recently in Esquire, Scientific American and Astronomy. He volunteers with The Planetary Society and wants all of us to save NASA.
Betsy AokiBetsy Aoki’s poetry has been published in Uncanny Magazine, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Strange Horizons, The Deadlands and is forthcoming in Nightmare Magazine. She is currently Poetry Editor for Uncanny Magazine. Aoki’s debut poetry collection about women in technology, Breakpoint, was a National Poetry Series Finalist. Its signature poem, “Slouching like a velvet rope,” was selected by Pulitzer Prize winner Jericho Brown for the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize.
Ursula WhitcherUrsula Whitcher is a writer, mathematician, and poet whose work can be found in places including Asimov’s, Analog, and The Deadlands. Ursula’s collection of interwoven stories North Continent Ribbon is shortlisted for the 2025 Le Guin Prize for Fiction.
Tod McCoyTod McCoy is a playwright, poet, editor, and fiction writer whose work has appeared in Asimov’s, Heartbeat of the Universe, The Stafford Challenge Anthology, Bronies: For the Love of Ponies, and Hummingbird Magazine, among others. He is co-editor of Pocket Workshop: Essays on Living as a Writer. His theatre work has been produced in Seattle, Portland, Missoula, Tempe, and Vancouver, BC. He received an MA in English from Arizona State, is a graduate and board member of the Clarion West Writers Workshop, and is the publisher behind Hydra House Books, a science fiction and fantasy press. He lives outside of Missoula, Montana, with his artist-witch wife, a goblin child, and a variety of animal familiars.
Joe HaldemanJoe Haldeman has won five Hugos and five Nebulas and is an SFWA Grandmaster of science fiction. His best-known book is THE FOREVER WAR. His latest novel is WORK DONE FOR HIRE. He’s won the Rhysling Award for his poetry. Joe was a combat soldier in Vietnam, which strongly influences his work. He’s retired from M.I.T, where he taught every fall semester for 30 years. When Joe’s not writing or teaching, he paints, bicycles, plays the guitar, and is an amateur astronomer. He’s been married to Mary Gay Potter Haldeman for 60 years.
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