73rd World Science Fiction Convention
The 73rd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Sasquan, was held on 19–23 August 2015 at the Spokane Convention Center in Spokane, Washington, United States. The convention was chaired by Sally Woehrle. Participants. Guests of Honor. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren participated from Earth orbit as Sasquan's Special Guest while aboard the International Space Station. Programming and events. Masquerade. The Sasquan masquerade was held in the First Interstate Center for the Arts (then known as the INB Performing Arts Center), on same campus as the Convention Center, in the evening of Friday, 16  August. There were 45 entrants competing for ten major awards. The Sasquan Masquerade Director was Sharon Sbarsky. Kevin Roche was the master of ceremonies and the judges were Brad W. Foster, David Gerrold, Sandy Pettinger, Kathy Sanders, and Syd Weinstein. The workmanship judges were Tanglwyst de Holloway and Michele Weinstein. The winners, across four experience-based categories, were: Novice division. Workmanship awards: Presentation awards: Journeyman division. Workmanship awards: Presentation awards: Master division. Workmanship awards: Presentation awards: Awards. Of the 2,122 valid nominating ballots, 2,119 were submitted online and 3 on paper. The year's final ballot was dominated by slates  organized as the "Sad Puppies" and "Rabid Puppies". The controversy brought international press attention to the awards process and caused several nominees to withdraw from consideration. However, only one slate candidate won an award, and in the five categories in which only slate candidates were nominated, no award was given. Staff. After the "Spokane in 2015" bid chaired by Alex von Thorn won the site selection vote, Sally Woehrle and Bobbie DuFault were announced as co-chairs of the convention on behalf of the Seattle Westercon Organizing Committee. DuFault died suddenly on the morning of 14 September 2013. The convention  announced that Sally Woehrle would serve as chair with Glenn Glazer, Pierre Pettinger, and Mike Willmoth as vice-chairs. Site selection. The location was selected on 31 August 2013, by the members of the 71st World Science Fiction Convention in San Antonio, Texas. Three committees announced bids and qualified to be on the site selection ballot for the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention: The first contested Worldcon selection since the 2007 vote for the 2009 Worldcon site saw active campaigning and drew celebrity endorsements. Authors George R. R. Martin and Cory Doctorow publicly supported the Helsinki bid and encouraged their  fans to vote while artist Phil Foglio declared his support for Spokane's bid and artist Bob Eggleton declared his support for Orlando. Spokane won the site selection contest on the third round of ballot counting in Australian-style preferential balloting. Spokane finished with 645 votes, gaining a majority over Helsinki with 610. Orlando was dropped in the second round with 307 votes and "none of the above" had been eliminated in the first round. Boston, Minneapolis, and Locust Grove, Virginia, each received multiple write-in votes with Pyongyang and other hoax sites receiving single write-in votes. Future site  selection. Four committees announced bids to host the 75th World Science Fiction Convention and filed all of the required paperwork by the February 2015 deadline: "Nippon in 2017", "Montréal in 2017", "Helsinki in 2017", and "Washington D.C. in 2017". The 2017 site selected by the voters was announced during the convention's third World Science Fiction Society business meeting, on Saturday, 22 August 2015. With 1363 votes out of 2625 valid ballots, Helsinki won on the first ballot and will operate as "Worldcon 75". DC17 ran second with 878 votes, Montréal third with 228, and Nippon fourth with 120. 73rd