FIRST CONTACT
Entries accepted Jan. 1 – May 15, 2026
Joe Haldeman
Joe Haldeman has won five Hugos and five Nebulas and is an SFWA Grand Master 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 sol-dier 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.
Nancy Kress
Nancy Kress is the author of thirty novels, four story collections, and three books on writing fiction. Her fiction has won six Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Nancy’s work has been translated into more than two dozen languages, including Klingon. She has taught writing SF at Clarion, Taos Toolbox, in Beijing, and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Leipzig.
Rick Wilber
Rick Wilber is an award-winning writer, editor and teacher who has published more than fifty short stories, several novels and short-story collections, three edited anthologies, a memoir, and a half-dozen college textbooks on writing and the mass media.
His most recent novel is Alien Day, the second of a trilogy based on his long-running S’hudonni Empire series of stories. The first book in the trilogy, Alien Morning, was a finalist for the 2016 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction novel of 2016.
Other recent publications include The Wandering Warriors (New Word City, 2020) co-authored with Alan Smale; the short-story collection Rambunctious: Nine Tales of Determination (WordFire Press 2020); Making History: Classic Alternate History Stories (Ed.) (New Word City, 2019); and the collection The Moe Berg Episodes (New Word City, 2018).
He is a Visiting Professor in the low-residency MFA in Creative Writing at Western Colorado University, and he is the co-founder and co-judge with Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Editor Sheila Williams of the Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing, awarded annually at the International Conference on the Fantastic in Orlando, Florida.