Guests of honour
A traditional part of Finncon are guests of honour, invited both from Finland and abroad, who are chosen according to the central themes. Six guests of honour have been confirmed for Finncon X.
Mr Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author, who has earlier visited Swecon in Sweden and is also eager to become acquainted with the Finnish fandom. He has won several awards, and has in his display cabinet such prizes as the Nebula, the Hugo, the Theodore Sturgeon Award and the World Fantasy Award. Some of his short stories have been published in Finnish in the Portti magazine (issued by Tampere Science Fiction Society), and his series of short stories, Michael Swanwick's Periodic Table of Science Fiction, will be published in the Spin magazine (issued by Turku Science Fiction Society) from the beginning of 2002 to the end of 2004.
Mr Steve Sansweet is the greatest Star Wars fan in the world, who has turned his passion into an occupation and is nowadays responsible for Lucasfilm's fan connections. He has written (or co-written) ten books, eight of which are about Star Wars.
Mr Boris Hurtta will be the Finnish guest of honour. He has been a well-known and appreciated SF writer for well over a decade. He has written both short stories and novels, some of which belong to the genre of SF, some to mainstream literature. Hurtta has also often been rated among the top ten in the annual Atorox competition for the best Finnish SF short story, and he has been successful also in the short story competition of the Portti magazine.
Mrs Karolina Bjällerstedt Mickos is Finncon's Nordic guest of honour. She is a Swedish author who writes both science fiction and fantasy. Two of her novels have been published so far: Mantor and Larona. _A short interview_ made a few years ago can be found on the net, as well as _information on her books_. Both links are to Swedish sites.
Mr Jonathan Clements, the anime guest of honour, has translated over 70 animes and mangas, including Sol Bianca, The Cockpit, Streetfighter II, Gunsmith Cats, Ironfist Chinmi and Slow Steps. He has translated 3,000-year-old Chinese ballads and a collection of poems called Moon in the Pines. He has worked as a scriptwriter in several projects, such as the SF adventure Halcyon Sun and the audio dramas Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. He has worked as a dubbing director and voice actor, and he is the resident anime expert on UK Sci Fi Channel. He has co-written the Anime Encyclopedia and the Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama since 1953, which will be published shortly.
Mr Bjørn Tore Sund will be the fan guest of honour at Finncon X - Eurocon 2003. Bjørn Tore has made himself known as a very active fan in Norway and Europe as a whole. He is the agent coordinator of Interaction, the 2005 Worldcon http://www.interaction.worldcon.org.uk/.
