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Au Contraire 2013 and beyond...

Guests of Honour

Our Guest of Honour are Sean Williams, Elizabeth Knox, Paul Mannering, and You!

Sean Williams

Sean Williams

Sean Williams has been writing full-time since 1999, ten years after he wrote his first short story. He has been nominated thirty times for the major Australian awards (Ditmar, Aurealis & McNamara) and has won ten times. Jack Dann has described him as "One of the hottest writers in the country ... a major Australian talent", and added that he "cooks a mean curry." For a change of pace, he enjoys DJing any chance he can get.

Recent works include the SF trilogy Astropolis, and the fantasy trilogy The Broken Land, set in the same world as his earlier series the Books of the Change and the Books of the Cataclysm. He has also written standalone SF novels Metal Fatigue and The Resurrected Man. In collaboration with Shane Dix, he has written the Force Heretic trilogy and The Force Unleashed for the Star Wars series, and original space opera series Evergence, Orphans, and Geodesica. As well as novels, Sean has had over 70 short stories published in a variety of places around the world. His work has been translated into French, Japanese, Hebrew, Russian and Polish, and collected in the Ditmar Award-winning New Adventures in Sci-Fi (1999) and A View Before Dying (1998), both from Ticonderoga Publications, and Doorway to Eternity (MirrorDanse Books, 1994).

For more information, visit his web site. Or try Ten things you really should know about Sean Williams...

Elizabeth Knox

Elizabeth Knox

One of New Zealand's most acclaimed authors, Elizabeth Knox has written many novels drawing from a range of genres. She began creating other worlds as a child with her sisters, which eventually led her to take up writing full time. Her best known work is the Deutz Medal winning fantasy The Vintner's Luck, which was made into a film in 2009. Other works include the YA fantasy Dreamhunter duet, the vampire tale Daylight, and Vintner sequel The Angel's Cut. Elizabeth lives in Wellington with her husband and son.

Paul Mannering

Paul Mannering

Our Fan Guest of Honour is the Christchurch-based co-founder of BrokenSea Audio Productions - "Guerrilla Audio at its Finest!" Paul is a scriptwriter, voice actor, and producer, working with a network of audio fans from around the world to create audio plays to download for free. Their output includes completely original works, audio adaptations of classic films like Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes, and audio fanfic based on shows like Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, The X Files, and The Prisoner, as well as standard audio books and re-releases of classic radio plays.

You

Au Contraire is a celebration of fannish creativity. It doesn't matter what you do, whether it's writing fanfic, cosplay [Making and wearing costumes based on SF, fantasy, or anime characters.], editing music videos, sketching dragons, making CGI models, knitting daleks, or even just contributing to a discussion on last night's episode of your favourite show; if you do anything beyond passively absorbing entertainment, we salute your effort. And if you don't, hopefully by the end of the convention you'll have been inspired to try something.

Other Programme Participants

As well as our official Guest of Honour, a number of other notable people will be participating in our programme of events. These include:


The 31st New Zealand National Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

Fri 27 to Sun 29 August 2010 at the Quality Hotel, Wellington



With the support of Creative New Zealand

With the support of Creative New Zealand

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