Mary Robinette Kowal is the USA Today Bestselling author of twelve novels, including Apprehension, The Spare Man, and the Lady Astronaut series. Her novel The Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen works to achieve the “triple crown,” winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards in a single year. She is also a four-time Hugo winner, a recipient of the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, and a former President of SFWA.

Her storytelling is uniquely shaped by a twenty-year career as a professional puppeteer. Performing for Jim Henson Productions and LazyTown, she earned two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence—the highest honor in American puppetry. This background in physical performance informs the body language and characterization found in her prose.

Mary Robinette is a core cast member of the Hugo-winning podcast Writing Excuses and an acclaimed audiobook narrator for authors such as Neal Stephenson and Seanan McGuire. A collector of vintage manual typewriters, she lives with her husband Robert, their dog Guppy, and their cat Elsie, who uses Augmentative Interspecies Communication buttons to “talk.” She also has the distinct honor of having an asteroid, (52691) Maryrobinettek, named after her.

Dr. Sian Leo Proctor is a visionary poet, artist, educator, and space explorer. In 2021, Dr. Proctor made history as the first artist selected to become an astronaut with the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission. She is also the first woman commercial spaceship pilot and the only African-American woman to be a mission pilot. Find her on Instagram @Dr. Sian Proctor and experience her current project, the EarthLight World planetarium show at the Boston Museum of Science.

K Wilson, also known by her public persona as The Astro Stud, is a cosmologist, science communicator, writer, and public speaker whose mission is to uplift and inspire individuals of all backgrounds in STEM, particularly those of marginalized identities. With an ethos grounded in “unapologetic representation,” she uses her presence, voice, and passion for storytelling to make the wonders of the Universe more accessible to all. Social justice and political advocacy are an integral practice in her SciComm and outreach efforts as she works to empower a diverse and global community of scientists, scholars, and academics. She is currently pursuing a PhD in cosmological physics at the University of Michigan.

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