I wonder if you’ve heard snippets about this thing with WorldCon, where the convention organizers declined to put Hugo nominees on panels on the grounds that they are not famous enough to be on panels?
Pretty much in so many words?
A train wreck then ensued, of course, rapidly crashing off in multiple directions. Since this was entirely predictable, I can’t imagine what they were thinking. Honestly, no slots for the actual nominees, nominated by WorldCon attendees, because they are not well known? Farcical on its face, and then on top of that, obviously one way newer authors get to be better known is by appearing on panels at conventions. I thought it was utterly standard to put together as many panels as possible with one widely recognized author and then several who are not as well known.
Anyway, if you heard something about this and wondered, you can read what seems to be a clear, thorough, straightforward account of the mess here: Foz Meadows put up a great post a few days ago that covers the whole thing.
The WorldCon organizers have now taken down their initial programming. I don’t know that I would trust them to put together any remotely acceptable program, but actually they turned the problem over to Mary Robinette Kowal, who is putting together a small team to fix the program. I expect she’ll do a good job.
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