Check out our speakers from Doxacon X!!

CLERGY KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Deacon Nicholas Kotar - The Sun's Reflection in Water: How St Basil's Address to Young Men Guides Us to Discern Good Fantasy

Dn. Nicholas Kotar, author of the Ravenson series of books and host of the Fantasy for Our Time podcast, is a writer of epic fantasy inspired by Russian fairy tales, a writing instructor and traveling speaker, a freelance translator from Russian to English, the resident conductor of a men’s choir at a Russian monastery in the middle of cow country, and a Grammy-nominated vocalist. His only regret in life is that he wasn’t born in 19th century St. Petersburg, but he’s doing everything he possibly can to remedy that error. If anyone knows where he can find a blue police box that’s bigger on the inside, please let him know.

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LAY KEYNOTE SPEAKER - Tim Powers - Fantasy Fiction Through a Catholic Lens

Tim Powers is the author of eighteen science fiction and fantasy novels, including The Anubis Gates, My Brother's Keeper, and On Stranger Tides, which was the basis of the fourth “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie. His work has won the World Fantasy Award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial award, and the International Horror Guild  award, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Along with K. W. Jeter and James Blaylock, Powers is considered one of the founders of Steampunk. He lives in San Bernardino, California, with his wife of more than forty years, Serena.

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Kenneth Hite - The Man Who Shot Joseph Curwen

Kenneth Hite has written or designed 100+ tabletop roleplaying games and supplements, including GURPS Horror, Trail of Cthulhu, The Fall of DELTA GREEN, The Dracula Dossier, Night’s Black Agents, Bubblegumshoe, and Vampire: the Masquerade 5th Edition. His other works include the two-volume Tour de Lovecraft, Cthulhu 101, The Thrill of Dracula, the “Lost in Lovecraft” column for Weird Tales, an annotated edition of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow, and four Lovecraftian children’s books. His essays and criticism have appeared in National Review, Amazing Stories, University Bookman, and in encyclopedias and anthologies from Ashcroft, Ben Bella, Dagan Books, Greenwood, and MIT Press. An Artistic Associate and dramaturg at Chicago’s WildClaw Theatre, and half of the award-winning podcast Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, he lives in Chicago with two Lovecraftian cats and his non-Lovecraftian wife, Sheila.

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Stephanie Slade - Against Game of Thrones Christianity

Stephanie Slade is a senior editor at Reason magazine and a fellow in liberal studies at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. In 2016, she was selected to the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship. In 2013, she was named a finalist for the Bastiat Prize for Journalism. Her writing has also appeared in America magazine, The New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and elsewhere.

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Cindy Collins Smith - How (Not) to Play the Game: Game of Thrones and Saving the Realms of Men

Cindy Collins Smith has taught English at colleges and universities, contributed essays to books on film, and served on a variety of panels at film conventions and on podcasts. Her work on the development of Jack the Ripper mythos has appeared in Ripperologist Magazine and now resides at Casebook: Jack the Ripper. Cindy presented a talk on Till We Have Faces at Doxacon 2020 and currently serves as Doxacon Co-Chair. She attends St. Mary’s Orthodox Church and lives nearby in Falls Church, VA with her husband Brian and their cats Severus and Minerva.

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Karen Ullo and Eleanor Bourg Nicholson - Suffocation and Ritual Dismemberment: Speculative Fiction and the Spiritual Life

Karen Ullo is the author of two award-winning novels, Jennifer the Damned and Cinder Allia. She is the Editorial Director of Chrism Press, which is dedicated to publishing Catholic and Orthodox fiction, and the former managing editor of the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things. Find out more at KarenUllo.com.

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Eleanor Bourg Nicholson is an award-winning novelist with a High Decadent niche novella The Letters of Magdalen Montague and two Gothic novels (A Bloody Habit & Brother Wolf) to her credit. A published scholar, she also serves as the resident Victorian literature instructor at Homeschool Connections and (with her husband) homeschools five children. Visit eleanorbourgnicholson.com to read more. Tim Powers and Karen Ullo are two of her all-time favorite living authors.

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Bryan J.L. Glass - Who Are You? What Do You Want? The Origins of Character, Our Baggage, and the Backstory of Humanity

Bryan J.L. Glass is the Harvey Award-winning co-creator/writer of The Mice Templar from Image Comics, the superhero series Furious from Dark Horse Comics, narrative world-builder of the DogamíNFT, author of Quixote: A Novel and the upcoming SF series BJLG’s Dark Spaces. A contributor to DC Comics' Adventures of Superman, his Marvel Comics credentials include Thor: First Thunder, Crown of Fools and Valkyrie, the video game Thor: Son of Asgard for Disney Mobile, as well as the comic book adaptations of Raymond E. Feist’s Magician, the Riftwar Saga and Cirque du Soleil's KÀ. This is his second Doxacon presentation. ​

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Bonus Content!! - Sarah Last - Kaiju, Christianity, and Ultraman

Sarah is a chemistry teacher and freelance writer who loves giant robots, giant monsters, and weird speculative fiction of all shapes and sizes.​

Check Out Last Year's Schedule:

Friday, Nov. 3

6:30pm — Registration Opens
7:00-8:00pm — Clergy Keynote - The Sun's Reflection in Water: How St Basil's Address to Young Men Guides Us to Discern Good Fantasy (Deacon Nicholas Kotar) (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)
8:00pm — Reception (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)
9:00pm — Registration Ends

Saturday, Nov. 4

 8:00am — Registration Opens

8:00am — Vendors Hall Opens

9:00am — Akathist: Glory to God for All Things (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)

9:30–10:30am — Lay Keynote - Fantasy Fiction Through a Catholic Lens (Tim Powers) (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)

10:30am: Break

10:30am–1:30pm EST: Gaming Session (Main Dining Hall)

1) MTG Commander Game (Fr. Evan)
2) Watchpoint TTRPG (Donan Scholl)

​10:50am–11:50am EST: Session One

1) Suffocation and Ritual Dismemberment: Speculative Fiction and the Spiritual Life (Eleanor Bourg Nicholson & Karen Ullo) (Gerard Private Dining Room)
2) Doxacon Past & Future: Tenth Anniversary Panel (Fr. David Subu, Cindy Collins Smith, Daniel Silver) (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)
​
12:00pm: Lunch

1:30pm–2:30pm EST: Session Two

1) The Man Who Shot Joseph Curwen (Kenneth Hite) (Gerard Private Dining Room)
2) How (Not) to Play the Game: Game of Thrones and Saving the Realms of Men (Cindy Collins Smith) & Against Game of Thrones Christianity (Stephanie Slade) (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)

2:30pm: Break
​
2:50pm–3:50pm EST: Session Three

1) Who Are You? What Do You Want? The Origins of Character, Our Baggage, and the Backstory of Humanity (Bryan J.L. Glass) (Gerard Private Dining Room)
2) Panel (Tim Powers, Kenneth Hite, Deacon Nicholas Kotar, Eleanor Bourg Nicholson, & Karen Ullo) (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)

4:00pm: Break

5:00pm: Vespers (Chapel)

6:00pm: Dinner (Gerard Dining Zones 1 & 2)

Doxacon Meetup at LegendHaven Online Convention!

Click the link for Doxacon's meetup at LegendHaven! Come hang out with us, talk about the pop culture topics we love, and help us share the spirit of Doxacon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdL3c4UWeOM

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Check out John Touhy's write-up of last year's Doxacon on Aleteia. 
https://aleteia.org/2023/11/08/doxacon-a-convention-for-christians-who-love-geek-culture/