Minicon is an annual gathering of science fiction and fantasy fans sponsored by the Minnesota Science Fiction Society (Minn-StF). These days the convention is held each year in or near Minneapolis, Minnesota over Easter weekend. Minicon is Minnesota's longest-running science fiction convention; the first Minicon was held in 1968.
will be held April 2 – 5, 2015. Our guests of honor will be authors Jane Yolen, Larry Niven, and Brandon Sanderson; musician Adam Stemple, publisher Tom Doherty, and artist Michael Whelan.
For further information go to the Minicon 50 website or contact us at:
Minicon
PO Box 8297
Lake Street Station
Minneapolis MN 55408-0297
There is also a semi-official Minicon Livejournal Community which is a good place to discuss Minicon, though if you need an answer to a question it's usually best to contact the convention directly.
If you post pictures taken at Minicon to Flickr or another photo hosting/sharing website, please tag the photos with "minicon" as well as a tag for whichever Minicon it is ("minicon49" for example).
Minicon 51
will
be held March 25–27, 2016. Seanan McGuire will be author GoH.
Minicon 52
will
be held April 14–16, 2017.
Supposing we continue to strictly hold 3-day Minicons annually on Easter weekend, following Minicons will be March 30–April 1, 2018; April 19–21, 2019; April 10–12, 2020; April 2–4, 2021; April 15–17, 2022; April 7–9, 2023; March 29–31, 2024; April 18–20, 2025.
There may also be a fallcon coming up.
Minicon 49
was
held April 17½ – 20, 2014 at the DoubleTree Bloomington Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Our guests of honor were authors Catherynne Valente and Janny Wurts,
and artist Don Maitz.
Minicon 48
was
held March 29 – 31, 2013 at the DoubleTree Bloomington Hotel in Bloomington,
Minnesota. Our guests of honor were author Julie Czerneda and fan Richard Tatge.
Minicon 47
was
held April 6 – 8, 2012 at the DoubleTree Bloomington Hotel in Bloomington,
Minnesota. Our guests of honor were author
Ted Chiang, fanziner Christopher J Garcia, and artist Frank Wu.
Minicon
46
was held April 22 – 24, 2011 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were
author Charles Stross (in absentia), author John Scalzi, and musician Chas
Somdahl.
Minicon
45
was held April 2 – 4, 2010 at the Sheraton Bloomington
Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Brandon Sanderson and
Dan Dos Santos, with Special Guest Moshe Feder.
Minicon
44
was held April 10 – 12, 2009 at the Sheraton Bloomington
Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Karl Schroeder,
Stephan Martinière (who unfortunately could not make it to the
convention), and Seth Shostak.
Minicon
43
was held March 21 – 23, 2008 at the Sheraton Bloomington
Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were
Alastair Reynolds, Nate Bucklin, Shawna McCarthy, and
Wayne Barlowe (who unfortunately could not make it to the convention).
Minicon
42
was April 6 – 8, 2007 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Charles de Lint and Charles
Vess.
Minicon
41
was April 14 – 16, 2006 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel
in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Harlan Ellison, John
Picacio, and Doug Friauf.
Minicon
40
was March 25 – 27, 2005 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel
(formerly known as the Radisson South) in Bloomington, Minnesota. Our Guests of
Honor were Terry Pratchett, Fastner and Larson, and James Young.
Minicon
39
was April 9 – 11, 2004 at the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Walter Jon Williams, Sharyn
November, and Deb Geisler.
Minicon
38
was April 18 – 20, 2003 at the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis
in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Robert J. Sawyer, Carolyn
Clink, Sue Mason, and Steve Macdonald.
Minicon
37
was March 29 – 31, 2002 at the Hilton Minneapolis in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Emma Bull, Will Shetterly,
Arthur Hlavaty, and Rick Berry.
Minicon
36
was April 13 – 15, 2001 at the Hilton Minneapolis &
Towers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Ken MacLeod, Jo
Walton, and Leslie Fish.
Minicon
35
was April 21 – 23, 2000 at the Hilton Minneapolis &
Towers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Maureen F. McHugh,
Lenny Bailes, and John Berkey.
Minicon
34
was April 2 – 4, 1999 at the Minneapolis Hilton &
Towers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Octavia E. Butler,
Mark & Priscilla Olson, and David Nee. See also
proposals for Minicon 34.
Minicon
33
was April 10 – 12, 1998 at the Radisson South in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Gardner Dozois, Dave Langford,
Phil Proctor, and John M. Ford. See also Minutes from Minicon 33 committee meetings, the
accepted bid to run Minicon 33,
and opening ceremonies radio shows photos and audio..
Minicon
32
was March 28 – 30, 1997 at the Radisson South in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Algis Budrys, C.J. Cherryh,
Tom Doherty, Tom Lopez, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and
Michael Swanwick.
Minicon
31
was April 5 – 7, 1996 at the Radisson South in Bloomington,
Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Suzette Haden Elgin, Joe Siclari & Edie
Stern, David Ossman, and Ed Emshwiller (posthumous).
Minicon
30
was April 14 – 16, 1995 at the Radisson South in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Vernor Vinge, Robert Forward,
Jody Lee, Glen Cook, and the residents of the Bhigg House. Glen Cook was
an honored guest. Minicon 30 was the
first Minicon to have a web page, at least as far as we can tell.
Minicon
29
was held in 1994 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Tom Doherty, Jack Williamson,
Rusty Hevelin, and Phil Foglio.
Minicon
28
was held in 1993 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Susan Allison, Diane Duane,
Peter Morwood, Kathy Mar, Don Fitch, and John M. Ford.
Minicon
27
was held in 1992 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Lois McMaster Bujold, Ctein
and Dave Van Ronk.
Minicon
26
was held in 1991 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were George Alec Effinger, David
Cherry, Al Kuhfeld, Suzanne V. Tompkins, Jerry Kaufman, and Jon Singer.
Minicon
25
was held in 1990 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Jane Yolen, Kim Stanley
Robinson, Patrick Price, David Thayer a.k.a. Teddy Harvia, DavE Romm and Earl
Joseph. Dave Clement, P.C. Hodgell, Dr. Joseph Romm, and Art Widner were
honored guests.
Minicon
24
was held in 1989 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Harry Harrison, George "Lan"
Laskowski, Fritz Leiber and Barry Longyear. Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden,
P.C. Hodgell, Larry Niven, and John Sladek were honored guests.
Minicon
23
was held in 1988 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Eleanor Arnason, Eric
Heideman, Frederick Pohl, Crystal Marvig and Richard Feynman (posthumous). Jane
Yolen, David Hartwell, and Algis Budrys were honored guests.
Minicon
22
was held in 1987 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were David Brin, Fred Haskell, Erin
McKee, and Jerry Stearns. Diane Duane, Jane Yolen, and Ellen Kushner were
honored guests.
Minicon
21
was held in 1986 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were Damon Knight, Kate Wilhelm,
Denny Lien, Ken Fletcher, and Ann Passovoy. Phyllis Eisenstein, Terri Windling,
John M. Ford, and P.C. Hodgell were honored guests.
Minicon
20
was held in 1985 at the Radisson South Hotel in
Bloomington, Minnesota. Our guests of honor were James P. Hogan, The Permanent
Floating Riot Club, The White Women, and Stu Shiffman.
Minicon
18
was held in 1984 at the Leamington Hotel. Our Guests of
Honor were Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Dave Wixon, Steve Hickman, Somtow Sucharitkul,
Rusty Hevelin and Bob Tucker.
Minicon
19
was held in 1983 at the St. Paul Radisson. Our Guests of
Honor were Larry Niven, Pamela Dean, David Dyer-Bennet, Dave Sim, Spider John
Koerner, Steven K. Zoltan Brust, and Nostradamus.
Minicon
14
was held in 1982 at the Minneapolis Radisson. Our Guests of
Honor were John Varley, Cliff Simak and Spider Robinson.
Minicon
17
was held in 1981 at the Minneapolis Radisson. Our Guests of
Honor were Jack Vance, Jerry Boyajian, Reed Waller and Kathy Marschall.
Minicon
16
was held in 1980 at the Minneapolis Radisson. Our Guests of
Honor were C.J. Cherryh, Jon Singer, Ken Fletcher, Nate Bucklin and Wilson
(Bob) Tucker.
Minicon
15
was held in 1979 at the Minneapolis Radisson. Our Guests of
Honor were Theodore Sturgeon, Tom Digby, and Rick Sternbach. Bob Vardeman was
an honored guest.
Minicon
13
was held in 1978 at the Leamington Hotel. Our Guests of
Honor were Samuel R. Delany, Spider Robinson, and Bob Tucker.
Minicon
12
was held in 1977 at the Leamington Hotel. Our Guests of
Honor were Ben Bova, and Buck and Juanita Coulson.
Minicon
11
was held in 1976 at the Leamington Hotel. Our Guests of
Honor were Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, and Leigh and Norb Couch.
Minicon
10
was held in 1975 at the Holiday Inn. Our guests of honor
were Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson. (Redd Boggs was originally scheduled to
be fan GoH, but was forced to cancel.)
Minicon
9
was held in 1974 at the Minneapolis Public Library and
Dyckman Hotel. (Minicon 8 was also in 1974.) Our guests of honor were
Judy Lynn and Lester del Rey.
Minicon
8
was held in 1974 at the Dyckman Hotel. Our guests of honor
were Kelly Freas and Bob Tucker.
Minicon
7
was held in 1973 at the Hyatt Lodge. Our guests of honor
were Larry Niven and Rusty Hevelin.
Minicon
6
was held in 1972 at the Hyatt Lodge in Minneapolis. Our
guest of honor was Ruth Berman.
Minicon
5
was held in 1971 at the Andrews Hotel. (Minicon 4 was
also in 1971.) There was no guest of honor (as far as we can tell),
but traditionally Volsted Gridban is listed as such.
Minicon
4
was held in 1971 at the Curtis Hotel. Our guest of honor was
Lin Carter.
Minicon
3
was held in 1970 at the Dyckman Hotel. Our guests of honor
were Poul Anderson, Gordon Dickson and Clifford Simak.
Minicon
2
was held in 1969 at the Andrews Hotel. Our guests of honor
were Gordon Dickson, Charles De Vet and Clifford Simak. As with Minicon 1, Carl
Jacobi was also advertised as a GoH, but didn't make it.
Minicon
1
was held in 1968 in the University of Minnesota's Coffman
Union, Men's Lounge. Our guests of honor were Gordon Dickson, Charles De Vet
and Clifford Simak. Carl Jacobi was also advertised as a GoH, but didn't make
it.
"A Brief History of Minicon" — table of past Minicons started by Fred A Levy Haskell
The recipe for blog
Audio from some radio plays from various Minicon
Opening Ceremonies over the years.
There are also tapes/CDs available which include
audio plays from Minicons past.
Many of the documents from the Long Range Convention Task-Force are online. This was a task-force chartered in 1991 to consider the problems and concerns we had about Minicon and consider what we should do for the next 5 years.
We are working on building as complete a digital archive of Minicon's history as we can!
For all these items, please contact: [archivist at mnstf dot org]
Physical materials wanted: If you have program books, pocket programs, photos, progress reports, convention reports, or other stuff from or relating to past Minicons we're interested in putting that sort of thing online. We want your photos and audio or video recordings too. If it's something we don't have in our own archives, we might be interested in borrowing items from you or making other arrangements to scan stuff for use on the website.
Digital materials wanted: If you have items in digital format or are willing to put things in digital format, you can send that stuff to us. Please check with us before sending any large files (over 10MB) as email attachments. If you know where we can find stuff about Minicon or Minn-StF online that we haven't yet linked to, please pass those links along to us.
Transcriptions wanted: We would like our archives to be searchable and accessible. This means that we'd like to make plain text versions of everything that's just an image now. Would you like to help? Find something that needs transcription and let us know you're going to work on it.
Requests wanted: If you're looking for something that isn't here, please let us know. We may already have it on paper and can prioritize it for scanning.