LAcon V is delighted to announce that we have added acclaimed writer, editor, and poet Terese Mason Pierre to our roster of Special Guests for the upcoming 84th World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles, to be held in Anaheim, California from August 27-31, 2026.
Terese Mason Pierre is an acclaimed Canadian writer who has worked to platform members of equity-deserving communities.
“I am so excited to participate as a special guest this year. This came as a complete surprise to me,” Terese Mason Pierre said. “I hope to use the space I’m given to champion both SFF poets and Canadian BIPOC SFF writers.”
Terese Mason Pierre (she/her) is an award-winning Canadian writer and editor whose work has appeared in Uncanny, Fantasy Magazine, Star*Line, Best Canadian Fantasy and Science Fiction, and elsewhere online and in print. Her work has been nominated for Best of the Net, the Aurora Award, and the Ignyte Award. Her second chapbook, Manifest, won a third-place Elgin Award, and was shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, for chapbooks published in Canada. In 2023, she was named a Writer’s Trust Rising Star, and she is a winner of Writer’s Trust Journey Prize, Canada’s most prestigious award for short fiction. She has completed residencies at Island Scribe and the Banff Centre.
While she originally wanted to be a pediatrician, Terese has always found a home in creative writing. She studied Bioethics at the University of Toronto, while creating and developing literary arts programming at the Hart House Student Literary and Library Committee—hosting creative writing workshops and organizing panels and events. She continued her education with a Masters Degree in Philosophy from York University, and graduated from a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Writing in 2025, from the University of Guelph. Currently, she works at the Toronto Public Library, hosting programs for diverse communities.
Terese currently lives in Toronto and is an active member of her local literary community. She has co-hosted poetry reading series, spoken at conferences and festivals, organized literary events, judged writing contests, facilitated creative writing workshops—including with Clarion West—and mentored emerging writers. She edits for Augur Magazine, a Canadian speculative literature journal. Since 2018, she has been a Poetry Editor, a Senior Editor and co-Editor-in-Chief. Currently, she serves as Augur’s Chief Programming Officer—leading the creation of programs, events and initiatives—and co-Director of AugurCon, Augur‘s biennial speculative literature conference.
We are thrilled to welcome Terese to our lineup and cannot wait to welcome her to Anaheim next August!
