2026 BizarroCon Program TBD

For an idea of what past years have consisted of take a look at this 2024 schedule:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH

3:00pm-5:00pm: BizarroCon Registration

Pick up your welcome packet and meet up before the opening party. You may also pick up your packet at the opening party.

5:00pm-10:00pm: BizarroCon Opening Party

7:00pm-7:30pm: Opening Ceremonies

8:00pm-8:30pm: Readings from prior Wonderland Book Award Winners John Skipp, Kevin L. Donihe, and Laura Lee Bahr

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8TH

8:00am-9:15am: The Idea Factory + Award-Winning Pastry Bar

Enjoy a savory pastry from award-winning chefs at The Nest in Gearhart, Oregon while listening to a roundtable conversation on the origin of ideas. Featuring Brian Allen Carr, Bryce McGuire, Garrett Cook, and Laura Lee Bahr.

10:00am-11:30am: Eraserhead Press 25th Anniversary Tea Party with Rose O’Keefe

Join Publisher Rose O’Keefe for a tea party to celebrate 25 years of Eraserhead Press.

9:30am-11:30am: We All Dream Bizarro: Jungian Archetypes, Keeping a Dream Journal, and Using Those Dreams to Write Stories with Laura Lee Bahr [Pre-Registration Required]

Noon-2:00pm: The Choreography of Violence with John Skipp [Pre-Registration Required]

Noon-2:00pm: Setting Yourself on Fire: How to Give Memorable Readings and Performances with Michael Allen Rose [Pre-Registration Required]

2:00pm-3:00pm: Lunch Break

3:00pm-5:00pm: High Concept Workshop with Jeff Burk [Pre-Registration Required]

3:00pm-5:00pm: Annual Bizarro Writer’s Association Meeting [Open to All Attendees]

5:30pm-10:00pm: Friday Night Party at Galactix ft. The Slow Poisoner

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH

8:00am-9:30am: Italian-Style Breakfast featuring Being Weird for Profit and Mayhem

Enjoy delicious scones, meats, cheeses, fruit, and bread from Gaetano’s Italian Deli while joining award-winning game designer John Baltisberger as he runs a crew of ridiculous miscreants through a round of Odd Gobs, a tabletop roleplaying game about anticapitalist goblins working the gig economy in a cyberpunk dystopia. While many would say Roleplaying games aren’t a spectator sport, we look forward to proving them wrong with the help of nerdo-improv artists Bridget Brave, Michael Allen Rose, and Shane McKenzie. Watch them destroy the city with 50-ft tall Britney Spears holograms! Watch them destabilize the economy with cheese! Watch them accidentally deep-fry their own loved ones while trying to fix a truck! It’s all possible and probably in ODD GOBS!

9:45am-11:00am: Screenwriting Crash Course with Shane McKenzie

Join Shane McKenzie for a crash course on adapting a novel into a screenplay.

11:20am-12:20am: Filmmaking and Screenwriting: Bryce McGuire and Shane McKenzie in Conversation with John Skipp

Join John Skipp in a conversation with two voices in the new wave of horror filmmaking and screenwriting.

12:20pm-1:00pm: Lunch Break

1:00pm-5:00pm: Bizarro Readings hosted by Kevin L. Donihe and Kirsten Alene

1:00pm-1:45pm: John Shirley, Kevin Maloney, P.L. McMillan, Roland Blackburn

2:00pm-2:45pm: Andrew J. Stone, Bridget Brave, David Agranoff, John Baltisberger

3:00pm-3:45pm: Caleb Wilson, John Chambers, Lee Rozelle, Riley Odell

4:00pm-4:45pm: Carl Fuerst, Jonathan Gensler, J.W. Donley, Matthew Gleason, Vince Kramer

1:00pm-2:00pm: Drawing with Jim

Learn how to draw weird stuff with Artist Guest of Honor Jim Agpalza.

2:20pm-3:20pm: No, You’re Grounded with Garrett Cook, Kevin L. Donihe, Laura Lee Bahr, and Roland Blackburn

So, you’re a space walrus time-traveling with a one-eyed crow and a box of sentient Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In the world of Bizarro, characters and situations can get pretty unusual, but how do you keep the story from unraveling into nonsense? The panel discusses tricks of the trade for keeping the plot and the characters grounded in reality, even in the most surreal landscapes imaginable.

3:40pm-4:40pm: Rebooting the Bizarre with Andrew Goldfarb, Brian Allen Carr, Danger Slater, Kevin Maloney, P.L. McMillan, and Rose O’Keefe

Bizarro has been around for nearly a quarter century. What does the next quarter century of bizarro fiction look like?

5:30pm-9:30pm: Wonderland Book Awards Pizza Banquet  and The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown

5:30pm – Wood-Fired Pizza + Salad

6:15pm – Wonderland Book Awards

7:00pm – Readings from prior Wonderland Book Award winners Brian Allen Carr, Danger Slater, Garrett Cook, and Michael Allen Rose

8:00pm – The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown

9:30pm-11:00pm: After Party ft. Flood Damage

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH

8:30am-10:15am: Closing Ceremonies + The Philip K. Dick Formula with David Agranoff

In 1965, Philip K. Dick wrote a letter explaining his system for novel writing. David Agranoff breaks down the letter and shows how the formula was used across PKD’s 40 novels. David will take an unwritten idea for a novel PKD mentioned to his agent in a 1980 letter and outline it using the formula.

11:00am-1:30pm: John Skipp’s The Great Divide

Join John Skipp for a screening of his feature film The Great Divide.

1:30pm to The End of Time: Kevin L. Donihe’s Astoria Walking Tour