2026 BizarroCon Program

Thursday May 14th 

4:00 – 6:30: Registration and Badge Pick Up  
Location: Second floor of the Jupiter NEXT

Pick up your welcome packet and meet up before opening ceremonies.
Your packet will also be available at the opening party.


7:00 – 7:30: Opening Ceremonies
Location:  Arium

Opening Ceremonies with special guest Thee Mayor of Portland!

7:30- 10:30: Michael Allen Rose’s Inaugural Ultimate Bizarro Spelling Bee Ripoff Extravaganza
Location: Arium

Think you know how to spell? Like incredibly unfair games with esoteric and inscrutable rules? Join host Michael Allen Rose and his lovely assistant Danger Slater as four bizarro contestants try to spell words in a classic spelling bee format, with a Bizarro twist. A format ripped off by funny people from other funny people and now brought to Bizarro Con for the first time.

Friday May 15th

8:00 – 9:00  Continental Breakfast Buffet  (vegan and gluten-free options included!)
Location: Jupiter NEXT 2nd Floor

Come grab a bite to eat, coffee and tea to start your morning!


9:00 – 11:30:  Workshop –  Weirding Your World with Wendy Wagner
(Pre-Registration Required)
Location: Arium

Studying nature to create stranger and more meaningful settings & characters.

Wendy N. Wagner is a hiker, trail runner, and Stoker award-nominated horror author (with novels including Girl in the Creek and The Deer Kings) whose short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson awards. She’s a two-time Locus award nominee for her work editing Nightmare Magazine and is part of the Hugo award-winning editorial team at Lightspeed Magazine. She lives in Oregon with her very understanding family, a giant cat, and a Muppet disguised as a dog. Find her at winniewoohoo.com.

9:00 – 11:30:  Workshop –  High Concept Workshop w/ Jeff Burk
(Pre-Registration Required)
Location: Bunker

Want to write books that publishers actually want? Want to write books that people want to actually fucking read? Well, this is the workshop for you!

Jeff Burk is the cult favorite author of several books, including SHATNERQUAKE, CRIPPLE WOLF, and THE VERY INEFFECTIVE HAUNTED HOUSE. He is also the controversial former head editor of Deadite Press and the Magazine of Bizarro Fiction. He spends his time hanging out with circus folks. He really likes cat

11:45 – 2:00: Workshop – Bizarro Master Plotting Workshop w/ John Skipp 
(Pre-Registration Required)
Location: Arium

In this dizzying two-hour crash course, you’ll take the book idea you pitched in the High-Concept workshop and thoroughly flesh it out. Naming your characters. Charting their journeys. And identifying the 100+ crazy-ass things they do to get where they’re going, beat for beat.

John Skipp’s 2021 Splatterpunk Lifetime Achievement Award encapsulates his long, weird, colorful career as a Rondo award-winning filmmaker (TALES OF HALLOWEEN), Stoker Award-winning anthologist (DEMONS, MONDO ZOMBIE), and New York Times bestselling author (THE LIGHT AT THE END, THE SCREAM) whose books have sold millions of copies in a dozen languages worldwide.

11:45 – 2:00: Workshop -The Story of the Deviant Eye: Perceiving the Grotesque in Plain Sight w/ Garrett Cook
(Pre-Registration Required)
Location: Bunker

The perceptions of the Surrealists differ markedly from those of the average person. Were this not so, we would not have Surrealist art. While most people walk about generally unfazed by things around them or snippets of commercial jingles or cartoons they saw once when they were eight years old, this is not so with Bizarro and Horror authors. We are possessed of an acute sense of the unseemly, the outre, and the just plain wrong.

Garrett Cook is the Wonderland Award-winning and Splatterpunk Award-nominated author of Time Pimp, A God of Hungry Walls, Charcoal, and Kennel. He is a two-time winner of the Ultimate Bizarro Showdown. Whether through running the NBAS for three years or teaching online writing workshops, he has been a friend and mentor to Bizarro writers for over 15 years.

2:30 – 3:00  Bizarro Readings
Location: Arium 

Matthew Gleason, Charles Austin Muir, Jason Rizos, Phoebe Hadas, Roland Blackburn


3:00 – 5:00: Annual Bizarro Writer’s Association Meeting [Open to All Attendees] 
Location: Arium

5:00 – 7:00 – Dinner Break


7:00 – 8:30: The New Bizarro Author Debut Party
Location: Arium

Michael Allen Rose and RoShamBo Publishing present the new crop of New Bizarro Authors with readings from Jonathan Gensler, P.J. Bresnahan, Amy Hofmockel, and Bitter Karella.
Featuring Funhouse Brew/beer brewed by our own Jason Rizos!


7:00 – 10:00 Bizarro Book Bonanza Book Sale! 
Location: Arium

Find a book you can’t wait to read, find the author, pay them for the book, get it signed, and have a chat about their work! This event is designed to allow authors and artists to sell their work while fostering better relationships between them and their readers + fans!

9:00 – 10:00: The Slow Poisoner closes out the night with his mysterious musical melodies!
Location: Arium 

Saturday May 16th

8:00 – 9:30: The B.D. Brave  Breakfast Buffet
Location: Jupiter NEXT  2nd Floor

Come grab a bite to eat, coffee and tea to start your morning! Brought to you by B.D. Brave! 

9:30 – 10:30:  Eco Horror – This Is Why We Don’t Go Outside 
Location: Arium

Eco horror asks a chilling—and sometimes slimy—question: What if nature isn’t indifferent, but vindictive? From sentient landscapes and hostile fungi to climate doom and ecological revenge, this panel aims to discuss creating horror stories where the natural world bites back. Panelists will explore why eco horror feels especially potent right now, how fear, grief, and absurdity intertwine in these tales, and where the genre gleefully crosses into the strange, the grotesque, and the unsettlingly familiar.

Panelists: Joshua Millican, Bitter Karella, J.W. Donley, Wendy Wagner

Moderator: Laura Lee Bahr 

10:30 – 11:30 Bizarro Readings
Location: Arium 

Katy Michelle Quinn, Garrett Cook, Zuriel Runyan, S.A. Bradley, Nikolas P. Robinson

11:45 – 12:45: Insiders Among the Outsiders – Bizarro Welcoming the Othered 
Location: Arium 

Bizarro as a whole has a tendency to attract outsiders and misfits, people in marginalized communities–neurodivergent, LGBTQ+, etc.–both as fans and writers. In this panel we will discuss what it is about bizarro that draws such people, along with ideas on how to write work that reaches and speaks to fans in those communities

Panelists: Riley Odell, Katy Michelle Quinn, Jacy Morris, Lucifer, Matthew J. Gleason

Moderator: Susan Snyder

12:45 – 2:15 Lunch Break 

2:30 – 3:30  Bizarro Readings
Location: Arium 

Lucifer, Caleb Wilson, Riley Odell, Eric Henrixson, Laura Lee Bahr

1:00 – 4:00: Author Headshots w/ Courtney Rader

Courtney will be offering 15 min portrait sessions for those who need an updated headshot. Come as your most bizarre self! Images to be sent digitally after the con.

CourtneyRader.com
Instagram: @craderphoto

3:30 – 4:30: Keeping Art Real – AI in Creative Spaces
Location: Arium

Being an artist, particularly if earning a living from art, has become more complicated since generative AI products hit the market. As corporations push the public to embrace generated media, how do artists, creatives, and makers of all kinds push back? What is the value in creating, and how do we continue to embrace and promote those values?

Panelists: Liv Rainy-Smith, Andrew Goldfarb, Matt Blairstone, Phoebe Hadas, Caleb Wilson

Moderator: Jason Rizos

4:30 – 5:30:  Bizarro Readings
Location: Arium 

J.W. Donley, Jacy Morris, Bridget D Brave, Eve Harms, John Skipp

5:30 – 6:30  Break 

6:30 – 10:30: Wonderland Awards Dinner + Ultimate Bizarro Showdown 
Location: Arium

6:30 –  Focaccia Pizza + Salads  (vegan and gluten-free options included!)
7:00 – Readings from 2025 Wonderland Award winning authors Susan Snyder and Christine Morgan
7:30 – Break
8:00 – Wonderland Book Awards 
8:30 – The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown + after party

Sunday May 17th 

10:00 – 11:00:  What’s So Funny?! –  Melding Horror and Humor in Cinema 
Location: Dreambox

Horror comedies have been a mixed bag over the decades, but a new breed is changing how horror and humor mix in the same movies. Gorier, wilder, and unafraid to be absurd, these stories are a new subgenre that is turning heads!  In this panel we’ll discuss movies like The Monkey, Weapons, Barbarian, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, The Substance, and The Coffee Table use horror and humor differently than Scary Movie Parodies, Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead.

Panelists: Garrett Cook, Danger Slater, John Chambers, Bridget D Brave, John Skipp

Moderator: S.A. Bradley


12:00 – 2pm: Bizarro Film Block curated by John Skipp
Location:  Dreambox

Every year, John Skipp selects the best, most Bizarro short films from around the world. But this year, he stumbled upon a verrrry Bizarro feature film, doing special “sneak appearances” around the country: a shockingly hilarious X-rated horror comedy called FUCK MY SON!, written and directed by Todd Rohar, based on the underground comix by Johnny Ryan. 

It’s the heartwarming story of a horrible old woman who will do anything to get her hideous mutant son laid. The ensuing onslaught of full-tilt insanity comes complete with astonishing practical fx work by Robert Kurtzman (the “K” in KNB), and unforgettable performances by Tipper Newton as Sandi, Robert Longstreet as Vermina, and Steve Little as Fabian, the titular son.

As our opening act we’ll be screening the latest surrealist episode of Andrew Goldfarb’s THE SLOW POISONER SHOW. In it, you’ll meet a reeeeeeally big shoe, and go on an unexpected odyssey of weirdness and wonder YOU WON’T WANT TO MISS!

2:00 – Closing Ceremonies 
Location: Dreambox 

We love you, we’ll miss you, we’ll see you again real soon! 

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Neighborhood

There is so much to see here in Portland! There is no way we could tell you about everything,
but here are a few of our favorite things to eat, drink, and see near the convention site!

Grendel’s Coffee House 7am-4pm
729 E Burnside (1 min walk)
No shortage of great coffee in Portland! This one just happens to be right across the street from
the hotel!

Project Matcha 11am-7pm
555 NE Couch (5 min walk)
Specialty matcha cafe!

Nong’s Khao Man Gai 9am-9pm
609 SE Ankeny St C (4min walk)
Famous for their chicken and rice!

Dark Star Magic Bookstore 11am-5pm
729 E Burnside (1 min walk)
Quality new, used and rare occult books and grimoires

Kava Saia 11am-1am
616 E Burnside (3 min walk)
Tea house serving kava, mocktails, and herbal teas in a relaxed setting

Hey Love 3pm -1am
Lobby of the Jupiter NEXT (you’re already here!)
International fare in modern, tropical interiors with plants & local art

Low Bar 4pm-2am
724 E Burnside (2 min walk)
Pinball, draft beer, mixed drinks