Confluence will be held July 25, 26 & 27 2025
Location will be the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel
1160 Thorn Run Road Extension. Coraopolis, PA 15108
Guest of Honor Cat Rambo
Cat Rambo’s 300+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 2020 they won the Nebula Award for fantasy novelette Carpe Glitter. They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Their most recent works are space opera Devil’s Gun (Tor Macmillan, 2023) and anthology The Reinvented Detective (Arc Manor, 2023), co-edited with Jennifer Brozek.
For more about Cat, as well as links to fiction and popular online school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, see their website. They are represented by Seth Fishman of the Gernert Agency.
Featured Music Guest: Clearly Guilty
In their first appearance in the Northeast, the queers of Clearly Guilty are here to champion the underrepresented fandom. Across 12 years and 5 albums, they’ve written and performed original songs about things like the Mars Rovers, Star Wars, Star Trek, gaming, their deep “interest” in aliens, and other pop culture topics. Their spawn point is Kansas City, where you may have seen them at Planet Comicon, but they’ve also performed at places such as FuMPFest, Dragon Con, and various renaissance festivals across the midwest.
Visit them on Bandcamp, Bandzogle or Facebook.
More great musicians performing Confluence weekend!
With performance ASL for select concerts by Judi Miller
Judi Miller has been active in the filk community since the 1980s. Winner of the Pegasus Award for Best Performer in 2006 and 2017 and admitted to the Filk Hall of Fame in 2017, Judi is best known for her sign-language musical interpretation, which she has done for concerts at our conference and elsewhere for many years. She was our 30th Anniversary Honors Guest in 2019 and we are very glad that she can be with us again.
Featured Artist: Theresa Mather
A professional artist since 1989, Theresa Mather creates fantasy works featuring a variety of unusual creatures. Best known for her pieces painted on feathers and stone, integrating her paintings with the natural colors and textures of the surface, Theresa draws much of her inspiration from the world around her. Theresa is an artist who chooses to work outside of gaming and publication, exhibiting and selling her work at science fiction convention art shows across the country. She enjoys the freedom this gives her to paint whatever she desires, allowing her paintings to be truly her creations.
Visit her Website to see all the gorgeous artwork she has created!
Our featured artists creates the artwork we will use for our program book, badges and t-shirts.
All Tee shirts are pre-order. A link will be made available once pre-orders open.
Shirts are not guaranteed unless you pre-order!
Writing Workshops with Charles Oberndorf
Charles Oberndorf
Workshop Registration:
- Signup is required. Visit the WRITING WORKSHOPS page for more info.
- A Confluence membership is required to attend and register for the workshops. There is no additional cost for the workshops.
- Both workshops are limited to 14 participants! One workshop per person, please!
- Workshops are 2.5-3 hours in length.
Charles Oberndorf is the author of three books and six works of short fiction, all science fiction.
Charlie has worked in programs supporting both young and adult writers. He taught seventh
grade English for 40 years, 33 years devoted to an English class built around reading and writing
workshop. He taught four terms at Cleveland State’s free Public Fiction Workshop (now defunct)
and five summers at Cuyahoga County Library’s Summer Fiction Writers’ Boot Camp. He has
been a member of three different writing workshops, including Cleveland’s sf and fantasy
workshop, The Cajun Sushi Hamsters from Hell.
Programming You Don’t Want to Miss!
Friday: Opening Ceremonies
Friday July 27 at 7p.m with our con chair Kevin M. Hayes, W. Randy Hoffman, AJ Smith, Richard Kadrey and more!
The Parsec Short Story contest* winners will be announced by M. Christine Benner Dixon, our coordinator for the contest.
Someone (TBA) will lead the singing of “Three Days Away from the Ratrace” with audience participation. Sheet music will be provided.
*The Parsec Short Story Contest winning story is printed in the Confluence program book. For a copy of the program book, contact Karen: publicity@confluence-sff.org. A $5 S/H fee applies.
Saturday Featured Entertainers: Select Start
Saturday July 28th in Ballroom 1. Doors open for seating at 6:45. Performance starts at 7pm.
Hello everyone! Individually we are Bren, Christa, Christina, Justin, Morgan, Sara, Sean, Sharief, Stefanie & Steve. Follow us on social media, @selectstartimprov to learn more. We hope to see you in our audience soon! Ba-Ding!
Select Start does fast-paced, short-form improv comedy in the form of games. They love incorporating a theme into their shows and really commit to the bit. As a former student team of Arcade Comedy Theater (downtown Pittsburgh’s only non-profit comedy theater), they have since grown into an independent team of their own. They have won City Paper’s Best Comedian Act two years running (2023 & 2024), have been accepted to State College’s XL Improv Festival two years in a row (2024 & 2025) and have an improv residency two weekends of the year at The Pittsburgh Savoyards.
They offer two monthly shows at their home theater (Arcade) the third Sunday of each month (the Short Form Jelly – an open stage event) and the last Friday of each month (our fully produced themed show).
Confluence Book Discussion Groups
For several years, Confluence has looked back on the SF and fantasy of 50 years ago. We plan to do that again this year, with a panel discussing the works of 1975. But in addition, we plan something new: book discussion groups, where any readers can show up to discuss the work in question. In keeping with the idea of major works of 1975, we plan a discussion group for The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner and one for Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany. If you’ve read one of them and want to talk about it, please check the schedule and join your fellow readers.
Pitch Sessions with TBA
Pitch Sessions will open just as soon as we have more information!
- Signup is required.
- There is no additional cost but a Confluence membership is required to attend and register for the pitch sessions.
- Pitch Sessions are limited to ten participants!
Visit the PITCH SESSIONS (coming soon) page for more info.
Writing “Exercises” will be in the Equinox room this year.
Saturday and Sunday 9-10am – Attendees should bring a pen and paper or a computing device to write with—whatever suits you.
Facilitators: M. Christine Benner Dixon and Schereéya
No signup is required.
2025 Staff
These are the people that volunteer their time to bring Confluence to you!
Cat herder
Confluence 2025 Masking Policy
😷 Masking is optional and vaccines are not required. 🙂
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