This volume of the WisCon Chronicles celebrates, challenges, and discusses the varied faces of WisCon 33. Its contributors include a mix of writers, scholars, and fans, among whom number Nisi Shawl, Nancy Jane Moore, Andrea Hairston, Jennifer Pelland, JoSelle Vanderhooft, MJ Hardman, and Beverly Friend. It also, notably, includes a handful of short stories. And as with previous volumes, it does not shy away from controversy.

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of five novels and three short story collections. Her recent novel, The Jane Austen Book Club, spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list and was a New York Times Notable Book. Fowler's previous novel, Sister Noon, was a finalist for the 2001 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, was a New York Times Notable Book, as was her second novel, The Sweetheart Season. Fowler's short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999. She is a founding member of the James Tiptree Jr. Award and is president of the Clarion Foundation. She lives in Santa Cruz, California. Debbie Notkin has been a science-fiction and fantasy acquisitions editor (Tor Books), a science-fiction and fantasy bookstore owner (The Other Change of Hobbit, Berkeley, California), as well as a reviewer, essayist, and appreciator of the field. She is active in helping run WisCon, the world's largest feminist science-fiction convention. She is the chair of the James Tiptree Award motherboard. She wrote the text for Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes, and Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes, both with photography by Laurie Toby Edison. She blogs about body image and related topics at Body Impolitic.