Laurie Mann

(1957 –)

Laurie Mann, May 2019

Laurie Mann (née Trask) has been part of online fandom since 1988 so she isn't afraid to use a kill file....

She's been in SF fandom since 1974, and is a con-running fan — she started working on cons in 1975. She's run cons of all sizes, from small Chococon, 1994, 14 people, Lexicon, 1985, about 50 people (con guide), chaired Smofcon 30, co-chaired Smofcon 25 and co-chaired Boskone 25. She worked on many Worldcons and all sizes of cons in between, most frequently Boskone and Confluence. She was the Program division head for Sasquan, a job she also held (with her husband, Jim Mann) for Millennium Philcon, and was an assistant Program division head for Renovation. She was the first editor of Mad 3 Party and helped organize FanHistoriCon 8. She has been a member of NESFA, MCFI, FANAC, and PARSEC. On the darker side, at Nolacon II, she was responsible for the tradition that the upcoming Worldcon host the Hugo Losers Party when that tradition was about to die out.

She started the first SF award Website in 1994 Awardweb, a listing of science fiction award nominees and winners. She created one of the first Websites for a convention, for the New Orleans World Fantasy Con in 1994. Laurie also ran Dead People Server, a database of celebrity death information from March 1997 to January 2017 (which later became a Facebook group).

Fanzines, APAs and apazines include: Proper Boskonian (two issues), Stratus SF SIG News, APA-NESFA, Apaloosa, APA-Q, Minneapa, and Scapa Flow. She's also been very active online, on AOL, GEnie, USENET, Twitter and created many pages for the World Wide Web.

She has been married to fellow fan Jim Mann since 1977; they have one fanspring, Leslie.

Laurie & Jim Mann, NorthAmeriCon, 1979.

About a month after she moved to Pittsburgh to start college at Carnegie-Mellon University, she started writing an occasional article for the student paper "The Tartan." She wrote a piece on cons, "PghLANGE and Other Cons," that was published in October 1975.

Article on SF Cons for The Tartan, the CMU Student Newspaper, October 1975

Errata Noted by the Author 46 Years Later...

• The paper editor changed the word "fanzine" to "fantasy" in one location.
• There were many more than 10 SF authors at Boskone in 1975.
• I did not go to a Star Trek con until something like 1990 or so; in 1976, I went to Boskone instead.
• The fact that I was taken aback by the idea of a 20,000 person media con in 1975 tells you why I never went to SDCC but have watched a few of its panels on YouTube over the years.

Various Writing

• Monty Wells and the NESFA Clubhouse: “Everything I Learned About Buying and Renovating Buildings I Learned from Monty Wells.”
• Personal Website.

Books Edited

• Glen Cook Sung in Blood
• William Tenn Dancing Naked Best Related Book Hugo Nominee

Zines Edited

• Proper Boskonian 27 (May 1990), 29 (February 1991), 29 (Spring 1992)
• Stratus SF SIG News

Also published many, many APAzines between 1975 and about 1992 or so before getting very involved in online fandom on USENET, GEnie and sometimes AOL in the pre-social media days.

Awards, Honors and GoHships:

• 1988 -- Fellow of NESFA
• 1992 -- Rivercon XVII
• 2005 -- ArmadilloCon 27

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Person

1957—

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