Archipelacon is the largest science fiction and fantasy convention organised on the Åland islands. The first Archipelacon was organised in 2015 and it was such a success, organising a new one right away in 2025 felt like a good idea. Archipelacon 2 will also be the 2025 Eurocon.
Venue
Alandica Culture & Congress Centre – Mariehamn, Åland, Finland
Situated in the eastern harbour of Mariehamn, Alandica is a great venue for a science fiction convention. The Danish architecture bureau Kjaer & Richter designed the building with modern functionalism and inspiration from the islands and red rocks of the archipelago. Read more about the venue
Guests of honour
Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer manages an invisible border and a white rabbit farm in the wilds of North Florida. In addition to being a terroir tour guide for the area, he has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award 17 times and a winner four times. In addition, VanderMeer’s presumably fictional work has won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award, among others. His Southern Reach Trilogy has been translated into 35 languages and a film titled Annihilation. Currently, the AMC network is turning his Arthur C. Clarke Award finalist novel Borne, about a friendly psychotic bear, into a TV series. VanderMeer’s nonfiction on the environment has appeared in Esquire, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Current Affairs, and Orion Magazine.
Ann VanderMeer
Ann VanderMeer is an award-winning editor & anthologist. She currently serves as an acquiring editor for Tor.com and Weird Fiction Review and is the Editor-in-Residence for Shared Worlds, a Science Fiction and Fantasy writing camp for high school students. Her latest anthologies include The Time Traveler’s Almanac, Sisters of the Revolution, The Big Book of Science Fiction, AVATARS, INC (an online XPRIZE anthology), The Big Book of Classic Fantasy and The Big Book of Modern Fantasy.
Mats Strandberg
Mats Strandberg’s slasher novel The Conference, about the teambuilding from hell, has been filmed for Netflix and opens globally in 2023. This year, he also made his debut as a playwright.
His big breakthrough was the YA novel The Circle, written with Sara B Elgren and published in 2011. He has since then written horror novels such as Blood Cruise and The Home, as well as childrens’ books and a self-help guide called Monsters in Therapy. His dystopian novel The End was named one of the YA books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, got the Audiobook of the Year award in Sweden, and was nominated for a European Science Fiction Award. He is currentlu working on a new horror novel, a graphic novel and movie and tv projects. Mats’ books are available in over 25 languages.
Emmi Itäranta
Emmi Itäranta (b. 1976) is a Finnish author who writes fiction in two languages, Finnish and English. Her debut novel Memory of Water (Teemestarin kirja) won several awards in Finland and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Golden Tentacle Award. It has also been adapted into a film. She has since published two other well-received novels, The Weaver (Kudottujen kujien kaupunki) and The Moonday Letters (Kuunpäivän kirjeet).
Itäranta often writes about environmental themes, and her books have been characterised as lyrical dystopias. Her work has been translated to more than twenty languages. She now lives in Tampere, Finland, after spending 14 years in the UK, and plans to keep writing until the stars grow cold.
