Media Guest of Honor Mick Garris is an award-winning writer, director, producer and series creator. As a screenwriter, Mick has written, co-written or adapted such feature films as Batteries Not Included, The Fly II, Hocus Pocus and Riding the Bullet, and he's written teleplays for Amazing Stories, Desperation, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Masters of Horror. He directed the miniseries The Stand and The Shining, the features Critters 2, Sleepwalkers and Riding the Bullet, and episodes of such series as Tales From the Crypt and Masters of Horror. Garris also created and co-produced Masters of Horror, and he created the NBC spin-off Fear Itself. He is also the author of the acclaimed story collection A Life in the Cinema and the novel Development Hell. He lives in Studio City with his wife Cynthia.
	John Farris is the best-selling author of dozens of horror novels including The Fury, Phantom Nights, and You Don’t Scare Me. He’s also written screenplays and short stories, and he is a past winner of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award.
	David Hartwell is a senior editor at Tor books. He is one of the most respected editors in the fields of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Since 1996 he has edited the annual Year’s Best SF (with Kathryn Cramer since 2002) and, with Cramer, the annual Year’s Best Fantasy since 2001. He has edited various horror anthologies, including the seminal work The Dark Descent. He is a past winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Hugo award for his editing.
	Richard Matheson is a legend in the horror field. His groundbreaking work includes the classic novels I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man, What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return, Hell House, and many others. He’s also written countless short stories - his collections include Mediums Rare - and he is the author of such renowned films as Roger Corman’s House of Usher, Hammer’s The Devil Rides Out and Stephen Spielberg’s Duel. He also wrote numerous episodes of the original series The Twilight Zone, including the famous “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Matheson is a past winner of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award.
	Richard Christian Matheson has carried on his father’s tradition of writing exceptional horror stories and writing successful screenplays. He has published the collections Scars and Other Distinguishing Marks and Dystopia, as well as the novel Created By, and 75 short stories. He has written screenplays for Masters of Horror, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, the feature films Three O'Clock High and Paradise, and the miniseries Sole Survivor. In his capacity as a tv series Executive Producer he has written and/or produced literally hundreds of episodes.
	Artist Guest of Honor Harry O. Morris has been a renowned and critically acclaimed artist in the horror genre since the late eighties. His work has graced the covers of numerous magazines and books, including titles from Scream/Press, Gauntlet, and the Dell Abyss line. He is a World Fantasy Award nominee for best artist and winner of the Small Press Writers of America best artist of the year in 1993. He was the artist Guest of Honor at the first World Horror Convention in Nashville, and we're proud to include him as the Stoker Weekend's first Artist Guest of Honor. You can see more of Harry's work (and purchase prints) here.

MASTER OF CEREMONIES

Jeff Strand was a Bram Stoker Award finalist in 2007 for his novel Pressure. He lost to Stephen King. Now he thinks it makes sense, but at the time he was all like "WTF?" As a consolation prize, he was offered the chance to emcee the 2008 Stokers, and he looked so dashing onstage in his tuxedo that he was asked to do it again in 2009. He's written a bunch of other books, including Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary), The Sinister Mr. Corpse, Gleefully Macabre Tales, Single White Psychopath Seeks Same, one-half of The Haunted Forest Tour, and Casket For Sale (Only Used Once). Despite having been a Stoker finalist and a Stoker emcee, he has never touched a Stoker trophy. You can check out his website at www.jeffstrand.com.

SPECIAL GUEST

Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of 19 books and over 200 short stories. He is a five-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award (twice for Short Fiction, once for Long Fiction, once for Collection and once for Anthology) and he is a recipient of the International Horror Guild award (for his novella "Kiss of the Mudman"); most recently he was nominated (with co-editor Hank Schwaeble) for the World Fantasy Award in the Anthology category. He is in an adjunct professor at Seton Hill University, and served as President of the Horror Writers Association. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with renowned science fiction writer and essayist Lucy Snyder. Find him online at www.garybraunbeck.com.

SPECIAL PUBLISHING GUEST

Barry Hoffman is the head of Gauntlet Press, which also includes Edge Books, a line of mass market paperbacks and mass market hardcovers, and Gauntlet Magazine, which is devoted to discussing censorship and the limits of free expression. Gauntlet is one of the leading publishers of fine signed and limited hardcover editions; a past winner of HWA's Specialty Press Award, authors they've published have included Richard Matheson, Richard Christian Matheson, Mick Garris, F. Paul Wilson, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Jack Ketchum, Poppy Z. Brite, and William Peter Blatty. Barry is also the acclaimed author of five novels, including the Stoker- and International Horror Guild-nominated Hungry Eyes, and he's just published his first Young Adult novel, Curse of the Shamra.