Elise Matthesen

Elise Matthesen has been a convention runner, writer, poetry editor, filker, fanzine fan and apahacker, fanfic writer, and nominee for the World Fantasy Award. She is proud of being repeatedly requested as panel moderator by Jane Yolen. With Jane, she’s a member of the Lady Poetesses from Hell. Her old bio says, “She has a hearing impairment, fibromyalgia, arthritis, attitude, ingenuity, numerous publication credits, and more than two dozen pairs of pliers,” but that’s changed. She now calls one of her disabilities “hard of hearing” rather than “a hearing impairment,” though she still persists in saying “lip reading” rather than “speech reading.” She’s added several chronic illnesses and is trying to summarize the mobility stuff beyond “walks with a cane, sometimes can’t walk a long ways, and a long ways varies from day to day.” She gave away many of the pliers to people who needed them. You can tell how she’s doing by checking out how many new shinies are in her Etsy shop, because making art is her way of surviving. Her pronouns are all of the pronouns, though most people use she/her — and that’s fine too. (If you want specifics: queer, bisexual, genderqueer, nonbinary, demigirl, polyamorous.) She sings and is learning several instruments, and would rather make music with people than pretty much any other intimate interaction.