I’ve just returned from ICFA37, the best science fiction and fantasy convention ever. Hosted every year in Orlando, The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts is a scholarly conference devoted to the study of the fantastic, which includes science fiction, fairy tales and folklore, fantasy literature, and everything else you can imagine.

This year, the Guest of Honor was the generous and incomparable Holly Black, shown here signing The Copper Gauntlet for my goddaughter.

Holly also signed my precious copy of The Poison Eaters. (Don’t worry: this particular story collection, with its dark and uncanny adult themes, is definitely not for my goddaughter.)

Besides participating in a hilarious interview with Jedediah Berry, Holly Black also read from her forthcoming novel The Cruel Prince, which promises a glorious return to the world of Faerie.

The great thing about attending ICFA is seeing old friends. Jeanne Griggs presented on satire, and my pal Sandra Lindow read a brilliant paper on Nnedi Okorafor. Sandy is shown below with my beloved mentor Michael Levy, whose critical study Children’s Fantasy Literature will be released this month from Cambridge UP.

I did not spot the famous alligator that lives behind the conference hotel, but I did attend a fantastic crocodile-themed reading, which featured award-winning authors Sam J Miller, Jaimee Goh, and Nisi Shawl. At the banquet on Saturday night, Nisi and I extended the crocodile theme, both rocking the green velvet.

Since we’re doing the crocodile walk, let me slip in my favorite line from de Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater:

I was kissed, with cancerous kisses, by crocodiles; and laid, confounded with all unutterable slimy things, amongst reeds and Nilotic mud.

I have seriously waited for a decade to find an excuse to quote that particular passage.

Besides the stellar readings, there were dozens of fascinating panels at ICFA this year. I attended sessions on Miyazaki, Neil Gaiman, fairy tale adaptations, Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher, and more. My pals Jordan Smith Carroll and Kristi Eagar both won scholar awards–good for them! Simone Caroti gave a paper on China Miéville, which I had to miss because novelist and microbiologist Joan Slonczewski hosted a fascinating breakfast discussing gut bacteria and fungal networks in forests. Every hour, there were at least three panels I wanted to attend.

As always when I attend fantasy conventions, I brought along some knitting. The gorgeous yarn shown below is Malabrigo’s worsted merino, and it came from my dear friend Solveig’s stash. I miss her so much, even when I’m traveling to new places, even when I’m surrounded by old friends. I miss her every day.

Here’s a final photo from the awards banquet on Saturday night. Farewell, ICFA. I can’t wait for next year.