Worldcons have often been criticized for overlooking potential candidates for Guest of Honor because those making the decision don’t have a broad enough knowledge of the whole field (books, movies, TV, art, comics, you name it, in every country). To counteract this the San José in 2018 team is asking for suggestions for potential Guests of Honor, should they win their bid to host Worldcon.

Worldcon’s Guest of Honor appointments function as a sort of lifetime achievement award for contributors to SF & F literature, arts and the community. SJ in 2018 asks people to send guest recommendations to goh@sjin2018.org, and to include in their recommendation how the candidate meets the basic criteria for consideration and why they think the candidate should be honored.

Recommendations will be accepted through December 15, 2015.

The traditional criteria for Worldcon Guest of Honor consideration are:

• An established career, usually considered to be 30 years from entry into the field.
• Current relevance, usually considered to be current activity and notability. In the case of writers, availability of their back catalog in print/distribution is an excellent yardstick.
• No prior recognition as a Worldcon Guest of Honor (for past guests, see here).

For full details see the SFSFC website.