queen and princesses 3.jpg
Two knights in armor jousting on horseback at a Renaissance fair, with spectators watching from a balcony.
Mermaid Magic.jpg
A bird flying towards the camera with a man in a medieval costume in the background and an audience watching.
Pirate-themed amusement ride with person strapped to bungee cords above playground area, surrounded by trees.
Two women at a Renaissance fair enjoying turkey legs; one is biting into a large turkey leg while the other holds a piece of meat on a skewer. The background features festival buildings and other attendees.
A person wearing fairy wings and a floral headdress blows glitter from their hands.
primrose.jpg
Low 1.jpg

2026 Special Guest Authors For
Time Travelers Weekend

Nathan Ballingrud

 
 


Nathan Ballingrud (Appearing Saturday & Sunday)

Nathan Ballingrud is the author of North American Lake Monsters, Wounds: Six Stories from the Border of Hell, The Strange, Crypt of the Moon Spider, Cathedral of the Drowned, and the forthcoming Kingdom of the Conqueror Worm. He’s won the Shirley Jackson Award twice, and has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and Locus awards. His work has been adapted for both film and television. He currently lives in Asheville, NC.

Piper CJ

 
 


Piper CJ (Appearing Saturday & Sunday)

Piper CJ, author of the USA Today bestselling bisexual fantasy series The Night and Its Moon and No Other Gods, and New York Times bestselling series Fern’s School for Wayward Fae, is a photographer, hobby linguist, and French fry enthusiast. She has an M.A. in folklore and a B.A. in broadcasting, which she used in her former life as a morning-show weather girl, hockey podcaster, and in audio documentary work. Now when she isn’t playing with her dog, she’s gaming, binging cartoons, dissecting fairy tales, or disappointing her parents. 

F.T. Lukens

 
 


F. T. Lukens (Appearing Saturday & Sunday)

F. T. Lukens is a New York Times bestselling author of YA speculative fiction including the novels Spell Bound, The Last Best Quest Ever, So This Is Ever After, Love at Second Sight, Otherworldly, and In Deeper Waters (2022 ALA Rainbow Booklist; Junior Library Guild Selection). Their contemporary fantasy novel The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic was a 2017 Cybils Award finalist in YA Speculative Fiction and won the Bisexual Book Award for Speculative Fiction. F.T. resides in North Carolina with their spouse, three kids, three dogs, and three cats.

S. Jae-Jones

 
 


S. Jae-Jones (Appearing Saturday and Sunday)

S. Jae-Jones (called JJ) is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the New York Times bestselling author of the Wintersong duology and the Guardians of Dawn series. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now lives on the wrong coast, where she can’t believe she has to deal with winter every year. When not writing, JJ can be found working toward her next black belt degree in taekwondo, being run ragged by her twin dogs, Castor and Pollux, or indulging in her favorite hobby — collecting more hobbies.

signe pike

 
 


Signe Pikes (Appearing Saturday Only)

Signe Pike worked as a book editor at Random House and then Penguin before leaving to write a travel memoir entitled Faery Tale: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World. In 2018 she published her debut novel, The Lost Queen, which became a series, and is currently in development for television. Pike has researched and written about Celtic history for nearly fifteen years, specializing in the early medieval time period, and participates in archeological digs in Scotland as part of her research process.

These special guest author appearances
are made possible by: