I wrote the first draft of this piece with my shark shaped Nympho Shark Fuck Frenzy promotional pen that I got from BizarroCon 2026. Look at this beauty:

I was casually interested in BizarroCon for a few years, but it was almost always in Astoria, Oregon, and I wasn’t able to afford both the plane ticket and lodging. This year it was held in Portland, where I have friends I can stay with, so I said “screw it”, and bought my ticket without knowing what to expect.

My experience could only be described as pure magic. Not only did I reunite with friends in the horror/bizarro space, I met my collaborator Bitter Karella (check out her Stoker Award nominated novel Moonflow!) in person for the first time, and made so many new friends and bonds with new folks. All who were on the same wavelength, shared the same values, and we're up to extremely cool shit.

In this piece, I’m not going to give a play-by-play of what happened at the con. If you want that, I recommend reading Nikolas P. Robinson’s excellent recap about what actually went down. Instead, I’d like to talk about my experience in broader strokes, and the values I saw represented that made it so special for me.

Catalyzing thought

The energy field created by the shared wavelengths of like minded individuals was palpable, stimulating conversations about art or the creative life didn’t require the prerequisite of “I'm gonna need you to get cool with a lot of things real quick” or a base understanding of what art means, what it's for, and what it can do. The exchanges were unguarded, freely able to reach levels that they couldn't with others that didn't have the shared foundation to build it on.

BizarroCon attendees just get it. And when so many people who “get it” are in the same place, so much more ground can be covered with sharing ideas and observations, and catalyzing new thought. Because it’s in-person, and not online, we’re able to talk about things we actually care about, things that actually matter, not whatever topic the rage-powered algorithm has pushed on to us, or whatever media property that a mega corporation has pumped enough money into shove in our face and practically force to form and voice an opinion on.

Sincerity, absurdity, play

BizarroCon was incredibly sincere—like, off the charts sincere. The cage of cringe was vaporized. There was no room for ironic enjoyment, or detached sarcasm. Keep in mind that attendees of this con write books with titles like Cannibal Sluts 4, Nympho Shark Fuck Frenzy, and Shit Love and Burgers.

We take our work extremely seriously, but the work is playful and humorous. What we do is not a joke, but laughter is a welcome response. The line between joking and seriousness is obliterated, the false binary destroyed. The sacred exists alongside the profane. Mirth exists alongside grave seriousness. And these seemingly polar opposites do not diminish each other, they only enhance each other and create a more multifaceted prism to view the human experience through. It channels the sublime, it channels true, sacred clownery.

It's not a coincidence that the most influential publisher in the space is Eraserhead Press, named after the film by David Lynch. One of the things I love about Lynch’s work is how it embraces the wide range of human experience into one work, like how I’ve explained here. This ethos is most easily seen in his magnum opus, with Mark Frost, The Return. It’s the type of art I’m most inspired by.

Art is important

At BizarroCon art and our work as fiction writers is considered as valuable as it truly is. There's been a disheartening trend online of artists falling all over themselves to say how art isn't important because it can't single-handedly stop evil and fascism (as if anything can do it single-handedly) and therefore any self-importance from artist about their practice is embarrassing and bad.

Of course art has this limitations and strengths like everything else, and sometimes artists are guilty of overstating its strengths in order to make its intangible benefits more concrete, but art is truly vital. I have a lot more to say about this, so I'll put it in another post.

At BizarroCon the importance of art was spoken about without any hesitation. Authors worked to inspire their fellow artists to engage with their art practice fully and to deliver all that art has to offer.

There’s always SOME one who gets it (The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown)

The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown was described on the website as “the craziest, most fun, most bizarro performance-readings imaginable.” I didn't participate this year, because I wasn't sure what it was really about, and I almost didn't attend to conserve my energy for the next day. God, I'm so glad I did.

The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown is essentially competitive outsider performance art, which is completely my shit. Caleb Wilson (who ended up winning first place) kicked it off perfectly with his “Ritual to Kill a Billionaire” performance that included a masked figure that gave a recorder performance while entranced plants in the audience stripped down and undulated to the mysterious flute-like melody. Fingers crossed!

Matthew J. Gleason followed it up, still shirtless, with the joke “I just flew in to Portland, and boy are my arms in Portland” followed by a reading of the 1996 Dr. Who film script off his phone, complete with sound effects. More brilliant performances followed, Bridget D Brave’s “guided meditation” was another standout, and I was dying with laughter throughout many of them.

While a good amount of people seemed to enjoy each performance, there was often a single person in the audience dying with laughter (I believe that was me for more than a couple) to an otherwise non-dying-with-laughter room.

There was no true bombing, because there was always at least one person that the weirdness of the performance seemed to perfectly make their internal tuning fork vibrate.

Another big theme of the con, that I think is relevant here, is by expressing yourself in-person and publicly, no matter how strange it may be to mainstream society, you are giving others the permission to do the same.

And, so…

In regards to the rest of the con, the workshops and food were excellent, and there was a free session with a professional photographer for headshots. I want to commend the organizer Constance Ann Fitzgerald and her team for creating such a great con.

There were also multiple puppets in attendance, include Gogee the Goblin who attended every day with A.E. Hofmockel. I don’t know if this was the only con for writers that has puppets in attendance, but I’m sure it broke some sort of a record for the amount of puppets cameos in a fiction convention. I think that says a lot!

Overall the experience of the con left me inspired, intellectually stimulated, clearheaded, and most of all ALIVE. I think we need to add “hangout IRL with weirdos” to our calls to “touch grass.”

Until next year at Bizarrocon!