Special thanks to SFPA member for putting Confluence 2019 in Pittsburgh on our radar, noting several speculative poets attending the proceedings including Mary Soon Lee, Mary A. Turzillo, Herb Kauderer, Geoffrey A. Landis and more. A panel/reading is planned for Saturday at 1pm  and there are several separate individual readings we can likely expect, in addition to filk sessions. This year's guest of honor is Tobias Buckell and musical guest Michael “Moonwulf” Longcor. Cat Rambo will be providing writing workshops. First convened in 1988, Confluence began as a cooperative effort between the University of Pittsburgh science fiction club and the people of Parsec. It started out as a one-day conference and has grown to the 3-day event it is now.  The first three or four conventions were called “The nth Annual Pittsburgh Science Fiction Conference”; by the fourth or fifth iteration, the name “Confluence” had been adopted. Confluence is presented by Parsec, a 501(c)(3) organization. The mission of Parsec is to promote awareness of the richness of speculative fiction as literature, art and music; further general education in the sciences and arts, support contribution, both scientific and artistic, to society and to espouse the enjoyment of speculative fiction as literature, art and music with others.