Toronto writer Terese Mason Pierre brings Canadian BIPOC voices to Worldcon
Terese Mason Pierre is a Toronto writer, poet and editor serving as a Special Guest at LAcon V, the 84th World Science Fiction Convention, running Aug. 27–31 in Anaheim, California.
Toronto writer, poet and editor Terese Mason Pierre has been given one of Worldcon’s featured platforms this week, and she has already said what she wants to do with it.
“I hope to use the space I’m given to champion both SFF poets and Canadian BIPOC SFF writers,” Pierre said when LAcon V announced her as a Special Guest.
The 84th World Science Fiction Convention opened Thursday in Anaheim, California, and runs through Aug. 31. Pierre is appearing throughout the five-day convention, culminating in a featured Special Guest interview Saturday afternoon.
It is a larger role at an event where Pierre is already familiar.
She participated in Worldcon programming in Chicago in 2022, Glasgow in 2024 and Seattle in 2025. Her previous appearances have included discussions of Black speculative fiction, speculative poetry, inclusion, Afrofuturism and the work editors look for in poetry submissions.
This year, she is returning as one of LAcon V’s official Special Guests.
Building a place for Black Canadian speculative fiction
Pierre’s stated goal for Worldcon follows work she has already been doing in Canadian publishing.
She edited As the Earth Dreams: Black Canadian Speculative Stories, published by House of Anansi Press in October 2025.
The anthology brings together speculative short fiction by Black writers in Canada, with contributors including Trynne Delaney, francesca ekwuyasi, Whitney French, Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga, Chimedum Ohaegbu, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Chinelo Onwualu, Lue Palmer and Zalika Reid-Benta.
The stories move through science fiction, fantasy and other speculative territory, from resurrection and alternate realms to social collapse, magic and imagined Black futures.
The collection has continued to attract attention in speculative-fiction circles in 2026. It is among the finalists for this year’s Ignyte Award for Outstanding Anthology/Collected Works.
Pierre’s own writing crosses between literary and speculative work.
Her debut full-length poetry collection, Myth, was published by House of Anansi in 2025. The collection moves between real and imagined worlds, drawing on land, ancestry, the Caribbean, mythology and speculative futures.
She is also a Writers’ Trust Journey Prize winner and was named a Writers’ Trust Rising Star in 2023, selected by writer Wayde Compton.
Pierre lives and works in Toronto and holds an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her writing has appeared in publications including The Walrus, ROOM, Brick, Quill & Quire, Uncanny and Fantasy Magazine.
Her work extends beyond her own books.
Pierre is currently chief programming officer and an editor with Augur, the Canadian speculative arts organization, and is co-director of AugurCon, its biennial speculative literature conference.
A full Worldcon schedule
Pierre’s Special Guest designation comes with a substantial role in this year’s Worldcon programming.
Her Thursday schedule included a Table Talk and the convention’s Poetry Deathmatch.
On Friday, she is scheduled to join Leveling Up Responsibility in Speculative Genres, followed by Writing Between Worlds: Diasporic Influence in SFF.
Saturday puts speculative poetry and Pierre herself at the centre of the program. She will take part in a morning panel called What Editors Look For In Speculative Poetry before sitting down for her Special Guest interview at 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.
Her appearances continue Sunday with an autograph session and a panel on moving from writing poetry into guest editing.
On Monday, the final day of the convention, Pierre is scheduled for a discussion about whether writers should pursue an MFA, followed by a reading of her own work.
The schedule closely reflects the different parts of Pierre’s career: writer, poet, editor and literary organizer.
It also gives her several opportunities to pursue the goal she set when Worldcon announced her appointment in December.
After several years appearing at Worldcon as a panelist, moderator and reader, Pierre is back with a larger platform — and an explicit intention to use some of it to direct attention toward speculative poets and Canadian BIPOC writers.
Toronto writer, poet and editor Terese Mason Pierre has been given one of Worldcon’s featured platforms this week, and she has already said what she wants to do with it.