Ad Astra (convention)

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For other uses, see Ad astra.

Ad Astra
Status	Active
Genre	Science fiction and Fantasy
Venue	Crowne Plaza Toronto Don Valley Hotel
Location	Toronto, Ontario
Country	Canada
First held	1982
Official website

Ad Astra is an annual literary science fiction convention in Toronto. Major events of the convention include the Masquerade, Guest of Honour presentations, panel discussions, Art Show, and Dealer's Room, as well as a wide variety of privately-run room parties. Other events on the convention program include a games room, book launches, and the Saturday evening dance.

Ad Astra 27 was held on March 28-30, 2008, and featured Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Yvonne Gilbert, Howard Tayler, and Christopher Golden as guests of honour. In 2006, the guests of honour included Cory Doctorow, Ed Beard, Phyllis Gotlieb. In previous years, guests have included prominent Canadian writers including Robert J. Sawyer, Nalo Hopkinson, Tanya Huff, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Charles Wilson, Phyllis Gotlieb, etc., as well as internationally renowned authors including C. J. Cherryh, David Brin, Connie Willis, Larry Niven, Lois McMaster Bujold, Frederik Pohl, Katherine Kurtz, Orson Scott Card, James P. Hogan and others. Ad Astra has continued to evolve past its focus on literature to include programming dedicated to costuming, art, filking, and media. In some years, Jason Taniguchi has performed popular one-man parody shows at the convention.