The Best of Connie Willis

Editor’s Note

Connie Willis is known not only for her amazing fiction—some of which is on dazzling display in this volume, and much of which is still out there for you to discover, if you have not done so already—but also for her signature speeches at various events and conventions. These speeches are moving and funny and so very quintessentially Connie that you can’t help falling in love with her not only as a writer, but as an incredible human being.

So, as a special added bonus, we are publishing three of her speeches here, for your reading pleasure. Two have been delivered before—one at the 2006 Worldcon, where Connie was Guest of Honor, and one at the 2012 Nebula Awards, where Connie received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. The third was never delivered.

I know the reading experience can’t quite replicate Connie’s expert delivery (although the format of the speeches will give you some insight into how they are meant to be read), but I still found myself smiling and with tears in my eyes at the end of each one.

Enjoy! And thank you, Connie, for everything you do.

—Anne Lesley Groell

Executive Editor

(and LSE: Long-Suffering Editor*[1])