This year's Guests of Honor include:

Brandon Sanderson

It was in 2003, while Brandon was in the middle of a creative writing graduate program at BYU, that he got a call from Tor editor Moshe Feder, who wanted to buy one of Brandon's books. Brandon had submitted the manuscript a year and a half earlier, and had almost given up on hearing anything, so he was surprised and delighted to receive the offer. In 2005 Brandon held his first published novel, Elantris, in his hands. Tor also published Brandon's Mistborn trilogy, followed by Warbreaker and then The Way of Kings, the first in the planned ten-volume series The Stormlight Archive.

Brandon expanded into the children's market when Scholastic published Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians, a middle-grade novel, in 2007. Nancy Pearl gave this book a very favorable review on National Public Radio. This was followed by Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones, Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia, and Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens.

In 2007, following the death of Robert Jordan, his widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, chose Brandon to complete his series The Wheel of Time based on his notes. The Gathering Storm in 2009 was followed by 2010’s Towers of Midnight. The final volume, A Memory of Light, will be released in 2012.

Jimmie P. Rodgers

Jimmie refers to himself as a circuitbender and maker of things. Well known for travelling to Hackerspaces and Makerspaces to run workshops that help people make cool things, he also is the inventor and purveyor of the LoL Shield, Atari Punk Console, and Open Heart electronic devices.

MC Frontalot

MC Frontalot first coined the phrase "nerdcore", and the decade since then has seen the genre of nerdcore hip-hop rapidly expanding in popularity. He has appeared at every Penny Arcade Expo from 2004 to 2010, and his songs "Penny Arcade Theme" and "Which MC Was That?" both appear in the dance video game In the Groove. His track 'Final Boss' featured over the end credits in the 2008 game Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 1. His songs "Living At the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" and "Origin of Species" (a satire of Creation Science) are available as downloadable tracks for Rock Band.

His antics have been captured in Nerdcore Rising, a documentary/concert film starring Frontalot and various other nerdcore artists such as mc chris, Optimus Rhyme and MC Lars with a contribution from Weird Al Yankovic. The film premiered at the 2008 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas and combines interviews about nerdcore and its origins, with footage of Frontalot's 2006 Nerdcore Rising national tour.

Frontalot was also interviews (as the reigning voice of nerdery) in the documentary The People vs. George Lucas, which premiered at the 2010 SxSW.

Howard Tayler

Howard Tayler is the author and artist of the Hugo nominated science fiction comic strip Schlock Mercenary (www.schlockmercenary.com), which has been running daily online since 2000. Prior to becoming a full-time cartoonist, Howard ran a small record production company and worked as a product manager for Novell. When Howard has spare time he paints pewter miniatures and plays role-playing games. Howard lives in Orem, Utah with his wife and four kids.