Con report: PulpFest 2025

This past Aug. 7-10, 2025, PulpFest 2025 was held in Pittsburgh, again at the DoubleTree in Mars, Penn. This was my third time attending.

In addition, there were three associated events. There was FarmerCon XX, ERBFest 2025, and Doc Con 2025. The program book for PulpFest is The Pulpster, which I have reviewed the latest one, #34.

Also, for FarmerCon, the folks at Meteor House put out a program booklet, which I got a copy of. It has several short articles, and a tradition of FarmerCon is folks signing each other’s programs, which I think is a nice one. And the Burroughs Bibliophiles put out a program booklet for ERBFest along with a nice package of prints for Bibliophile members. The Doc Con folks had a flyer with events for that.

Overall, this was a great event. There were many dealers and attendees, almost 500 people, the largest ever. There were several new ones, and a few I wish were there. I brought several books to be signed by authors there, and got several new books there as well. I got quite a few new and used books and fanzines. The PulpFest site lists the many dealers and authors who were there, and they had a lot more this past year.

The 2025 Munsey Award, which is presented annually to an individual or institution that has bettered the pulp community, was given to John DeWalt, whom I know through the Pulp Era Amateur Press Society. A long-time pulp researcher, he may be best known for putting out Key to Other Doors: Some Lists for a Pulp Collector’s Notebook, which I’ve reviewed here. Also, this year, the Rusty Hevelin Service Award was given out to long-time dealer Ray Walsh. Information on these awards and their recipients may be found on the PulpFest site as well.

Unlike the past two trips, this time I came up on Wednesday night so I could be there for the events starting Thursday. And I am glad I did. It was great spending time with the various authors and dealers, and having time for all the presentations and the like. I had to leave early Sunday morning to catch my flight.

Most days, the dealers’ room opened at 9 a.m., with talks starting around 1 p.m. Several of the talks were tied to articles in The Pulpster. I was able to get an article in The Pulpster this year, which was nice.

If you’ve never taken the time to attend PulpFest, I encourage everyone to do so. The date for the next PulpFest is set: July 30-Aug. 2, 2026, at the same hotel near Pittsburgh. The theme of next year will be 100 years of Amazing Stories, as well as 100 years of Ghost Stories. There may be something tied to the 150th birthday of Jack London as well.

And the Shadowed Circle folks are talking of doing a Shadow convention of some sort. The PulpFest website is already updated with this information.