Åcon is an annual science fiction convention

Science fiction convention

Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...

, held in May or June every year in Mariehamn

Mariehamn

Mariehamn is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government and Parliament of Åland, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city...

, Åland. It was founded in 2007 with the goal of bringing Swedish and Finnish science fiction fandom together, and described as being a literary relaxacon

Relaxacon

A relaxacon is a science fiction convention which has little programming, and is unlikely to have a dealer's room, as the point of a relaxacon is the organizers can relax during the convention...

 with all programming in English. While a few of the participants are Ålanders, the majority travel from mainland Finland and Sweden for the convention.

Past guests of honour have included authors such as Hal Duncan

Hal Duncan

Hal Duncan is a Scottish science fiction and fantasy writer who published two novels, one novella, three poetry collections and several short stories.His works have been listed in the New Weird genre but he denies that such genre was even known to him at the time...

, Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald (author)

Ian McDonald is a British science fiction novelist, living in Belfast. His themes include nanotechnology, postcyberpunk settings, and the impact of rapid social and technological change on non-Western societies.- Biography :...

, Steph Swainston

Steph Swainston

Steph Swainston is a British literary fantasy/science fiction author, receiving critical acclaim for her first novel The Year of Our War . The book won the 2005 Crawford Award and a nomination for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. The sequel No Present Like Time was published in 2005...

 and Geoff Ryman

Geoff Ryman

Geoffrey Charles Ryman is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and surrealistic or "slipstream" fiction.Ryman currently lectures in Creative Writing for University of Manchester's English Department. His most recent full-length novel, The King's Last Song, is set in Cambodia, both at the time of...

.