It’s time to say farewell to Helsinki—and hello to award-winning writer Amal El-Mohtar—in the final episode of Eating the Fantastic recorded during Worldcon 75. Our meal took place a mere 36 hours after she’d won this year’s Best Short Story Hugo Award for “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” for which she’d also won a Nebula Award earlier in the year.

We chose one of the city’s oldest seafood restaurants for our lunch—Sea Horse, which has been in operation since 1934. And it’s lasted that long for a good reason! We enjoyed the food and the ambiance so much I returned a few days later for dinner with my wife during our post-Worldcon stay.

Amal’s stories and poems have appeared in magazines such as Lightspeed, Uncanny, Strange Horizons, and Apex. Her stories “The Green Book” and “Madeleine” were finalists for the Nebula Award in 2011 and 2015 respectively, and “The Truth About Owls” won the Locus Award in 2015. She won the Rhysling award for Best Short Poem in 2009, 2011 and 2014, and in 2012 received the Richard Jefferies Poetry Prize.

We discussed the importance of female friendship, the first poem she wrote at age 6 1/2 (which you’ll hear her recite), how Charles de Lint helped her get her first bookstore job, the importance of welcoming newcomers into the tent of science fiction and fantasy, what she learned about empathy from Nalo Hopkinson, the only time she ever cosplayed, which book made her a writer, why Storm is her favorite member of the X-Men, the delicious magic of honey, the difficulties of reviewing books in a field where everybody knows everybody, and much more.

Here’s how to join us at our booth—

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Have a look at what we dined on as we chatted—

Amal’s creamy salmon soup

My vorschmack
with duchesse potato, pickled cucumber, onion, beetroot, and sour cream

My crispy fried vendice

Amal’s grilled Liver
with mashed potatoes and lingonberry sauce

Our frozen cranberries
with hot caramel sauce

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Join me in two weeks when it’s time to move on from Finland to Maryland for lunch during Baltimore Comic-Con with Marv Wolfman—the comics writer and editor famous for Tomb of Dracula, Blade, the New Teen Titans, and more, who was my boss when I worked as an assistant editor in the Marvel Bullpen back in the ‘70s.

Hope to see you then!