Meet Our Fantasycon 2026 Guests of Honour: Francesca T Barbini

With Fantasycon getting ever-closer, our online content editor Lauren McMenemy caught up with this year’s Guests of Honour for a very different sort of interview. No spoilers for their chats at the con proper; hear more about their Fantasycon experiences, and, importantly, what they’d like to wear to mark them out as Fantasycon Royalty.

We’re excited that Francesca T Barbini, found of Luna Press Publishing, joins us in Glasgow as one of our Guests of Honour. Watch the interview on our YouTube channel, here, or read the transcript below.

Who is Francesca T Barbini?

Francesca T Barbini is an award-winning editor, translator, and Director of Luna Press Publishing. Born and raised in Rome, Italy, she completed a MA Honours in Religious Studies at New College, Edinburgh University, focusing on the Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls, followed by a PGDE at Edinburgh University. She is currently completing a PhD in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University.

Regular attendees at Fantasycon will no doubt be familiar with Francesca and with Luna Press, who have won the award for Best Independent Press three times—not to mention the many awards and nominations received by their titles. Francesca is a warm and enthusiastic member of the UK genre community, always happy to support others and lend a helping hand, and we are delighted to welcome her as a Guest of Honour at Fantasycon 2026.

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Interview transcript

Lauren: I know! As we speak, it’s the end of September, so we’re like two and a half weeks away. Very exciting. But you have, of course, been named a guest of honour. So can I ask to start off with, how did you find out, and what does it mean to you to be a guest of honour at Fantasycon?

Francesca: Well, I found out in Belfast actually when we were there for Eastercon last year, and I really couldn’t quite believe it. I must admit, it was such a such a huge honour, and and I was so excited, and it was like—it’s that sense of our community is very tight, you know, we’re all very close, and we all work together for things. So you never really think that, I never really thought that that could happen, really. But it’s such a nice thing to be asked to share things I suppose in a bit more of a formal way, if you like, than just maybe doing what you normally do at conventions. So I was really, really chuffed. I couldn’t honestly believe it and just the face of David Green when he told me he was grinning as well. So it was very conspiratorial, you know. Everybody was giggling. No, honestly, was it was really really exciting, so I am so happy. Thank you so much for that.

Lauren: That’s brilliant. A little bit of a secret between you all for a for a little while until it was announced. But yeah, as I say, it is something a little bit more official than just having a chat to you in the bar or after a launch or something. The guests of honour are, I guess, like the prom kings and queens of the con, really. So if we were to bestow some sort of token upon you to mark you out publicly as con royalty, what would it be? What sort of visible sign would you like to have around you?

Francesca: Okay, so I think I’m going to go back into my well. I’m going to Middle Earth, so I would like a little Elven sort of very delicate kind of crowny type thing, tiara, whatever you call it. Normally when I’m with the Tolkien Society, you can give your badge name, and I always use Even Star, so the Night Star, and I like the idea of something quite like that. It’s not too in your face, but it’s still a little delicate elven thing. I feel very much not like an elf most of the time, but still, that would be the thing. That would be something I I would probably wear quite happily.

Lauren: Sure, something like you say is not completely obvious, but if you if you get close enough—Oh, there’s something about her. I don’t know what it is. All right, so I’ll start calling you Even Star then. So, do you remember your first FantasyCon?

Francesca: Yes, it was in Peterborough, and at the time, I remember driving down from Edinburgh on the Thursday night, and it was the very first time—we had done a couple of Eastercons, but never the Fantasycon. And so this was—no, backtrack. It was Scarborough. It was Scarborough. I don’t even know if I’m pronouncing it right, but I think, yeah, Scarborough, and so we drove after work. We arrived kind of really late at night at the this big Scarborough hotel, very old fashioned but you know quite beautiful, and we met Alex Davis outside who was moving boxes and things, and so we we managed to get all the dealer’s books organised and brought in. It was such an exciting time because we started to meet a lot of people that then would become very very important for the Luna family, you know, not just from an authorial point of view or freelancers’ point of view, but also friends, you know, as it happens at a con. So that was very exciting. I clearly also remember receiving a ticket for having parked in an area that I didn’t think was wrong, but then again, it was very late at night. I wasn’t sure, so there you go. So I paid the ticket, Scarborough Council!

And of course I will never forget the room invasion by the seagull who thought that it was a good idea to just come in and plonk itself in a bathtub. So he stayed with us for the rest of the con.

Lauren: Oh, you made a friend! I think they held Chillercon there, the one and only time they’ve done that con. That’s a big hotel, and it’s a beautiful old hotel, but it is very close to the beach. And I did not have a lovely window. I had one of the the rooms that barely has a window. It’s like, you know, out in the sort of bit that they’ve like cobbled together some rooms for, and like they don’t actually have—

Anyway, that’s not that’s not what we’re here to talk about! That was, well I guess pre-pandemic, really, it was a good few years ago. So, obviously, since then, Luna has gone from strength to strength, multi award nominated, always out there. Everybody’s heard of Luna Press. So, how has your career in books progressed since then? And and what are you most proud of in that time?

Francesca: So for me, I was just reflecting on this. The journey has not just been from a publishing point of view, but also a growth path for me as a person. The two things that have always been part of the growth of Luna have been to do with creating connection between people—so creating relationships between me and the authors, the freelancers, creating this sense of community; that was a very strong ethos from the start—but also the idea of sustainability. These two things have followed my growth as well, you know, in the last 11 years, and it is something that I was reflecting on. I suppose up until Covid it was almost in hindsight, in the sense that these were the things that I had done because they felt natural to me, but there wasn’t really necessarily a plan behind it. But it was only after Covid that I started to truly look at what is there that is allowing Luna to continue to thrive at that point in time. And those were the two things that immediately stood out for me, and that I continue to develop until today. And so, of course, then the end of that journey eventually meant that I ended up a university because I wanted to do more research on specific topics, and in particular, author care. So for me, it has been an overall journey for the press in terms of—those are the things that as a business owner, as a publisher, as a person I can see a lot of progression in my life, and as an educator, because for me education has always been part of my life. But when it comes to the satisfaction that Luna has brought, the sort of visible success, if you like, to see authors not just going from debut to more traditional avenues with larger publishers, but also the recognition of seeing big agencies or traditionally published authors coming to the small presses, and in this case, coming to Luna. There has been a lot of that, and a lot of beautiful relationships being created between the authors of the Luna family. So to me, that has always been so exciting to see how the recognition that is coming from outside is affecting all of our authors as well. And so in general, it’s just been such a lovely growth in consideration of the fact that you know we’ve managed to pass a very tough time, which I’m not now—we’re gonna be talking about that at Fantasycon, but it’s not been an easy time in publishing, and it continues to be extremely challenging. So, I’m absolutely so grateful that we’re still here and we’re still growing, and we have a lovely family of authors and artists and freelancers.

Lauren: No, that’s definitely something that I can see marks out Luna Press as well, is just everybody’s so excited to be part of a family, as you say. So it’s a it’s a beautiful thing you’ve created, and yes, for more on the publishing world make sure you go and and hear Francesca be interviewed at Fantasycon about all of those ups and downs of what it is like in the business side of what we do. But before then, I have one more question for you. Fantasycon is obviously one of our longer ones, it’s a three-day convention. Do you have any tips for surviving, especially for newbies who might be at their first con?

Francesca:  Well, okay. So interestingly, from the start of my very first convention in pure Francesca style, I didn’t just go in to enjoy it. I literally went in and got myself straight into the mix. I had my dealers table, I was running workshops, etc. So on the one hand, I would say that if you can, if you feel up for it, don’t be shy and take the plunge and try something because actually it is a beautiful community of people and everybody’s so kind and so open and it will give you a chance to maybe run a workshop if that is your thing, or maybe do a little reading in a room with someone or join a smaller group. So do become part of the world if you can. I would say don’t be shy and go for it because it is a lovely, lovely community and I can tell you that after all these you know 12/13 years that I have so many amazing friends that have come from our world. So it’s definitely worthy. The other one about surviving, I suppose, is if you know the program will be out in advance [ed note: find it here!], do spend some time looking over it so that you know exactly what you want to see. Make yourself a plan and make sure to carve a little bit of space for yourself as well. Maybe a little bit of calm time. And finally, stock up on snacks because generally hotel bars and whatnot are very pricey. So bring provisions.

Lauren: Absolutely, remember the water and the muesli bars, and you will be fine. Francesca, thank you so much for taking the time out today. We will see you in Glasgow on the—I’m going to get it all wrong. It’s like the eighth to the 10th of October.

Francesca: Yes, it is—oh, the 11th!

Lauren: Okay, that’s the one. That’s the like that weekend. Yeah, yeah. That weekend. It’s like the second weekend of October. It’s a few weeks away. Tickets are still on sale, so please do grab them, and we will see you all in Glasgow.

Francesca: Absolutely, thank you so much.