Presenter

Chris Oakley owned and operated Oakley’s Gently Used Books, a bricks & mortar used bookshop with a specialty in Sci Fi/Fantasy, for more than 20 years (1995-2016) in Charlottesville, VA. She has been a bookseller at Madicon, MarsCon, MystiCon, RavenCon, Libertycon DSC50, DSC60 and Omegacon and a panelist at ConGregate, World Fantasy 2024 and BaltiCon

She has edited and published “undergound" newspapers as well as literary magazines. (Chris Oakley collection of alternative press, Special Collections, University of Delaware). As a GCIU Journeyman, she worked in small commercial print shops before opening her bookshop in 1995. For many years, she was the organizer and moderator for the VA Festival of the Book Sci Fi/ Fantasy programs with Katherine Kurtz, Hugh Howey, Stephen Hickman, Steve White, Toni Weisskopf, David Coe, Jack Campbell (John Hemry) and others as guests.

Chris still brings her passion for bookselling and science fiction to the vendor’s rooms of conventions and does volunteer book sorting, research and pricing to raise money for her local Friends of the Library (Jefferson-Madison Regional) book sales. (Our team raised over $166,000 for the library system at our October 2024 sale.)