Skip navigation

Appointment of the Editorial Collective at the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

After a lengthy selection and interview process, the Executive Board of the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts is pleased to announce the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts’ new Editorial Collective: Mailyn Abreu Toribio, who will serve as Reviews Editor-in-Chief; Cat Ashton, who will be Project Editor-in-Chief; Novella Brooks de Vita, who will be Acquisitions Editor-in-Chief; and Jude Wright, who will serve as Managing Editor-in-Chief. They will be taking over the duties of previous Editor Brian Attebery, for whose sixteen years of leadership we express our deep gratitude. We look forward with excitement to this new era for the JFA, and know that the Collective will provide innovative paths for the study of the fantastic. Please join us in welcoming our new group of editors!

On behalf of the IAFA Board,

Pawel Frelik

IAFA President

The 2022 IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award

The IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award recognizes emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.

To be considered for the award, submit the following:

200-word statement with background & goals in writing SF

4,000-word maximum writing sample addressing Indigenous perspectives

Deadline: December 1, 2022

Send your materials as attachments to Professor Grace L. Dillon (dillong@pdx.edu)

Use Word Document or PDF format

Name and Page numbers on story and bio

Double space the story and use 12-point font

Proof the work for typos and other errors.

The contest winner will be announced at the ICFA Awards Banquet and on the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/349927541693986. Not a member? Think about joining!

This year’s judge: acclaimed author Andrea Hairston

The Master of Poisons https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250260543

Other Novels:

Will Do Magic for Small Change and Redwood and Wildfire

Published by Aqueduct Press at http://www.aqueductpress.com/

Website: http://www.andreahairston.com

For more information about the IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award, please visit https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Imagining-Indigenous-Futurisms-Award/.

ICFA 43 Updates & Conference App

Welcome to ICFA!

Are you not coming after all? Please let me know so I can cancel your attendance in the computer system. We don’t give refunds this late but rather will credit you; you must use the credit within 2 years. If you don’t inform us of your desire to cancel, the credit won’t appear.

To clarify, there is no need to confirm your registration with me. If you are receiving this email, you are registered. I only need to know if you are no longer planning to attend and wish to cancel. Otherwise, please save your greetings for in person tomorrow!

REGISTRATION HOURS
The registration desk will be open for you to pick up your badge during the following hours:
Wednesday: 11am-6pm
Thursday: 8am-12pm, 2:15pm-6pm
Friday: 8am-12pm, 2:15pm-5pm
Saturday: 8am-12pm

WE HAVE AN APP FOR THAT
The program will be available via the Sched app! Although we have optional hard-copy schedules in both long and short forms, the app will be continuously updated and therefore will be the most correct. You can also view the schedule online here (http://iaftfita.wildapricot.com), but the app will still be more up-to-date.

In a web browser…
• Website: https://icfa43fantasticcommunities2.sched.com/
• Password: See the email associated with your Membership and Registration for the password.
• You will now be able to see a schedule of sessions, which you can filter.
• From Schedule, you have several other options. Click around and have fun!

In the Sched app…
• Download the app to your phone.
• At the search prompt, type “icfa” and you should see the ICFA43 conference, which select.
• Password: See the email associated with your Membership and Registration for the password.
• The app view of sessions is like the pocket program. It is not as detailed as the web browser view.
• If you have created an account, you can add and remove sessions from your personal schedule through the app. We encourage you to add a headshot to your profile.

IMPORTANT NOTES
• This year’s hashtag is #ICFA43.
• View ICFA’s Accessibility Policy: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/icfa-accessibility-policy/ Please note that the hotel’s airport shuttle is not handicapped accessible.
• Highly collectible merch featuring this year’s artwork will be available for purchase at the Registration desk. Meal tickets will be available for purchase until sold out ($48 for the luncheons and $65 for the banquet). Outstanding membership and registration fees must be paid before you can get your name tag. The Reg desk accepts cash, checks, and credit cards (but cannot take AmEx on site).

See you soon!
Emily Midkiff, IAFA Registrar (iafareg AT gmail.com)

New On-Site Technical Officer

It is with great pleasure that the IAFA Executive Board announces that Carol McMullen-Pettit will be assuming the position of On-Site Technical Officer (OSTO) at this year’s ICFA.

The OSTO is crucial to the functioning of the conference: they are responsible for all technology use ​for and at ICFA. This includes purchasing ​audio visual equipment, setting up and tearing down projectors/screens in the break out rooms, ​liaising with the Book Room coordinator for A/V storage, and liaising with hotel personnel for events that require equipment we don’t own.

We would like to thank Sean Nixon for his twelve years of outstanding service in this position (his IAFA volunteerism in general dates back to the early 2000s). Sean oversaw our investment in new equipment and, as any attendee in recent years can attest, very little went wrong on his watch. When it did, he was always there instantly to solve the problem, as if by magic. He will be taking over the Treasurer position from Bill Clemente as of this ICFA. Thank you Sean!

For those of you who do not have the pleasure of knowing Carol McMullen-Pettit, she has been attending and volunteering for ICFA since she was a tenth-grade high school student in Boca Raton. Carol attended the University of Florida while the conference was in Texas but resumed her attendance at the conference with its return to Fort Lauderdale (and her transfer to FAU). Carol finished her BA in Anthropology, and then her subsequent certification in Secondary Social Sciences in Education, all while married and producing the first two of her three children. She has held a variety of teaching positions, culminating in more than ten years of working as a Social Studies and Reading teacher for At-Risk Youth, and for nearly the last twelve years, with The Princeton Review as a test preparation instructor, tutor, and presenter. She lives in Hollywood, FL with her husband, two dogs, two cats, and a hedgehog.

Welcome aboard, Carol!

One week to ICFA 43! Announcements and Invitations Inside

It’s almost time for ICFA! Please see the call for volunteers, two invitations, and your own handy-dandy packing list below.

If your plans have changed and you are unable to attend, please let me know so I can ensure your attendance is canceled in the computer system. We don’t give refunds this late but rather will credit you; you must use the credit within 2 years. If you don’t inform us of your desire to cancel, the credit won’t appear.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

ICFA runs on volunteers, and we could always use more. For each hour you volunteer, you’ll earn $10 toward your registration fee (to be refunded following the conference). Sign up here: https://forms.gle/PiSJPWTKXYdfc1WC7

If you’ve already signed up, THANK YOU! The schedule will be distributed soon.

YOU’RE INVITED TO THE BIPOC LUNCHEON

All are invited to the BIPOC Caucus’s Counter Space at the Cove for the Guest of Honor Nisi Shawl’s reflections on “Depicting Your Truth” Saturday at noon.

If you’d like to lunch after Nisi’s presentation (we’re not unmasking during her remarks), we have a limited number of brown bags available for a reduced price of $5, subsidized by generous donations to the BIPOC Caucus for this event. If you are able, please consider paying the conference’s full price for the brown bag ($10.00), so that our subsidies can continue to benefit all who might like to attend and feast the body as well as the mind. This offer to preorder closes today, March 7th. If you do not preorder, then regular brown bags will be available as usual on a first-come, first-serve basis. To reserve your reduced price brown bag(s) for our Saturday event, please log into your IAFA account and then click this link: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Store

YOU’RE INVITED TO THE SF THEORY ROUNDTABLE

Everyone attending the conference is invited to this year’s SF Theory Roundtable reading. This year, the readings are the excerpts from Isiah Lavender III’s Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Philosophy of a Movement and the discussion will moderated by Gerry Canavan. The link to the page with the PDF and password should be in the email account associated with your membership and registration.

ICFA PACKING LIST

Your stylish IAFA badge holder. (If you don’t yet have one, they are available for purchase on site for $5.) Pro tip: put it in your luggage and leave it there at all times.
Your computer dongle if you are using AV.
Your call for papers, graduate program description, or other handout you wish to target to this specialized audience. A table is set aside for these handouts. Pro tip: People have stopped taking handouts in favor of photographing them on their phones. Design accordingly!

See you next week!

Emily Midkiff

IAFA Registrar

ICFA 43: Volunteers Needed and Other News

We are less than a month away from ICFA 43!

Volunteers Needed

ICFA runs on volunteers. If you would like to help out with the Registration desk and/or AV, then please let us know and indicate your availability with this form: https://forms.gle/64ZDmD5Rwih6KxE3A Volunteers will be compensated per hour toward their registration costs.

Program Available

The draft program for the conference can be viewed at https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/

Virtual Presentations

Unfortunately, our conference center at ICFA is not equipped for virtual presentations, so we cannot offer the kind of hybrid conference that some other organizations have done. If you are scheduled to present, but find that you cannot attend in person, then please let us know so that we can remove you from the program. Please also look for details about the new all-virtual October Conference!

The October Conference

We will be hosting our first annual all-virtual October conference this year. Details about how to submit to this conference will be announced later this year, but they will be separate from ICFA submissions. If you find that you cannot attend ICFA after all, then you may re-submit your presentation for the October conference, but there is no guarantee of acceptance since the theme and scope may be different.

See you in March!

Emily Midkiff

IAFA Registrar

2022 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2/10/2022

 

2022 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

 

The winner of the 2022 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy, is Usman T. Malik for his story collection Midnight Doorways: Fables from Pakistan (Kitab).

The awards committee also named as runners-up E. Lily Yu’s novel On Fragile Waves (Erewhon), and Isabel Yap’s collection Never Have I Ever (Small Beer).

Participating in this year’s nomination and selection process were Cheryl Morgan, Karen Burnham, Graham Sleight, Niall Harrison, Liza Trombi, Candas Jane Dorsey, and Mimi Mondal. The award is administered by Gary K. Wolfe and will be presented at a banquet March 19, during the 43rd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.

Also at the banquet, the IAFA Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to the conference’s guest scholar and former IAFA President Farah Mendelsohn.  The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, or ICFA, is held annually in Orlando, Florida.  This year’s conference, March 16-20, on the theme of “Fantastic Communities,” will feature Nisi Shawl as Guest of Honor.

Announcing the Next IAFA President

It is my great pleasure to announce the election of the next President of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts: Dr. Pawel Frelik.

A two-term Division Head of the IAFA, Paweł Frelik is Associate Professor and the Leader of Speculative Texts and Media Research Group at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw, Poland. His teaching and research interests include science fiction, speculative visualities, and video games. He has published widely in these fields, serves on the boards of Science Fiction Studies (USA), Extrapolation (USA/UK), and Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds (UK), and is the co- editor of the New Dimensions in Science Fiction book series at the University of Wales Press. In 2013-2014, he was President of the Science Fiction Research Association, the first in the organization’s history from outside North America. In 2017, he was the first non-Anglophone recipient of the Thomas D. Clareson Award. Within IAFA, he has served as Science Fiction Division Head since 2017. Dr. Frelik will assume the presidency at the end of the 43rd ICFA in March.

Congratulations, Pawel!

Dale Knickerbocker
IAFA President

ICFA 43 FLASH PLAY FESTIVAL #6: Call for Plays

The Flash Plays will once again manifest in the Capri lounge at the Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside! We invite you to submit your play for joyful consideration.

Here are the 2022 “given circumstances” to challenge you to theatrical creative heights:

No more than TEN pages

No more than THREE characters

Include one of the following props:

THE FEATHERS OF THE GOLDEN GOOSE

RODNEY THE FRIENDLY ROBOT

A SACK FULL OF DOLL HEADS

…and include the following line of dialogue

“Time has lost all meaning”

Flash plays should be submitted via email to kelli.shermeyer@gmail.com by March 1th.

The Flash Play performances are Friday, March 18th at 9:45pm.

And if you’re interested in joining the Flash Players on stage, please let us know!

—
Kelli Shermeyer, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

Announcing Fix’s Second Annual Imagine 2200 Climate Fiction Contest

 


No fee, $8,700 prizes and publication from Fix, Grist’s solutions lab

Fix opens submissions for Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest

 

Submissions are now being accepted for Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, the annual climate fiction contest from Fix, Grist’s solutions lab. There is no fee to enter. Submit your short story by May 5, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. PST.

 

Imagine 2200 seeks original short stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the next 180 years of clean, green, and just futures. Judges include Hugo Award-winning writer Arkady Martine, esteemed editor and author Sheree Reneé Thomas, and professor Grace L. Dillon, who coined the term “Indigenous futurism.” Imagine 2200 draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futures, and the genres of hopepunk and solarpunk.

 

While we’re looking for hopeful stories, we also don’t expect you to be overly optimistic or naive. One hundred and eighty years of equitable climate progress will require hard work, struggle, and adaptation, and we invite you to show those as well.

 

In addition, we’re especially interested in cultural authenticity (a deep sense of place, customs, cuisine, and more), rich characters with intersecting identities, and stories that challenge the status quo in which wealth and power are built on extraction, oppression, and violence.

 

The top three winners will be awarded $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000 respectively, and nine finalists will receive a $300 honorarium. Those 12 authors will be published in an immersive digital collection this fall. Conjure your wildest dreams for society — all the justice, resilience, and abundance you can imagine — and put those dreams on paper.

 

There’s no fee to enter, so if you’re ready to get writing, you can find our submissions portal here. If you’d like to get in touch, you can reach us at imaginefiction@grist.org.

 

About Grist

 

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Our goal is to use the power of storytelling to illuminate the way toward a better world, inspire millions of people to walk that path with us, and show that the time for action is now.

 

Fix, Grist’s solutions lab, amplifies bold, equitable ideas for our climate future, and the people working towards them, in an effort to shift the climate narrative toward possibility. Through creative storytelling, network-building, and events, Fix explores the paths to a clean, green, just future, and brings together a growing community of climate visionaries — we call them Fixers — who are leading the way to a planet that works for everyone.