Call for Proposals
The Virtual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts 2025
Embodied Spirits
Featuring Guests of Honor
Kim Bo-Young, Djuna, Vince Gerardis, Jonathan Maberry, Mimi Mondal
Distinguished Scholar Mads Haahr
September 17-21, 2025
From the world’s earliest stories—such as those of spirits dwelling in the dirt beneath the fingernails of Ereshkigal, Mesopotamian Queen of the Great Earth—folktales and myths have long imagined spirits embodied in unexpected natural forms and places, such as the spirit of slain Osiris resurrected as a heron in a willow tree, Baital the Indian vampire hung like a bat in an East Indian walnut tree, and Daphne transformed into a laurel tree to escape lecherous Apollo.
Embodied spirits appear across media and genres, inhabiting not only ancient myth and religion but also science and technology. From the haunted AI of Ex Machina and She to the ghost-in-the-machine horrors of Unfriended, Black Box, and The Ring, spirits manifest in forms both comforting and terrifying. They persist through folklore and its modern retellings, such as R. R. Virdi’s Grave Beginnings and The Binding series, the cursed lovers of Ladyhawke, and enduring transformation tales such as The Wild Swans. Spirits inhabit spaces (The Haunting of Hill House, Silent Hill), symbols (the linden tree in Hannah Crafts’ Bondwoman’s Narrative), and shadows of protest (Angelina Weld Grimké’s “Tenebris”). Natural forces also become vessels: Audre Lorde’s “Afterimages” floods the Pearl River with the spirit of Emmett Till, while Grace Ogot’s “The Rain Came” unleashes divine pity on a girl marked for sacrifice.
Whether animating flesh, metal, cloth, bone, books, or even teeth, spirits return to accomplish justice, comfort, or vengeance. They reappear to the bereaved in works such as Ben Okri’s The Famished Road, Morrison’s Beloved, and Jacobs’s “The Monkey’s Paw.” In P. Djèlí Clark’s Ring Shout, The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and “The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington,” spirits infest the material world like a zombie plague. Some inhabit machines, such as in Stephen King’s Christine, while others are trapped by powerful figures, as in Kai Ashante Wilson’s “The Devil in America” and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. In more apocalyptic visions, spirits raise armies of fear, as in Bird Box: Barcelona.
Embodied Spirits invites engagement with how embodied spirits persist, haunt, and empower across both cultural and technological landscapes as well as different cosmologies. This call for proposals seeks to bridge the speculative and the critical, exploring Embodied Spirits in fantastic media and cultures. Proposals may consider any of the kinds of stories listed above; we invite critical frames of reference such as—but not limited to—the following:
Set your imagination free to explore Embodied Spirits at VICFA 2025, with Guests of Honor Kim-Bo Young (I’m Waiting for You and Other Stories, Snowpiercer), Djuna (Counterweight, Everything Good Dies Here), Vince Gerardis (House of Dragon, Dark Winds), Jonathan Maberry (Rot & Ruin, V-Wars), and Mimi Mondal (Luminescent Threads, “In the Mists of Manivarsha”), as well as Distinguished Scholar Dr. Mads Haahr (Random.org, Haunted Planet).
As always, proposals on topics transcending this year’s theme are welcome.
Please submit abstracts of 300-500 words along with a brief bio statement by June 30, 2025 to https://form.jotform.com/251195173129154.
Hello, all!
This blog post will be updated daily during VICFA 3 with the latest program errata. Please continue to check back here throughout the IAFA’s annual virtual conference for information on changes to the scheduled programming.
Thanks!
—
Saturday Errata
31. Workshop
Puddle Photography and Native American Creation Stories
Nancy Hightower, Author and Photographer
Short List:
The Tangle by Rae Mariz
This story is an insightful, delightful evocation of the many unseen dimensions and worlds within our own universe.
The Good One by Allanah Hunt
Allanah Hunt’s evocation of the racist structures, values, and attitudes that come at Indigenous Australians daily, is powerful, deeply felt, and insightful.
Spirit Medicine by Gina McGuire
Gina McGuire has crafted a beautiful and heartful story about the complexity of maintaining indigenous healing traditions when crucial plants and practices needed to implement such traditions have been destroyed or compromised by colonialism.
Winner: Alina Pete for Telling the Soul of Mars
In poetic prose, Alina Pete is the sacred storyteller who, like her main character, captures the souls of Mars and Earth. She connects readers to the ancestors and to those we dream of who are yet to come. The story delves deeply into the power of indigenous traditions—of story-making, world building, and the transmission of culture across time and space. Pete speaks to the powerful resilience of Indigenous cultures, sciences, and traditional educational practices, while showing us how those traditions adapt and endure in the face of great challenges. From the first sentence, Pete’s story is a delight to read, full of beauty, wisdom, struggle, and hope. As we face the known and the unknown, as we continue to be at home in a wild and chaotic universe, Pete’s elegant narrative insists on the scared significance of storytelling to our humanity.
Welcome to ICFA! We are excited to see you all at the Marriott Lakeside.
CANCELLATION POLICY
If you will not be attending, please let me know ASAP so I can cancel your registration in the computer system. We don’t give refunds this late but will credit you. You must use the credit within 2 years. If you don’t inform us of your desire to cancel before the start of the conference on Wednesday, you will not receive a credit.
REGISTRATION HOURS
The registration desk will be open for you to pick up your badge during the following hours:
Wednesday: 1pm-8pm
Thursday: 8am-6pm
Friday: 8am-6pm
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://icfa44afrofuturism2023.sched.com/
Password: You can find the password in an email sent to the account associated with your Membership and Registration.
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 and select the ICFA44 conference.
Password: You can find the password in an email sent to the account associated with your Membership and Registration.
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 #ICFA44.
View ICFA Policies here
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)
Deadline extended to April 1
Disruptive Imaginations
Joint Annual Conference of SFRA and GfF
TU Dresden, Germany, August 15-19, 2023
This conference will merge the annual meetings of the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) and the German Association for Research in the Fantastic (GfF). With some overlap in membership and a shared interest and mission, we believe that a joint conference offers great potential for dynamic exchange, constructive discussions, and new insights and perspectives. This expanded focus on SFF allows for a consideration of a wide range of genres and forms that include science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the weird. For more information on the respective associations, please see below. We are excited to welcome you all to Dresden in August 2023!
Science fiction and the fantastic (SFF) have the power to disrupt entrenched narratives and worldmaking practices. Whether in the form of hard science fiction, utopian speculation, high fantasy or supernatural horror, SFF is fundamentally anchored in imaginations of disruption—a tear in the fabric of reality, an estrangement of the senses, a break with the known world, or a transgression of boundaries. The conference theme “Disruptive Imaginations” invites participants to engage with disruption as a variegated paradigm of the SFF imagination. As a mode of disturbance or interruption, a disruption implies that habitual patterns of perceiving, inhabiting, and ordering the world are unsettled, giving way to uncertainty and the unknown. It can occur at scales that range from the micrological to the cosmic. At the precarious threshold between chaos and order, a disruption carries the potential for transformative system change and can produce a shift in hegemonic articulations of ‘the im/possible.’
Fredric Jameson famously invokes disruption as the fundamental discursive strategy of political utopia, which only “by forcing us to think the break itself” enables the imagination of worlds otherwise. What would it mean to think disruption “as restructuration and the unexpected blasting open of habits, as that lateral side-door which suddenly opens onto a new world of transformed human beings.”[1] Disruption has been championed as a strategy of intervention across the political spectrum and impels a careful examination of questions of agency and power (relations). Who or what has the power to disrupt and whose experiences of disruption are acknowledged while others remain suppressed or invisible? In the face of a lingering pandemic, looming threats of nuclear warfare, global heating, environmental racism, and extractive capitalism, how can imagination offer a counterforce to the disruption of lifeworlds?
“Disruptive Imaginations” seeks to confront SFF narratives of innovation, progress, and other-worlding with the faultlines of their own construction. Envisioned in part as a critical response to neoliberal models of disruptive innovation, “Disruptive Imaginations” invites scholarship and creative work that interrogates methods of both local and larger systemic change that does not fetishize newness, and that anchors in the critical world-making capacities of literature and the arts. As a literary and artistic mode, SFF ceaselessly rehearses alternatives and dishabituations of the status quo while also creating spaces that expose and resist the disruptive forces of white supremacy, settler-colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and ableism. Beyond the promises of a technological fix or a naive return to equilibrium, how might SFF help foster an understanding of complex and messy worlds in crisis? What are the limits of disruption as a useful story to think worlds with, and what collateral damage does it entail? What kinds of different paradigms (speculative and otherwise) may be needed to disrupt disruption?
We invite papers on all forms and genres of science fiction and the fantastic in relation to the paradigm of disruption, including but not limited to literature, music, film, games, design, and art. Presentations may be held either in English or German. We strive for a diversity of voices and perspectives from any and all disciplines and career stages. While papers on any subject in SFF are welcome, we especially encourage topics that resonate with the overall conference theme and that engage disruptive imaginations along axes that include but are not limited to
SFF imagination under conditions of disruption
e.g., energy crisis; toxicity; climate disruption; war; colonialism; dis/ability and ableism; trauma; white supremacy; …
SFF imagination against disruption
e.g., resilience; worldmaking; utopia; decolonization and restitution; cultural healing; kinship; critical and co-futurisms (African and Afro-futurisms, Indigenous Futurisms, Queer and Trans Futurisms, Crip Futurisms, LatinX Futurisms,…); …
SFF imagination in need of disruption
e.g., SFF and systems of oppression; the energy unsconious of SFF; transhumanism and eugenics; SFF tropes/histories/conventions of white supremacy, colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and technological solutionism; …
SFF imagination as a force of disruption
e.g., SFF in/as activism; emancipatory forms of SFF publishing (e.g., Destroy! Series); the cultural/bodily/social/political/aesthetic/ecological impact of SFF; SFF as medium of political subversion and agitation; alt-right utilization of SFF rhetoric; …
SFF imagination of disruption
e.g., ruptures of space and time; geoengineering; gene editing; hacking; revolution; border crossings, unsettling of hierarchies, chimeras and hybrids, creative technologies and alternative communication media; …
It is possible to submit proposals for individual presentations and preformed panels in English or German. Non-traditional formats (roundtable, artistic research, participatory formats, etc.) are welcome. For individual presentation, we ask for an abstract of 300 words and a short bio (150 words). For preformed panels we require a proposal (single file) that includes a 300 word summary of the panel topic, abstracts of 200 words for each contribution, and bio notes (150 words) for all participants. Please send all submissions to disruptive.imaginations@tu-dresden.de by March 1, 2023. Options for limited hybrid participation will be available. More information will be supplied soon on our conference website www.disruptiveimaginations.com.
Both organizations give out a limited number of travel grants to help students, PhD candidates and non-tenured participants with their expenses: SFRA members are eligible to apply for travel grants of up to 500$; the GfF offers four travel grants of 250€ each, membership not required. Please indicate your interest upon submitting your abstract.
Organizing team:
Julia Gatermann
Moritz Ingwersen
(North American Literature and Critical Future Studies, TU Dresden)
The Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GfF, the German association for research in the fantastic), was founded 2010 with the mission to promote academic research of the fantastic in art, literature and culture in German-speaking countries and to contribute to a deepening of scholarly and cultural knowledge in these fields (https://fantastikforschung.de). To that end, the GfF publishes the peer reviewed open-access journal “Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung” (https://zff.openlibhums.org/) and convenes for an annual conference at varying locations in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
The Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA), founded in 1970, is the oldest professional association dedicated to the scholarly inquiry of Science Fiction and the Fantastic in literature, film, and the arts (https://sfra.org). The SFRA’s open access journal SFRA Review is published four times a year (https://sfrareview.org/) and the SFRA meets annually for a conference at varying international locations.
Disruptive Imaginationen
Gemeinsame Jahrestagung der SFRA und GfF
TU Dresden, 15.-19. August, 2023
Mit dieser Konferenz verbinden wir die Jahrestagungen der Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) und der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GfF). Angesichts bestehender Überschneidungen in der Mitgliederbasis sowie geteilter Interessensschwerpunkte und einer gemeinsamen Mission glauben wir, dass eine gemeinschaftliche Konferenz großes Potenzial für dynamischen Austausch, fruchtbare Diskussionen sowie neue Perspektiven und Erkenntnisse bietet. Der hier angestrebte weite Fokus auf SFF ermöglicht die Berücksichtigung einer breiten Palette von Genres und Formen, inkl. Science-Fiction, Fantasy und Horror. Weitere Informationen zu den einzelnen Gesellschaften finden sich weiter unten. Wir freuen uns darauf, Euch im August 2023 in Dresden zu begrüßen!
Science-Fiction und Fantastik (SFF) sind in der Lage, etablierte Erzählungen und Weltentwürfe zu stören und zu unterbrechen. Ob in Form von Hard Science-Fiction, utopischer Spekulation, High Fantasy oder übernatürlichem Horror, SFF ist grundsätzlich in Vorstellungen von Disruption verankert – ein Riss im Gefüge der Realität, eine Entfremdung der Sinne, ein Bruch mit der bekannten Welt oder eine Grenzüberschreitung. Das Konferenzthema “Disruptive Imaginationen” lädt dazu ein, sich mit Disruption als einem vielfältigen Paradigma der SFF-Imagination zu beschäftigen. Als eine Form der Störung oder Unterbrechung bedeutet Disruption, dass gewohnte Wahrnehmungs- und Ordnungsmuster des Lebens in der Welt ins Wanken geraten und damit von Unsicherheit und Ungewissheit abgelöst werden. Disruption kann in Größenordnungen auftreten, die vom Mikrologischen bis zum Kosmischen reichen. Auf der prekären Schwelle zwischen Chaos und Ordnung birgt Disruption das Potenzial für einen transformativen Systemwandel und kann eine Verschiebung hegemonialer Markierungen des „Un/möglichen“ auslösen.
Fredric Jameson führt Disruption als grundlegende diskursive Strategie der politischen Utopie an, die dadurch, dass sie uns zwingt, „den Bruch selbst zu denken“, die Imagination von anderen Welten erst ermöglicht. Was würde es also bedeuten, Disruption „als Umstrukturierung und unerwartete Sprengung von Gewohnheiten zu denken, als jene Seitentür, die sich plötzlich in eine neue Welt von transformierten Menschen öffnet.“[2] Über die gesamte Breite des politischen Spektrums hinweg ist Disruption eine bewährte Strategie der Intervention und erfordert eine sorgfältige Untersuchung von Handlungsmacht und Machtrelationen. Wer oder was ist überhaupt in der Lage, Ordnungen zu (zer)stören, und wessen Erfahrungen der Disruption werden anerkannt, während andere unterdrückt werden oder unsichtbar bleiben? Wie können Imaginationen angesichts einer anhaltenden Pandemie, der drohenden Gefahr eines Atomkriegs, der globalen Erwärmung, Umweltrassismus und des extraktiven Kapitalismus eine Gegenkraft zur Disruption von Lebenswelten bieten?
Das Thema „Disruptive Imaginationen“ versucht, SFF Narrative von Innovation, Fortschritt und anderen Welten mit den Rissen ihrer eigenen Konstruktion zu konfrontieren. „Disruptive Imaginationen“ sind u.a. als kritische Antwort auf neoliberale Modelle der disruptiven Innovation gedacht und möchten wissenschaftliche und kreative Beiträge ansprechen, die nicht das Neue fetischisieren, sondern Methoden des lokalen und systemischen Wandels hinterfragen und im kritischen Worldmaking der Literatur und der Künste verankert sind. Als literarischer und künstlerischer Modus erprobt SFF unablässig Alternativen und Dishabituationen des Status quo, während sie gleichzeitig Räume schafft, um die von strukturellem Rassismus, Kolonialismus, Heteropatriarchat und Behindertenfeindlichkeit verursachten Disruptionen aufzudecken und ihnen Widerstand entgegenzustellen. Wie kann SFF jenseits der Versprechungen vom schnellen technologischen Fix oder einer naiven Rückkehr zum Gleichgewichtszustand dazu beitragen, ein Verständnis für komplexe und unruhige Welten in der Krise zu fördern? Wo liegen aber auch die Grenzen von Disruption als nützlichem Narrativ, um Welten gedanklich zu erschließen, und welche Kollateralschäden zieht es möglicherweise nach sich? Welche anderen Paradigmen werden benötigt, um das Konzept der Disruption selbst zu stören oder zu unterbrechen?
Wir freuen uns auf Beiträge zu allen Formen und Genres der Science-Fiction und des Fantastischen in Bezug auf das Paradigma der Disruption in Literatur, Musik, Film, Spiele, Design und Kunst. Vorträge können entweder auf Englisch oder Deutsch gehalten werden. Wir bemühen uns um eine Vielfalt von Stimmen und Perspektiven aus allen Disziplinen und Karrierestufen. Während Beiträge zu jedem Thema im Bereich des SFF willkommen sind, möchten wir insbesondere Themen anregen, die in Bezug zum übergeordneten Konferenzthema stehen und sich mit disruptiven Imaginationen bspw. entlang folgender Achsen befassen:
SFF-Imaginationen unter Bedingungen der Disruption
z.B. Energiekrise; Toxizität; Klimazerstörung; Krieg; Kolonialismus; Dis/ability und Ableism; Trauma; struktureller Rassismus;…
SFF-Imaginationen als Widerstand gegen Disruption
z.B. Resilienz; Worldbuilding; Utopie; Decolonisation und Restitutionen; Transformation; soziale Gerechtigkeit; Kinship; Kritische und Co-Futurismen; (bspw. Afrikanische und Afro-Futurismen, Indigene Futurismen, Queere und Trans-Futurismen, Crip Futurismen, etc.); …
SFF-Imaginationen, die eine Disruption erfordern
z.B. SFF und Systeme der Unterdrückung; Energie und Ressourcen in SFF; Transhumanismus und Eugenik; SFF Tropen/Konventionen von White Supremacy, Heteropatriarchat, Kolonialism, technologischem Fix,…
SFF-Imaginationen als disruptive Kraft
z.B. SFF in/als Aktivismus, emanzipatorische Formen von SFF Publishing (z.B. Destroy! Serie); die kulturellen/körperlichen/sozialen/politischen/ästhetischen/ ökologischen Auswirkungen von SFF; SFF als Medium politischer Subversion und Mobilmachung; SFF und Rhetoriken der Neuen Rechten, …
SFF-Imaginationen als Verhandlung von Disruption
z.B. Brüche von Raum und Zeit; Geo-Engineering; First Contact; Gen-Editing; Hacking; Revolution; Aufbrechen von Hierarchien; Grenzüberschreitungen; Chimären und Hybride; kreative Technologien und alternative Kommunikationsmedien; …
Abstracts für Einzelbeiträge und Panels können auf Englisch oder Deutsch eingereicht werden. Nicht-traditionelle Formate (Roundtables, künstlerische Forschung, partizipatorische Formate, etc.) sind willkommen. Für Einzelbeiträge bitten wir um ein Abstract von 300 Wörtern und eine Kurzbiografie (150 Wörter). Für Panels bitten wir um eine Zusammenfassung des Panelthemas (300 Wörter), Abstracts der einzelnen Beiträge (je 200 Wörter) und Kurzbiografien (150 Wörter) aller Beteiligten in einer Datei. Bitte senden Sie Ihre Beitragsvorschläge bis zum 1. März 2023 an disruptive.imaginations@tu-dresden.de. Hybride Teilnahme wird begrenzt ermöglicht. Weitere Informationen folgen in Kürze auf der Konferenz-Webseite www.disruptiveimaginations.com.
Sowohl die GfF als auch die SFRA vergeben jedes Jahr eine begrenzte Anzahl von Reisestipendien an Studierende, Doktorand*innen und Bewerber*innen mit erschwerten finanziellen Bedingungen: SFRA-Mitglieder sind berechtigt, sich auf Reisestipendien in Höhe von bis zu 500$ zu bewerben; die GfF bietet vier Reisestipendien in Höhe von jeweils 250€ an, eine Mitgliedschaft ist hierfür nicht erforderlich. Bei Interesse bitten wir um eine kurze Notiz bei Einreichung.
Organisationsteam:
Julia Gatermann
Moritz Ingwersen
(North American Literature and Critical Future Studies, TU Dresden)
Die Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung e.V. (https://fantastikforschung.de) ist eine wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, die es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht hat, die Erforschung der Fantastik in Kunst, Literatur und Kultur im deutschsprachigen Raum auf wissenschaftlicher Basis zu fördern und zu einer Vertiefung der wissenschaftlichen und kulturellen Erkenntnisse in diesen Bereichen beizutragen. Hierzu gibt die Gesellschaft die Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung heraus (peer-reviewed und open acces, https://zff.openlibhums.org/) und veranstaltet einmal im Jahr eine große Jahrestagung an wechselnden Veranstaltungsorten.
Die 1970 gegründete Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) ist die älteste internationale Fachgesellschaft, die sich der wissenschaftlichen Erforschung von Science Fiction und dem Fantastischen in Literatur, Film und Kunst widmet (https://sfra.org). Die open-access Zeitschrift SFRA Review erscheint viermal im Jahr (https://sfrareview.org/) und die SFRA trifft sich jährlich zu einer Konferenz an wechselnden Veranstaltungsorten.
[1] Fredric Jameson. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. Verso, 2005. 232.
[2] Fredric Jameson. Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. Verso, 2005. 232. Unsere Übers.
Only one week left before ICFA 44! Start planning your conference with the program available on our website’s main page here.
Reminders:
Presentations are only 15 minutes long and the guidelines for presenting can be found here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Policies
If you need to cancel, please let me know ASAP. We don’t give refunds this late but I will assign you a credit good for 2 years. If you don’t inform me of your desire to cancel before the start of the conference, you will not be eligible for the credit.
Don’t forget to pack your fancy reusable badge holder! Stick it in your suitcase right now (or you can buy a new one at the Registration desk for $5)
Read the text for the theory reading roundtable workshop in session #29 (info below)
Theory reading roundtable workshop information
The ICFA theory reading roundtable workshop (session #29) takes place on Thursday, March 16, from 2:30-4:00 p.m. in the COVE room.
In honor of this year’s theme, “Afrofuturism,” we’re sharing “Black Media Philosophy and Technoculture Readings” from DISTRIBUTED BLACKNESS: AFRICAN AMERICAN CYBERCULTURES (2020, NYU P) by Andre Brock Jr. and ON BLACK MEDIA PHILOSOPHY (2022, U of California P) by Armond R. Towns.
The readings can be found in a password protected section of the IAFA blog. Please check the email account associated with your Membership and Registration for the link and password. Please do not share the link or password with anyone.
The specific chapters which are all together in this single file are:
Brock Ch. 1, “Distributive Blackness: Ayo Technology! Texts, Identities, and Blackness” and Ch. 3, “‘The Black Purpose of Space Travel’: Black Twitter and Black Technoculture”
Towns Ch. 2, “Black Escapism on the Underground (Black) Anthropocene” and Ch. 4, “Black ‘Matter’ Lives: Michael Brown and Digital Afterlives”
See you in Orlando!
Emily Midkiff
IAFA Registration and Membership Coordinator
The Student Caucus (SCIAFA) is in dire need of mentors for their mentorship program. Mentors are expected to meet with their assigned mentees and help them navigate the conference if needed. There is no minimum amount of experience required to be a mentor. Please contact Amélie Hurkens (amelie.hurkens@engelska.uu.se) to volunteer as a mentor.
The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is honored and proud to announce that Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki will be Guest of Honor in absentia for the ICFA 44, whose theme is Afrofuturism. His recorded presentations and live-streamed commentary will be available for exclusive viewing by those in attendance at conference events.
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, 2023
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
Visit the IFF Award Page here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Imagining-Indigenous-Futurisms-Award/