International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Hello IAFAers!

At this point, our headquarters hotel, the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside, is almost entirely full–only a night here and there remain. 

We are in the process of negotiating for space at the Sheraton Suites next door, the hotel we have used the last few years for this purpose.  For those of you who are new, this hotel is within a stone’s throw of the Marriott.

I ask that if you who have booked a room at the Marriott but do not plan on attending , please cancel your room this week.  We can only hold the block for this week.  If you cancel after Friday, the room will not return to our block, but to the Marriott, which will then charge the rack rate (twice our special rate); plus, we lose the perks IAFA gets when our folks book into our headquarters hotel, such as room nights for our special guests.  

Remember, canceling IAFA registration does NOT cancel your hotel reservation.

If for any reason you need to cancel your hotel room, and we hope you won’t because we want to see you at the conference this year, please let us know, so that we can alert people who have expressed a need that they still need to book a room!

While I have your attention and we are speaking of hotels, please be aware of a feature of staying in any hotel:  LOTS OF PEOPLE HAVE KEYS TO YOUR ROOM.  Housekeeping, Electricians, Plumbers, Sales staff–just to name a few.  For this reason, it is imperative that you not leave anything that someone might consider valuable in your room.  We have had few complaints at the Marriott, but it pays to be vigilant.  The hotel will be happy to keep anything for you in the hotel safe.

If you have any questions, please email me at iafareg@gmail.com.

See you all in March!

Valorie 

“The lesson of history is that no one learns.”

― Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates

“We humans do not understand compassion. In each moment of our lives, we betray it. Aye, we know of its worth, yet in knowing we then attach to it a value, we guard the giving of it, believing it must be earned, T’lan Imass. Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the wold. It must be given freely. In abundance.”

― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice

“It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all – but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

― N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Them them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at those contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve”

― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“What better way to destroy a civilization, society or a race than to set people into the wild oscillations which follow their turning over their judgment and decision-making faculties to a superhero?”

― Edward James, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction

Hello Everyone!

The Thirty-Eighth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts is right around the corner! As we approach the warmth and sunshine of Orlando, Florida, I thought I would take this opportunity to let you all know that we are looking for volunteers to help make ICFA 38 a success!

The volunteer positions are as follows with (very) brief descriptions:

AV (Fire Swamp): Set up projectors, troubleshoot presentations

Book Room (Florin): Set up, sell, and pack up the book room

Registration (Cliffs of Insanity): set up and pass out badges and maintain the registration desk

Please use the survey link below to let us know when and where you would like to help.

The rate of compensation for volunteering is $5 ICFA bucks per hour worked, which can be used towards registration or memorabilia. Please note: We can only provide compensation toward future conference expenses. Volunteer hours cannot be used to cover expenses for the current year’s conference, and the hours earned expire in two years.

If you know of other people attending the conference that would like to volunteer and earn ICFA bucks to help them keep coming back, please share the survey with them. If you have questions or concerns, please contact Valorie Ebert, Membership and Registration Coordinator (iafareg AT gmail.com).

Please Note: We need extra volunteers to help load and unload the book room.  If you plan on being at the hotel Monday and/or aren’t leaving until the following Sunday or Monday and would like to help with this important task, please indicate your willingness on the volunteer survey or please contact Valorie Ebert, Membership and Registration Coordinator (iafareg ATgmail.com)..

** Book Room Set Up normally begins at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning.  They need all the help they can get, so if you are at the conference early on Monday, stop by and lend a hand.

** Book Room Breakdown normally begins at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  Again, they need all the help they can get, so if you are an early riser, go lend a hand.

You can find the volunteer survey here.

Social Media:

If you are on Facebook you can connect with IAFA here.  In addition, if you are a student you can also join the Student Caucus Facebook page here.

Please follow us on Twitter here!

If you have questions or concerns, please contact Valorie Ebert, Membership and Registration Coordinator (iafareg AT gmail.com). We look forward to seeing you in March!

Regards,

Valorie

“The lesson of history is that no one learns.”

― Steven Erikson, Deadhouse Gates

“We humans do not understand compassion. In each moment of our lives, we betray it. Aye, we know of its worth, yet in knowing we then attach to it a value, we guard the giving of it, believing it must be earned, T’lan Imass. Compassion is priceless in the truest sense of the wold. It must be given freely. In abundance.”

― Steven Erikson, Memories of Ice

“It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all – but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

― N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

“Tell them they can be great someday, like us. Tell them they belong among us, no matter how we treat them. Tell them they must earn the respect which everyone else receives by default. Them them there is a standard for acceptance; that standard is simply perfection. Kill those who scoff at those contradictions, and tell the rest that the dead deserved annihilation for their weakness and doubt. Then they’ll break themselves trying for what they’ll never achieve”

― N.K. Jemisin, The Fifth Season

“What better way to destroy a civilization, society or a race than to set people into the wild oscillations which follow their turning over their judgment and decision-making faculties to a superhero?”

― Edward James, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction

Dear ICFA 38 Attendees!

Our ICFA store is now open! 

If you need to get extra tickets to the luncheons or the banquet, or if you would like to purchase a t-shirt or tote, you can now log on to our store to add them on!

If you go to our website here and click the “Members Only” tab at the top of the page, it will give you an option for the store.  

Alternatively, you can click here to go directly to the store! 

If you have any questions, please let me know.

See you all in March! 

Valorie 

Dear IAFA Members,

As an international organization, we are watching unfolding political events regarding travel between nations. While we don’t anticipate any problems for our attendees based on the new rules as we understand them and the current composition of our membership, the board will revisit the issue as the situation becomes clearer and make adjustments in accordance with our mission as an international organization.  If you have concerns about your personal status, please contact the board with details.

We want to assure our members that as always, we value diversity, equity, and inclusion. We stand with the international community of scholars and writers and will continue to support all those who believe in the free exchange of ideas.

IAFA Board

David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award (formerly the Graduate Student Award)

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts presents an annual award and
stipend to the graduate student submitting the most outstanding paper at the Association’s
conference. The award, and a check for $250, will be presented to the winner at the Awards
Banquet on Saturday evening. Students must submit their completed paper (3500 words,
excluding bibliography) and verification of student status by February 1.

CRITERIA & INSTRUCTIONS

1. The student will have had a paper accepted for presentation at the Conference. The
paper submitted for the competition should be essentially the same as that presented at
the conference. The maximum length for entries is 3500 words (about 2 pages over the
recommended reading length of 8-9 pages). Students should be aware that funds are limited
and that only one award will be given. The paper selected will be published in the Journal of
the Fantastic in the Arts, and therefore must not have been previously published or submitted
for publication elsewhere. Please note that acceptance of a paper for the Conference does not
guarantee an award.

2. It is the responsibility of the student to send a copy of the paper by 1 February 2017 to the 1st
VP Isabella van Elferen (i.vanelferen@kingston.ac.uk), as well as a copy of the letter of acceptance and verification of student status. Submissions may be in Word, RTF or PDF format.

3. The committee is looking for clear, coherent, and interesting writing. Essays should be
solidly grounded in scholarly tradition, showing awareness of previous studies and of historical
and theoretical contexts. Essays may use any suitable method of analysis, including historical
and sociological approaches as well as those that originate in literary theory. Essays will be
evaluated for their originality and quality of insight into the text.

The judges for the 2017 award will be:
Dr. Mark Bould, University of the West of England Bristol
Jordan S Carroll, UC Davis
Dr. Regina Hansen, Boston University

Hello ICFA 38 Attendees!

The program is now available for download from the IAFA website’s homepage.

http://www.fantastic-arts.org/