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Category Archives: IAFA

THE 2014 DELL MAGAZINES AWARD

The 2014 Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing is now open for submissions. Please note there is a class-project category. Guidelines follow:

 THE 2014 DELL MAGAZINES AWARD

For Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing

 Guidelines

 The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing) has been established by Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and is supported by the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida.

The $500 award goes to the best unpublished and unsold science fiction or fantasy short story submitted by a full-time undergraduate college student. The winner will be invited to the IAFA annual Conference on the Fantastic in mid-March in Orlando, FL, and the winning story will be published in Asimov’s in print or on-line.

In general, the winner of the Dell Magazines Award will be the story that best meets the expectations of the judges. Those stories typically are “character oriented”; i.e., the characters, rather than the science, provide the main focus for the reader’s interest. Serious, thoughtful, yet accessible fiction will have the best chance of success.

Deadline for entries for this year’s contest is midnight (ET), Tuesday, January 7, 2014.

The contest is open to all full-time undergraduates at accredited colleges and universities. The award is not limited to unpublished authors, but all submissions must be previously unpublished and unsold, and they should be from 1,000 to 10,000 words long. Writers may submit an unlimited number of stories, but each manuscript must include a cover sheet with the writer’s name, address, phone number, and the name of the university the writer attends. Manuscripts should be double-spaced, with adequate margins, and with pages numbered. Your name should not be on the manuscript itself after the cover sheet.

The judges reserve the right to double-check your university status. For this year’s contest, you must have been a full-time undergraduate during the fall 2012; spring 2013 summer 2013; or fall 2013 semesters (or quarters) of your university or college.

Story submissions should have been written during your time as a student. However, if you attended college full-time during a qualifying semester and then graduated, went to part-time status or quit entirely for a time, you are still eligible.

The winner will be determined by the editors of Asimov’ magazine and the award administrator.

There is a $5 entry fee per story.

You can submit your story electronically at www.dellaward.com and there is a PayPal option for the entry fee. If you like, you can elect to mail the story to the address below along with your submission fee or you can send the story as an attachment to RWilber@usf.edu and mail the entry fee or utilize PayPal separately.

You can also find us on Facebook by searching for the Dell Magazines Award or going to this site: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dell-Magazines-Award/177319923776

 

IMPORTANT: There is a special class-project category. Any instructor may submit an unlimited number of stories from any one class for a flat rate of $15. The manuscripts must meet the general requirements of the award and should be put into one envelope or sent directly to the administrator as email attachments along with a brief cover letter from the instructor listing the college or university and the name of the class. This offer is for any college class and not limited to creative-writing classes. The instructor should contact Dr. Rick Wilber at RWilber@usf.edu.

 

Manuscripts cannot be returned, but if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope, we will send you an announcement of the winner and runners-up. The finalists are usually announced by mid-February.

 

Dell Magazines Award/CIS 3095

School of Mass Communications/USF/4202 E. Fowler

Tampa, Fla. 33620

If you have any questions, you can reach Dr. Wilber at this e-mail address: RWilber@usf.edu.

Stories by previous Dell Award winners are available at the Asimov’s Science Fiction homepage at: http://www.asimovs.com. The complete list of winners and finalists is on this website.

 

Dr. Rick Wilber

Instructor/School of Mass Communications

University of South Florida

Director/USF Ireland Travel Study

Administrator/Dell Magazines Award

 

CfP: ICFA 35 “Fantastic Empires”

35th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

Empire

March 19-23, 2014

Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel

The deadline for submitting proposals is October 31.

Guest of Honor: Nnedi Okorafor

Guest of Honor: Ian McDonald

Guest Scholar: Istvan Csicsery-Ronay, Jr.

Special Guest Emeritus: Brian Aldiss

From space operas to medieval tales to seminal works of fantasy, imaginative fiction abounds in fabulous empires. ICFA 35 will investigate the widest range of topics relating to empire, including discussions of particular texts, analyses of the hegemonic and counterhegemonic forces of empire, evaluations of individual resistances to imperialism (and of empires striking back), and assays into various other aspects of the theme. We welcome proposals for scholarly papers and panels that seek to examine, interrogate, and expand any research related to empire and the fantastic.

 

In addition to essays examining our honored Guests’ work, conference papers might consider specific fantastic empires, imaginative imperial fantasies, the semiotics of empire, fantastic diasporas and migrations, margins and liminal space(s), media empires, technologies of empire, speculative post-nationalism, fantastic Others, myth and empire, geographical/ideological mapping, transnational trauma, the construction/constriction of identity, or the multiple metaphors of empire. Panels might discuss various theories of empire, postcolonialism and the fantastic, language and imperialism, cosmopolitanism in the actual cosmos, Orientalism in classic texts, horrific hordes in film, dystopian empires, or postmodern theory and empire.

Please join us in Orlando in 2014.  We will add your intellectual and creative distinctiveness to our own.  Resistance is futile.

Download the Call for Papers here.

cfp: Jamie Bishop Award for an essay not in English

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Announces its 8th annual Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a critical essay on the fantastic written in a language other than English. The IAFA defines the fantastic to include science fiction, folklore, and related genres in literature, drama, film, art and graphic design, and related disciplines. For more information on the award and on past winners, please see http://fantastic-arts.org/awards/jamie-bishop-memorial-award/ (please note the updated submission criteria, below).

Submission criteria:

·       Essays should be of high scholarly quality, as if for publication in an academic journal.

·       We consider essays from 3,000-10,000 words in length (including notes and bibliography).

·       Essays may be unpublished scholarship submitted by the author, or already published work nominated either by the author or another scholar (in which case the author’s permission should be obtained before submission).

·       Essays must have been written and (when applicable) published in the original language within the last three years prior to submission.

·       An abstract in English must accompany all submissions; an English translation of the title of the essay should also be included.

·       Only one essay per person may be submitted each year.

·       Submissions must be made electronically in Word format.

Deadline for submissions: September 1st

Prize: $250 U.S. and one year’s free membership in the IAFA to be awarded at the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts held each March. Winning essays may be posted on the IAFA website in the original language and/or considered for publication in the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts (http://www.fantastic-arts.org/jfa/) should they be translated into English.

Please direct all inquiries and submissions to:

Rachel Haywood Ferreira

Department of World Languages and Cultures

3102 Pearson Hall

Iowa State University

Ames, IA 50011 USA

Email: <rachelhf AT iastate.edu>

Head of Fantasy Division

The IAFA is looking for a candidate for the position of Head of the Fantasy Division, effective June of 2014. The current Division Head, Stefan Ekman, will finish his term following the 2014 conference. We are advertising this position now to give the incoming Division Head the opportunity to observe the cycle during the 2014 conference, and thus be ready to take over in the summer of 2014 for the 2015 conference cycle.

The Division Head is the person who sends out paper calls for his/her Division, collects and accepts paper proposals, creates paper sessions, helps to create panels, selects and moderates roundtable readings, and passes the work s/he’s done on to the 1st Vice President for scheduling. This Division is responsible for scholarship on all aspects of fantasy literature (broadly defined to mean anything from genre fantasy to magic realism and folk tales) including, but not restricted to, criticism on works by fantasy authors writing in English, inter-disciplinary approaches to the genre, and scholarship on fantasy theory.

Qualifications include current membership with IAFA (at least a couple of years’ experience with the organization so you have some understanding of how things work at the conference), easy and dependable internet access and comfort level with computers, organizational skills, the ability to work as part of a group working together on the ‘big picture,’ a willingness to work through the transition with the previous Division Head beginning this fall, the ability to attend March conferences while you hold the position and to attend the Division Heads’ meeting run by the 1st VP at the conference, plus, of course, the time to do the work involved. Knowledge of the field of fantasy, including theory and criticism, is required. Division Heads hold office for a term of 3 years (with a probationary first year) with the possibility of renewal for a second 3-year term.

If you’re interested in taking on the work of Fantasy Division Head, please contact both Dale Knickerbocker, 1st Vice President (KNICKERBOCKERD@ecu.edu), and Stefan Ekman outgoing Fantasy Division Head (stefan.ekman@englund.lu.se), with a cover letter about your interest in and qualifications for the job. Applications for the position should include a CV. The IAFA Board of Directors will consider all applications for the position.

The deadline for applications is May 1, 2013; a decision will be made by June 2013.

Results of Election of Officers to the Executive Board

Farah Mendlesohn and Michael Smith independently tabulated the ballots cast and reported their agreed conclusions to the Executive Board.  The Board had ratified the results.

  • President: Sydney Duncan
  • 1st Vice-president: Dale Knickerbocker
  • 2nd Vice-president: Karen Burnham
  • Public Information Officer: Stacie Hanes

Eighty-eight ballots were cast.

We congratulate the new officers and thank everyone who offered their service!