International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts

Harry Harrison, one of the great SF fans and writers, died last night at home after a lingering illness. Harry was active in founding SF fandom itself as a teenager in the 1930s, and attended the first World SF conevntion in 1939. After serving in the military, he returned to the US in 1946 and became an artist and illustrator in the comics industry, and later, in the 1960s, wrote scripts for Buck Rogers in Europe. He edited SF magazines, began to write fiction in the early 1950s, and after the late 1950s lived most of his life with his family abroad, in Mexico, Denmark, England and Ireland. He founded the organization World SF, and held the first conference in 1976 in Dublin. He was a citizen of the world.

With his friend Brian Aldiss, he edited many anthologies, including an influential Years Best SF series from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, a series with a distinctly literary cast. He wrote famous SF novels and was a popular figure in the field, always contentious and passionate and fast-talking and often quite funny. He was my friend for decades and I will miss him.

David G. Hartwell on behalf of the Board.

Section on Popular Culture and Mass Media for the Latin American Studies Association

A new Section on Popular Culture and Mass Media has been approved for the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) for 2013. The endorsement of at least 50 current LASA members are needed for the Section to start working next May during the conference.

If you are interested, send a brief email stating your support for the section, name and academic affiliation to silviakares@hotmail.com ASAP. Please circulate among your colleagues. Time is running out!

Re-printed from a statement on his web site:

Ray Bradbury, recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, died on June 5, 2012, at the age of 91 after a long illness. He lived in Los Angeles.

In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury has inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He wrote the screen play for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television’s The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2005, Bradbury published a book of essays titled Bradbury Speaks, in which he wrote: In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

He is survived by his four daughters, Susan Nixon, Ramona Ostergren, Bettina Karapetian, and Alexandra Bradbury, and eight grandchildren. His wife, Marguerite, predeceased him in 2003, after fifty-seven years of marriage.

Throughout his life, Bradbury liked to recount the story of meeting a carnival magician, Mr. Electrico, in 1932. At the end of his performance Electrico reached out to the twelve-year-old Bradbury, touched the boy with his sword, and commanded, Live forever! Bradbury later said, I decided that was the greatest idea I had ever heard. I started writing every day. I never stopped.

Neil Gaiman spoke to the graduates of the colleges of Art, Media and Design and Performing Arts at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.  It was his first ever such address. According to a press release from the university, it “has been tweeted thousands of times, viewed in 146 countries, translated into eight languages, interpreted in illustration and is being called the best commencement speech of 2012.”

A video is available through TED-Ed: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/neil-gaiman-at-the-university-of-the-arts-commencement-2012.

Seminal children’s literature author, Maurice Sendak, died today from complications from a recent stroke. He is a Caldecott Medal winner and National Medal of Arts winner who illustrated more than 50 books but was best known for “Where the Wild Things Are” and “In the Night Kitchen”.

Articles:

• Reuters
• Locus magazine