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Category Archives: Industry News

Seminar on Appalachian folk and fairy tales at WVU

An exciting opportunity will be taking place at West Virginia University this coming
June. Folklorist and literary scholar Carl Lindahl will be leading the WVU English
Department’s annual Summer Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies from June 9-12,
2011 on the topic “American Magic: The Fates of Folk & Fairy Tales in the
Appalachians.”

For additional information, you can visit the seminar website at
http://english.wvu.edu/centers/projects/summer_seminar.

Carl has emerged as a champion of Appalachian märchen: his 2008 American Folklore
Society plenary address focused on Appalachian folk- and fairy-tales, and an article
based on his talk, “Leonard Roberts, The Farmer-Lewis-Muncy Family, and the Magic
Circle of the Mountain Märchen,” which appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of the
_Journal of American Folklore_. Carl is particularly interested in contemporary
performances of these tales and their tellers, so this promises not to be just a
study of past scholarship, but of living, emerging tradition, as well.

The WVU English Department is thrilled to have Carl as the leader of our 20th annual
seminar, and hopes you can join us for a weekend featuring the best elements of an
academic seminar-great readings, lively discussions with fellow scholars, and the
leadership of an expert in the field-without the usual headaches (no papers to write
or exams to take).

Registration is $350 for faculty members and non-academics, and $250 for graduate
students. The fee includes breakfast on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Housing will
be available in one of the newest dorms on campus, or for those who prefer to stay
off-campus, there are several hotels and motels nearby.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly with any
questions at rosemary.hathaway@mail.wvu.edu or by phone at 304/293-9738.

Diana Wynne Jones 1934-2011

We are deeply saddened to lose respected author and friend Diana Wynne Jones to cancer.

*Deadline Extended* CfP: SFRA 2010

Proposal and Regular (non-late) registration deadlines have been extended to May 15.

And in case you haven’t seen it yet, visit the conference website at www.sfra2010.ning.com. Rather than a static site, this year’s conference web presence is a social network designed to allow attendees (and those considering) to join, network before during and after the conference, and collaborate in the construction of the conference. Sign up even if you are not sure whether you’ll attend!

Chesley Awards to be announced at Renovation!

Chesley Awards to be announced at Renovation!

Renovation
The 69th World Science Fiction Convention
RCFI
PO Box 13278
Portland, OR 97213-0278

press@renovationsf.org
www.renovationsf.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Reno – Renovation is pleased to announce that the 2011 Chesley Awards (“the Chesleys”) will be presented at the convention at a highlighted ceremony.

The Chesleys are given annually by the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA). Awards are given in a range of categories including cover and interior illustration, product illustration, art director and artistic achievement. The roll of honor for the Chesleys features many of the field’s best known figures including Michael Whelan, Donato Giancola and Bob Eggleton.

“The presentation of the Chesleys in Reno forms an important element of our wider commitment to science fiction and fantasy art” said Renovation chair Patty Wells. “In addition to honoring Guest of Honor Boris Vallejo and presenting the largest genre Art Show ever seen in Nevada, we will also be putting on an extensive art program including talks, panels and presentations”.

Mike Willmoth, ASFA President, added “The visual arts offer a unique means to express science fiction and fantasy themes, and ASFA is delighted to be working closely with Renoavtion on both the Chesley Awards and related events. I hope that all of the attendees will take the time to look around the exhibits and to meet some of the artists working in the field while they are at the convention”.

Editor’s Note: The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 as ASFA’s peer awards to recognize individual works and achievements during a given year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards, but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986.

ENDS

Memberships for Renovation may be purchased at www.renovationsf.org. In addition to individual memberships, Renovation will also offer a family rate.

For more details on the convention, visit www.renovationsf.org. We encourage your input to help us create a memorable Worldcon.

The Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) web site can be found at www.asfa-art.org.

Direct press questions, or requests to be removed from the Renovation press release mailing list, to press@renovationsf.org. General queries to info@renovationsf.org.

“World Science Fiction Society”, “WSFS”, “World Science Fiction Convention”, “Worldcon”, “NASFiC”, “Hugo Award”, and the distinctive design of the Hugo Award Rocket are service marks of the World Science Fiction Society, an unincorporated literary society.

Charles N. Brown, 1937-2009

A good friend to the IAFA and ICFA, Charles N. Brown has passed away. Here is the link to his obituary on Locus.

A Loss to the Association

On Saturday, June 27, ICFA founder, Bob Collins, passed away in his home at age 80 after an incredibly swift-moving battle with cancer.

Thirty years ago, Bob, a professor at Florida Atlantic University, gambled that a mass mailing to university English departments might attract scholars who wished to give papers on fantasy literature; the response was overwhelming, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history. At the recent 30th annual Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, we were privileged to hear an interview with Bob during which he recounted some of the early history of the conference and the organization and his amazement at its success.

At his request, Bob’s ashes were scattered on the ocean by the Neptune Society. Bob’s daughter, Judy, is planning a remembrance for Bob at their house in Boca Raton, starting at 1 pm on Thursday, July 2. Anyone who will be in the area and who wishes to join us will be welcome. At 2 pm Eastern Time, we will lift a glass together to honor Bob. If others would like to join us in absentia at that time, no doubt Bob would be pleased.

William A. Senior

Guy Gavriel Kay Interview

Guy Gavriel Kay is a Guest of Honor at our upcoming ICFA-30; so, it is fortunate timing that Alaya Dawn Johnson has conducted a recent interview. The link is here.

CFP: Queering the Fantastic

Update: Queering the Fantastic
Edited by Robin Anne Reid and Jes Battis

New deadline for essays on specified topics (listed below)

We have received a number of excellent proposals for this volume but would now like to solicit proposals for essays to fill gaps in the collection.

We need essays on children’s/ya fantasy, fanfiction, graphic novels, horror, and cinema, as well as theoretical pieces on the fantastic itself as a queer medium.

We are seeking scholarly essays (20 pgs max) that explore the links between the fantastic and queer studies.

Email abstracts (1000 word max plus Working Bibliography) to:

Professor Robin Anne Reid (Robin_Reid_AT_tamu-commerce.edu) AND Professor Jes Battis (jbattis_AT_gmail.com). Please include a recent CV and short bio.

Deadline for abstracts is December 15, 2007.

Contributors will be notified within a week.

This volume will address all the fantastic in all media, focusing particularly on queer uses, adaptations, and reformulations. Since its definition as “a hesitation between genres” by Tzvetan Todorov in the 1970s, the fantastic has often been compared to Freud’s ‘uncanny,’ or to the marvelous realms of the picaresque, the fairy-tale, and the medieval romance. But the fantastic is not precisely any of these things, and, with this volume, we are interested in linking it to the ambivalent and charged position of ‘queer’ as a sexuality, a mode of life, a genre of literature, and even a type of impossibility.

Robin Anne Reid is currently professor of creative writing and critical theory at Texas A&M University-Commerce. She has authored two books for Greenwood’s Critical Companions Series (on Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury), and is currently editing an encyclopedia on women in science fiction and fantasy, also for Greenwood. She has published essays on feminist science fiction, queer approaches to fan studies, and Peter Jackson’s film of Tolkien’s novel. Her poetry has been published in a variety of small magazines and online.

Jes Battis is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the City University of New York in Manhattan, and teaches as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at CUNY-Hunter College. He has authored two scholarly books on fantasy and media: Investigating Farscape: Uncharted Territories of Sex and Science Fiction, (Palgrave, 2007) and >am>Blood Relations: Chosen Families in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel (McFarland, 2005). He also has a fantasy novel, Night Child, forthcoming from Penguin USA/Ace in spring of 2008.

The Fantastic and MLA

For those of you attending MLA in ’07, this might be of interest:

Modern Language Association — national conference in Chicago, December 2007
Panel number and title: #458. Science Fiction in the “Third” World

Saturday, 29 December, 10:15–11:30 a.m., Michigan B, Sheraton Chicago Hotels and Towers

Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Science Fiction and Utopian and Fantastic Literature
Presiding: Rachel Haywood Ferreira, Iowa State Univ.

1. “A Fence against the Other: Utopian and Science Fiction in West Africa,” Tiziana Morosetti, Univ. of Bologna
2. “Gender Anarchy and Gender Anarchism: A Look Back at the Argentine Future with Ana María Shua and Angélica Gorodischer,” Patrick O’Connor, Oberlin Coll.
3. “Keri Hulme’s Utopian Remythification in The Bone People,” Sharon R. Wilson, Univ. of Northern Colorado

Doris Lessing Wins Nobel Prize

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) is delighted that Doris Lessing, Guest of Honor at the 1989 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts and longtime IAFA friend, has been awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. Writing on her Children of Violence series, The Guardian states on its website : “By combining literary science fiction with a stringent, pioneering brand of feminism, Lessing gave a glimpse of the qualities for which she was to become famous.” As an author of the fantastic and only the 11th woman to win the award in Nobel’s 106-year history, nothing can take the bloom off of this honour. Congratulations on this well-deserved award!