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An Appeal for Help
The ICFA bookroom needs help in setting up, maintaining and tearing down the bookroom. Here is the work schedule:

1. Sunday, March 15 – Moving the books from the storage facility to the hotel and arranging the unopened boxes into an approximate order for unpacking. This is a short term afternoon activity but does require strenuous physical activity.

2. Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17 – Unpacking books, arranging the room, pricing all new books in PENCIL, repricing the older books.We will working all day, both days.

3. Wednesday through Saturday, March 18 through 21. Two sessions each day approximately 8:15 AM to Noon and then approximately 2 PM to 6 PM. The room is open all day on Saturday. This is non-arduous work. Rearranging books, assisting shoppers and either repricing existing stock or pricing new books. If we have a separate auction room, we will also need someone to simply sit in the room.

4. Extra help is needed Thursday and Friday about 3/4 hr. before lunch and Saturday 3/4 hr. before the Banquet to place books at each place for the meal.

5. On the final Sunday, packing all remaining books under Peter Halasz’s direction (Yes, there is an art and science to this) and moving them to the storage facility.

The two intensive manpower needs are the two Sundays. Some years we have been very short of help on the last Sunday.

We provide rewards for assistance. We break the day into morning and
afternoon sessions. For three sessions of work we provide a membership to the conference that does not include any of the meals. Additional work sessions can earn meals. This includes help in setting up the conference prior to the opening sessions on Wednesday.

If possible email me at JTBerlant@AOL.com with the times you are available. We will also cheerfully welcome anyone stopping in to help. Work on the two Sundays is somewhat strenuous, moving boxes. The rest is reasonably non-strenuous.

Thanks for your assistance.

Joe Berlant, ICFA Bookroom Manager

The ballot is now available for the upcoming IAFA election (Second Vice President, Treasurer). It is available from our IAFA website at www.iafa.org.

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.

Nominations for election to the positions 2nd Vice-President and Treasurer of the IAFA are now closed. Below you will find the candidates’ statements. Ballots for these two elections will be made available shortly.

Sydney Duncan’s Candidate Statement for 2nd Vice President

I am interested in the position of Second Vice President of IAFA. I’ve been a member of our organization for about 10 years now, reading fiction and poetry at the conference, serving as panel chair, and presenting papers.

I have stepped in at the last moment at the conference on more than one occasion to moderate panels or host readings when the need arose. I read widely in the field and consider myself a knowledgeable participant in academic and creative conversations on the fantastic. I am dedicated to seeing that the level of creative participation at the conference remains high. I am well-suited to be graduate student liaison, having served for 3 years as the advisor to the English Graduate Organization (over 140 students) when I was at the University of Alabama.

I have excellent computer skills, organizational skills, and a deep commitment to IAFA. I get along well with everyone in the IAFA organizational structure, both past and present. I have excellent relationships with many of the writers who regularly attend the conference and know many more from the convention circuit who are not regular attendees – but might be someday. I am eager to become more involved in IAFA, which I think is growing in new and interesting ways, and I am excited about opportunities to help the organization improve. I am in a secure tenure-track position at Frostburg State University, where service to professional organizations off-campus is considered of great value, so I have solid institutional support to take on the duties of Second Vice President.

I hope the IAFA membership will give me strong consideration as a candidate for Second Vice President.

Sydney Duncan; Assistant Professor of English; Frostburg State University

William Clemente’s Candidate Statement for Treasurer

Serving as Treasurer for the past three years taught me a great deal not only about keeping the records but also about the IAFA. I enjoyed the experience and am happy to run again for the position. I will continue to work hard to ensure accurate and open records of the organization’s accounts.

William Clemente; Professor of English; Peru State College

This information available from www.locusmag.com.

“This year’s winners include Guy Gavriel Kay’s novel Ysabel, Elizabeth Hand’s novella Illyria, and Theodora Goss’ short story “Singing of Mount Abora”, with other categories won by Ellen Datlow, Robert Shearman, Edward Miller, Peter Crowther, and Midori Snyder & Terri Windling. Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Leo & Diane Dillon and Patricia A. McKillip.”

This is particularly timely since Kay is one of our Guests of Honor at the upcoming ICFA-30 (March 18-22, 2009). Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees and don’t forget to congratulate Kay when you see him in Orlando this March. For information on the conference, check out our website.

Call for Proposals
Fantastic Voyages, Monstrous Dreams, Wondrous Visions: Cinematic Folklore and Fairy Tale Film

Submissions are invited for an edited collection of essays on fairy tale film. Suitable topics include but are not limited to:
• Intersections between folklore, fantasy, and film theory
• Postmodern and psychoanalytic perspectives on cinematic folklore
• Metamorphosis, enchantment, monstrosity, and abjection in fairy tale film
• Transgender or transbiology in fairy tale film
• The rise in popularity of adult fairy tale films
• The convergence of science fiction and fairy tale fantasy film
• Ethnographic studies of fairy tale film viewers and audiences
• Fairy tale film narratives of Happily-ever-after, the American Dream, utopia, and other cultural discourses
• Discourses of Otherness, (post)coloniality, and Orientalism in fairy tale film
• Fairy tale film as cultural pedagogy, encoding issues of socialization, sexuality, gender, race, and class difference
• Analyses of particular works by fairy tale filmmakers from Georges Méliès and Walt Disney to Tim Burton and Stephen Spielberg
• Global migration of cinematic folklore, cross-cultural translations and transformations
• Genre and generational shifts and remixes in fairy tale film from melodrama and romantic comedy, to science fiction, horror, noir, and action adventure
• Fairy tale motifs in the visual culture of film shorts, TV advertising and music video
• Historic and contemporary perspectives on innovative cinematography and special effects in animated and live-action fairy tale film, from puppetry to Pixar
• Political economy/capitalist relations of production and direction of cinematic folklore
• Relationship of “classic” 19thC fairy tale illustration (from Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Walter Crane, Edmund Dulac, et al.) and the Disney animation image repertoire to the iconography of contemporary cinematic folklore

Final essays should range in length from 5,000 – 9,000 words. Previously published work, appropriately revised and/or updated, will be considered. Send 500-word proposals (or completed essays) and a brief c.v. electronically as email attachments to Sidney Eve Matrix (matrixs@queensu.ca) and Pauline Greenhill (p.greenhill@uwinnipeg.ca) by 1 January 2008.

The 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Time and the Fantastic — Update

The 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will be held March 18-22, 2009, at the Orlando Airport Marriott in Orlando, Florida. The conference begins at 3 pm on Wednesday and ends at 1 am on Sunday upon the conclusion of the conference banquet. Malcolm J. Edwards and Brian Stableford write that “the metaphysics of time continues to intrigue writers inside and outside the genre” of the fantastic; thus, the focus of ICFA-30 is on the intriguing relationships between time and the fantastic. Papers are invited to explore this topic in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other related modes of the fantastic. In addition, we especially look forward to papers on the work of our honored guests:

Guest of Honor: Guy Gavriel Kay, Aurora Award-winning, Caspar Award-winning, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Award-nominated author of the Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road), Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and The Last Light of the Sun

Guest of Honor: Robert Charles Wilson, Hugo Award-winning author of Axis, Spin, The Chronoliths, Darwinia, Mysterium, and A Bridge of Years

Guest Scholar: Maria Nikolajeva, author of The Aesthetic Approach to Children’s Literature (Scarecrow), The Rhetoric of Children’s Literature (Scarecrow), and From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children’s Literature (Scarecrow)

As always, we also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. The deadline is October 31, 2008.

We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English is open to all members of the IAFA. The IAFA Graduate Student Award is open to all graduate students presenting papers at the year’s conference. Details are available via Robin Reid, Second Vice-President (Robin_Reid@tamu-commerce.edu). Finally, the Dell Magazines Undergraduate Science Fiction Award will also be handed out at this year’s conference.

Visit http://www.iafa.org for more details, including the specific div. heads and their respective areas.

IAFA Division Heads

Fantastic Literature in English (FE)
Stefan Ekman
Lund University

Horror Literature (H)
Stephanie Moss
University of South Florida

International Fantastic Literatures (IF)
Dale Knickerbocker
East Carolina University

Science Fiction Literature and Theory(SF)
Sherryl Vint
Brock University

The Fantastic in Visual & Performing Arts (VPA)
Stefan Hall
Defiance College

Communities & Culture in the Fantastic (CC)
Barbara Lucas
Lakeland Community College

The Fantastic in Film and Media (FFM)
Susan A. George
UC-Davis

The Fantastic in Children’s & Young Adult Literature & Art (CYA)
Amie Rose Rotruck
Hollins University

The IAFA Membership (2009) and ICFA-30 Pre-registration forms are now posted on our website. Head on over and we look forward to seeing you in Orlando in March, 2009.

Extra IAFA directories are available for purchase. They are $5.00 (plus postage) in American funds. Checks or money orders made out to “IAFA” can be mailed to:

Judy Collins McCormick
1504 Cochran Road
Lexington, KY 40502-2321

If you have any questions, please contact Judy Collins McCormick at jarcm@insightbb.com.

The 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts
Time and the Fantastic

The 30th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will be held March 18-22, 2009, at the Orlando Airport Marriott in Orlando, Florida. The conference begins at 3pm on Wednesday and ends at 1 am on Sunday upon the conclusion of the conference banquet. Malcolm J. Edwards and Brian Stableford write that “the metaphysics of time continues to intrigue writers inside and outside the genre” of the fantastic; thus, the focus of ICFA-30 is on the intriguing relationships between time and the fantastic. Papers are invited to explore this topic in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other related modes of the fantastic. In addition, we especially look forward to papers on the work of our honored guests:

Guest of Honor: Guy Gavriel Kay, Aurora Award-winning, Caspar Award-winning, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Award-nominated author of the Fionavar Tapestry (The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, The Darkest Road), Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, and The Last Light of the Sun

Guest of Honor: Robert Charles Wilson, Hugo Award-winning author of Axis, Spin, The Chronoliths, Darwinia, Mysterium, and A Bridge of Years

Guest Scholar: Maria Nikolajeva, author of The Aesthetic Approach to Children’s Literature (Scarecrow), The Rhetoric of Children’s Literature (Scarecrow), and From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children’s Literature (Scarecrow)

As always, we also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. The deadline is October 31, 2008.

We encourage work from institutionally-affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, graduate students, and undergraduate students.

The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for an Essay Not in English is open to all members of the IAFA. The IAFA Graduate Student Award is open to all graduate students presenting papers at the year’s conference. Details are available via Robin Reid, Second Vice-President (Robin_Reid@tamu-commerce.edu). Finally, the Dell Magazines Undergraduate Science Fiction Award will also be handed out at this year’s conference.

Visit http://www.iafa.org for more details.