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Monthly Archives: January 2012

If you are presenting at ICFA this year, remember to get your registration in if you haven’t already. Registration for speakers (paper presenters, panel participants, et al) is due on February 1.

Genevieve Valentine has been named winner of the 2012 William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for her novel Mechanique, published by Prime Books in 2011.

The award, which includes a cash prize, is presented annually at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, is designated for an exceptionally promising writer whose first fantasy book was published the preceding year.  Prior winners include Jonathan Lethem, Charles de Lint, Greer Gilman, Judith Tarr,  Kij Johnson, Joe Hill, M. Rickert, Daryl Gregory, Christopher Barzak, Jedediah Berry and, last year, Karen Lord.

The nominators for this year’s award also shortlisted Erin Morgenstern for The Night Circus, Tea Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife,  Stina Leicht for Of Blood and Honey, and Ransom Riggs for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.  Those participating in the selection included Stacie Hanes, Niall Harrison, Ellen Klages, Kelly Link, Cheryl Morgan, Graham Sleight, and Paul Witcover.

The 2012 International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts will take place March 21-25 in Orlando, FL.  Further details are at www.iafa.org.

We’re so excited that China Miéville has agreed to provide a design for the ICFA 33 shirt and wanted to remind you to pre-order yours! Shirt orders must be in by next Tuesday, February 1.

Standard style shirts are available in a wide range of sizes from Youth Large through 4X. Because the women’s fitted shirt is an experimental addition, we are offering the fitted style only as a pre-order in 2012, sizes S through XL.  Fitted style shirts are print-on-demand and will not be available for purchase on-site. The women’s style pre-order shirt is competitively priced at $20, which matches the on-site price of the standard shirt. If you like the addition, let us know by purchasing a shirt and helping to ensure that fitted shirts will be available in the future.

Visit the conference page to register for the conference and pre-order your shirt today.

Narratives Mediated: (dis)junctions 2012

19th annual graduate student conference

University of California, Riverside

April 13-14th, 2012

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Leo Braudy, University of Southern California

Abstracts due: February 17th, 2012

Email: disjunctions2012@gmail.com

For this year’s (dis)junctions conference, we are seeking papers that explore the construction and definition of “narrative” in all its mediated and mediating forms. The word narrative is typically associated with storytelling and plot, but for this year’s conference we want to understand “narrative” as any instance of producing meaning or “truth.” In this regard, a piece of literary criticism, while often explicating a literary narrative, is a type of narrative in itself. Further, in an attempt to be at once inclusive and provocative, we want to think about the way disciplines across the academy each work to construct particular narratives. History, for instance, seeks to understand the past through contending narratives; the Sciences constantly revises dominant narratives of the physical world; and even music, while not verbal, still has a trace of narrative in its composition, framed by a beginning and end. To what extent do narratives (in a broad sense of the term) reflect, challenge, or create a sense of both oneself and one’s world? Does the medium act as a link between the reader/viewer/listener and the “real,” or does the medium come to define the real? How do different academic discourses mediate and create new ontological narratives? Papers may address topics such as, but not limited to: identity, the nation, race relations, ethnic rhetorics, gender, sexuality, materiality, neoliberalism, pedagogy, postcolonial theory and narratives, autobiographies, landscapes, narrative genres (of Trans-Atlantic, North-South relation, Medieval, Romantic, Modern, Post-Modern, travel, war, visual, video games—to name a few), technology, narratology, popular media/new media, the university as the public production of knowledge, and other academic criticism/theory not mentioned above as narrative.

In keeping with previous years, (dis)junctions 2012 welcomes papers from all disciplines inside and outside of the Humanities. Participants may submit to a specific panel or in response to the general call for papers. Traditional genre and period-related papers, as well as creative writing, spoken word, dance pieces, films, installation artwork, and other forms of media are highly encouraged. Please visit our website at http://disjunctions2012.wordpress.com for additional panel-specific Calls For Papers as they become available. Abstracts (250-300 words) may be emailed to disjunctions2012@gmail.com. Please note any A/V needs you may have at that time.  We can obtain VCRs, DVDs, and projectors for laptops. Less standard equipment is possible (although not guaranteed) upon request.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards are holding a fund-raising drive to raise money for prizes for the winners of the 2011 awards. The awards, which are for new translations of SF/F into English, are given in two categories: short-form and long-form. Prizes are presented to both the translator and the author. The awards are sponsored by the Association for the Recognition of Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation, a non-profit organization.

Information about the drive, with a Paypal link to donate, can be found here: http://www.sfftawards.org/?p=494

Congratulations to Sandor whose first book has been published by McFarland, which analyzes the fiction of Neil Gaiman, P. K. Dick, and Stanislaw Lem (and Agatha Christie, for those who are interested in the somewhat fantastic stories of hers.) .
http://www.amazon.com/Liminality-Fantastic-Fiction-Poststructuralist-Approach/dp/0786464739/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327005109&sr=8-1

Science Fiction Foundation SF Criticism Masterclass 2012

Class Leaders:

The Science Fiction Foundation (SFF) will be holding the sixth annual Masterclass in sf criticism in 2012.

Dates: June 22nd, 23rd, 24th 2012.

Location: Middlesex University, London (the Hendon Campus, nearest underground, Hendon). Delegate costs will be £190 per person, excluding accommodation.
Accommodation: students are asked to find their own accommodation, but help is available from the administrator (farah.sf@gmail.com).

Applicants should write to Farah Mendlesohn at farah.sf@gmail.com. Applicants are asked to provide a CV and a writing sample; these will be assessed by an Applications Committee consisting of Farah Mendlesohn, Graham Sleight and Andy Sawyer. Completed applications must be received by 28th February 2012.

Although we’ve received a number of proposals for a special issue of JFA on the Canadian Fantastic, we were hoping to reach readers of the journal who might not also be on this listserv. However, due to unavoidable publication delays, the issues of the journal containing the CfP will arrive in mailboxes after the original deadline.

So we’re extending the deadline to February 15.

We’re defining the fantastic as broadly as does the conference, and hoping to see proposals on the work of many great Canadian writers including (but not limited to) R. Scott Bakker, Sylvie Bérard, A. M. Dellamonica, Charles de Lint, Cory Doctorow, Candas Jane Dorsey, William Gibson, Hiromi Goto, Phyllis Gotlieb, Nalo Hopkinson, Tanya Huff, Guy Gavriel Kay, Yves Meynard, Spider Robinson, Geoff Ryman, Robert J. Sawyer, Karl Schroeder, S. M. Stirling, Jean-Louis Trudel, Elisabeth Vonarburg, A. E. van Vogt, Robert Charles Wilson, toalphabetizeonly a few of our northern stars.

Please submit a 300-word proposal by February 15, 2012 to both Graham Murphy (grahammurphy@trentu.ca) and Chrissie Mains (cemains@shaw.ca).

For all who speak Spanish and Portuguese, here is the CFP for an annual sf/f colloquium in Lima, Peru.

COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL

FINES DEL MUNDO: NARRATIVAS FANTÁSTICAS EN HISPANOAMÉRICA

Coloquiofanperú 2012

(en conmemoración de los 140 años del nacimiento

de Clemente Palma, Enrique López Albújar y Aurelio Arnao)

25, 26 y 27 de Octubre de 2012

Lima – Perú

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Estimada(o) colega:

El Centro de Estudios Literarios Antonio Cornejo Polar, con el auspicio del Instituto de Investigaciones Humanísticas de

la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias Humanas de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), tienen el agrado

de invitarla(o) al COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL: «FINES DEL MUNDO: NARRATIVAS FANTÁSTICAS EN

HISPANOAMÉRICA», evento que continúa con la exhumación de la obra de autores nacionales y latinoamericanos con

vínculos con lo fantástico. Este año el motivo central es el estudio sobre el Modernismo y la literatura finisecular

hispanoamericana, además de la reflexión sobre los propósitos y fines del mundo en su doble acepción.

Ejes temáticos propuestos:

1. Teorías de lo fantástico: entre la tradición y los nuevos paradigmas. Relaciones de lo fantástico con modalidades afines, como lo real maravilloso; el realismo mágico; lo maravilloso; lo policial; el horror; la ciencia ficción; la ghost-story; lo gótico; lo grotesco; la minificción; el humor; etc.

2. Literatura fantástica en Latinoamérica y Europa. Estudios de literatura comparada. Los estudios del fantástico peruano y latinoamericano y su relación con lo fantástico anglosajón y europeo. Análisis de textos en particular, además de estudios temáticos y de motivos fantásticos.

3. Utopías y distopías en la literatura hispanoamericana.

4. Arte fantástico latinoamericano y universal (cine, artes plásticas e historieta, entre otros).

5. Manifestaciones de lo fantástico peruano:

• Orígenes del cuento fantástico peruano. La tradición y otras formas narrativas decimonónicas.

• Clemente Palma y las publicaciones periódicas modernistas.

• El cuento fantástico peruano y su vinculación con la vanguardia.

• Narrativa fantástica peruana contemporánea.

• La tradición oral y sus vínculos con lo fantástico.

RESÚMENES Y PONENCIAS

El plazo de envío de la propuesta de sumilla (abstract) será el domingo 8 de julio de 2012. La sumilla, de aproximadamente 250 palabras, deberá contener: Título de la ponencia, resumen descriptivo, nombres completos, teléfonos y, de manera obligatoria, la filiación institucional. El Comité Organizador acusará recibo de las propuestas y notificará la aceptación de las sumillas antes del 22 de julio.

Para garantizar que el nombre del ponente y su trabajo aparezcan en el programa, la confirmación deberá hacerse a más tardar el 2 de septiembre.

La extensión de las ponencias no deberá exceder los 20 minutos de lectura oral. La lengua del Coloquio es el español y portugués.

Las sumillas y propuestas de mesas deberán ser enviadas únicamente a la siguiente dirección: coloquiofanperu@gmail.com

Los participantes, cuyas sumillas sean aprobadas, tendrán plazo hasta el 31 de agosto para enviar una copia de su ponencia, la cual no deberá exceder las 10 cuartillas (excluida la bibliografía), en formato A-4, Arial 12, a doble espacio y con el citado de fuentes según el sistema internacional del MLA. Estas serán editadas en las actas digitales.

INSCRIPCIONES

Las cuotas de inscripción para el Coloquio son las siguientes:

• Ponentes provenientes de entidades europeas y norteamericanas: US$ 60.= (sesenta dólares americanos)

• Ponentes provenientes de entidades latinoamericanas, africanas o asiáticas: US$ 40.= (cuarenta dólares americanos)

• Ponentes provenientes de entidades peruanas: S/. 60.= (sesenta nuevos soles)

COSTO DE CERTIFICACIÓN PARA ASISTENTES NO PONENTES

Público en general y estudiantes: S/. 30.= (treinta nuevos soles)

Los pagos por derecho de inscripción y/o certificación de asistencia deberán ser cubiertos en la sede del Coloquio, antes de la sesión inaugural del evento.

En espera de recibir sus resúmenes y contar con su valiosa participación, la(o) saludamos cordialmente.

EL COMITÉ ORGANIZADOR
Elton Honores Vásquez
Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola
Gonzalo Portals Zubiate
Universidad Científica del Sur
Gonzalo Cornejo Soto
Centro de Estudios Literarios Antonio Cornejo Polar

Asesor Académico:
Marcel Velázquez Castro
Instituto de Investigaciones Humanísticas
Facultad de Letras y CC. HH.
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos

Contacto:
Página web: www.celacp.org/web/
Teléfono: (511) 449-0331
Blog del evento: coloquiofanper.blogspot.com
Correo: coloquiofanperu@gmail.com

CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS LITERARIOS ANTONIO CORNEJO POLAR
Av. Benavides 3074 – Óvalo de Higuereta, Miraflores / Teléfonos: 449-0331, 216-1029
Correo electrónico: difusión@celacp.org / Página web: http://www.celacp.org/web/

We’re delighted to see the following announcement on the SFWA site:

SFWA is proud to announce author Connie Willis as the 2011 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for her contributions to the literature of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

The author of fifteen novels and over fifty short stories and novellas, Ms. Willis’s first novel, Water Witch, co-written with Cynthia Felice, was released in 1982. In 1992, Bantam Spectra released Willis’s Doomsday Book, which went on to win the Hugo, the Nebula and the Locus Awards for Best Novel. As of 2012, Ms. Willis has seven Nebula Awards, eleven Hugo Awards and four Locus Awards, among many others.

Ms. Willis is known to fans and colleagues for her generosity and humor, and her stories and anecdotes are frequently quoted long after their debut. She exemplifies the best this genre has to offer, and we are proud to welcome her to the rank of Grand Master.