Skip navigation

Monthly Archives: May 2012

Übergänge und Entgrenzungen in der Fantastik / Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic

  • May 7, 2012 – 4:51 pm
  • Posted in CFP
  • Comments Off on Übergänge und Entgrenzungen in der Fantastik / Transitions and Dissolving Boundaries in the Fantastic

Invitation to the Third Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GFF), at the University of Zurich from 13th to 16th September 2012

The third conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung will take place at Zurich University, from 13th to 16th September 2012.

The fantastic raises a significant number of questions about cultural and social developments and challenges existing boundaries. With regard to transitions and the crossing of boundaries, the focus of this conference will lie on objects, norms, knowledge, ascribed meanings and potential spectrums of interpretation associated with the fantastic. The aim is to explore representations of worlds and subjects, reality and fiction, in order to contribute to a further assessment of the cultural relevance of the fantastic – in its contemporary, historical, social and medial dimensions.

Speakers from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and the USA will present and discuss their papers in more than thirty sections, either in English (E) or German (G).

Keynotes will be presented by Renate Lachmann (G), Hans Richard Brittnacher (G), John Clute (E), Dieter Petzold (E), Alexander Knorr (G) and Marleen S. Barr (E). The wellknown authors Jan Koneffke (G) and Lev Grossman (E) and the illustrator John Howe (E) will also be present to speak about their work and be available for discussion.

The conference will take place in the main building of Zurich University, in the town centre, with good connection to public transport. It starts on Thursday, at 01:30 p.m., and ends on Sunday, at 01:00 p.m.

Up to date information is available on our conference homepage: http://www.ipk.uzh.ch/tagungen/gff2012.html, where you also find the programme, some information about accommodation, the registration fee, and the registration form, to be handed in by 31.07.2012. Hotel bookings should be made as early as possible.

We are looking forward to welcome you at Zurich University.

Jane Rogers wins Arthur C. Clarke Award

The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers has been declared the best science fiction novel of the year and the 26th winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Published by Sandstone Press, the novel is set in a near-future world living in the aftermath of biological terrorism and the release of the MDS (maternal death syndrome) virus.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is the most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain. The annual award is presented for the best science fiction novel of the year, and selected from a shortlist of novels whose UK first edition was published in the previous calendar year.

The six shortlisted books are:

  • Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three (Gollancz)
  • Drew Magary, The End Specialist (Harper Voyager)
  • China Miéville, Embassytown (Macmillan)
  • Jane Rogers, The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Sandstone Press)
  • Charles Stross, Rule 34 (Orbit)
  • Sheri S.Tepper, The Waters Rising (Gollancz)

Stanley Schmidt wins this year’s Heinlein Award

Stanley Schmidt won this year’s Robert A. Heinlein Award, which is given for outstanding published works in science fiction and technical writings to inspire the human exploration of space. The award committee consists of science fiction writers and is chaired by Dr. Yoji Kondo, a long time friend of Robert and Virginia Heinlein. Members of the committee were originally approved by Virginia Heinlein. Virginia Heinlein authorized multiple awards in memory of her husband. The Robert A. Heinlein Award is not the one fully funded by Virginia Heinlein’s estate. This award is supported by independent donations from the interested public. To donate contact dale at bsfs dot org for details.

2012-13 R.D. Mullen Research Fellowships

The winners of the fourth annual R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship have been announced. The R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship is funded by SF Studies in the name of their late founding editor to support archival research in the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Literature at UC-Riverside. The committee—chaired by Rob Latham and consisting of Jane Donawerth, Joan Gordon, Roger Luckhurst, and John Rieder—reviewed a number of excellent applications and settled on a slate of three winners for 2011-12:

  • ANDREW FERGUSON is a PhD student in the English Department at the University of Virginia. His dissertation examines the aesthetics of “glitching” in modernist and postmodernist fiction, videogames, and sf. He received the award for best student paper delivered at the 2009 SFRA conference and the 2012 top prize from the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia for his work collecting the print materials of R.A. Lafferty. His work has appeared in SFS, the New York Review of Science Fiction, and other venues. He will spend ten days in the Eaton researching the “Shaver Mysteries” promoted in Amazing Stories during the mid-to-late 1940s.
  • MATTHEW HOLTMEIER is a PhD candidate in Film Studies at the University of St. Andrews. His research, on “biopolitical production and cinematic subjectivity,” uses fan culture studies to examine the dynamics of affect and belief in popular film and television audiences. His essays have appeared in Short Film Studies, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, and the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. He will spend a week in the Eaton studying the emergence of fan communities surrounding The X-Files, including working in the Mari Ruíz-Torres Collection of books, scripts, posters, photographs, and fan club materials relating to the program.
  • MALISA KURTZ is a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brock University. Her dissertation examines the intersections of (post)colonialism, technoculture, and race in twentieth-century sf. She has presented her work at the Popular Culture Association of Canada conference and the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts, and has won a number of competitive research fellowships. During a month in the Eaton, she plans to explore “the cultural construction of a pan-Asian identity” in early pulp sf.

2012 Locus Award Finalists

Locus logo

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2012 Locus Awards.

Winners will be announced during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 15-17, 2012. Connie Willis will MC the ceremony and judge the annual Hawai’ian shirt contest on Saturday, June 16. Additional weekend events include author readings,  a kickoff meet-and-greet, panels with leading authors, an autograph session with books available for sale thanks to University Book Store, and a lunch banquet, all followed by the Clarion West Party on Saturday night honoring Clarion West supporters, awards weekend ticket holders, and special guests. NW Media Arts is running a writing workshop with Connie Willis and James Patrick Kelly bookending the weekend. Tickets are still available here.

Science Fiction Novel

Fantasy Novel

First Novel

Young Adult Book

Novella

  • The Affair of the Chalk Cliffs, James P. Blaylock (Subterranean)
  • “The Man Who Bridged the Mist”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 10-11/11)
  • “Kiss Me Twice”, Mary Robinette Kowal (Asimov’s 6/11)
  • “The Ants of Flanders”, Robert Reed (F&SF 7-8/11)
  • Silently and Very Fast, Catherynne M. Valente (WSFA)

Novelette

  • “Underbridge”, Peter S. Beagle (Naked City)
  • “The Copenhagen Interpretation”, Paul Cornell (Asimov’s 7/11)
  • “The Summer People”, Kelly Link (Tin House: The Ecstatic/Steampunk!)
  • “What We Found”, Geoff Ryman (F&SF 9-10/11)
  • “White Lines on a Green Field”, Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Fall ’11)

Short Story

  • “The Way It Works Out and All”, Peter S. Beagle (F&SF 7-8/11)
  • “The Case of Death and Honey”, Neil Gaiman (A Study in Sherlock)
  • “The Paper Menagerie”, Ken Liu (F&SF 3-4/11)
  • “The Bread We Eat in Dreams”, Catherynne M. Valente (Apex 11/11)
  • “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”, E. Lily Yu (Clarkesworld 4/11)

Magazine

  • Analog
  • Asimov’s
  • Clarkesworld
  • F&SF
  • Tor.com

Publisher

  • Baen
  • Night Shade
  • Small Beer
  • Subterranean
  • Tor

Anthology

Collection

Editor

  • Ellen Datlow
  • Gardner Dozois
  • Jonathan Strahan
  • Ann & Jeff VanderMeer
  • Gordon Van Gelder

Artist

  • Bob Eggleton
  • John Picacio
  • Shaun Tan
  • Charles Vess
  • Michael Whelan

Non-fiction

Art Books