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Monthly Archives: February 2013

2012 Nebula Awards Nominees Announced

Nebula Awards logoReprinted from the SFWA site. We’re so excited to see so many friends here!! Congratulations everyone!!

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America announces the nominees for the 2012 Nebula Awards (presented 2013), nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Novel

Throne of the Crescent Moon, Saladin Ahmed (DAW; Gollancz ’13)
Ironskin, Tina Connolly (Tor)
The Killing Moon, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit US; Orbit UK)
The Drowning Girl, Caitlín R. Kiernan (Roc)
Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor)
2312, Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit US; Orbit UK)

Novella

On a Red Station, Drifting, Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, Nancy Kress (Tachyon)
“The Stars Do Not Lie,” Jay Lake (Asimov’s 10-11/12)
“All the Flavors,” Ken Liu (GigaNotoSaurus 2/1/12)
“Katabasis,” Robert Reed (F&SF 11-12/12)
“Barry’s Tale,” Lawrence M. Schoen (Buffalito Buffet)

Novelette

“The Pyre of New Day,” Catherine Asaro (The Mammoth Books of SF Wars)
“Close Encounters,” Andy Duncan (The Pottawatomie Giant & Other Stories)
“The Waves,” Ken Liu (Asimov’s 12/12)
“The Finite Canvas,” Brit Mandelo (Tor.com 12/5/12)
“Swift, Brutal Retaliation,” Meghan McCarron (Tor.com 1/4/12)
“Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia,” Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 8/22/12)
“Fade to White,” Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 8/12)

Short Story

“Robot,” Helena Bell (Clarkesworld 9/12)
“Immersion,” Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 6/12)
“Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes,” Tom Crosshill (Clarkesworld 4/12)
“Nanny’s Day,” Leah Cypess (Asimov’s 3/12)
“Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream,” Maria Dahvana Headley (Lightspeed 7/12)
“The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species,” Ken Liu (Lightspeed 8/12)
“Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain,” Cat Rambo (Near + Far)

Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation

The Avengers, Joss Whedon (director) and Joss Whedon and Zak Penn (writers), (Marvel/Disney)
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin (director),  Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Abilar (writers), (Journeyman/Cinereach/Court 13/Fox Searchlight )
The Cabin in the Woods, Drew Goddard (director), Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard (writers) (Mutant Enemy/Lionsgate)
The Hunger Games, Gary Ross (director), Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins, and Billy Ray  writers), (Lionsgate)
John Carter, Andrew Stanton (director), Michael Chabon, Mark Andrews, and Andrew Stanton (writers), (Disney)
Looper, Rian Johnson (director), Rian Johnson (writer), (FilmDistrict/TriStar)

Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy

Iron Hearted Violet, Kelly Barnhill (Little, Brown)
Black Heart, Holly Black (S&S/McElderry; Gollancz)
Above, Leah Bobet (Levine)
The Diviners, Libba Bray (Little, Brown; Atom)
Vessel, Sarah Beth Durst (S&S/McElderry)
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (Random House; Doubleday UK)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Harcourt)
Every Day, David Levithan (Alice A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Summer of the Mariposas, Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Tu Books)
Railsea, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan)
Fair Coin, E.C. Myers (Pyr)
Above World, Jenn Reese (Candlewick)

The Forty-Eighth Nebula Awards Weekend will be held May 16-19th, 2013, in San Jose at the San Jose Hilton. Borderland Books will host the mass autograph session from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 17th at the San Jose Hilton. This autograph session is open to the public and books by the authors in attendance will be available for purchase. More information about the Nebula Awards Weekend is available at http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/nebula-weekend/.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of  SFWA. Voting will open to SFWA Active members on March 1 and close on March 30.  More information is available from http://www.sfwa.org/nebula-awards/how-to-vote/.

Founded in 1965 by the late Damon Knight, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America brings together the most successful and daring writers of speculative fiction throughout the world.

Since its inception, SFWA® has grown in numbers and influence until it is now widely recognized as one of the most effective non-profit writers’ organizations in existence, boasting a membership of approximately 2,000 science fiction and fantasy writers as well as artists, editors and allied professionals.  Each year the organization presents the prestigious Nebula Awards® for the year’s best literary and dramatic works of speculative fiction.

Media: For information on obtaining press passes, interviews with nominees, or questions about the event itself, please contact SFWA’s public relations manager, Jaym Gates, at pr@sfwa.org.

Additional Information

Website: http://www.sfwa.org/

Postal Queries

SFWA, Inc.
PO Box 3238
Enfield, CT
06083-3238

Head of Fantasy Division

The IAFA is looking for a candidate for the position of Head of the Fantasy Division, effective June of 2014. The current Division Head, Stefan Ekman, will finish his term following the 2014 conference. We are advertising this position now to give the incoming Division Head the opportunity to observe the cycle during the 2014 conference, and thus be ready to take over in the summer of 2014 for the 2015 conference cycle.

The Division Head is the person who sends out paper calls for his/her Division, collects and accepts paper proposals, creates paper sessions, helps to create panels, selects and moderates roundtable readings, and passes the work s/he’s done on to the 1st Vice President for scheduling. This Division is responsible for scholarship on all aspects of fantasy literature (broadly defined to mean anything from genre fantasy to magic realism and folk tales) including, but not restricted to, criticism on works by fantasy authors writing in English, inter-disciplinary approaches to the genre, and scholarship on fantasy theory.

Qualifications include current membership with IAFA (at least a couple of years’ experience with the organization so you have some understanding of how things work at the conference), easy and dependable internet access and comfort level with computers, organizational skills, the ability to work as part of a group working together on the ‘big picture,’ a willingness to work through the transition with the previous Division Head beginning this fall, the ability to attend March conferences while you hold the position and to attend the Division Heads’ meeting run by the 1st VP at the conference, plus, of course, the time to do the work involved. Knowledge of the field of fantasy, including theory and criticism, is required. Division Heads hold office for a term of 3 years (with a probationary first year) with the possibility of renewal for a second 3-year term.

If you’re interested in taking on the work of Fantasy Division Head, please contact both Dale Knickerbocker, 1st Vice President (KNICKERBOCKERD@ecu.edu), and Stefan Ekman outgoing Fantasy Division Head (stefan.ekman@englund.lu.se), with a cover letter about your interest in and qualifications for the job. Applications for the position should include a CV. The IAFA Board of Directors will consider all applications for the position.

The deadline for applications is May 1, 2013; a decision will be made by June 2013.

CFP: Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre

Call For Papers
“Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre”
Featuring Robert J. Sawyer
McMaster University
September 13-15, 2013

On the occasion of Robert J. Sawyer’s donation of his archive to Mills Memorial Library, the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University is hosting an international conference entitled “Science Fiction: The Interdisciplinary Genre,” a meeting of academics, writers, professionals, amateurs and fans, focusing on Canadian Science Fiction in general and Sawyer’s work in particular.

While the core of the event will be academic papers, we will also feature authors, editors, booksellers, librarians, commentators, and, of course, readers. Special guests are Robert J. Sawyer (author), John Robert Colombo (specialist of Canadian literature), Julie E. Czerneda (author), David G. Hartwell (editor, Tor), Elisabeth Vonarburg (author), Robert Charles Wilson (author), and Chris Szego of Bakka Phoenix Books.

The multimodal or interdisciplinary approach to the creation, reception and study of the SF genre has been a salient characteristic from Hugo Gernsback’s initial conceiving of the term “scientifiction” in 1926. Later, literary theorists such as Darko Suvin insisted on the particular knowledge, competency and frame of mind required in order to decipher the genre’s figurative meaning: SF, according to Suvin, “is an educational literature, […] irreversibly shaped by the pathos of preaching the good word of human curiosity, fear, and hope. […] It demands from the author and reader, teacher and critic, not merely specialized, quantified positivistic knowledge (scientia) but a social imagination whose quality of wisdom (sapienta) testifies to the maturity of his critical and creative thought.” [Darko Suvin, Metamorphoses of Science Fiction (New Haven: Yale UP, 1979): 40.]

Indeed, Sawyer’s work has garnered the attention of both the literary and scientific communities for its technical accuracy presented through speculative imagination, appealing to both the rational imperative and the sense of wonder inherent in the union of science and fiction. While Sawyer’s stated mandate is foremost to “intrigue,” and not strictly to “educate,” he insists that “[r]esearch is the heart and soul of modern SF writing; scientists are handing us gigantic ideas and mind-boggling stuff” on which to base stories. Through rigorous research initiatives, Sawyer has cultivated and contributed valuably to knowledge in various fields and his expertise is highly sought-after in both popular culture and official circles: for example, he explains that when he was writing “Frameshift, I thought I didn’t know enough genetics, so I dived in to learn all about it … and ended up on Rivera Live on CNBC talking about the Human Genome Project and advising  Canada’s Federal Department of Justice about it.” Sawyer’s work and that of other thinkers and writers, past, present and future, have the power, “with words, [to] reach across time, even after death, to influence people.” Human knowledge thus becomes increasingly accessible thanks to the various media through which it is approached and transmitted. Diverse perspectives on knowledge serve to shed new light on traditional thinking and sf clearly represents radically different perspectives:

“Multidisciplinary studies are the future: one of the reasons I write so much about the burgeoning science of consciousness […] is that it is so multidisciplinary: neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, AI researchers, anesthesiologists, quantum physicists, philosophers, and even some of us lowly science-fiction writers have made important contributions.”

It is in the spirit of an interdisciplinarity approach to science, fiction and science fiction that we invite thinkers of varying descriptions to propose talks aimed at enriching the discussion. While the conference is focused on Canadian SF and especially the literary work of Robert J. Sawyer, papers may address the broader issues at stake, notably the scientific and ethical ramifications at the core of the fictional intrigues: machines matching human capabilities (or the singularity), synthetic biology, etc. We would also welcome panel proposals should you feel inclined to organize your talk and those of willing collaborators under a single topic.

The principle language of the event will be English, though we would like to explore the possibility of running certain panels in French, according to the needs of presenters and interest of other participants. Please indicate if you are a native speaker of French or sufficiently fluent and whether or not you would prefer to give your talk in French or if you are in a position to attend talks and panel discussions in French.

Please send proposals (of 300 words max.) by March 31st, 2013 to both

C. Annette Gris <grisec@mcmaster.ca> and Nicholas Serruys <serruys@mcmaster.ca>

We will also endeavor to publish a volume of selected articles, ideally within the year following the event.

[Sawyer quotes taken from an interview conducted by Roger Deforest and posted April 3rd, 2007 on the website Hard SF: “Robert J. Sawyer Confronts Our Damn Life Clocks in Rollback.” <http://www.hardsciencefiction.rogerdeforest.com/?mode=8&id=6>]

Hotel Overflow now in effect

2013 promises to be a most successful IAFA conference as shown by our having already filled our Guest Room block at the Marriott. From now on please reserve your room at our overflow hotel, the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport, which is located within easy walking distance of the Marriott. The suites are spacious, the amenities excellent, and the restaurant and bar eminently suitable for conversation. We believe you will enjoy the hotel. Of course, anyone staying at the Sheraton Suites may use any and all of the Marriott’s facilities without charge.

To reserve a room call Joyce Manring, Sales Manager directly at (407) 313-1015. Do NOT call the hotel reservations as this arrangement between the IAFA and hotel Sales is special and only the Sales Manager may book rooms at the IAFA rate. The conference price per room is $130.

SUNDAY EXCURSION: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

This year’s Sunday Excursion is to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Transportation and entry ticket to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). The bus will leave the hotel at 9:30 am and return at approximately 5:30 pm. A limited number of tickets is available. Tickets must be paid in full to reserve. NON-REFUNDABLE ($95).

Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, one of 4 Theme Parks in Walt Disney World Resort, offers behind-the-scenes glimpses of Hollywood-style action with live shows, thrilling attractions, backstage tours and special events that only happen in this Disney Park dedicated to entertainment.

The glitz and glamour of the Hollywood Heydays from the 1930s and 1940s are captured by the neon, chrome, art deco and modern architecture throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park. The streets and sections of the 4 areas of the Park blend together like a large, bustling movie set.

Step into the action with new attractions—like the American Idol Experience—that might put you center stage and under the spotlight. Feel like a star, or come face-to-face with one! Collect autographs and pose for photos at special events or at Character greeting locations.

Live out your desire for stardom by participating in parades, being part of a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy and experiencing spectacular attractions based on blockbuster movies and top TV shows—all at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park where movie magic comes to life!

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/hollywood-studios

CFP: To Unearth the Bruises Underground: The Fanatical Oeuvre of Steve Aylett (Essay Collection)

  • February 4, 2013 – 2:11 am
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EDITORS
D. Harlan Wilson
Bill Ectric

CONTACT EMAIL
billectric@aol.com

A fanatical satirist and provocateur, British author Steve Aylett writes in multiple genres, usually simultaneously, combining elements of science fiction and fantasy with comedy and a high literary aesthetic. As a result of his unique method of narrative hybridization, Aylett has not garnered much of a readership beyond devotees in underground circles who tend to worship him like a bogie in the sky. He is simply too clever and grandiloquent for genre readers, and he’s too genre for literary readers, infusing his meta-pulp fictions with intricate networks of hi-tech and/or bizarre novums. Like J. G. Ballard, Aylett belies, if not capsizes, formulaic methods and ultimately constitutes a genre in and of himself. A comprehensive study of his singular body of work is long overdue.

Anti-Oedipus Press will publish To Unearth the Bruises Underground, the first collection of critical essays on Aylett. We seek articles between 2000-5000 words on one or more of the following works:

THE BEERLIGHT SERIES
The Crime Studio
Slaughtermatic
Atom
Novahead

THE ACCOMPLICE SERIES (collected as The Complete Accomplice):
Only an Alligator
The Velocity Gospel
Dummyland
Karloff’s Circus

NOVELS
Bigot Hall
The Inflatable Volunteer
Shamanspace
Lint
Fain the Sorcerer
Rebel at the End of Time

COLLECTIONS
Toxicology
Smithereens
And Your Point Is?
Tao Te Jinx

 COMICS
The Caterer
Get that Thing Away from Me

 FILMS
LINT: The Movie

Format submissions according to MLA style and send them to Bill Ectric at billectric@aol.com. The target publication date is June 2014. Submissions will be accepted until October 2013.