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Monthly Archives: February 2018

CFP: “Worlding SF: Building, Inhabiting, and Understanding Science Fiction Universes” (Phase 2), University of Graz, Austria December 6–8, 2018

  • February 20, 2018 – 12:31 pm
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  • Comments Off on CFP: “Worlding SF: Building, Inhabiting, and Understanding Science Fiction Universes” (Phase 2), University of Graz, Austria December 6–8, 2018

Call for Papers (Phase 2) ++

NOW OPEN: Submission for individual paper proposals —>
http://www.worlding-sf.com

Deadline: April 18, 2018

“Worlding SF: Building, Inhabiting, and Understanding Science Fiction Universes”
University of Graz, Austria
December 6–8, 2018

Confirmed keynote speakers (in alphabetical order):
Mark Bould
(University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom)

Gerry Canavan
(Marquette University, United States)

Cheryl Morgan
(Owner of Wizard’s Tower Press; Director of San Francisco Science
Fiction Conventions)

The conference “Worlding SF” seeks to explore these three thematic
clusters—(a) world- building, (b) processes and practices of being in
fictional worlds (both from the characters’ and
readers’/viewers’/players’/fans’ points of view), and (c) the
seemingly naturalized subtextual messages these fantastic visions
communicate (or sometimes even self-consciously address).

Based on the panel proposals we received in phase 1 of our call for
papers, we would like to invite interested scholars to propose
individual papers to the following thematic clusters:

* A and Gray: Non-Heteronormative Sexualities in Imagined Worlds
* Afro-Futurist Worlds
* Asian SF Worlds
* Between Scarcity and Abundance in SF Worlds
* Between Transmedia Storytelling and Money-Making: Franchising SF Worlds
* Beyond Petromodernity: Alternative Energy Futures
* “By the time you read this, you’ll be older than you remember”: Age
and Aging in SF Worlds (fan cultures included)
* Celebrating Brian Aldriss’s SF Worlds
* Celebrating Ursula K. Le Guin’s SF Worlds
* “Constants and variables”: Building the Multiverse
* Eastern-European SF Worlds
* Feel, Perform, and Picture the World: World-Building beyond Storytelling
* Gaia in Outer Space: SF Worlds as Sentient and/or Feeling Entities
* “How do we know that 2 and 2 make 4?” Ontologies (and
Epistemologies) of SF Worlds
* Indigenous Cosmologies
* “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations”: World-Building in Star Trek
* “It’s a trap!” Exploring the Star Wars Universe
* Movement is Key: Moving in/through SF Gameworlds (not restricted to
digital games!)
* Muslim SF Worlds
* Performing Fandom: Inhabiting SF Worlds in the “Real” World
* “The planet has survived everything […]. It will certainly survive
us”: Imagining and Building Non-/Post-/Transhuman Worlds
* The “Real” World Feeding Off of SF Worlds
* Regenerative Play in Utopia: Exploring Playful Counter-Discourses in
Eco-SF Games
* There and Back Again: The Shared World-Building Experiences of Video
Gamers and Game Designers
* Trans* Worlds: Imagining Non-Binary Futures

Of course, there is also an open track for proposals that do not quite
fit into these (rather broad) thematic clusters.

Limited funding for independent scholars and graduate students may be
available. In order to create a more inclusive environment for
international scholars who may have funding, scheduling, and/or travel
issues, the conference will feature a Skype track. We expect papers to
be presented live (and not to be pre-recorded), however.

Organizers: Stefan “Steve” Rabitsch, Michael Fuchs, and Stefan Brandt
(University of Graz)

We plan to publish a volume based on selected conference papers in the
New Dimensions in Science Fiction series, which is published by the
University of Wales Press. The series is co- edited by Paweł Frelik
(Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin) and Patrick B. Sharp
(California State University, Los Angeles). UWP is distributed by the
University of Chicago Press in North America.

Please join our Facebook event by clicking here.

If you have any questions, please send us an email to contact@worlding-sf.com.

SCIAFA Graduate Student Writing Workshop

SCIAFA Graduate Writing Workshop

One of the main events sponsored by the IAFA Student Caucus is the SCIAFA Writing Workshop that takes place during ICFA. It is a chance for graduate students to share their written work with a professional in the field and receive invaluable feedback and advice as they work to improve their writing and shift from conference papers to publications. In the past, this workshop has been run by such people as Sherryl Vint, Ritch Calvin, and Brian Attebery. This year we are pleased to announce that the workshop will be run by Dr. Pawel Frelik.

Paweł Frelik is Associate Professor in the Department of American Literature and Culture and Director of the Video Game Research Center at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland). His research interests include science fiction, video games, fantastic visualities, digital media, and transmedia storytelling. He has published widely in these fields, serves on the advisory boards of Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation, and Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, and is the co-editor of the New Dimensions in Science Fiction book series at the University of Wales Press.

The workshop will focus on issues to consider when revising conference papers or dissertation chapters into articles that might be submitted to JFA or other journals. The workshop is capped at 10 participants. It will be held on Friday, March 16, from 8:30-10am. To apply for the workshop, please fill out the attached form and email it and a 2-page writing sample to r. Pawel Frelik at pawel(dot)frelik(at)gmail(dot)com. Applications are due by March 5th.

SCIAFA Writing Workshop Application

2018 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/14/2018

2018 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

The winner of the 2018 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy, is Carmen Maria Machado for the story collection Her Body and Other Parties (Graywolf Press).

The other finalists on this year’s Crawford shortlist are S .A. Chakraborty, City of Brass (Harper Voyager); Ruthanna Emrys, Winter Tide (Tor.com), Sam J. Miller, The Art of Starving (HarperTeen), K. Arsenault Rivera, The Tiger’s Daughter (Tor), and Sandra Unerman, Spellhaven (Mirror World).

Participating at various stages of this year’s nomination and selection process were previous Crawford winners Jedediah Berry, Daryl Gregory, and Candas Jane Dorsey, as well as Liz Bourke, Cheryl Morgan, Farah Mendlesohn, Graham Sleight, Ellen Klages, and Liza Groen Trombi. The award will be presented at a banquet on on March 17 during the 39th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.

Also at the banquet, the IAFA’s Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to the conference’s guest scholar, Fred Botting. The Jamie Bishop Memorial Award for a work of scholarship written in a language other than English will be presented to Guangyi Li, and the Walter James Miller Memorial Award, for a student paper on a work or works of the fantastic originally created in a language other than English, to Peter Adrian Behravesh. The winner of IAFA’s award for an outstanding student paper, formerly called the Graduate Student Award but rechristened in 2016 as the David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award, will be announced at the banquet.

The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, or ICFA, is held annually in Orlando, Florida. This year’s conference, March 14-18, will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with author guests of honor John Kessel and Nike Sulway.

ICFA 39 Call for Flash Plays

CALL FOR PLAYS

Unfashioned Creatures…Half Made Up
ICFA Flash Play Festival III

Friday, March 16th 9:45-10:45 pm

Capri

Directed by Carrie J. Cole and Kelli Shermeyer

Hosted by Guest of Honor John Kessel

Performed by some of the usual suspects–authors, academics, and editors in attendance at ICFA

Your challenge:

Write a ten-minute play (roughly ten pages of dialogue) which MUST INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

  • No more than THREE characters
  • One of THREE props
  • A pitchfork
  • A meteorite
  • A giant inflatable banana
  • The following line of dialogue: You look like somebody dug you up and stitched you together.

Deadline for submission: SUNDAY, March 4th. Send your plays (and any questions you may have) to carriejcole@gmail.com with the subject line “ICFA Flash Play Festival”.

ICFA 39 “Frankenstein Bicentennial” Update – Conference Hotel SOLD OUT

ICFA 39 “Frankenstein Bicentennial”

200 Years of the Fantastic: Celebrating Frankenstein and Mary Shelley

The Thirty-Ninth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

March 14-18, 2018

Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside, Orlando, Florida, USA

Guests of Honor: John Kessel and Nike Sulway

Guest Scholar: Fred Botting

Dear IAFA members and past ICFA attendees,

As the Thirty-Ninth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts nears, I wanted to send out a few reminders.

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY, PLEASE SIGN UP

(The website is being updated. Please bear with us during this transition!)

We are now in Late Registration.

First, you must be a member to present a paper or sit on a panel. If you haven’t already, renew here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/JoinUs

Next, if you haven’t already done so, you can register for the conference here: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/page-1609929

Holders of joint memberships must register for the conference individually.

The conference hotel (Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside) is SOLD OUT. We have arranged overflow accommodations at the Sheraton Suites Orlando Airport, a short walk from the Marriott. The room rate is $165 plus tax, which is higher than the Marriott but less than the rack rate. YOU MUST BOOK NOW if you wish to secure a room. The Sheraton will only hold the rooms open and at this rate until February 12. Use this link to book: rooms: https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/Book/IAFA

Please contact Jeri Zulli (jerzulli AT live.com) with hotel questions.

Also, if you had a paper accepted but you know you cannot attend, please let your Division Head know as soon as you can, so we can remove you from the program. If you have to withdraw, be sure to cancel any hotel reservations you may have made.

A list of all fees associated with the conference can be found here: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ICFA-39-price-summary.pdf

SWAG AND MEAL TICKETS

If you have not yet registered, swag and meal tickets may be purchased as part of your registration.

If you have already registered but suddenly have become alive to the fact that you require a meal ticket, T-shirt, or tote, you may purchase them at the IAFA Store: https://store4277080.ecwid.com/

Swag and meal tickets will be available at the Registration desk, but at higher rates, and on a first-come, first-served basis.

IMPORTANT DATES

Dates are reckoned by local time in Orlando, Florida.

We are currently in late registration. Registration blackout begins on February 22, 2018. On and after this day, the online system will be closed so the conference committee can commit to the hotel for space and meal requirements. The system will open again for on-site registration on March 14, 2018.

No refunds will be given after February 1, 2018. Exceptions may be appealed to the Board.

NETWORKING AND VOLUNTEERING

Student Caucus (SCIAFA) and Mentoring Program

The purpose of the Student Caucus (SCIAFA) is to foster and promote growth, scholarship, and fellowship among the student members of the IAFA and to address the needs of students working in the field of the fantastic, by establishing mentoring and other programs, through coordinating efforts with the main body of the IAFA. If you are a student member of the IAFA, you are automatically a member of SCIAFA.

The mentoring program is an important part of the SCIAFA. Since 2001, the IAFA Student Caucus (SCIAFA) has sponsored a Mentoring Program aimed at helping student scholars to find their way around ICFA, discover the natural friendliness of the conference as quickly as possible, use ICFA as an entrance into existing scholarly communities concerned with the fantastic, and leave with both fond memories of the supporting organization and plans to return. This year, the SCIAFA is still accepting participants for the Mentoring Program, and we are in great need of mentors, so please consider signing up. For more information about the Mentoring Program, or to sign up as either a mentor or mentee, please contact Amanda Rudd (rudd.am AT gmail.com).

Volunteering

The Registration and AV areas always welcome volunteer help; interested folks can sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSes6BC2i4kjxNwszLk28julqDsm8Tx-cUxANkyTGkFffOEFfw/viewform

IAFA Bucks at the fabulous new rate of $10 an hour will be provided. These may be used for swag and meal tickets at this year’s convention, or they may be held and put toward next year’s registration. IAFA Bucks may not be used for this year’s registration, and they may not be used in the Book Room, which is financially independent.

Discussion List and Social Media

IAFA Listserv: http://lists.iafa.org/listinfo.cgi/iafa-l-iafa.org
IAFA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/?fref=ts
IAFA on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iafa_tw?lang=en
Student Caucus (SCIAFA) on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/833849033305627/

If you have any questions or need any help with membership renewal or registration, please email me. We look forward to seeing you in March!

Karen Hellekson

IAFA Membership Registrar

iafareg AT gmail.com