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Monthly Archives: February 2023

IAFA Florida Alliance Working Group Announcement

The Florida Alliance Working Group of the IAFA is pleased to announce the names of the speakers who will kick off our new initiative: Patrick Brock will be speaking at Florida Atlantic University and Karina A. Vado will be speaking at the University of Florida. Stay tuned for more exciting news from this group!

Support for Turkey and Syria

On behalf of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, the Executive Board and IAFA membership mourn the devastating loss of life, livelihoods, and homes in Turkey and Syria and issue this statement to encourage awareness and support.

Call for ICFA 44 Volunteers

ICFA runs on volunteers! If you’re looking for a way to contribute to the IAFA or help fund your ICFA 44 trip, please consider offering some time to help us run the conference. Volunteering is compensated at a rate of $10 per hour, which is  refunded to your card (against the cost of your registration) following the conference. You can volunteer for as little as 2 hours!

Fill out the volunteer form here to indicate your availability during the conference: https://forms.gle/YsrTTnchjUh5i5Lm9

Gratefully,

Emily Midkiff

Call for Interim Technology Officer

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is accepting applications for the position of Interim Chief Technology Officer.

 

The duties involved in the position include:

  • inputting the conference program into the Sched app and continuing to update it with errata
  • managing the IAFA and the Board listservs  
  • ongoing technical maintenance of the IAFA website (running on WildApricot) 
  • managing email forwarders for the Board and officers 
  • supporting, in a limited capacity, the VICFA team 

Except for populating Sched with the program, which requires a stretch of time before the conference, most duties are low-intensity outside the March conference window, which requires more sustained attention. 

Prospective candidates do not need to have specific experience in the duties listed above but must feel securely comfortable with digital technologies and be willing to learn (the learning curve for all duties is not particularly steep). 

The appointed candidate will be trained by the IAFA CTO and will begin their duties immediately upon appointment, most likely around February 25. The length of the appointment is not fully clear at this time but may extend until the end of the calendar year with a possibility of becoming (semi)permanent.

Those interested in applying must send a brief statement of interest in, and qualifications for, the position to the IAFA President, Pawel Frelik (p.frelik@uw.edu.pl), no later than February 20, 2023.

2023 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2/7/2023

2023 IAFA Crawford Award and Shortlist Announced

 

The winner of the 2023 Crawford Award, presented annually by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts for a first book of fantasy published the prior year, is Simon Jimenez for his novel The Spear Cuts Through Water (Del Rey). Jimenez had previously published a well-received science fiction novel, The Vanished Birds (2020), but The Spear Cuts Through Water is his first fantasy book, making it eligible for the award.

The awards committee also named a shortlist including Maya Deane, Wrath Goddess Sing (William Morrow), Naseem Jamnia, The Bruising of Qilwa (Tachyon), Alex Jennings, The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Redhook), and Jacob Kerr, The Green Man of Eshwood Hall (Serpent’s Tail)

Participating in this year’s nomination and selection process were Cheryl Morgan, Karen Burnham, Niall Harrison, Liza Trombi, Candas Jane Dorsey, and Mimi Mondal. The award is administered by Gary K. Wolfe and will be presented at a banquet March 18, during the 44rd International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando, Florida.

Also at the banquet, the IAFA Distinguished Scholarship Award will be presented to the conference’s guest scholar Isiah Lavender III.  The International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, or ICFA, is held annually in Orlando, Florida.  This year’s conference, March 15-18, on the theme of Afrofuturism, will feature Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki as Guest of Honor.

Call for Fantasy Literature Division Head

The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts is accepting applications for the position of Division Head of the Fantasy Literature (FL) Division. (Please see the division description below.)

Division Heads are appointed by the President on the recommendation of the First Vice President, who chairs the Council of Division Heads after formal discussion and a majority vote of the Board. The term is for three years. The incoming FL Division Head will begin full Division Head duties immediately following the conference in March of 2023. The Division Head term runs for three years.

The incoming FL Division Head will begin their term in March of 2023 and end the term in March of 2026.

Division Heads may have an opportunity to extend their term.

Each Division Head organizes and supervises all conference activity within a subdivision of fantastic scholarship. Division Heads work under the guidance of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for recruiting session proposals and papers and are responsible for formatting these to the requirements of the First Vice President. Division Heads are responsible for forwarding all information to the First Vice President in a timely fashion. Division Heads have the responsibility to check the draft program for accuracy and AV needs. Division Heads are expected to liaise with other Division Heads and the First Vice President. The First Vice President is the final arbiter of the program under the aegis of the Executive Board. At the conference, the Division Heads oversee sessions in their respective Divisions and collect suggestions for future topics, special guests, etc.

Those interested in applying must send a cover letter explaining their interest in, and qualifications for, the position, and a current CV, to the First Vice President, Valorie Ebert at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org, no later than March 1, 2023.

Fantasy Literature (FL) – The Fantasy Literature division welcomes critical scholarship on all aspects of fantasy literature (broadly defined to mean anything from genre fantasy to magic realism), including, but not restricted to, criticism on works by fantasy authors writing in English, interdisciplinary approaches to the genre, and scholarship on fantasy theory.