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Category Archives: ICFA

Reminder: Call for Nominations for 1st VP and PIO

There are still a few days left to nominate or self-nominate someone for two open IAFA board positions:

First Vice President

The IAFA requests nominations for individuals interested in becoming our First Vice President. Nominees must be members in good standing. Before nominating someone, please make sure they are a member and willing to stand for election. Self-nominations are welcome.

The First Vice President is a member of the Executive Board, elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election, serves a three-year term unless otherwise stipulated, and may be re-elected.

The First Vice President coordinates the ICFA Program, overseeing the work of the Division Heads and scheduling paper sessions for the Annual Conference Program. The First Vice President also consults with the President and Second Vice President concerning appearances by special guests in panels, readings, and lectures, and with the Conference Director about physical arrangements such as AV equipment, room assignments, etc. The First Vice President substitutes for the President when necessary. The First Vice President also oversees the IAFA Graduate Student Award, including the following: advertising the award, organising the prize committee, and collecting and forwarding submissions to the committee for a blind reading process.

Nominations should be sent to Dale Knickerbocker, the IAFA Immediate Past President, at knickerbockerd@ecu.edu. Nominations will close on December 8, 2022.

Candidates will be contacted by the IAFA Immediate Past President and asked to submit their Candidate Statement by December 9, 2022. Voting begins in December and finishes in January. The person elected will take office at the end of the 2023 ICFA. Questions about the position should be directed to the current 1st VP, Valorie Ebert, at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org.

Public Information Officer

The IAFA requests nominations for individuals interested in becoming our Public Information Officer (PIO). Nominees must be members in good standing. Before nominating someone, please make sure they are a member and willing to stand for election. Self-nominations are welcome.

The PIO is a member of the Executive Board, elected by majority vote of IAFA members who participate in the election, serves a three-year term unless otherwise stipulated, and may be re-elected.

The PIO edits and distributes promotional materials and forms publicity liaisons with other organizations, where appropriate. The PIO maintains and regularly updates the website and blog, creates and distributes information from the Board–such as Calls for Papers and election material–and contributes photos and promotional copy to the IAFA website. The PIO maintains and regularly updates social media feeds, responds to inquiries via social media, and monitors the IAFA’s public image on social media. The PIO takes Executive Board minutes, disseminates them, archives them, and makes them available for archival use. The PIO is the recorder of motions and amendments at official meetings. The PIO maintains the IAFA electronic archive.

Nominations should be sent to Dale Knickerbocker, the IAFA Immediate Past President, at knickerbockerd@ecu.edu. Nominations will close on December 8, 2022.

Candidates will be contacted by the IAFA Immediate Past President and asked to submit their Candidate Statement by December 9, 2022. Voting begins in December and finishes in January. The person elected will take office at the end of the 2023 ICFA. Questions about the position should be directed to the current PIO, Skye Cervone, at iafa.pio@fantastic-arts.org.

IAFA Executive Board

Call for Nominations: IAFA 1st Vice President and Public Information Officer

First Vice President

The IAFA requests nominations for individuals interested in becoming our First Vice President. Nominees must be members in good standing. Before nominating someone, please make sure they are a member and willing to stand for election. Self-nominations are welcome.

The First Vice President is a member of the Executive Board, elected by majority vote of the IAFA members who participate in the election, serves a three-year term unless otherwise stipulated, and may be re-elected.

The First Vice President coordinates the ICFA Program, overseeing the work of the Division Heads and scheduling paper sessions for the Annual Conference Program. The First Vice President also consults with the President and Second Vice President concerning appearances by special guests in panels, readings, and lectures, and with the Conference Director about physical arrangements such as AV equipment, room assignments, etc. The First Vice President substitutes for the President when necessary. The First Vice President also oversees the IAFA Graduate Student Award, including the following: advertising the award, organising the prize committee, and collecting and forwarding submissions to the committee for a blind reading process.

Nominations open on  October 25, 2022 and close on November 25, 2022. Nominated candidates will be asked to submit their Candidate Statement to IAFA Immediate Past President Dale Knickerbocker at knickerbockerd@ecu.edu by 25 November 2022. Voting begins in December and finishes in January. The person elected will take office at the end of the 2023 ICFA. Questions about the position should be directed to Valorie Ebert at iafa.1vp@fantastic-arts.org.

 

Public Information Officer

The IAFA requests nominations for individuals interested in becoming our Public Information Officer (PIO). Nominees must be members in good standing. Before nominating someone, please make sure they are a member and willing to stand for election. Self-nominations are welcome.

The PIO is a member of the Executive Board, elected by majority vote of IAFA members who participate in the election, serves a three-year term unless otherwise stipulated, and may be re-elected.

The PIO edits and distributes promotional materials and forms publicity liaisons with other organizations, where appropriate. The PIO maintains and regularly updates the website and blog, creates and distributes information from the Board–such as Calls for Papers and election material–and contributes photos and promotional copy to the IAFA website. The PIO maintains and regularly updates social media feeds, responds to inquiries via social media, and monitors the IAFA’s public image on social media. The PIO takes Executive Board minutes, disseminates them, archives them, and makes them available for archival use. The PIO is the recorder of motions and amendments at official meetings. The PIO maintains the IAFA electronic archive.

Nominations open on October 25, 2022 and close on November 25, 2022. Candidates will be contacted  by the IAFA Immediate Past President and asked to submit their Candidate Statement to knickerbockerd@ecu.edu by November 25, 2022. Voting begins in December and finishes in January. The person elected will take office at the end of the 2023 ICFA. Questions about the position should be directed to Skye Cervone at iafa.pio@fantastic-arts.org.

Announcing the New Director of Creative Programming

Dear IAFA Members:

I’m very pleased to share that Dr. Samantha Baugus will now be serving the IAFA as our new volunteer Director of Creative Programming.

The Director of Creative Programming (a new role) assists the Second Vice President with building programming items for the creative track. The job’s primary duties involve corresponding with invited creatives to help build discussion panels for the conference. The person in this role also helps build and manage the invited creative RSVP system, creates draft author reading sessions, and recruits/assigns hosts for creative track sessions. In recognition of the work involved, the volunteer who serves in this role receives complimentary ICFA registration and special event tickets.

The IAFA posted a call for volunteers for this role back in June, but we did not receive any applications for the position. Dr. Baugus, who previously served as the Student Caucus Representative on the Executive Board, subsequently volunteered to serve as Director of Creative Programming. Please join me in welcoming Samantha to this important new role! =)

Best,

David Higgins
IAFA Second Vice President

CFP: The 44th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, Afrofuturism

The 44th International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts

Afrofuturism

Guest of Honor: Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

Guest Scholar: Isiah Lavender III

March 15-18, 2023

Orlando Marriott Lakeside Hotel

 

The theme of the 2023 ICFA will be “Afrofuturism.” If Afrofuturism is rising, as the title of Isiah Lavender III’s groundbreaking study of the literary movement proclaims, or is already risen like Africa itself, as the title of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki’s jointly edited anthology asserts, it does so as part of a groundswell across fantastic modes, genres and media. From the cosmic artistry of Sun Ra, and iconic visionaries speaking from and for estranged and defamiliarized spaces such as Olaudah Equiano, W.E.B. DuBois, Chinua Achebe, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Herbie Hancock, Earth, Wind and Fire, Ben Okri, Michelle Cliff, Maryse Condé, Stafford L. Battle, Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, N.K. Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, Tobias L. Buckell, and Nisi Shawl, to fast-rising stars such as Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, Wanuri Kahiu, Fanuel Leul, Sheree Renée Thomas, Zelda Knight, Manzi Jackson, P. Djeli Clark, Mame Boukouma Diene, Deji Bryce Olukotun, C.L. Clark, Rivers Solomon, Tade Thompson, Dilman Dila, Olatunde Osunsanmi, Justina Ireland, and Tlotlo Tsamaase, the 44th Annual ICFA will celebrate the fantastic imaginations of creators from Africa and its Global Diaspora, crossing linguistic and other identity and communicative boundaries and borders to arrive at Afrofuturism’s unifying, edifying, uplifting, and often terrifying revelations.

 

Topics may address, but need not be limited to:

 

  • Representations of African-ness in space and time
  • Afrofuturism among Othered futurisms
  • Depictions of relations in the process of power-shifting by African and Diaspora creatives and scholars addressing race, gender, class, ethnicity, traditional versus colonial nationalities, and/or mechanisms of exclusion, exploitation, appropriation, or reparation, among other topics
  • Exploring traditional, colonial and de-colonialist nationalities, ethnicities and boundary-defined affiliations
  • Reclaiming and proclaiming by proto-claiming
  • Problematics of representations of African-ness by non-African-descent creators
  • Gatekeeping, stereotyping, eurocentrism, and the demand for Realism in African and Diaspora works in scholarship and publishing
  • Being African or Diaspora in publishing: challenges and best practices regarding acceptance, revision and rejection of works, marketing, finding an agent, getting paid
  • New technologies and platforms shaped by Afrofuturism’s creatives, scholars and fans, challenging Eurocentric conceptions of futurism
  • Global applications of an Afrofuturist lens
  • Chattel enslavement and its legacies, as represented in Afrofuturism
  • Globalizing and negotiating identities
  • An African and Diaspora canon
  • Masking, unmasking and empowerment
  • Monstrous, demonic and shapeshifting Afrofuturism
  • Afrofuturism troubling, querying and/or challenging concepts of utopias and dystopias
  • Pandemics, plagues, poxes, and Afrofuturism: the spread of colonizing, eugenicist, genocidal, and/or resistance infections
  • Afrofuturism in languages other than the colonial
  • Globalized neoliberalism
  • Politics, ideologies and revolution

 

We welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of Afrofuturism in any media. We encourage work from creatives, institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work on the fantastic in languages other than English, and students.

 

Proposals not related to the conference theme are also welcome.

 

Submit abstracts here: https://forms.gle/67JJZeKoSWMyhRvQ8

Abstracts due: October 31st

 

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki

 

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher from Nigeria. He has won the Nommo award for Best Speculative Fiction by an African, twice, for Short Story and Novella, as well as the Nebula, Otherwise and British Fantasy Awards. He is the first African to have won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette and be a Hugo finalist as well, in the same category. He’ll be the first Black writer to be a Hugo award best editor short form finalist alongside Sheree Renee Thomas and the first BIPOC to be a finalist in both the Hugo Award Editing and Fiction categories in the same year. He has also been a finalist for the Locus, Sturgeon, British Science Fiction and World Fantasy award. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Tordotcom, Asimov’s, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, Tordotcom, NBC and more.

He edited and published the first ever Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology, a Hugo, WFA, Locus, and BFA finalist, and the non-fiction anthology, Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic. He co-edited the British Fantasy award-winning Dominion anthology and the Africa Risen anthology, which has a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. He guest-edited the collections window of Interstellar Flight Press, is the founder of Jembefola Press and the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award for Disability in Speculative Fiction. He co-organized the Discon 3 African stream and 2021 Nommo Award ceremony, and is a Guest of Honour at the 2022 Can*Con. He is the first African-born Black writer and the youngest writer to be Guest of Honor at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts 44 taking place in 2023. You can find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/penprince_ and his latest works on his website https://odekpeki.com/2022/09/11/2022-awards-eligibility-post-list/.

Please follow these links to immerse yourself in the works of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki:

“Destiny Delayed” in the May/June issue of Asimov’s – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kl0Iks1M8xk-zMC-FE3Xl3FsNf8Ce4f9/view?usp=drivesdk

Bridging Worlds anthology:

Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations On Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature In a Pandemic

Too Dystopian for Whom? A Continental Nigerian Writer’s Perspective
https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/too-dystopian-for-whom-a-continental-nigerian-writers-perspective/

Africa Risen anthology pre-order: https://publishing.tor.com/africarisen-shereereneethomas/9781250833006/

 

Guest Scholar – Dr. Isiah Lavender III

 

Isiah Lavender III is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction. His books include Race in American Science Fiction (Indiana UP, 2011), Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction and Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction (UP of Mississippi, 2014 and 2017 respectively), Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement (Ohio State UP, 2019), and Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century (Ohio State UP, 2020), co-edited with Lisa Yaszek. His interview collection Conversations with Nalo Hopkinson is forthcoming from UP of Mississippi in early 2023. He is currently hard at work on The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, co-edited with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace Dillon, and Taryne Jade Taylor as well as his manuscript-in-progress, Critical Race Theory and Science Fiction. If you would like to know more about Dr. Lavender, check out https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/how-reading-shapes-us-isiah-lavender/

 

The title of his ICFA Guest Scholar presentation shall be “Imaginary Amendments and Executive Orders: Race in United States Science Fiction.”

 

For a list of the IAFA Divisions and Division Heads, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Division-Heads.

 

For information about the IAFA BIPOC Caucus, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/BIPOC-Caucus.

 

For information about the IAFA Student Caucus, see https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Student-Caucus.

 

For more information, visit our website https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/.

 

Follow us on Twitter @IAFA_TW. Our conference hashtag is #ICFA44.

“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/.

To learn more about our Guests of Honor, please see: https://www.fantastic-arts.org/2022/icfa-44-guest-of-honor-and-guest-scholar/

 

ICFA 44 will feature the debut of some new registration categories. “Underfunded” rates have been added at the student price for anyone without the means to attend ICFA otherwise. Several registration levels now have an optional version called “Supporting Rates.” These are a new option that allows some registrants to help the IAFA support the registrations of underfunded attendees. Those selecting this option will be listed and thanked in the conference program (except for the Late Registration Supporting Rate, which will be listed on the errata paper).

IAFA Program Book Editor — Call for Applications

The IAFA is soliciting applications for the position of the Program Book Editor to edit the fall Virtual ICFA (VICFA) program and the ICFA conference program book. This appointment will be for one-year, with the possibility to renew indefinitely. Experience with IAFA culture is considered an asset for the position. Professional experience with layout and similar design work is a must. Those applying should have access to their own design software (InDesign or equivalent). The content for the book will be provided by the IAFA officers, and the files used in design of previous program books will be made available to help assist in the production of the new one. At the time of appointment, the IAFA will provide a detailed outline to the Program Book Editor of what should be included in the program book and in what order it should be printed.

The duties of the Program Book Editor include:

  • for the Fall VICFA, prepare a PDF program with information provided by the Board,
  • for the March ICFA, work with the Membership Coordinator to develop templates for the book in a professional design program (i.e., InDesign, Quark, or equivalent),
  • using these templates, and information provided by the First and Second Vice Presidents about the conference’s guests and program schedule, produce camera-ready copy for the production of this book,
  • with art provided by the Second Vice President, design the cover of the book,
  • submit the program book layout for approval to the IAFA Board by February 15 2023, and make any adjustments as required by the Board after this review,
  • continue to update the book with cancellations and other errata up to the time of printing; in consultation with the First Vice President maintain an errata sheet once the book has gone to print,
  • produce an index for this book, with individuals listed by name and session number, and include this index in the final book,
  • investigate appropriate vendors for printing the book in a cost-effective manner and arrange for the printing and delivery of the book to the hotel in numbers as specified by the Registration/Membership Coordinator.

The IAFA will pay a stipend of $500 for this work. Those interested in applying should submit

  • a cover letter, which provides details of professional layout and design experiences, as well as information about the candidate’s history with the IAFA;
  • a portfolio of previous design work;
  • a CV outlining relevant professional and academic experience.

Applications should be sent to Pawel Frelik, IAFA President, at p.frelik@uw.edu.pl.

The closing date for applications is September 15, 2022. An appointment will be made by the end of September.

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor and Guest Scholar

We are very excited to announce our ICFA 44 Guest of Honor, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and our ICFA 44 Guest Scholar, Dr. Isiah Lavender III!

 

ICFA 44 Guest of Honor – Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki 

 

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer and editor in Nigeria. He has won the Nommo award for Best Speculative Fiction by an African twice, both for Short Story and Novella, as well as the Otherwise and British Fantasy Awards. He is the first African to have won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette with his climate fiction story O2 Arena, for which he is also a BSFA, BFA and Nommo Award finalist, and the first African to be a Hugo Award Best Novelette finalist. He is the first African editor to be a finalist in the Hugo Award Best Editor categories and the first BIPOC editor to be a finalist in both the Hugo Award Editing and Fiction categories in the same year. He has been a finalist for the WFA, Locus, BSFA, Sturgeon, and This Is Horror Awards. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in and are forthcoming in Tordotcom, Asimov’s, Uncanny Magazine, Apex Magazine, Strange Horizons, Galaxy’s Edge, and NBC, among other venues. He edited and published the first ever Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction anthology, a Hugo, WFA, Locus, and BFA finalist, and the Pan-African non-fiction anthology, Bridging Worlds: Global Conversations on Creating Pan-African Speculative Literature in a Pandemic. He co-edited the BFA-winning Dominion anthology and the Africa Risen anthology, which has a starred review from Publishers Weekly.  He guest-edited the collections window of Interstellar Flight Press and has slush read for Podcastle, Strange Horizons, Cosmic Roots, Eldritch Shores, and other publications. He is the founder of Jembefola Press and the Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award for Disability in Speculative Fiction. He co-organized the Discon 3 African stream and 2021 Nommo Award ceremony, and is a Guest of Honour at the 2022 Can*Con. He is the first African-born Black writer and the youngest writer to be Guest of Honor at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts.  You can find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/penprince_ and on his website https://odekpeki.com.

 

Please follow these links to immerse yourself in the works of Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki:

O2 Arena: https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/o2-arena/

 

Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction: https://jembefola.com/the-L-best-african-speculative-fiction-2021-by-oghenechovwe-donald-ekpeki/

 

Bridging Worlds: https://jembefola.com/bridging-worlds-global-conversations-on-creating-pan-african-speculative-literature-in-a-pandemic-cover-and-toc-reveal/

 

The Emeka Walter Dinjos Memorial Award For Disability In Speculative Fiction: https://file770.com/announcing-the-emeka-walter-dinjos-memorial-award-for-disability-in-speculative-fiction/

 

Discon 3 African Stream: https://file770.com/new-african-program-stream-distinguishes-disconiii-world-science-fiction-convention/

 

Publishers Weekly starred review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250833006

 

Africa Risen pre-order: https://publishing.tor.com/africarisen-shereereneethomas/9781250833006/

 

“Destiny Delayed” in the May/June issue of Asimov’s – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kl0Iks1M8xk-zMC-FE3Xl3FsNf8Ce4f9/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Guest Scholar – Dr. Isiah Lavender III 

 

Isiah Lavender III is Sterling-Goodman Professor of English at the University of Georgia, where he researches and teaches courses in African American literature and science fiction. His books include Race in American Science Fiction (Indiana UP, 2011), Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction and Dis-Orienting Planets: Racial Representations of Asia in Science Fiction (UP of Mississippi, 2014 and 2017 respectively), Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement (Ohio State UP, 2019), and Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century (Ohio State UP, 2020), co-edited with Lisa Yaszek. His interview collection Conversations with Nalo Hopkinson is forthcoming from UP of Mississippi in early 2023. He is currently hard at work on The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms, co-edited with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace Dillon, and Taryne Jade Taylor as well as his manuscript-in-progress Critical Race Theory and Science Fiction. If you would like to know more about Dr. Lavender, check out https://narrativeencounters.aau.at/how-reading-shapes-us-isiah-lavender/

The title of Dr. Lavender’s ICFA Guest Scholar presentation shall be “Imaginary Amendments and Executive Orders: Race in United States Science Fiction.” 

 

“Like” us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FantasticArts/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/iafa_tw #ICFA44

Future of ICFA Results

Dear IAFA Members,

As you know, the IAFA Executive Board has been gathering information in preparation for making the decision as to the future of the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts. In particular, we wanted to address concerns that had been vocalized to a number of us that our continued presence in Florida–a state whose government is actively passing laws and enacting policies that are anathematic to the values that an academic organization like ours holds to–was problematic at best.

We began the process by researching locations that might be amenable to us. For more information on this process, please review the FAQ found on our website: https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/ICFAFAQs

What we discovered is that there are limited options due to our size and shape; rather than repeat the specifics here, we refer you to the email we sent out prior to the town hall meetings on May 24, 2022.

As part of this information seeking, we held three town hall meetings with our membership, at various days and times, encouraging input and ideas. We provided a Google document whereby people could additionally comment, including anonymously if they so chose. As a result of these conversations, we provided a survey, asking people for their input.

The overwhelming response to these inquiries has been that people prefer to continue to meet at the Orlando Airport Marriott Lakeside, and would like to have IAFA take steps to make our presence have greater meaning to the Florida academic community at large in a more tangible way.

This past week, the Executive Board voted to continue our relationship with the Marriott through 2026. We also decided to create a liaison position that will spearhead a task force to develop ideas and methods by which we may be an ally in Florida to all those who oppose the state’s current political drift and systemic injustice. To give you a sampling of some of the things we discussed: grants or brain trust support for creating campus organizations, guest lectures and author readings on campuses, and assistance and participation with organization of special campus events.

We are also actively seeking ways that we can support or co-sponsor a conference on the West Coast; in fact LA’s EagleCon has already reached out to us seeking this very thing. This is in recognition not only of how much our organization would benefit from a West Coast presence but also as part of a process of expanding the overall visibility and availability of IAFA that we are beginning next month with our co-sponsoring of the conference that the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic is holding.

Thank you for your continued support of IAFA. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.

Pawel Frelik, President, IAFA (iafa.president@fantastic-arts.org) & Jeri Zulli, Conference Director, IAFA iafa.confchair@fantastic-arts.org

On behalf of the IAFA Board

Announcing the 2022-2024 Student Caucus Board!

Please welcome the 2022-2024 Student Caucus Board!

Representative Andrew Erickson is doctoral researcher and instructor in American Studies at Europa-Universität Flensburg and Editorial Assistant for Amerikastudien / American Studies. Recent publications focus on anti-intellectualism and counterfactual history, and on the critical posthumanism of Black American disaster fiction. His current dissertation project understands speculative fiction by Black makers through the lens of the postapocalypses of American enslavement and settler colonialism. Research interests include postcolonialism, science and speculative fiction, posthumanism, and digital humanities.

Vice-Representative Amélie Hurkens is a Ph.D. candidate in American Literature at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research is centred around the representation of diversity in popular culture and genre fiction, including superhero comics, YA literature, and science fiction and fantasy. She combines literary studies with data inquiries into the industries, institutions and corporate culture encompassing the works she is studying. This ranges from the Walt Disney Company and its subsidiary Marvel Comics to the Hugo Awards. She has published before on world literature and its industries and institutions.

Undergraduate Representative Anna Maria Grzybowska has recently graduated with an MA degree in American Studies from the University of Warsaw, and is further pursuing a degree in Psychology. With her dedication to understanding various (not-only-)human ways of experiencing the world, her research focuses on representations of human psyche—her recent thesis exploring the confluence of psychological violence and SF film—as well as its formation in collision with complexity of nonhuman beings within the realms of speculative fiction. Her current research project investigates how animals figure within cultural speculations of the worlds to come, with a particular focus on narrative transformations (or consolidations) of the animal-industrial complex.

And yours truly will transition to serving as the immediate past representative.

Their terms will start officially on August 1 and I look forward to everything they are going to do in the next two years.

Samantha Baugus, SCIAFA Representative

The 2022 IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award

The IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award recognizes emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.

To be considered for the award, submit the following:

200-word statement with background & goals in writing SF

4,000-word maximum writing sample addressing Indigenous perspectives

Deadline: December 1, 2022

Send your materials as attachments to Professor Grace L. Dillon (dillong@pdx.edu)

Use Word Document or PDF format

Name and Page numbers on story and bio

Double space the story and use 12-point font

Proof the work for typos and other errors.

The contest winner will be announced at the ICFA Awards Banquet and on the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/349927541693986. Not a member? Think about joining!

This year’s judge: acclaimed author Andrea Hairston

The Master of Poisons https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250260543

Other Novels:

Will Do Magic for Small Change and Redwood and Wildfire

Published by Aqueduct Press at http://www.aqueductpress.com/

Website: http://www.andreahairston.com

For more information about the IAFA Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award, please visit https://iaftfita.wildapricot.org/Imagining-Indigenous-Futurisms-Award/.

ICFA 43 Updates & Conference App

Welcome to ICFA!

Are you not coming after all? Please let me know so I can cancel your attendance in the computer system. We don’t give refunds this late but rather will credit you; you must use the credit within 2 years. If you don’t inform us of your desire to cancel, the credit won’t appear.

To clarify, there is no need to confirm your registration with me. If you are receiving this email, you are registered. I only need to know if you are no longer planning to attend and wish to cancel. Otherwise, please save your greetings for in person tomorrow!

REGISTRATION HOURS
The registration desk will be open for you to pick up your badge during the following hours:
Wednesday: 11am-6pm
Thursday: 8am-12pm, 2:15pm-6pm
Friday: 8am-12pm, 2:15pm-5pm
Saturday: 8am-12pm

WE HAVE AN APP FOR THAT
The program will be available via the Sched app! Although we have optional hard-copy schedules in both long and short forms, the app will be continuously updated and therefore will be the most correct. You can also view the schedule online here (http://iaftfita.wildapricot.com), but the app will still be more up-to-date.

In a web browser…
• Website: https://icfa43fantasticcommunities2.sched.com/
• Password: See the email associated with your Membership and Registration for the password.
• You will now be able to see a schedule of sessions, which you can filter.
• From Schedule, you have several other options. Click around and have fun!

In the Sched app…
• Download the app to your phone.
• At the search prompt, type “icfa” and you should see the ICFA43 conference, which select.
• Password: See the email associated with your Membership and Registration for the password.
• The app view of sessions is like the pocket program. It is not as detailed as the web browser view.
• If you have created an account, you can add and remove sessions from your personal schedule through the app. We encourage you to add a headshot to your profile.

IMPORTANT NOTES
• This year’s hashtag is #ICFA43.
• View ICFA’s Accessibility Policy: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/2016/icfa-accessibility-policy/ Please note that the hotel’s airport shuttle is not handicapped accessible.
• Highly collectible merch featuring this year’s artwork will be available for purchase at the Registration desk. Meal tickets will be available for purchase until sold out ($48 for the luncheons and $65 for the banquet). Outstanding membership and registration fees must be paid before you can get your name tag. The Reg desk accepts cash, checks, and credit cards (but cannot take AmEx on site).

See you soon!
Emily Midkiff, IAFA Registrar (iafareg AT gmail.com)