We are delighted to be able to tell you about this year’s Mini Convention and AGM in London, in collaboration with Science Fiction Foundation.
Our special guest is novelist Liz Williams.
Science-Fiction author Williams is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge and is the author of fourteen novels including the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated The Ghost Sister, and Empire of Bones, while Banner of Souls was nominated both for the Philip K. Dick Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. She is also the creator of the popular Inspector Chen novels, and a diarist – two volumes of Diary of a Witchcraft Shop have been published by Newcon Press. She has had numerous short stories published in the likes of Asimov and Interzone and also writes on matters of literature and paganism for The Guardian.
SFF’s special guest is David A. Hardy.
David A. Hardy is the longest-established living space artist, and has illustrated for the likes of Patrick Moore, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan. Hailing from Bournville, he first started producing space art as a teenager, and his early art career was as a packaging designer for Cadbury’s. Since 1970, his science-fiction artwork has graced the covers of hundred of books and magazines, and led him to various other commissions, such as Hawkwind album covers, and working on shows like Tomorrow’s World and Blake’s Seven, and films like The Neverending Story. He is European Vice President of the International Association of Astronomical Artists, and former Vice President of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists, as well as having been heavily involved with the Birmingham Science Fiction Group, for which he has been Chairman, Secretary, Newsletter Editor and Publicity Officer.
The following schedule may be subject to slight alterations, so please check ahead of travel if there is a particular panel you wish to see. The AGMs will take place during the time assigned to the lunch break on the schedule below.
The event is free and open to all for the panels and interviews, so you don’t need to be a member of either organisation to attend.
Time
Event
09:30am
Doors open
10:00am
Welcome
10:05am
David A. Hardy panel discussion
10:55am
Short break
11:05am-11:55am
Liz Williams interview
noon-2:30pm
Lunch (confirmed lunch venue: Queen’s Arms – it’s a 3min walk away from the Blackett Lecture theatre)
The 2016 BSFA Lecture will be delivered by Rachel Dickinson (Manchester Metropolitan University) at Mancunicon, the 2016 Eastercon. She will speak on “Crafting the Future: Ruskin, Textiles and Visions of Futures Past”. It will take place on Saturday 26 March, at 11:30 am in Deansgate 3 at the Hilton Deansgate, Manchester. It is open to any member of Mancunicon. (Please note that Mancunicon is no longer selling memberships, and if you are not a member you may not attend the Lecture.)
The Victorian cultural critic John Ruskin was deeply concerned that unchecked industrialisation and unfettered capitalism would lead to environmental destruction and widespread dehumanisation of individuals. He looked at problems stemming from technological advances going on around him in the Nineteenth Century, then looked to the medieval past in order to speculate alternative paths forward from his present, that might lead to a better, more sustainable future. This lecture focuses on how Ruskin uses the making and wearing of textiles to discuss political economy and to inspire change. It pays particular attention to craft and making, and the way we make and define ourselves through the clothing we wear.
Rachel Dickinson is Principal Lecturer in Research & Knowledge Exchange in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, at their Cheshire Campus. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Lancaster, and her M.A. at the University of Western Ontario. She is an expert in the work of John Ruskin, and has edited John Ruskin’s Correspondence with Joan Severn: Sense and Nonsense Letters (2009). She is also a fan of manga and anime such as Ghost in the Shell.
The BSFA Lecture is intended as a companion to the George Hay Lecture, which is presented at the Eastercon by the Science Fiction Foundation. Where the Hay Lecture invites scientists, the BSFA Lecture invites academics from the arts and humanities, because we recognise that science fiction fans aren’t only interested in science. The lecturers are given a remit to speak “on a subject that is likely to be of interest to science fiction fans” – i.e. on whatever they want! This is the ninth BSFA Lecture.
On Wednesday 27th January 2016 we’ll be trying our best to stream January’s Jeff Noon interview, live online. Between now and then a public domain recording of The Planet’s by Gustav Holst will be playing and we’d like your feedback on it. Just open the link & let us know what you hear.
For the last few months Chad Dixon has been valiantly trying his best to broadcast BSFA interviews with Periscope, it’s a little error prone so if it doesn’t work we’ll just do the audio. Cheers Chad!
NEW LOCATION
Due to the popularity of this event we are moving to a new BIGGER venue which luckily is close by. Andrea has surpassed herself finding this venue 🙂
Jeff Noon, playwright, short story writer and author of many novels including Vurt, Pollen, Automated Alice, Nymphomation, Pixel Juice, Needle in the Groove, Falling out of Cars will be discussing his twenty plus year career and works with Gerard Earley, organiser of the ScienceFictionBookClub.org
Hope you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year. Quite a few of you sent in nominations over this period, and we are picking through them now to make sure they are good and proper before adding them to this list (unfortunately, some very good things got nominated, just a year or more too late).
Although we do still have a few more to add, as you can see from below we are lacking in artwork nominations still. A few more non-fiction nominations wouldn’t go amiss either.
Look! We made the noo-spaypa! But don’t go fretting about those 2014 lists just yet. As you can see from our longlist already, there are plenty of fabulous reads and exciting new voices to learn about from our writers of 2013. So don’t just Twitter on about it… nominate!
And anyway, we can generate our own controversy, can’t we? The categorisation of one of these titles made me scratch my head, although in the end I thought “fair enough”. What do you think?
Location: The Cellar Bar, The Argyle Public House, 1 Greville Street (off Leather Lane), London EC1N 8PQ
On Wednesday 24thApril 2013, Lavie Tidhar (author of the BSFA Award shortlisted Osama, and The Bookman Chronicles, and editor-in-chief of the BSFA Award-winning World SF Blog) will be interviewed by Edward James (Chair of the Science Fiction Foundation).
ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY (Non-members welcome)
The interview will start at 7 pm. We have the room from 6 pm (and if early, fans are in the ground floor bar from 5ish).
There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.
Map is here. Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane (Central Line).
FUTURE EVENTS: 22nd May 2013* – Janet Edwards;** interviewer TBC 26th June 2013 – Catherynne M. Valente, interviewed by Farah Mendlesohn 24th July 2013* – Cory Doctorow, interviewed by Tom Hunter
* Note that this is a month with five Wednesdays. The meeting will be on the fourth, not the last, Wednesday of the month.
** Due to personal reasons, Aliette de Bodard is no longer able to attend. We hope to invite her at a future date.