Month: March 2018

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Conventions Eastercon Eastercon

Eastercon 2018: Follycon schedule – UPDATED

The official programme for Follycon is now up! Here’s where you can find me over 30th March – 2nd April.

SATURDAY
4:00pm – Posters Exhibiton (Half Moon Room)
Ruth EJ Booth

Follycon is holding a poster exhibition across the event, including my poster ‘Mapping the Way: Taoism and Landscape in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Quartet’. If you’ve got any questions about the poster, this is the first of my two half-hour sessions where I’ll be available for chat.

7:00pm – BSFA Awards Ceremony (Dining Room)
Nnedi Okorafor, Kieron Gillen, Christina Lake, Kim Standley Robinson, Claire Boothby, Dave Lally, Ruth EJ Booth (MC), Niall Harrison, Rosie Oliver

I’ll be MC for this year’s BSFA Awards ceremony – and, as it’s the 60th anniversary of the awards, this one’s bound to be a bit special. Do join us, if only to see if I managed to find summat proper to wear. In the meantime, if you want your say in this year’s vote, please note that advance online and postal voting for BSFA members is open until 26th March, while Follycon attendees (BSFA members and non-members) can vote at the convention until 12 noon on Saturday 31st March.

SUNDAY
4:00pm – Posters Exhibiton (Half Moon Room)
Ruth EJ Booth

If you’ve got any questions about my poster, ‘Mapping the Way: Taoism and Landscape in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Quartet’, this is the second of the two half-hour sessions where I’ll be available for chat.

MONDAY
2:00pm – Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin (Dining Room)
Edward James (M), Nnedi Okorafor, Patrice Sarath, Ruth EJ Booth, Sarah Ash, Matthew Colborn

If you’re still about, come join us for a celebration of the life and works of the late, great Ursula K. Le Guin. Looking at the line-up for this panel, it’s bound to be an interesting and insightful hour’s chat.

ALL WEEKEND

As previously mentioned, Follycon is holding a poster exhibition across the event in the Half Moon Room , and this will include my poster ‘Mapping the Way: Taoism and Landscape in Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Quartet’. It’s based on work I completed as part of my MLitt in Fantasy, and this poster was last displayed in August at Worldcon 75 in Finland. So, if you missed it then, now’s your chance to see it!

You can click here for my main schedule in Grenadine. Outside of these times, I’ll likely be in the bar, if you’d like to say hi. Hope to see you there!

Categories
New Column Shoreline of Infinity

New Column in Shoreline of Infinity’s International Women’s Day issue

Shoreline of Infinity has put together a special International Women’s Day edition for Issue 11. Dedicated to Ursula K. Le Guin, this edition contains brilliant stories from the likes of Aliette de Bodard and Katy Lennon (you can hear her read this wonderful story here), non-fic from Jonatha Kottler and SJ MCGeachy, and much, much more! Click here for the full line-up.

Alongside these excellent stories, articles and poetry, you’ll find Beyond the Mountains, the latest installment of my Noise and Sparks column. Written shortly before the passing of Ursula K. Le Guin, this essay explores a quote from her 1986 Bryn Mawr College commencement address, in light of Wonder Woman and the portrayal of women in mainstream genre.

If you’d like to pick up a copy, head to www.shorelineofinfinity.com.

Categories
Academic Academic Events Book Launch Book Launch Conventions Eastercon Edinburgh International Science Festival Events From Glasgow to Saturn Readings Shoreline of Infinity

March/April ’18: BFS Open Night, Edinburgh International Science Festival, FGTS 40 Launch and more!

Readings, a workshop and more – here are my official plans for March and April.

March 15th – BFS Open Night (Waterstones Argyle Street, 6:30pm)

My next reading will be part of the British Fantasy Society’s Glasgow Open Night on 15th March. Joining host Shona Kinsella (Ashael Rising, Mirnya’s Oath), Neil Williamson (The Moon King, Secret Language), and I (other stuff) will be R. J. Barker, author of Age of Assassins, and we’ll all be reading and chatting about fantastic things for your entertainment. The night kicks off at 6:30pm on 15th March at Waterstones Argyle Street, Glasgow. For more details, see the Waterstones event page or Facebook event page.

If you can’t make this, I’ll also be doing a warm-up reading as part of the MLitt in Fantasy Reading Party on 7th March at DRAM! If you’re interested in attending this, please let me know and I’ll pass on the details.

March 30th – April 1st – Eastercon: Follycon (Harrogate)

More on this soon! Click here for details of my full schedule!

April 5th – From Glasgow to Saturn: Issue 40 Launch (The Raven, 6pm)

From Glasgow to Saturn will be holding a launch party for issue 40 at The Raven in Glasgow on 5th April. We’ll be hosting readings from some of this issue’s authors and poets, plus music, an open mic, and the infamous FGTS raffle. This is the first issue for which I’ve been an editor, so I’d love to see you there.

Update: Click here for the facebook event page!

April 7th – Workshop at Edinburgh International Science Festival (Summerhall, 2pm)

Edinburgh area writers, I’ll be joining Oliver Langmead (Dark Star, Metronome) for ‘Discovering New Worlds Through Writing: A Creative Writing Workshop’ as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival on 7th April. We’ll be taking you through exercises on exploring the galaxy, new worlds, and what it takes to get there – and this will be the first workshop I’ve given! Be warned this event will be limited availability, so best pick your ticket up sooner rather than later. The workshop runs from 2pm – 4pm on 7th April at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Summerhall. Click here to buy tickets.

April 26th – 27th – GIFCon 2018 (University of Glasgow)

Finally, GIFCon 2018 takes place over 26th – 27th April at the University of Glasgow. If you’ve submitted an abstract to the event, you should be hearing from us soon, but in the meantime, please keep an eye on our twitter, facebook, and instagram accounts, and on our website for announcements of details of how to register.

Hope to see you at one of these!

In the meantime, Shoreline of Infinity have uploaded video footage from February’s Event Horizon — where Hal Duncan, Neil Williamson and I staged a GSFWC invasion — to their facebook page. You’ll find us starting at about 1 hour 13 minutes in.