David L Clements – noise and sparks

Eastercon 2019: Ytterbium Schedule

The 70th annual Eastercon, Ytterbium, has finally released its programme to the public! The Programme Committee for Ytterbium has been working their socks off to bring this year’s line-up to you, and we can’t wait to see you all over 19th – 22nd April at the Park Inn Hotel, Heathrow.

While I’m on Guest of Honour Helper duties this weekend, I will be taking a break for three panels. Click here for my full schedule on Grenadine, or check out the details below.

(15/04/19 – Now updated with the latest panel line-ups.)

Maps, Place, and Landscape in Fantasy
Saturday 2:00pm-3:00pm
Judith Mortimore [Mod], Ruth EJ Booth, John Clute, Frances Hardinge, Teresa Nielsen Hayden

I’m overjoyed to share a panel with not just Frances Hardinge and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, but John Clute, whose work in the Encyclopedia of Fantasy was instrumental in my Fantasy Masters thesis about Heroic Landscapes.

Beyond Studio Ghibli
Sunday 10:15am-11:15am
Ruth EJ Booth [Mod], Mad Elf, Jessica Meats, Sarah Ash, Zoe Burgess-Foreman

Like Studio Ghibli? Want to try other Anime but don’t know where to start? Bring your pens, paper, and preferences, as we’ll be easing you into Sunday with the best movies, great studios to watch out for, and more.

You can also click here find my full programme for the weekend.

I nearly forgot – there’s also this:

BSFA Awards Ceremony
Saturday 6:00pm-6:45pm

Ytterbium will also host the annual BSFA Awards, where my 2018 columns for Shoreline of Infinity are up for the Best Non-Fiction Award, to my utter delight! If you’re a voting member of the BSFA, you should have received the voting pack already, but if you’re attending Ytterbium, check the awards booklet in your registration pack to read some of my columns from 2018. If you enjoy them, please consider voting before midday on Eastercon Saturday. The results will be announced at the BSFA’s Official Awards Ceremony at 6pm on Saturday 20th April.

Talking of which, Ytterbium attendees will also have the chance to read my new column in the latest Shoreline of Infinity, if they drop by the stall in the Dealers Area! This issue features the first part of my new Noise and Sparks column on my visit to the Arctic Circle this winter, and how this experience has changed my perspective on writing goals. There are also stories from Cat Hellisen, Ken MacLeod, Eris Young, and the poetry of the inestimable Harry Josephine Giles. Click here for more on Issue 14.

Finally, if you’re in Scotland, don’t forget that Oliver Langmead and I are back at Edinburgh Science Festival this Saturday 13th April with our writing workshop ‘Discover New Worlds through Writing’. Whether you’re a beginner, returning to writing again, or you’d like to develop your SF worldbuilding skills, join us in exploring the solar system and beyond! The workshop kicks off at 2pm on Saturday 13th April at the Pleasance. Click here for tickets.

And if you’re planning on heading to CYMERA Festival in June, watch this space for more on that soon!

The Art of Empathy: New column in Shoreline of Infinity 7

Yesterday was the Spring Equinox, so that means both a new issue of Shoreline of Infinity and a new installment of my column, Noise and Sparks. This one arrives during interesting times, and for that reason, I feel like it needs a little preamble.

Some columns are tricky because you can’t decide what to write about, and some columns give you trouble because you don’t know how to write about that what. This one was like a blinding light in pitch darkness, as if there was nothing else to write about. I can’t remember when I’ve had such a clear idea of what I’ve wanted to cover – or been so terrified about doing so.

Writing about empathy in art at a time when anti-human rights movements have control of major governments across the world seems like a fool’s game. Yet I’ve never felt so strongly about its importance. Books and art and movies and music are the ways by which we learn about voices other than our own – and those ways will become ever more important as these voices become drowned out by those who should support them. Empathy is the core of truth in an artist’s work, no matter what the subject. But for those who equate empathy with agreement, this can be a controversial statement. In this column, I talk about this knot, and ways in which artists have endeavoured to untangle it in times of hatred – and a little known portrait of Hitler by a failed soldier, a man who’d later become author of one of the most celebrated Fantasy trilogies in history, Mervyn Peake.

Amongst the rest of the issue, you’ll find poetry from Jane Yolen, as well as an interview with the woman herself, stories from David L Clements, Dan Grace, and Katie Gray, the latest in Monica Burns‘ SF Caledonia series, comics and more, all wrapped in a new Stephen Pickering cover. It’s available online now.

Oh, and by the way: if you’ve not yet voted for this year’s Hugo Awards, did you know Shoreline is eligible for Best Semi-pro Zine?

Just saying.