This coming weekend is Easter, so you know what that means (if you’re aware of the UK SF convention circuit) – Eastercon! Conversation 2023 features guests of honour Zen Cho, Niall Harrison, Kari Sperring and Adrian Tchaikovsky, plus virtual guests Jenell Jaquays and Ursula Vernon. And for one day two days only, me!
It’s been a while – but to make up for it, here’s not one, but two events I’ll be appearing at this April (virtually and in London) and May (in Glasgow). Read on for more details…
The cards have been sent, the gifts are all wrapped, and this afternoon I go into Newcastle for my annual Christmas whiskey-drinking session with a local pal. In other words, this is the perfect moment to reflect on the past year.
At Eastercon 70: Ytterbium, I moderated a panel called Beyond Studio Ghibli, where myself, Anime UK News reporter Sarah Ash, Japanese culture scholar Zoë Burgess-Foreman, Anime fan Mad Elf and author Jessica Meats presented a guide to wider Anime for fans of Studio Ghibli movies. Over an hour, we covered genres, directors to watch for, and even gave some recommendations based on specific Studio Ghibli movies.
If you’d like to know more about what we discussed, Zoë will be uploading a video of the panel (minus Q&A) to her youtube channel soon. Click here to subscribe
In the meantime, we also produced a list of Anime (and two JRPGs) that we think you should check out.
Jessica Meats
Sarah Ash
Mad Elf
Zoë Burgess-Foreman
And here are my recommendations for fans of JRPG series Ni No Kuni, for which Studio Ghibli provided animation sequences in two of the games (Dominion of the Dark Djinn and Wrath of the White Witch):
Me
While we’re talking Anime, at the recent ‘Thistle and Sakura’ event at the University of Glasgow, Dr Rob Maslen revealed news of a special event marking ten years of the Scotland Loves Anime festival this October. For more on this, plus his full talk on ‘Anime as Fantastic History’, click here.
Last week I mentioned I was taking on some new projects this year. Well, here’s one of them. I’m part of the Programme Committee for the 2019 Eastercon: Ytterbium, acting as Guest of Honour liaison. This year will boast a truly stonking line-up of genre events: not least because we’ll be joined by John Scalzi, Frances Hardinge, Sydney Padua and the legendary DC, and the event is chaired by genre luminary Farah Mendlesohn, so expect an entertaining and insightful event, especially if you’re into cross-media SF, Fantasy, Fandom, or Alternative History.
Of course, it’s not an Eastercon without you, and right now, we’re really interested in hearing your ideas for programme items. As regular con-goers ourselves, we also have a wishlist for what we’d like to see and do this year. So, if you’re thinking of making some suggestions for 2019, here are a few of the sorts of things we’d particularly like to hear about.
1) Items that aren’t panels: It’s great hearing your favourite creators chew the fat about genre, but we’d also love to hear about other items too. We’re talking workshops, talks, meet-ups, tasting sessions, games, quizzes, and so on. Not sure if your idea is right for us? Drop us an email at programme@ytterbium.org.uk and we’ll have a chat.
2) Anniversaries/Notable Dates: Is 2019 the anniversary of a key film, book, or LARP society in SFF? Are there any key events in Science that are coming up? Is there a re-release or reissue coming out that raises questions about the influence and impact of your favourite game, video- or otherwise? Get your ideas in to us.
3) Beyond Diversity 101: Regular convention goers will be familiar with the Women in Genre, Diversity in Genre, and LGBTQ+ in Genre panels. Do you have any ideas for items that tackle related issues, but go beyond these basic panels, e.g. Reproduction in Genre, Non-toxic Masculinities in Gaming, and so forth? Get in touch.
4) GoH items: This year, we have John Scalzi, Frances Hardinge, Sydney Padua and DC joining us. Do you have any ideas for items that tap into our Guests of Honour’s particular areas of expertise? Would you like to hear Frances Hardinge talk about the Oxford influence on genre? How about John Scalzi talking about the appeal of writing the stories of background characters? Or Sydney Padua on the appeal of alternative history? How about DC talking about what really makes Glasgow such a centre for genre fandom? Let us know your thoughts.
If you have any programme ideas, or would like to volunteer this year, click here for our Programme Participation Form. Alternatively, if you’d like to run ideas past the Programme Team first, email programme@ytterbium.org.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!