Tag: Frances Hardinge

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Awards Awards Conventions Eastercon Edinburgh International Science Festival Events Fiction New Column Shoreline of Infinity Workshop

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!

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Academic Academic Events Book Launch Conventions Eastercon Eastercon Events Readings Workshop

Ytterbium: Eastercon 2019

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!

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Academic Academic Events Conventions Events Readings Workshop

Glasgow Science Festival, Satellite 6, GIFCon Highlights – and Exciting News…

GIFCon is nearly over and done with for another year, so time for a wee update on upcoming things:

Firstly, Oliver Langmead and I will be giving a version of our workshop, ‘Discover New Worlds Through Creative Writing’ on 13th June at the Glasgow Science Festival. If you missed our Edinburgh International Science Festival and GIFCon events, this will be your last chance to catch our workshops for a wee while. So, get yourself registered for free tickets at the link below, and we’ll see you there! We kick off at 5:30pm on 13th June at 5 University Gardens, University of Glasgow.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/events/sciencefestival/glasgowsciencefestival2018/adult/headline_325536_en.html

Before that, I’ll be appearing at the Satellite 6 convention in Glasgow at the end of May. Until the programme is officially announced (and I’ll post more then), here’s where you can register for this year’s event.

https://six.satellitex.org.uk/

As for 2019, I’ve been invited onto the Programming Committee for next year’s Eastercon, Ytterbium. With the delightful Frances Hardinge, John Scalzi, Sydney Padua, and DC as guests of honour, I’m really looking forward to working with Farah Mendlesohn and the team on next year’s event!

Finally, some fiction news. Towards the end of last year, I put in an application to do a creative doctorate, and I’m happy to say the department accepted me. So, this coming Autumn, I’ll be starting on the DFA in Creative Writing programme at the University of Glasgow. I’ll be working with Zoe Strachan, Dr Rob Maslen, and Dr Matt Barr on a long-form project about patriarchal theory, video-gaming, and Hamlet. I’ll be hoping to keep my hand in Fantastic academia and aiming to get a couple of papers published during the course. For now, I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into a larger fiction project and tackling some ideas that have been on my mind since my time as a raider a decade ago.

In the meantime, this Summer will be devoted to finishing my dissertation for the MLitt in Fantasy in Glasgow, moving house, and maybe finishing the odd short story. Best get back to that, then…!

…

Well, okay, before I go, here’s a few of my highlights from GIFCon, as captured on camera and reported by twitter (with huge thanks to Gabe Cohen, Taylor Driggers, Marita Arvaniti, Emma McMullan, and the wonderful Tex Thompson):

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989781325128306688

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989782794258845696

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989803353029926912

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989803974646816768

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989804351148392448

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989804839071870976

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989805370641211392

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989805760040366080

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989806121308377088

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989806471226580993

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989806829193572354

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989806978116603904

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989807432183484416

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989807894307713024

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989807910749384704

https://twitter.com/FemaleGabe/status/989809702652477440

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989810166693588993

https://twitter.com/TaylorWDriggers/status/989819828469993472