Behold my schedule for Readercon. It is smaller this year than last year's, but it's there, and so will I be.
Friday July 08
11:00 AM
The Works of Diana Wynne Jones.
Gili Bar-Hillel (leader), Lena Coakley, Alena McNamara, Sharyn November, Bethany Powell, Sonya Taaffe.
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) is renowned as one of the twentieth century's best writers of children's fantasies, but she wrote a considerable range of work, from fantasies to science fiction to satire. Jones was above all a knowing writer, conscious of the limits of the genres she was working in and always pushing at them, cannily manipulating old cliches and tropes and motifs to create something new and even astonishing. Her appeal was considerable, to both adults and children, and her skill greater. She was the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1978, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1996 and 1999, and the Phoenix Award in 2006, as well as the British Fantasy Society's Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1999 and a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2007. As critic John Clute wrote in 1997, "At her best, Diana Wynne Jones has a suppleness, wit and storytelling ability that make her the equal of any living fantasy writer." Join us in a discussion of her work.
5:00 PM
Clockwork Phoenix 5 Group Reading.
Mike Allen, C.S.E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez, Keffy Kehrli, Barbara Krasnoff, Cameron Roberson, Sonya Taaffe, A.C. Wise.
Contributors to the bestselling fifth installment in the critically-acclaimed, boundary-expanding Clockwork Phoenix anthology series read excerpts from their stories.
7:30 PM
Reading: Sonya Taaffe.
Sonya Taaffe.
Sonya Taaffe reads from a Lovecraftian novella, "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts."
Sunday July 10
1:00 PM
Tanith Lee – A Retrospective.
Mike Allen, Gemma Files, Lila Garrott, Theodora Goss (leader), Sonya Taaffe.
Tanith Lee authored over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book, poems, and television episodes. In 1980, she became the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for her book Death's Master. Yet in 2010, Tanith Lee mentioned she was still writing novels, and consistently publishing short stories, but publishers were not interested in her longer works. Lee's impact on the genres that make up slipstream fiction was significant. What leads a publisher to look at works from an influential, established writer and decide they are not worth the shelf space? How can we keep Lee in print, and in people's minds?
2:00 PM
Ace, Aro, and Age.
F. Brett Cox, Greer Gilman, Keffy Kehrli, Sonya Taaffe, Jo Walton.
Readers looking for asexual and aromantic characters in speculative fiction have to look hard. The only human characters who aren't likely to wind up married off are either children or the elderly, thanks to mistaken cultural notions about youthful innocents and withered crones. How can we expand speculative fiction to include explicitly asexual and aromantic identities, and how does that inclusion force us to also address our ideas about sexual and romantic orientations and age?
I hope to see many of you there!
Friday July 08
11:00 AM
The Works of Diana Wynne Jones.
Gili Bar-Hillel (leader), Lena Coakley, Alena McNamara, Sharyn November, Bethany Powell, Sonya Taaffe.
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) is renowned as one of the twentieth century's best writers of children's fantasies, but she wrote a considerable range of work, from fantasies to science fiction to satire. Jones was above all a knowing writer, conscious of the limits of the genres she was working in and always pushing at them, cannily manipulating old cliches and tropes and motifs to create something new and even astonishing. Her appeal was considerable, to both adults and children, and her skill greater. She was the winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize in 1978, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1996 and 1999, and the Phoenix Award in 2006, as well as the British Fantasy Society's Karl Edward Wagner Award in 1999 and a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2007. As critic John Clute wrote in 1997, "At her best, Diana Wynne Jones has a suppleness, wit and storytelling ability that make her the equal of any living fantasy writer." Join us in a discussion of her work.
5:00 PM
Clockwork Phoenix 5 Group Reading.
Mike Allen, C.S.E. Cooney, Carlos Hernandez, Keffy Kehrli, Barbara Krasnoff, Cameron Roberson, Sonya Taaffe, A.C. Wise.
Contributors to the bestselling fifth installment in the critically-acclaimed, boundary-expanding Clockwork Phoenix anthology series read excerpts from their stories.
7:30 PM
Reading: Sonya Taaffe.
Sonya Taaffe.
Sonya Taaffe reads from a Lovecraftian novella, "All Our Salt-Bottled Hearts."
Sunday July 10
1:00 PM
Tanith Lee – A Retrospective.
Mike Allen, Gemma Files, Lila Garrott, Theodora Goss (leader), Sonya Taaffe.
Tanith Lee authored over 90 novels and 300 short stories, a children's picture book, poems, and television episodes. In 1980, she became the first woman to win the British Fantasy Award best novel award, for her book Death's Master. Yet in 2010, Tanith Lee mentioned she was still writing novels, and consistently publishing short stories, but publishers were not interested in her longer works. Lee's impact on the genres that make up slipstream fiction was significant. What leads a publisher to look at works from an influential, established writer and decide they are not worth the shelf space? How can we keep Lee in print, and in people's minds?
2:00 PM
Ace, Aro, and Age.
F. Brett Cox, Greer Gilman, Keffy Kehrli, Sonya Taaffe, Jo Walton.
Readers looking for asexual and aromantic characters in speculative fiction have to look hard. The only human characters who aren't likely to wind up married off are either children or the elderly, thanks to mistaken cultural notions about youthful innocents and withered crones. How can we expand speculative fiction to include explicitly asexual and aromantic identities, and how does that inclusion force us to also address our ideas about sexual and romantic orientations and age?
I hope to see many of you there!
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