THIS ESTONIAN SUMMER would have been right at home at the Locus office in California: Sunny days under brilliant blue skies with just a slight breeze to keep the heat from becoming stifling. Perfect for the annual outdoor science fiction convention held at Udu Farm in central Estonia. The event wasn’t confirmed until just a few weeks before, but the vaccination program had reached full throttle and infection rates remained ...Read More
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The upcoming World Fantasy Convention, to be held November 4-7, 2021 at the Hôtel Bonaventure Montréal in Québec, Canada, has announced several changes.
Guest of Honor Nisi Shawl will not be attending in person, but will take part virtually.
Julie Czerneda has joined as a Special Guest.
The convention will have a significant online component:
Given this being the Age of Covid, we have taken steps to turn World Fantasy ...Read More
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Dublin 2019 has announced there are 18 recipients of scholarships to attend SMOFcon 39, to be held December 3-5, 2021 at the VIP Executive Art’s Hotel in Lisboa, Portugal.
CanSMOF has also announced Joro Penchev of Sofia, Bulgaria, as the winner of its SMOFcon scholarship, open to “anyone involved in running conventions, regardless of their place of residence or citizenship”.
For more information, see the SMOFcon website.
[via File 770] ...Read More
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The Readercon board has announced that Readercon will not be held in 2022. Readercon 32 will instead take place July 13–16, 2023 at the Marriott Boston Quincy hotel in Quincy MA.
The announcement says
We just need some time to recharge and get our house in order.
The last two years have been a doozy for everyone. We all need some rest. And Readercon as an organization needs an opportunity ...Read More
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Ernest R. Dickerson, Gemma Files, Brian Keene, John Edward Lawson, and Sheree Renée Thomas have been announced as the StokerCon 2022 Guests of Honor.
The event will be held May 12-15, 2022 at the Curtis Hotel in Denver CO, and will include the Bram Stoker Awards banquet.
For more information, see the official website.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring ...Read More
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Readercon 31 was held online August 13-15, 2021. Guests of honor were Jeffrey Ford and Ursula Vernon; Vonda N. McIntyre was the memorial guest of honor. Of 556 individuals registered, 528 people attended. Merryl Gross, head of registration, reported that while most members were from the US and Canada, ‘‘This year saw a larger contingent from Great Britain, the European Union, Mexico and South Africa.’’ The focus of Readercon is ...Read More
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DisCon III has announced Marguerite Smith and Lauren Raye Snow as Vice Chairs. Lauren is “the first Latinx to serve as a Vice Chair.” Marguerite is returning to the team, having served as a DisCon III Deputy Division Head in early 2021.
DisCon III will be held December 15-19, 2021 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC. For more information, see the convention’s website.
While you are here, please ...Read More
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Bouchercon announced winners for the 2021 Anthony Awards honoring the best in crime fiction. Categories with winning works of genre interest include:
Best Hardcover Novel
Best Short Story
DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced their COVID-19 policies for in-person attendees.
The convention will require attendees to be fully vaccinated and provide proof.
We will accept original vaccination cards, digital photographs of vaccination cards (front and back), or electronic documentation provided by your country or state of origin. Photo ID will be required, and the name on your vaccination documentation must match the name on ...Read More
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The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) has named Estcon (July 16-18, 2021), FIYAHCON (September 16-19), Astronomicon (October 29-31), and Loscon (Nov 26-28) as recipients of its inaugural round of Convention Support Grants for fantasy, science fiction, and literary conventions with significant speculative literature content. Loscon was awarded $86,0 and the other three received $1,000 each.
The application period for conventions taking place between January 1 and May 31, 2022 is open ...Read More
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The Locus Awards Weekend took place on June 23-26, 2021, in its second virtual-only iteration. Connie Willis emceed the awards ceremony along with host Liza Trombi. There were over 150 registrations, and full members received a Locus t-shirt and awards program. There was also a sliding scale, attendance-only membership available.
This year’s online event added panels and doubled the number of readings. A pocket convention, the online events had seven ...Read More
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The administrators of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award have announced a new panel of judges: Rich Horton, Steven H Silver, and Grant Thiessen. New judges were selected from a call for volunteers after last year’s judges, Robert J. Sawyer and Barry Malzberg, resigned from position.
Established in 2001 by the Cordwainer Smith foundation, the Rediscovery Award is intended to bring attention to lesser-known SF and fantasy authors. Award recipients include ...Read More
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StokerCon, sponsored by the Horror Writers Association (HWA), was held May 20-23, 2021, on the virtual Hopin platform. Guests of honor were Maurice Broaddus, Joe R. Lansdale, Seanan McGuire, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Lisa Morton, and Steve Rasnic Tem. Carol J. Clover, Jewelle Gomez, and Marge Simon received Lifetime Achievement Awards. Co-chair Brian Matthews said, “After a year of COVID-related isolation, we strived to bring people back together, to make them feel ...Read More
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The 2021 SFWA Nebula Conference was an online event, held June 4-6. There were 812 attending members from 27 countries, up slightly from 2020’s online event, which had 808 members from 33 countries. 2019’s in-person event in Los Angeles had seen a record-breaking 475 registered members.
Thirty panels were offered over the course of three days, with 111 program participants. Early online programming began on March 15, before the event ...Read More
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The Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association (BWAWA) has announced Mary Robinette Kowal as the new chairperson of DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, following Bill Lawhorn’s resignation in June.
Because Kowal is a finalist in two categories, DisCon III intends to keep a full firewall between the chair (and any other Hugo finalists working on the convention) and the voting and administration of the 2021 Hugo Awards. One of ...Read More
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DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, to be held December 15-19, 2021 in Washington DC, announced that Bill Lawhorn has resigned as chairperson, effective immediately.
The Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association (BWAWA) has begun the process of finding a permanent replacement. Until the position is filled, the DisCon III Division Heads and staff will continue with the business of the convention.
We wish to thank Bill for his hard ...Read More
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The 2021 Hugo Awards administration team — consisting of Kathy Bond, Kat Jones, Cassidy Riddlebarger, Marguerite Smith, and Nicholas Whyte — released a statement announcing their resignation:
The 2021 Hugo Administration team came on board, at short notice, at the start of this year. we were committed to the words in the 12 January statement by the DisCon III chair, Bill Lawhorn: “The Hugo Awards exist to celebrate and honor ...Read More
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The Winnipeg in 2023 committee has announced its intention to bid for the 81st World Science Fiction Convention. If selected, this would be the first Worldcon in Winnipeg since 1994. They want to hold the convention August 24-28, 2023 at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The committee is headed by experienced conrunner Terry Fong and includes John Mansfield, who chaired the 1994 convention, as a senior advisor. ...Read More
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The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) will livestream the 56th Nebula Awards ceremony on June 5, 2021 at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. The ceremony will be available to the public on YouTube and Facebook, and will be hosted by Aydrea Walden. Award presenters include Tobias S. Buckell, Jeffe Kennedy, Mallory O’Meara, Mark Oshiro, Carrie Patel, Adam Savage, Nisi Shawl, and Troy L. Wiggins.
For more information, see ...Read More
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The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) announced the new Convention Support Grant for fantasy, science fiction, and literary conventions with significant speculative literature content. Grants of $500 to $1,000 will be awarded throughout the year, for a total of $10,000. For conventions taking place between June 1 and December 31, 2021, the application period is May 15–June 15, 2021. For conventions taking place between January 1 and May 31, 2022, the ...Read More
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Finalists for the 2021 Imadjinn Awards have been announced, including several categories of genre interest:
Best Science Fiction Novel
Best Fantasy Novel
Norwescon 43 was held April 1-4, 2021 as an online event; the theme was “The Longest Night”. Guests of honor, held over from 2020, were Jacqueline Carey (writer), Sana Takeda (artist), and Susan Langley (science). Tor was the spotlight publisher, represented by Claire Eddy. There were 1,469 registrations and over 1,000 attendees. The weekend included over 250 hours of programming with hundreds of panels, 40 readings, 69 gaming slots, ten ...Read More
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The 41st International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA 42) took place virtually March 17-20, 2021, with a theme of “Climate Change and the Anthropocene”. Academics, writers, publishers, editors, artists, students, independent scholars, and more participated, with a record 555 people registered (compared to 2019 with 480 attending), and about 340 either presenting a paper or appearing on a panel (up from 285 in 2019). Jeff VanderMeer was ...Read More
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The International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) is open to proposals “for pre-formed panels, paper sessions, roundtables, and workshops” on the theme of “Trans/Inter/Cross: The Fantastic Between Genres, Media, and Cultures”. Proposals can be submitted through the online portal here. Submissions close June 1, 2021. The symposium will be held October 1-3, 2021 at the Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside in Orlando FL.
For more information, see the ...Read More
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Chicon 8, the 80th World Science Fiction, has announced the formation of the Chicago Worldcon Community Fund (CWCF) “to help defray the expenses of attending Chicon 8 for the following groups of people”:
For information on how to donate or apply, see the Chicon 8 website.
Chicon also announced that it will not
Westercon 73, the West Coast Science Fantasy Conference scheduled for July 1-4, 2021 in Seattle WA, has announced that the convention will not be held. It is disbanding its committee due, in part, to the coronavirus pandemic.
They are working with LASFS, owner of the Westercon service mark, to implement Section 1.9 of the Westercon Bylaws regarding a Westercon committee failure. Loscon 47, scheduled for November 26-28, 2021 at the ...Read More
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DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention, announced that it will be held as an in-person convention December 15-19, 2021, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. The move comes “after nearly two-thirds of respondents to a public survey put out by DisCon III said they would prefer an in-person December convention over a virtual convention in August.” Virtual memberships to the December convention will still be available. ...Read More
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The 19th Annual/5th International Science Fiction Conference was organized by the Indian Association for Science Fiction Studies Bangalore (IASFS) in collaboration with Bangalore University and held online December 7-10, 2020. The theme was “All Roads Lead to Science Fiction”, and participants included members of 58 departments at the university, faculty from 700 affiliated colleges, scientists, authors, editors, journalists, and luminaries from all over the world.
A variety of activities and ...Read More
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The 2021 World Fantasy Convention has announced Brandon O’Brien as Special Guest, joining guests Owl Goingback, Yves Meynard, John Picacio, André-François Ruaud, Nisi Shawl, and Christine Taylor-Butler. WFC 2021 will be held November 4-7, 2021 in Montréal, Canada. The theme is “Fantasy, Imagination, and the Dreams of Youth.” Attending memberships are currently $150. For more: <www.wfc2021.org/index.php>.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time ...Read More
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The International Union of Writers (IUW) announced the winners of several awards during Aelita 2020: the XXXVII International Literary Festival of Fiction, held online December 18-20, 2020:
Bugrov Award (named after V.I. Bugrov)
Aelita-Start Award
Hyperboloid Award
Order of the Knight of Science Fiction Award (named after I.G. Khalymbadzhi)
The literary festival combined the Aelita Convention, Second International
Following reports of calls for political violence on Baen’s Bar, the online forum of Baen Books, and the subsequent temporary closure of the board by publisher Toni Weisskopf, Discon III, the 2021 Worldcon, has announced that it has removed Weisskopf as guest of honor.
Chair Bill Lawhorn sent a press release on February 19:
DisCon III condemns the violent and hostile content found within Baen Books’ forums. We also cannot ...Read More
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The Horror Writers Association (HWA) has decided to change StokerCon 2021 “from an in-person event to a virtual platform” according to a special announcement posted on the StokerCon 2021 site.
Our hope is to preserve the spirit of StokerCon™ and create an event that will resemble as closely as possible our usual programming—panels, presentations, interviews, author readings, ceremonies, and the Bram Stoker Awards® presentation. At this time our plans include ...Read More
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