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March 30, 2005
ICFA 26 - Pics!
Steve Hooley has uploaded photos to his website.
Contact Steve if he's gotten any names wrong or anything like that.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)
ICFA 26 - Crawford Award
The IAFA Crawford Award (which is what it says on the plaque) each year recognizes an outstanding new fantasy writer. It is not specifically a first novel award, and in the past authors who had developed notable reputations as fantasy authors prior to their first novel were deemed ineligible under the terms of the award. On the other hand, the award has on occasion gone to writers who had previously published nonfantasy works, but became "new" fantasy writers by virtue of a particular work or set of works (Nancy Willard is an example).
The award was established with the support of the late Andre Norton, who also helped establish the criteria and who continued to support the award over the years.
This year's winner is Steph Swainston, whose The Year of Our War was originally published by Gollancz in 2004 and was reprinted by Eos in February of this year.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
A Change in Division Heads
On behalf of the membership of IAFA, the executive board would like to thank Mary Harris Russell for her hard work as Division Head for The Fantastic in Children's & Young Adult Literature and Art over the past year. Mary will be stepping down from the position this year, although she will still be available to advise her replacement, Joe Sutliff Sanders, former Student Caucus Representative.
All other Division Heads will be continuing in their positions this year, although SF Division Head Robin Reid will be stepping aside next year. To that end, she will be assisted this year by Sherryl Vint, who will take over the job following next year's conference.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 10:23 PM | Comments (0)
Sad News
Some sad news around conference time this year: At the Thursday Guest of Honor luncheon, Don Morse announced the passing of author Andre Norton at the age of 93. The author was a supporter of the conference, helping to establish the Crawford Award to recognize outstanding new fantasy writers; I found it especially poignant that the last session I attended at the conference included a paper on her work. Also, shortly after the conference, we learned that longtime IAFA member Bud Foote had died on March 12. Our condolences to their family and friends.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 10:22 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2005
JFA Update 2005
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
ICFA 26, March 2005
Bill Senior, JFA Editor
wsenior AT broward.edu
As many of you know, because of a change in business editor and problems with distribution, JFA is behind by a full year. At the current time, JFA 15.1 (Spring 2004) is finished and back from the printer; JFA 15.2 (Summer 2004) is at the printer; JFA 15.3 (Fall 2004) is in galleys and should be at the printer in two to three weeks. We currently have all the essays needed for JFA 15.4 (Winter 2004) and are waiting for three or four more book reviews before we can go to galleys.
We apologize for the delays, and anyone with subscription problems should contact me as soon as possible.
Contents:
JFA 15.1: Essays by Amanda Cockrell, David Coss, Peter Goodrich, Duke Pesta, and Adrian Schober. Reviews by Fiona Kelleghan, Carolyn Adele Gardner, Gary Westfahl, Zsolt Gyori, and Scott Vander Ploeg. Also the first of the series in MS/Collection Archives by Sherryl Vint on the Merrill Collection.
JFA 15.2: Essays by Anne Hardcastle, John Pennington, C.W. Sullivan III, and David H. Wilson. Reviews by Amie Rotruck, Christine Mains, Nick Ruddick, and P. Andrew Miller.
JFA 15.3: Guest Editor Helen Pilinovsky. Essays by Farah Mendlesohn, John Clute, Elizabeth Hand, and Andrew M. Butler. Reviews by Rob Craig, C.W. Sullivan III, Michael Andre-Driussi, Carol Leibeger, Fiona Kelleghan, and Bill Senior. Plus an interview with Delia Sherman and an essay by Veronica Schanoes on interstitial arts.
JFA 15.4: Essays by Markus Muller, Christiane Szeps, Nick Ruddick, Donald Morse, and Dale Knickerbocker. Reviews by Jim Holte, Jonathan Evans, Bill Senior, and several others TBA.
JFA 16.1: We anticipate this to contain Rudy Rucker’s Guest of Honor Address, Damien Broderick’s Guest Scholar address, the Graduate Award Essay, and several others.
JFA 16.2 is slated to be a special issue on the fiction of Patricia McKillip.
We would hope to produce and mail these 6 issues in the next 6 months. Carl Boehm has joined the staff as business manager and is catching up on production.
We are interested in an assistant business manager, and Fiona Kelleghan, our book reviews editor, would welcome an assistant book reviews editor to help with the workload. Anyone interested should speak to me.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 03:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2005
The Acceptance Speech That Should Have Been
Each year, a number of awards are presented at the closing banquet of the conference, including the Graduate student Paper Award, first presented in 1987. This year, the award went to an extremely surprised Christine Mains (aka yours truly) who was too stunned to give anything resembling a coherent acceptance speech. I have a somewhat fuzzy memory of being even ditzier than usual. And that's unfortunate, because there are some things I'd really like to say about being a graduate student involved with IAFA and this was the perfect opportunity to say those things.
Thankfully, the blog exists for just such occasions.
"The Speech Given in the Alternate Universe Where Chrissie is Faster at Thinking on Her Feet."
I'm very grateful that such an organization exists, and that it is so supportive of graduate students who are the future of scholarship and teaching. I know that a number of my fellow students whose interests lie elsewhere, in Shakespeare studies or Middle English Literature, for instance, have had a much more difficult time building their careers and finding acceptance among their peers and future colleagues than I have had. Few organizations have such an active graduate student membership, and the senior members of IAFA have been incredibly supportive of the student caucus, not only in organizing and funding the Graduate Student Paper Award but in ensuring that graduate students are welcomed and made a part of the organization and the conference. A representative of the student caucus sits on the executive board, there not only to voice student concerns and convey board concerns back to the students but also to participate fully and equally in planning the present and future of IAFA.
Nor is that participation limited to a single token student at a time; when I offered my time and energy to then-President Len Hatfield a few years ago, he was willing to appoint me to the position of Public Information Coordinator even though I was a graduate student and the board already had a student representative. What mattered was that I was willing and able to get the job done. The senior members of IAFA are well aware that a strong and active future for the association depends on the vision and energy of those of us just beginning our scholarly careers. And we are the future; the student caucus was in its first year or so when I began attending ICFA six years ago, but in the years soon to come, I fully expect that the Division Heads and appointed board members will include scholars who began their involvement with IAFA as part of the caucus, and in the years after that, we will be the elected board, guiding the association into its fourth and fifth decades of existence. I might not be thinking about such a commitment if the association did not demonstrate an equally strong commitment to its graduate students and to me personally.
I am very pleased to have my scholarship recognized by the critics and teachers who matter most in my field; that recognition means a great deal to me, as does this association and all of the people whom I have met over the years as a result of my involvement with it. I intend to be a part of IAFA as long as it exists, and to do everything that I can to ensure that it exists for a very long time.
Oh, lest anyone think I've been replaced by a pod person: This is way cool!
Posted by ChrissieMains at 11:29 PM | Comments (2)
March 22, 2005
Journal of Kentucky Studies
Gary Walton would like to remind ICFA members that while the Journal of Kentucky Studies has a general readership rather than being specifically directed to a genre audience, it does accept submissions on SF and fantasy that have some relation to Kentucky. He's particularly hoping for a farewell essay on Hunter S. Thompson who was a Kentucky native. Details of the journal and the submission policy are below:
Gary Walton
Journal of Kentucky Studies
Northern Kentucky University
Department of Literature and Language, Nunn Drive, Highland Heights, Kentucky, 41099
Call for Essays, Poetry, Short Fiction, and Black and White Photos
Guidelines
The Journal of Kentucky Studies is a professional journal whose focus tends to center on the history, authors, literature, and general culture of Kentucky and the Appalachian region. However, JKS welcomes articles on any theme as well as art, commentary, critical essays, history, literary criticism, short fiction, and poetry. Black and white photography is also accepted.
All manuscripts should follow the University of Chicago Manual of Style (History) or MLA Style (Literature), be double-spaced, and be submitted in triplicate with S.A.S.E. Although we have no restrictions on length of prose fiction or non-fiction, most manuscripts which find their way into our pages are typically about 20 typed, double-spaced pages: 6000 words or less. The quality of the submission is the final arbiter. We also have no restriction on the style or subjects for our published poetry. Submissions, however, should be limited to 3-5 lyric poems or 1-2 longer forms. Turn around time on submissions is typically six months.
The Journal is published yearly by the Northern Kentucky University Department of Literature and Language. Statements of fact and opinion are made on the responsibility of the authors alone. All articles and other correspondence should be sent to:
Dr. Gary Walton, Editor,
Journal of Kentucky Studies,
Department of Literature and Language,
Northern Kentucky University,
Nunn Drive,
Highland Heights, Kentucky 41099.
Phone (606) 572-5418
E-Mail: Waltong@nku.edu
Posted by ChrissieMains at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2005
Volunteers at Registration Desk
The registration desk at ICFA-26 needs helps during the upcoming conference. By helping out, you can lower your meetings costs by earning a luncheon or banquet ticket. If you are interested, let Katy know as soon as possible! Please check the conference schedule, which is posted on the IAFA website, to see when you might be available to volunteer.
Workers are needed during the following times:
Wednesday, March 16 -- 4:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 17 -- 7:45 a.m. - Noon and 2:00 - 4 p.m.
Friday, March 18 -- 7:45 a.m. - Noon and 2:00 - 4 p.m.
By working only 3 hours you can earn a free ticket to either the Thursday or Friday luncheon or for working 4 hours, you can earn a free ticket to the Awards Banquet on Saturday evening. Spaces are limited so sign up early. Send your offers of help, or questions to Katy Hatfield, Conference Registrar at katy.hatfield AT gmail.com.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2005
Bookroom Volunteers Needed
David Hartwell and his team are still looking for volunteers to cover shifts in the bookroom before, during, and after the conference. He particularly needs coverage on Friday and Saturday.
Regarding the perks of volunteering in the bookroom, David says:
"Shifts in the bookroom are 4 hours. Perks may include tickets to luncheons, the Saturday banquet, or even refund of registration fees, depending upon number of shifts worked and on which days. We do not reimburse in advance. Benefits include getting to talk to many writers, and usually a free book or two, by arrangement."
If you're interested in covering a shift or two, contact David at dgh AT panix.com.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)