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September 25, 2006
Call for Submissions: The Fiction of Rob Holdstock
Donald Morse announces that additional contributors are wanted for a volume on the contemporary British fantasy and science-fiction writer, Rob Holdstock. The working title is Lost in a Haunted Wood: The Fiction of Rob Holdstock. While most of the essays focus on the Mythago and Celtica novels, essays will be welcome on any of his other books or short stories.
Essays should be 20pp double spaced with some flexability, but not, however, above 25 pages, following MLA parenthetical citation. Deadlines would be rolling during late 2007 but with an end time definite of either December 2007 or January 2008. Two publishers have expressed some interest and the goal would be publication some time during 2008 or, if that proves impossible, then a launch at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA) in March of 09.
Plans are also being made to present some of the essays at ICFA in 2008 and others at HUSSE 2009 (Hungarian Society for the Study of English) which will meet in late January 2009.
Send queries or a proposal and cv to Donald Morse Donaldemorse AT gmail.com.
Posted by ChrissieMains at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2006
Call for Candidates: Public Information Co-ordinator
Hello, fellow IAFA members, particularly those of you who have an interest in becoming more involved with the association and working behind the scenes. After two terms as IAFA's Public Information Co-ordinator, I'm stepping down in order to run in the next board election (coming soon; stay tuned for more).
That means that there will be a need for a new Public Information Co-ordinator, who will be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the board, in accordance with IAFA bylaws.
The following is some information about the position; if you're interested in the position, please send an email to me, Chrissie Mains, at cemains AT shaw.ca, telling us a little about yourself and why you think you'll be a good fit for the position. I will be forwarding a list of interested parties to the board for further consideration. Anyone who is a member in good standing is eligible to apply, and that includes grad students (obviously, or else I wouldn't be doing the job).
Board Position: Public Information Co-ordinator
Effective: post-conference 2007 (transition period beginning, well, now-ish)
Term: 3 year appointment, renewable at the President's discretion
Duties: The Public Information Co-ordinator, shockingly enough, co-ordinates information. The job basically covers two functions: Public Relations and Secretary.
Public Relations:
* preparing and distributing the call for Papers in different venues
* updating the website (with conference information, award winners, etc.)
* posting announcements to the listserv and the Newsblog
* preparing flyers for the conference registration packets
* other PR tasks that might arise (like distributing a flyer via mailing list)
Secretary:
* taking minutes at meetings (which means attending meetings)
* participating in and archiving mailing list discussions
* serving as the Board's memory and, sometimes, nag
Time Required:
It's hard to set a definite number of hours per week or month for the position, as the duties vary depending on the time of year. Obviously there's a fair bit of work before, during, and after the conference. But I've had no trouble getting the work done while still juggling teaching, research, and other service commitments, so I don't think it's unreasonable, especially if you're a fairly well organized person.
One essential requirement, however, is the attendance at meetings. During the conference, the board meets on Wednesday evening, and holds a business meeting, usually on Thursday just before dinner. This does cut into the conference fun with friends, naturally. The other big commitment is the annual board meeting, which takes place over a weekend, usually in early June, in Florida; the expenses for this meeting are covered by the board, but it is a bit of an inconvenience.
I've taken on other tasks over the years, including preparing the program book, but those tasks aren't part of the PIC's responsibilities; however, if the new PIC is interested in helping out in that area, maybe in taking it over in the future, that's certainly a possibility. It just isn't a requirement.
Other Skills:
Aside from being organized and acting as the board memory, there are a few software skills that are required, basically a certain comfort level with updating websites and blogging, and some familiarity with InDesign is good (especially if you're interested in getting involved with the program book). And of course you should be able to mess around with MSWord.
If you have further questions, drop me an email. I've enjoyed my two terms as Public Information Co-ordinator, and I'm sorry to step aside. But I think I can continue to serve the association in other ways, and it's time for someone else to have some of the fun.
Chrissie
Posted by ChrissieMains at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
Update to Conference Guest
Unfortunately, Marina Warner has had to cancel as our Guest Scholar due to a teaching commitment, but we have found an excellent replacement.
Jane Donawerth of the University of Maryland is the author of Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction (Syracuse, 1997) and Shakespeare and the Sixteenth-Century Study of Language (Illinois, 1984). She is the co-editor of Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: Worlds of Difference (Syracuse, 1994) and of Women, Writing, and the Reproduction of Culture in Tudor and Stuart Britain and Crossing Boundaries: Attending to Early Modern Women; Rhetorical Theory by Women before 1900. She has published more than 40 articles in venues as diverse as Science Fiction Studies, Extrapolation, PMLA, Shakespeare Quarterly, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Feminist Teacher.
We are very pleased to have Jane Donawerth as our Guest Scholar for the 2007 ICFA.
Mike Levy
IAFA President
Posted by ChrissieMains at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)