SuperNerdNights!: Our friends at AstroKitty Comics & More have started up their SuperNerdNight parties at the Bottleneck in Lawrence. There was a kissing booth, live bands, sketch drawings, and AboutSF people selling books from our CSSF library (don't worry, we only sold materials that have multiple copies safe in our archives). A part of the proceeds from the event went to a great charitable cause: AboutSF! We will be using those additional funds to plan convention appearances to present our Teaching Workshop, as well as develop new projects and outreeaches. Thanks for everything, AstroKitty, and we'll look forward to the next one!
Coming Stories: CSSF Directors Chris McKitterick and Kij Johnson both have stories coming out in anthologies this year. Kij's story "The Man Who Bridged the Mist," first seen in Asimov's last year, will be in The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2012 Edition this summer. And Chris's story "Surveyor of Mars" will be in Westward Weird in Feburary. Check out both collections — there will be plenty of great stories in both anthologies.
James Gunn's Ad Astra: We've been receiving several submissions for the first edition of our new speculative fiction resource, which will be released in time for the Campbell Conference. If you have a story, poem, or scholarly article that you'd like to submit, send them to us at Ad Astra: Submit Your Work.
The December 2011 issue of the Writer magazine (available in most bookstores, and can be purchased at www.WriterMag.com), our very own James Gunn has an article about how to effectively open a science fiction story.
The article, "Science-Fiction Openings," begins:
"There's nothing like a good beginning -- unless it's a good ending. But, as I used to tell my fiction-writing students, without a good beginning the reader will never get to the ending."
The article not only about beginnings, but about how to grab the reader's interest and keep them engaged with your story. There are plenty of other pieces of advice, such as "Science fiction makes background foreground, because it constructs a different world around a kernel of change."
If you have your own favorite articles about writing science fiction, please share them with us at aboutsfgmail [dot] com. Read more »
We're pleased to announce that author (and associate director of the CSSF) Kij Johnson will be in Lawrence to give a reading, Monday, January 23, at 4 p.m. The reading will be in the Jayhawk Room at the Kansas Union (map).
This episode is a recording of author Ian McDonald reading the Frederik Pohl short story “The Day the Icicle Works Closed” at the 2011 Campbell Conference. Mr. McDonald was the recipient of the 2011 John W. Campbell Award for his novel The Dervish House.
I want to apologize for the significant interruption in the publication of the podcasts. Life intervened, and has prevented me from volunteering as much as I would like.
The Center for the Study of Science Fiction (CSSF), in association with the University of Kansas, announces the launch of James Gunn’s Ad Astra, an online resource for authors, scholars and all those who are interested in speculative fiction at http://adastra.ku.edu/.
CSSF is known for its resources, links, reading lists, workshops and online courses. James Gunn’s Ad Astra is excited to expand these offerings to a wider audience through creative short fiction and poetry, featured reviews, and scholarly articles.
Its ambitious goals include building a creative community that will deepen the conversation within the genre. It hopes to inspire new authors and new readers by publishing original works and promoting them at CSSF’s annual Campbell Conference.
The first issue of James Gunn’s Ad Astra will be released, online, in conjunction with the Campbell Conference in June of 2012. Together, they will explore this year’s theme of Communication and Information. Throughout this year, Ad Astra will discuss how communication and the information age have influenced both every day life and speculative literature.
James E. Gunn – founder of CSSF and Patron Saint of Ad Astra – has said that speculative fiction can help encourage the future by preparing minds today. Ad Astra wants to take its place among visionary publishers such as John W. Campbell and harness modern platforms to shape the future of the genre.
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If you would like more information about James Gunn’s Ad Astra, contact Tepring Crocker, Outreach Manager at jg [dot] adastra [dot] ku+outreachgmail [dot] comRead more »
The article begins: "Science fiction gets a lot of attention these days; news stories begin “straight out of science fiction.” As Isaac Asimov commented 40 years ago, we live in a science-fiction world. Should we read science fiction to anticipate the world we’re going to be living in? Well, yes — and no."
An excerpt from the article reads: "Why would I choose to place the crucial artifact way out here at the edge of the Solar System? Among other things, science fiction is an ongoing conversation between authors and fans, and this is my reply to a couple of works that deeply influenced young-Chris. Surely you recall Arthur C. Clarke's story, 'The Sentinel,' where astronauts discover an artifact on the Moon that can only be opened by using the "savage might of atomic power"—and doing so turns off the signal it has been transmitting for eons, letting whoever placed it there know that humankind has not only left the
Earth but has also developed nuclear power. I also took inspiration from Algis Budrys's book, Rogue Moon, and its mysterious Lunar artifact that tests the men who enter it, usually killing them but ultimately transforming those who survive. And of course I was inspired by the cold beauty of Neptune and desolate Triton, their symbolic distance and isolation."
This includes stories that have appeared in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, and The Secret History of Fantasy. They're great stories; Kij has won the Nebula award two years in a row.
Finally, we are always happy to promote educators who incorporate science fiction into their class rooms. High-school English teacher Christie Rushenberg has created a video promoting the usefulness of this kind of instruction, and she's kindly shared it with us.
Share this with everyone who isn't convinced that science fiction belongs in classrooms! Read more »
We have so much video in the CSSF library that deciding what to post next is an almost overwhelming decision. Fortunately, we had a request for a video from our 2004 Campbell Conference to be used in a classroom.
Greg Bear presented materials about his inspiration for the book Darwin's Radio for the future during a "Things to Come" panel of science fiction authors and scientists. We have highlights from more presentations on our AboutSF YouTube channel.
Here is Greg's presentation in full.
If you have a request for a video we might have, or a video you would to share with us, feel free to email us at aboutsfgmail [dot] com. Read more »
In 2009, noted author China Mieville came to the University of Kansas, here in lovely Lawrence, for the Richard W. Gunn Memorial Lecture series. He spoke for over an hour, covering topics as diverse as the effects of H.G. Wells' vision of the future on the genre and how science fiction sees itself today.
We've a greatest hits compilation from that lecture on our YouTube channel for some time now. Now I'm happy to announce that we have the entire lecture posted to that site for your enjoyment.
Here's the beginning of the talk, with James Gunn saying a few words about his brother, who endowed the lecture, and China's introduction.
There are seven parts to the lecture, so you can watch them when it's convenient for you. Read more »
Episode 010 of the AboutSF podcast is a recording of Geoffrey A. Landis (www.geoffreylandis.com) reading the Frederik Pohl (www.frederikpohl.com) short story “The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass.”
“The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass” was first published in Galaxy Magazine in 1962, and has since been included in numerous collections of Mr. Pohl’s work. Most recently, in 2005, the story was included in The Enchanter Completed: A Tribute Anthology for L. Sprague de Camp.
Mr. Landis was recorded reading “The Deadly Mission of Phineas Snodgrass” at the 2011 Campbell Conference (http://www2.ku.edu/~sfcenter/campbell-conference.htm), where he also received the 2011 Theodore Sturgeon Award for his short story “The Sultan of the Clouds,” first published in Asimov's Science Fiction (www.asimovs.com). Mr. Landis is a prolific writer of Science Fiction, having won a Nebula Award, two Hugo Awards and a Locus Award for his short fiction and novels. He has also received two Rhysling Awards for his poetry, and his poetry collection Iron Angels was published by Van Zeno Press in 2009.
Aside from these sizable literary accomplishments, Geoffrey Landis works as a scientist for NASA at the John Glenn Research Center, where he has worked on the Mars missions and on developing advanced concepts and technology for future space missions. More information about Mr. Landis’ scientific research is available on his website (www.geoffreylandis.com), as well as a list of links to his scientific papers available online. Read more »
The Center's library of books is huge. I mean, thousands of books. I'm typing this post from a desk hidden behind multiple shelves double-stacked with books, and there are more books, magazines, journals, videos, and other media stacked all around me.
We've got resources, is what I'm saying. Come by and borrow some reading material; you won't run out of things to enjoy.
A Center volunteer, Tommy Triplett (who also runs the KU Science Fiction Film Club), has been hard at work cataloging our library. He's using LibraryThing to keep track of things. We're at 204 books in the catalogue, which is slightly more than one shelf.
You can find out what we've got on our LibraryThing profile page. We'll be updating this on a regular basis, and adding tags, ratings, and the like down the line.
Get a glimpse at the collection now. And if you've got your own LibraryThing you want to share with us (or other online book catalogue), feel free to send a link to us at aboutsfgmail [dot] com. Read more »
Science fiction has been difficult to define because it is not an ordinary genre. Unlike the mystery, the western, the gothic, the love story, or the adventure story, to cite a few of the categories to which it is often compared, science fiction has... Read more »
Hal Hall, Science Fiction Resources Librarian and Curator at Texas A&M, says: "AboutSF is a valuable site for the field. As it continues to add content, it will increasingly become a "go-to" resource for anyone interested in the study of science fiction and fantasy."
Rob Latham, UC Riverside: "It's a very impressive site--I use it several times a week for some task or other."
