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August BSFA London Meeting: Ian Stewart Interviewed by Stephen Baxter

220px-Ian_stewart_mathematician

Location: Upstairs, The Artillery Arms*, 102 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8ND

*Please note that this is a NEW venue for London meetings!

On Wednesday 28th of August 2013, Ian Stewart (Mathematician, author of The Science of Discworld Series and popular science books) will be interviewed by Stephen Baxter (author of Flood, The Time Ships, The Long Earth (with Terry Pratchett) etc.).

 

ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY (Non-members welcome)

The interview will start at 7 pm. We have the room from 6 pm (and if early, fans are in the ground floor bar from 5ish).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

Map is here.

FUTURE EVENTS:

25th September 2013- Gareth Powell, interviewed by Jon Oliver

30th October 2013- Mary Robinette Kowal , interviewed by Virginia Preston *

27th November 2013- Dr. Who Magazine, interviewed by Graham Sleight

*Note that this is a month with five Wednesdays. The meeting will be on the last Wed. of the month.

May BSFA London Meeting: Janet Edwards Interviewed by Ian Drury

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Location: The Cellar Bar, The Argyle Public House, 1 Greville Street (off Leather Lane), London EC1N 8PQ

On Wednesday 22nd May 2013, Janet Edwards (author of the Earth Girl trilogy) will be interviewed by Ian Drury.

ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY (Non-members welcome)

The interview will start at 7 pm. We have the room from 6 pm (and if early, fans are in the ground floor bar from 5ish).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

Map is here. Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane (Central Line).

FUTURE EVENTS:
26th June 2013**– James Smythe, interviewed by TBC
24th July 2013*  – Cory Doctorow, interviewed by Tom Hunter

28th August 2013- Ian Stewart, interviewed by Stephen Baxter

* Note that this is a month with five Wednesdays. The meeting will be on the fourth, not the last, Wednesday of the month.

** Due to personal reasons, Catheyrnne Valente is no longer able to attend.

April BSFA London Meeting: Lavie Tidhar interviewed by Edward James

Lavie Tidhar
Photo (c) 2012 Future Publishing (www.sfx.co.uk)

Location: The Cellar Bar, The Argyle Public House, 1 Greville Street (off Leather Lane), London EC1N 8PQ

On Wednesday 24th April 2013, Lavie Tidhar (author of the BSFA Award shortlisted Osama, and The Bookman Chronicles, and editor-in-chief of the BSFA Award-winning World SF Blog) will be interviewed by Edward James (Chair of the Science Fiction Foundation).

ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY (Non-members welcome)

The interview will start at 7 pm. We have the room from 6 pm (and if early, fans are in the ground floor bar from 5ish).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

Map is here. Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane (Central Line).

FUTURE EVENTS:
22nd May 2013* – Janet Edwards;** interviewer TBC
26th June 2013 – Catherynne M. Valente, interviewed by Farah Mendlesohn
24th July 2013*  – Cory Doctorow, interviewed by Tom Hunter

* Note that this is a month with five Wednesdays. The meeting will be on the fourth, not the last, Wednesday of the month.

** Due to personal reasons, Aliette de Bodard is no longer able to attend.  We hope to invite her at a future date.

March BSFA London Meeting: The BSFA Awards – A Panel Discussion

Location: The Cellar Bar, The Argyle Public House, 1 Greville Street (off Leather Lane), London EC1N 8PQ

On Wednesday 20th March 2013,* join Donna Scott, BSFA Awards Administrator, for a lively chat all about this year’s BSFA Awards Shortlist. Joining Donna will be:

Duncan Lawie –  an SF critic and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He will also be a BSFA representative on the Arthur C Clarke Award judging panel for 2013. Speaking of the event, Duncan says, “I think there are two obvious picks for this year’s BSFA award novel – but I wonder if anyone else will agree which two.”

Duncan Lawie

Anne C. Perry – Assistant Editor at Hodder & Stoughton, commissioning genre titles, co-editor of Pornokitsch and co-founder of The Kitschies Awards.

Anne C. Perry

Jared Shurin, also co-editor of Pornokitsch and co-founder of The Kitschies Awards.

Jared Shurin

…and Kim Curran – author of thrilling new YA adventure Shift (Strange Chemistry).

Kim CurranShift

ALL WELCOME – FREE ENTRY (Non-members welcome)

The interview will start at 7 pm. We have the room from 6 pm (and if early, fans are in the ground floor bar from 5ish).

There will be a raffle (£1 for five tickets), with a selection of sf novels as prizes.

Map is here. Nearest Tube: Chancery Lane (Central Line).

FUTURE EVENTS:
24th April 2013 – Lavie Tidhar; interviewer TBC

22nd May 2013** – Aliette de Bodard; interviewed by Duncan Lawie

27th June 2013 – Catherynne M. Valente; interviewer TBC 

* Note that due to the proximity of Easter to the fourth Wednesday of the month, this meeting will be held on the third Wednesday.

** Note that this is a month with five Wednesdays. The meeting will be on the fourth, not the last, Wednesday of the month.

(Pictures c/o, SFX, Duncan Lawie (Scott Polar Research Institute), Pornokitsch, Kim Curran)

Submissions for the 2013 Clarke Award

This year’s 2012 Clarke Award Submissions (for the 2013 Arthur C Clarke Award) are now available in all their numerous glory at SFX. How numerous? The valiant, hard-reading five jury members read through 82 submitted books in order to filter them down to a shortlist of six, which will be announced on Thursday, April 4th.

There’s no contest this year, but guessing which six books from that long list will make the short list is still an interesting proposition, and SFX is requesting them.

The winning book will be announced on May 1st at the Royal Society, hopefully after a day’s Clarke Award symposium, “Write the Future”, for which there’s currently a Kickstarter going for fundraising. The fundraiser is already 3/4 of the way to its goal, with 25 days remaining, so there’s a very good chance indeed of this “new micro-conference on science, technology, communication and fiction” happening, also at the Royal Society.

2013 BSFA Lecture at Eastercon

The 2013 BSFA Lecture at Eastercon will be given by Dr Louise Livesey (Ruskin College Oxford), and is entitled ‘A Highly Political Act: speech, silence, hearing and sexual violence′. The lecture will be given at 5.00 pm on Saturday March 30th, in the Main Programme Room of the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford. The lecture is open to any member of Eastercon.

Dr Louise Livesey is Tutor in Sociology and Women’s Studies at Ruskin College Oxford.  She is an activist as well as an academic and works hard to bring the two activities together as much as possible.  Mostly recently she has been working on activist/academic engagement with Oxford Brookes University’s Tale of Two Cultures conferences and speaking at events as diverse as Slutwalk Oxford, Oxford Reclaim the Night  and One Billion Rising Oxford.  She is also a playwright, performer and former blogger at The F Word.

The BSFA Lecture is intended as a companion to the George Hay Lecture, which is presented at the Eastercon by the Science Fiction Foundation. Where the Hay Lecture invites scientists, the BSFA Lecture invites academics from the arts and humanities, because we recognise that science fiction fans aren’t only interested in science.  The lecturers are given a remit to speak “on a subject that is likely to be of interest to science fiction fans” – i.e. on whatever they want!  This is the fifth BSFA Lecture.

BSFA and the Meteors

No time like a meteor storm for calling on the BSFA!

While Twitter lit up with Superman references, Stephen Baxter, obviously best known for being president of the British Science Fiction Association, was interviewed by the New York Times: “A Flash in Russian Skies, as Inspiration for Fantasy”. Meanwhile, the BBC World Service got in touch, and our Donna Scott, our Awards Admin, provided them with a just-in-time bibliography on the subject.