Category: Events

Productive Futures (London)

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I’m pleased to be an author guest of the academic conference of the London Science Fiction Research Community, Productive Futures. Come see me and plenty of really smart and talented people talk about economics in the future!

It’ll be happening at Birkbeck School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD.

Get tickets here!

Dublin worldcon

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I’ll be attending the Worldcon in Dublin in two weeks’ time.

My schedule is below. Note that:

-I’m always happy to stop and chat because this is what I go to cons for: if you see me and I don’t obviously look like I’m hurrying away to go someplace else, feel free to come and say hi.

-I will have copies of my f/f Beauty and the Beast with a dragon retelling In the Vanishers’ Palace and of the Hugo award finalist The Tea Master and the Detective with me at the con: these are self-published and I’m quite happy to sign them (note that this is the only edition of Tea Master that’s going around since the Subterranean one is out of print). The easiest way to find them is at the Hodges Figgis bookstore table in the Exhibits Halls (I think they are in the Dealers’ Area?). I’ll also have some copies for sale at my events, especially my signing on Thursday. Note that this is first come first serve and that once I run out they’re all gone!

-If you’re coming over from North America and would like to grab a copy of The House of Sundering Flames, the concluding volume to the Dominion of the Fallen trilogy, I highly encourage you to hop over to the dealers’ area or to a Dublin bookseller: this title has, right now, no North American release (long story but I’m out of contract in the US) so this is your best chance to get a copy from a bookseller! I’m also quite happy to sign these obviously.

Oppy or Armstrong? Autonomous vs human space exploration

14 Aug 2019, Wednesday 19:00 – 21:00, Fringe (Other)

The Mars Explorer Rover, nicknamed Opportunity (‘Oppy’), launched in 2003, cost US$400 million and operated for 15 years. While an impressive achievement, what more could have been done with a sustained human space programme that was focused on Mars? Can the flexibility of an onsite human team justify the undoubtedly higher cost? What is the role of humans and robot probes in the exploration of space?

Our panelists examine the various (dis)advantages of both human and robotic exploration of Luna and Mars.

This is a free, ticketed event that must be booked in advance, and is taking place at the Science Gallery Dublin, Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

Jeanette Epps (NASA), Noelle Ameijenda PhD (M), Aliette de Bodard, Dr Inge Heyer (Loyola University Maryland), Geoffrey A. Landis

 

Crime and punishment in the age of superheroes

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 11:00 – 11:50, Liffey Hall-2 (CCD)

Superhero TV shows repeatedly borrow the structures and tropes of cop shows, with many superheroes being ‘Cowboy Cops’ – operating according to the Rule of Cool with a sketchy adherence to notions of due process and civil rights. Can these hybrid narratives really acknowledge the ways in which real law enforcement is tangled up with race, class, and so on, and what do they reveal about attitudes to contemporary policing?

Chris M. Barkley (M), Rachel Coleman, Dan Moren, Aliette de Bodard

 

Reading: Aliette de Bodard

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 14:00 – 14:20, ECOCEM Room (CCD)

 

Autographs: Thursday at 16:00

15 Aug 2019, Thursday 16:00 – 16:50, Level 4 Foyer (CCD)

 

Dublin 2019 fountain pen meetup

16 Aug 2019, Friday 15:00 – 15:50, Wicklow Room-5 (Workshops) (CCD)

An informal meetup for people who love and want to talk about all things fountain pen and ink! Join us to chat about your favourite pens and how you use them.

NB: feel quite free to bring your own pens and inks, or to come look in on us even if you have no pens–we’ll have some starter pens and inks for you to handle!

Aliette de Bodard (M)

Autographs: Saturday 11

17 Aug 2019, Saturday morning 11:00-11:30, Gollancz table in Dealers’ Area (CCD)

 

Invisible Work: Mothers and Caretakers in SFF

Format: Panel
17 Aug 2019, Saturday 12:00 – 12:50, Wicklow Hall-1 (CCD)

A query online for mothers in SFF led to endless lists of the most badass mothers, but why must mothers always be badass in order to be valid? Do characters like single mother Nicole Reese in Raising Dion represent a change in the depiction of SF motherhood? The panel will discuss the depiction of mothers and carers in SFF and how it aligns with the politics of motherhood in the wider world.

Aliette de Bodard, Kate Elliott, Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (M), Rivers Solomon

 

What I learned along the way

17 Aug 2019, Saturday 15:00 – 15:50, Wicklow Room-3 (CCD)

Writing is a many wondrous thing filled with highs and lows, but those lows can be really tough to navigate either after a great success or after a lack of success. Rejection is something every writer has to face, but how do writers keep writing in the face of failure? What lessons have they learned along the way? Our panellists share the ups and downs of a writing life.

Aliette de Bodard, Ian R MacLeod (M), Karl Schroeder (Tor Books), George Sandison (Titan Books) , Nina Allan

Kaffeeklatsch: Aliette de Bodard

18 Aug 2019, Sunday 13:00 – 13:50, Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)

 

Dragons, wyrms, and serpents: why the myth endures

19 Aug 2019, Monday 12:00 – 12:50, Wicklow Hall 2A (Dances) (CCD)

There are a lot of mythical beasts that can and do feature in fantasy, but the dragon/wyrm/serpent seems to be one of the most popular. What are the reasons for this enduring popularity? What roles does it perform? What mythic properties does it embody and why do these continue to resonate (if they do)?

Marie Brennan, Karen Simpson Nikakis (M), Aliette de Bodard, Naomi Novik, Joey Yu (Kino Eye Ltd. / Freelance)

Cymera

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Cymera

I’ll be a guest at Cymera, Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy and horror at The Pleasance, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ.

 

My schedule is as follows:

Saturday, June 8, 13:15 to 14:00: Short is the Hour (reading of short fiction), the Bar

Sunday June 9, 10:00am: Joint interview with Tade Thompson and Aliette de Bodard. Book tickets here.

 

Nine Worlds 2018

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Nine Worlds 2018

Will be attending Nine Worlds, August 10-12 in London!

My schedule:

Friday 11:45am-12:45am: The Nine World Fountain Pen Meetup, Beaujolais

Come hang out with your fellow geeks around fountain pens and inks. Chat inks, colours and different fountain pen & stationery makers. Come try out pens and paper around nibbles.
Wondering what the fuss is about? Have you never used a fountain pen, or was the last time you did so at school or university? We swear there’s a lot more to pens than school blue! Come see us, we will have pens for beginners and inks of all colours to try.

Sunday 10:00am-11:00am: Fiction about Fiction, Alsace
Tanya Brown, Claire Rousseau, Aliette de Bodard, Jeannette Ng, Roz Kaveney

Many writers take inspiration for stories from other authors: from King Arthur to Pride and Prejudice, Shakespeare, Lovecraft … our panel discusses whys and hows.
This panel is about stories that answer, retell, recast or continue previously-published stories by another author. We’ll discuss what provokes a writer to reimagine someone else’s world and characters; whether particular stories, or types of stories, are more fertile ground for transformations; how the ‘original’ and the transformative work relate to one another; and some of the problems a writer might encounter in the process of responding to an established classic.

Sunday 13:30-14:30, Bouzy
Emma Potthast, Aliette de Bodard, Jo Lindsey Walton, Russell A Smith, Jeannette Ng

A lot of SF depicts a fairly narrow range of migrations: settler colonialism eluding the existence of indigenous people, short,-term migration of relatively privileged people (such as envoys who eventually move back to their countries/planets of origin), or (more rarely) forced migration (indenture, slavery, convicts). It almost never seems to cover the majority immigration situation of an ordinary person permanently migrating to a dominant culture, and what that would mean in terms of everyday life (challenges, etc.) for migrants and their immediate descendants.

What is the origin of this? How can we challenge it? What would migration become in societies that move between the stars? And are there books and media that already tackle migration in a fairer light?