News & Announcements

SFRA Review Issue 297 Now Available

Issue number 297 is now available for download online at sfra.org under the following direct link: http://www.sfra.org/sfra-review/297.pdf

New Science Fiction Journal: James Gunn's Ad Astra

Mark Wilcox sent out the following call for submissions for the inaugural issue of James Gunn's Ad Astra, a new venue for science fiction scholarship. Visit Ad Astra's official site here, or read the call below:

Call For Papers

James Gunn's Ad Astra is a new online publication dedicated to the study, advancement, and celebration of speculative fiction in the twenty-first century. Ad Astra will be edited by volunteers at the Center for the Study of Science fiction at the University of Kansas. Each issue will feature an assortment of stories, reviews, scholarly articles, and poems about science fiction, fantasy, horror and other genres of speculative art and literature.

The first issue of Ad Astra is scheduled for release on June 22nd, 2012.

The theme for Issue #1 will be Communication and Information.

New York Review of Science Fiction Publishing Changes After July 2012

David G. Hartwell recently announced here that as a result of publisher changes the New York Review of Science Fiction will end print publication in July 2012. At that time, the editorial staff of the NYRSF will decide how best to proceed into the future. This could take one of a number of forms including PDF distribution to subscribers with print-on-demand. For SFRA members who elect to subscribe to the NYRSF at the organization's subscription discount, this announcement means that you can expect to receive print issues until July 2012, but the form that the NYRSF takes after that has yet to be determined. David and the other NYRSF editors will keep us informed about the shape of things to come.

Anne McCaffrey, 1926-2011

Anne McCaffrey, a prolific and inventive science fiction writer, passed away on November 21, 2011. Perhaps most well-known for the Dragonriders of Pern and Brain and Brawn Ship series, she also wrote a significant number of other standalone novels and cycles. Her story, "The Ship Who Sang" appears in the SFRA anthology Visions of Wonder, edited by David G. Hartwell and Milton T. Wolf. Notably, her work often introduced elements of fantasy into rationally explained science fictional settings and she championed narratives focused on female protagonists. In response to the widespread popularity of her writing, she was recognized with a number of awards including SFWA Grand Master.

Locus Online carries an informative obituary of McCaffrey here.

McCaffrey's life and her work are extensively cataloged on Wikipedia here.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database contains an extensive and well-detailed bibliography of McCaffrey's writing here.

SFRA at Dragon*Con 2011

SFRA will present a panel at Dragon*Con, in Atlanta, on Sunday, September 4, at 11:30 am. The panel will be located in the Fairlie Room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on 265 Peachtree Street NE.

The Dragon*Con website (http://www.dragoncon.org/) describes the annual event as a, “multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film.” The twenty-five-year conference will include, “over thirty-five fan based tracks, (as well as) 3,500 hours of panels, workshops, (and) gaming.”

SFRA 2011 Conference in Lublin, Poland: Highlights and Pictures

This year’s Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) conference was held in the European Cultural Capital Nominee city, Lublin, Poland. Sponsored by Faculty of Humanities, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University and organized by Paweł Frelik, the 42nd annual meeting of the SFRA had the apt theme, “Dreams Not Only American: Science Fiction’s Transatlantic Transactions.”

Participate in SFRA Membership Survey Before July 1, 2011

On the eve of the 2011 SFRA Conference in Poland, I want to involve as many SFRA members in the discussions that will take place at this year's meeting. One of the important topics to discuss is how we can grow the membership and the organization. Toward that end, I have created a new online survey that requests anonymous information about how we each joined the organization, what goes into our decisions to participate at the annual conference, and how we each participate in the organization through cyberspace. You can participate in the survey here

The survey should take no more than five minutes to complete, and you should participate in the survey by Friday, July 1 so that I have time to look over the results before the conference.

Future of the SFRA Review Survey Results

These are the results of the recent poll that the Executive Committee conducted to determine membership opinion on the future publication and distribution model for the organization's official publication, the SFRA Review.

1) How would you prefer to receive the SFRA Review?

Online : 55 votes : 60%
Mail : 36 votes : 40%
Total : 91 votes

2) If the review were published online, what format would you prefer?

PDF : 45 votes : 51%
ebook : 27 votes : 30%
Blog : 14 votes : 16%
Wiki : 3 votes : 3%
Total : 89 votes

3) If the SFRA Review were published online, how often would you like to see it released?

Quarterly : 58 votes : 66%
Continuous : 30 votes : 34%
Total : 88 votes

The results from this poll as well as the many opinions expressed on the SFRA email list will be weighted at the annual business meeting held at the conference in Poland on July 7-10, 2011. You may download the graphed results as a PDF attached to this news post.

Third Annual R.D. Mullen Research Fellowship Winners Announced

Rob Latham of the University of California, Riverside recently announced the winners of the R.D. Mullen Fellowship. Congratulations to the recipients! His announcement is as follows:

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