With the coming of September, the reading event season picks up. As always, these are some of the best opportunities to gather with like-minded fans, get up close with the authors, and enjoy the camaraderie of the community close to home.
First up is actually an event in August, indeed, tomorrow night. Oz Fontecchio writes that the next event in the Philadelphia Fantastic Authors and Editors Series is 22 August at 7:30PM. This event will feature Paul Levinson reading from his latest book, Unburning Alexandria, the sequel to The Plot to Save Socrates. The first part of the new book will be published as a novella in the November 2008 issue of Analog. As always, the Philadelpahia Fantastic event will be at Robins Bookstore (108 S 13th Street, Philadelpahia, Pennsylvania), in Center City. The event will start promptly at 7:30, because it be simulcast on the web at www.robinsbookstoreonline.com. Afterwards (again, as usual), dinner with the guest will be at a local restaurant on a pay as you go basis.
Paul Levinson writes science fiction, sf/mystery, and popular and scholarly non-fiction. His The Silk Code won the Locus award for Best First Novel of 1999. His The Consciousness Plague won the 2003 Mary Shelley Award for outstanding Fictional Work. His novella “Loose Ends” was a 1998 Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Award finalist. The radioplay of his novelette “The Chronology Protection Case” was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Mystery Play of 2002. His nonfiction Digital McLuhan won the 2000 Lewis Mumford Award for Outstanding Scholarship.
Upcoming Philadelphia Fantastic events (always on the fourth Friday of the month) will feature Gregory Frost (in September), Judy Moffett (in October), and Mark Wolverton (in January). They’ll also have a “special event” with Kyle Cassidy on 5 December. Details should be forthcoming (or ask Oz at the Levinson event).
The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings at South Street Seaport Museum kicks off its 19th season with a special event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the NYRSF. On 9 September, the doors open at 6:30PM for a 7 o’clock start at the Museum’s Melville Gallery (213 Water Street, New York, New York). Series curator Jim Freund writes “One score years ago, Dragon Press brought forth a new critical journal. And it was good. Many award nominations (and indeed, awards) later, it was seen that it was time to celebrate the accomplishments of that magazine at the reading series which bears its name.” Guests, who will talk about and read from the magazine, will include David Hartwell, Kevin J. Maroney, Gordon Van Gelder, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Robert K.J. Killheffer.
The New York Review of Science Fiction was founded by David G. Hartwell, Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden, the fan formerly known as Tom Weber, Kathryn Cramer, Susan Palwick, and Samuel R. Delany. They were, at the time, the editorial staff of The Little Magazine, mainly a poetry magazine that was becoming increasingly expensive to publish and was declining in readership. NYRSF was launched in late August 1988, with an issue dated September 1988, that they all sold at the New Orleans Worldcon on Labor Day weekend. It was designed by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and to celebrate the first issue, Tom Weber resigned and Greg Cox joined the staff before Labor Day, creating the famous Samurai Vampire review paradigm for a Worldcon panel on the spot. What they intended was to raise the standard of reviewing in the American SF field, and so that is what they did. They also publish personal essays and literary or academic essays, bibliography, and odd bits of interest to serious readers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. They are chronically in search of volunteers. Their motto is “Monthly til we die.”
David Hartwell is married to Kathryn Cramer and is a Senior Editor at Tor/Forge, the co-editor of the Year’s Best SF (Harper/Eos) and the Year’s Best Fantasy (Tachyon), the Features and Reviews Editor of NYRSF, the proprietor of Dragon Press, a publisher and bookseller, and has thirty-seven Hugo nominations to date, winning once for Best Editor and for Best Editor (Long Form).
Patrick Nielsen Hayden was a founding editor of NYRSF and the designer of the magazine, shortly after buying his first computer in 1988. He got a full time job at Tor which caused him to resign his NYRSF position, and went on become world-famous on the Internet and to win a Hugo as Best Editor (Long Form).
Teresa Nielsen Hayden was a founding staff member of NYRSF who resigned shortly after getting a full-time job at Tor in the fall of 1988, where she stayed for years. She won a Hugo, became if possible even more famous than Patrick in the blogosphere, and got a job moderating comments at Boing Boing, while still maintaining her fannish purity of spirit.
Robert K.J. Killheffer joined the NYRSF staff the same month that Gordon Van Gelder did, moved from a job in food publishing to a position as Ellen Datlow’s assistant at Omni and Omni Online, and became perhaps NYRSF‘s best in-house reviewer in the early years. After that, he was the founding editor of Century magazine, and became one of F&SF‘s best reviewers, and then disappeared into a dot com. He has recently re-emerged from the world of financial success.
Kevin J. Maroney is part of a trio of SF talent that also includes former staff members Bernadette Bosky and Arthur D. Hlavaty, a Secret Master of the American economic infrastructure, a devoted gamer, and a multiple Hugo nominee in the Best Semiprozine category for his years as managing editor, following in every third footstep of Gordon Van Gelder.
Gordon Van Gelder is a former managing editor of NYRSF who also founded the reading series, and went on to publish and edit the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, win Hugo and World Fantasy Awards, and attain a state of chronic over-achievement.
The NYRSF Reading Series is held the first Tuesday of every month. Admission is free, but $5 donations are encouraged to offset costs and buy dinner for the readers. Following the readings, a nearby pub serves as the site of dinner/drinks/continuing conversation. Radio producer and talk show host Jim Freund is the series producer and executive curator. He also airs most of the readings on his program, Hour of the Wolf.
Upcoming NYRSF Reading Series events include
* writers from John Joseph Adams’ new anthology The Living Dead on 7 October
* a calendar shift to the second Tuesday of November (to avoid Election Day) with their thrid annual tribute to an SF great, this time visual artist Ed Emshwiller, with guests Luis Ortiz and Carol Emshwiller
* two family readings in December
* writers’ group Tabula Rasa sometime in 2009
The next entry in the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series will be 17 September. Hosts Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel will present Cassandra Clare and Lauren McLaughlin at the KGB Bar (85 E 4 St, New York, New York). The event starts, as always, at 7PM.
Cassandra Clare is the New York Times bestselling author of City of Bones, City of Ashes, and City of Glass. City of Bones was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for Best First Novel. She is also the author of the forthcoming YA fantasy trilogy The Infernal Devices.
Lauren McLaughlin’s short stories have appeared in Salon.com, Interzone, Year’s Best SF, and Sybil’s Garage. Her first novel, Cycler was just published and will be followed by a sequel in the fall of 2009. A film adaptation of Cycler is currently in the works.
As with the other events, dinner usually follows (in this case, at a nearby Chinese restaurant). And curator Ellen Datlow usually posts photos of the evenings on her Flickr account. Upcoming Fantastic Fiction at KGB events include a special Weird Tales event on 15 October, featuring Norman Spinrad, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Heuler, and “other weird things.”