June 2010 Events

Fantastic Fiction Reading and Signing with
Connie Willis and Gregory Frost

Friday • June 25 • 7pm
Connie Willis and Gregory Frost
Reading & Book Signing
U District store
University Book Store ● 4326 University Way NE ● Seattle ●(206) 634-3400

Connie Willis has won more awards (19) than any other sci-fi author for her insightful, witty novels and numerous works of short fiction. Celebrated as a humorist with spot-on comic timing, she also uses her fiction to examine larger questions: the nature of God, the persistence of suffering and loss, and the role of love and redemption. Her much anticipated new novel, “All Clear,” will be released in 2009.

Gregory Frost is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and thrillers. He has been a finalist for every major award in sf and fantasy literature. His latest work, the fantasy duology, Shadowbridge and Lord Tophet, received starred reviews from both Booklist and Publishers Weekly. He directs the fiction workshop at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.

Fantastic Fiction Writer's workshop with Connie Willis & Gregory Frost:

The Periodic Table of Literary Elements

There are almost as many elements to a good story as there are elements in the periodic chart: from Basic Ideas (Bi), Premise (Pm), and Process (Pr), to Arc, Character, Greater and Personal Plots (and why both are essential to great stories) and more elusive and sometimes difficult elements like Foreshadowing, Withholding, Viewpoint, Irony, Comedy, Running Gags (as distinct from—and not limited to—comedy), Razzle Dazzle, the Critical Voice (as distinct from Viewpoint) and more. Authors Gregory Frost and Connie Willis will explore a number of these elements in a two-day workshop involving lectures, writing exercises and a discussion/dialogue between Frost, Willis and the class on the difficult task of combining all these elements into a story.

Instructors: Connie Willis, Gregory Frost
Meets: Friday, June 25, 2010 and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Friday, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM with Gregory Frost
Sunday, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM with Connie Willis
Sunday, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM with Connie Willis and Gregory Frost
Please bring a lunch
Go to the following Hugo House url and scroll down until you see the class for tuition information.
http://www.hugohouseservices.org/home/Class/DisplayClass.aspx?CatalogID=14

Registering for Events held at Richard Hugo House
Also in Seattle this June:
SCIENCE FICTION AWARDS WEEKEND

JUNE 25-27 2010, SEATTLE WA

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Please join us for the Science Fiction Awards Weekend, June 25-27, 2010, in Seattle, WA. Tickets are $40 and include Locus events on Saturday June 26, a free day-pass to the SF Museum, and special invitation to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame ceremony. Tickets can be purchased online through Paypal, or by phone at (510) 339-9198.

In addition, non-profit literary organization NW Media Arts is sponsoring a special Awards Weekend writers workshop with Connie Willis and Gregory Frost at the nearby Richard Hugo House. Additional fees apply. For more information, see below.

Special room rates, $129 per night, will be available for the weekend at the Lake Union Courtyard Marriott, 925 Westlake Ave., Seattle WA 98109. A limited number of rooms are available at this price. For hotel reservations, call (206) 213-0100 and mention "Locus Awards", or call 1 (800) 228-9290 and ask for the SFM Locus Publication Awards room block, or book online.

If you haven't already voted, don't forget to vote for the Locus Awards by April 1, 2010.

Friday June 25

12:00 to 5:00 p.m.: Writing Workshop (*details below)

7:00 p.m.: Reading with Connie Willis and Gregory Frost at University Book Store, sponsored by NW Media Arts. Free and open to the public.

Saturday June 26 - Locus Awards & SF Hall of Fame

10:00 & 11:00 a.m.: Science fiction panels with leading authors at the Lake Union Courtyard Marriott, followed by an autographing session. Details TBA.

12:30 to 3:00 p.m.: Locus Awards Lunch Banquet and Ceremony at the Lake Union Courtyard Marriott with M.C. Connie Willis, who will present the awards and judge the traditional Hawai'ian Shirt Contest. Books will be available for purchase at the event, thanks to University Book Store.

4:30 p.m.: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame ceremony is currently scheduled to follow the Locus Awards, at the SF Museum, located at 325 5th Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109, inducting the newest Hall of Fame members, Octavia E. Butler, Richard Matheson, Douglas Trumbull, and Roger Zelazny.

Sunday June 27

10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Writing Workshop (*details below)

All events are subject to change without notice. Don't forget to wear your most interesting Hawaiian shirt!

CLARION WEST READING SERIES

June 22 - July 27 2010

	Tuesday, June 22, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Michael Bishop's characters are compassionately drawn, his prose elegant and poetic, and his subject matter always thought-provoking. He seeks to humanize the alien, to tackle political controversies, to explore the mythic, and delivers the results in his unflinchingly honest and sometimes satirical voice. The recipient of multiple Hugo nominations, Bishop has won two Nebula and four Locus awards.
	Tuesday, June 29, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Maureen McHugh's work is scientifically plausible, yet characterized by unpredictability, the subversion of genre conventions, and intense emotions simply expressed. In addition to her fiction, McHugh writes and edits alternate reality games. Her first novel, China Mountain Zhang, won the Tiptree and Lambda awards; her story “The Lincoln Train” won the Hugo; and her newest collection, Mothers and Other Monsters, was a Story Prize finalist.
	Tuesday, July 6, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Nnedi Okorafor blends science fiction, fantasy, and Nigerian culture into optimistic, vividly original stories and novels that dare to envision adult and children's literature anew. Her first book, Zahrah the Windseeker, won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and was shortlisted for the Carl Brandon Parallax and Kindred Awards. She is a professor of creative writing at Chicago State University.
	Tuesday, July 13, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Graham Joyce, a novelist and short story writer living in Leicester, England, is a recipient of the World Fantasy Award and a four-time winner of the British Fantasy Society Award. Joyce's fiction embodies a strong sense of place and a fascination with myth, the supernatural, and family history. It has been called mesmerizing, disturbing, and addictive. Joyce teaches creative writing at Nottingham Trent University.
	Tuesday, July 20, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Ellen Datlow is arguably the finest editor of short fiction at work in the field today. She has been the fiction editor of Omni Magazine and numerous anthologies, and the co-editor of more than twenty volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Datlow has taught Clarion West several times. She has received multiple Hugo, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards, including the 2009 Hugo for Best Editor Short Form.
	Tuesday, July 27, 7:00 p.m. at the University Book Store Ian McDonald uses richly detailed Asian, African, and South American settings to illuminate the contradictions implicit in colonialism and rapid technological development, while telling epic tales of human struggle and redemption. His cyberpunk-tinged stories of artificial intelligence, delicious nanotech recipes, and virtual life and death win him prestigious awards and international acclaim. McDonald is the 2010 Susan C. Petrey Fellow.