Yes, we're having a meeting on Saturday!

When: Saturday, May 19, 2018, setup at 6 p.m.; program starts at 7 p.m.
Where: The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64111
Food Theme: Favorite party snacks
Program: Preview of the Campbell Conference

ConQuesT is almost upon us
'Twill be the Saturday Before ConQuesT, and all is being made ready. Check the online schedule of programming events, the party hosting guidelines, info on UnderCon, the Gaming part of the convention, and check out the at-the-door admission information, in case you haven't acquired your membership yet.

Learn more about the Campbell Conference
SF and fantasy fans in the greater Kansas City Metro are blessed to have the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction so nearby--it's in Lawrence, KS, on the University of Kansas Main Campus. Better yet, they are the home of the annual Campbell Conference.

A writing panel at the 2015 Campbell Conference.

As noted on the website, "This year's Campbell Conference delves into the shape of things to come - What is the "Posthuman," what does SF have to say about it, and where will science and technology take the human experience as we reshape ourselves into something more than human? The Conference takes place on June 22-24 in Lawrence, Kansas, where we use the University of Kansas Student Union for most of our activities, including a mass signing by the attending authors and editors."

As ever, "the Conference provides a setting for intelligent discussion about SF centered around the presentation of [several] science-fiction honors."

Our presenter will be Christopher McKitterick, an author, editor, and faculty member at KU. He teaches "fiction writing, creative writing, and science fiction; he serves as the [Gunn] Center's Director and serves on the Campbell Memorial Award jury.

His short fiction, nonfiction, and essays have been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, and his debut novel, Transcendence, was published by Hadley Rille Books. Chris teaches the Speculative Fiction Writing Workshop and Intensive Institute on the Study of SF, as well as a number of other regular-semester writing and SF courses."

IMAGES: The ConQuesT 49 header is from the convention's website; many thanks to the Gunn Center for the photos from the Campbell Conference and of Christopher McKitterick.

Sturgeon Award Nominees Announced by Gunn Center

Finalists for this year's Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for best short science fiction have been selected, announced Christopher McKitterick, Director of the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. The Sturgeon Award will be presented during the Campbell Conference Awards Banquet on Friday, June 16, 2017, as part of the annual Campbell Conference.

The Sturgeon Memorial Award trophy

Finalists for the 2017
 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award
Nina Allan, “The Art of Space Travel,” Tor.com, 27 July 2016. 
Amal El-Mohtar, “Seasons of Glass and Iron,” The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, eds. Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, Saga Press, 2016. 
Carolyn Ives Gilman, “Touring with the Alien,” Clarkesworld, April 2016.
Victor LaValle, The Ballad of Black Tom, Tor.com, February 2016. 
Ian R. MacLeod, “The Visitor From Taured,” Asimov’s, September 2016. 
Sam J. Miller, “Things with Beards,” Clarkesworld, June 2016. 
Dominica Phetteplace, “Project Empathy,” Asimov's, March 2016.
Catherynne M. Valente, “The Future is Blue,” Drowned Worlds, ed. Jonathan Strahan, Solaris Books, 2016. 
Kai Ashante Wilson, A Taste of Honey, Tor.com, 13 October 2016.
    

A full house at the authors' panel, at the 2015 Campbell Conference.

The Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award recognizes the best science fiction short story of each year. It was established in 1987 by James Gunn, Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at KU, and the heirs of Theodore Sturgeon, including his partner Jayne Engelhart Tannehill and Sturgeon's children, as an appropriate memorial to one of the great short-story writers in a field distinguished by its short fiction.

Here's a glimpse of the 2015 Campbell Conference Banquet.

The Campbell Conference has been held each year since 1978, usually in Lawrence, Kansas. It includes a Friday-evening banquet where the annual Theodore Sturgeon and John W. Campbell Memorial Award are presented; a Saturday round-table discussion with scholars, scientists, and writers of science fiction; and other events.

Another view of the Campbell Conference held in June 2015.

For information about attending the Conference or Awards Banquet, see the Campbell Conference page.

IMAGES: Many thanks to the Gunn Center's website for their banner, to File 770 for the photo of the Sturgeon Award trophy, and to the Campbell Conference Facebook Page for the three photos from the 2015 Conference.