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Eastercon
Eastercon is the common name for the annual British national science fiction convention. The convention is organised by voluntary self-organising committees, rather than a permanent entity. Organisation Groups of fans (typically 5–8 in number) get together to form "bid committees" and plan where they want to hold the Eastercon, who they want to be their guests of honour, what the theme of the convention will be, etc. They circulate their proposals and the winning bid is chosen by a vote among the people who attend the bid session at the Eastercon two years in advance, or one year if no bid was successful at the bid session two years out. Until the early 1990s there were commonly several bids to hold the Eastercon, but since then the realisation appears to have grown that putting on an Eastercon involves a lot of hard work, and now it is normal for there to be only one serious bid. There may also be a number of joke bids - it is rumoured that in 1989 the joke bid for ''Incon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Science Fiction Association
The British Science Fiction Association Limited is an organisation founded in 1958 by a group of British academics, science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers, in order to promote the writing, criticism, and study of science fiction in every form. The first President of the BSFA was Brian Aldiss. Pat Cadigan became president in August 2020, and Tade Thompson became the Vice President in June 2021. The BSFA Awards are presented annually by the British Science Fiction Association, based on a vote of BSFA members and members of the British national SF convention (Eastercon). The BSFA also nominates two out of five of each year's judging panel for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The BSFA is responsible for the BSFA Awards, which are based on a vote of BSFA members, and members of the British national SF convention, Eastercon. The BSFA is also responsible for nominating two out of the five judges for the judging panel of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. History The BSFA was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Shaw
Robert Shaw (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story "Light of Other Days" was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel '' The Ragged Astronauts'' in 1987. Life Shaw was born and raised in Belfast, the eldest of three sons of a policeman. He learned of science fiction at about 11 years old when he read an A. E. van Vogt short story in an early edition of '' Astounding Science-Fiction'' magazine. During the Second World War American troops passed through Northern Ireland and often left their used SF magazines behind at Smithfield Market, where they were available for locals. He later described the experience as being more significant and long-lasting than taking LSD. He attended Belfast College of Technology. In 1950 he joined the group Irish Fandom, which also included another Northern Irish science fic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Weston
Peter Weston (19 October 1943 – 5 January 2017) was a British science fiction fan from Birmingham, UK. Weston made many contributions in fan writing, fanzine editing, convention-running and in local science fiction clubs. His 1960s pseudonym "Malcolm Edwards" caused some confusion several years later, when a real Malcolm Edwards began contributing to British fanzines. They met in 1970. He produced the first issue of the science fiction fanzine ''Zenith'' (later ''Speculation'') in 1963 and he edited the ''Andromeda'' series of original anthologies from 1975 until 1977. In 2006, following the success of his Hugo-nominated memoir ''With Stars in My Eyes'', Weston relaunched his fanzine ''Prolapse'' (re-titled ''Relapse'' in 2009), after a 23-year hiatus. He was rewarded with a pair of Nova Awards the following year, for "best fanzine" and "best fan" (the latter being a committee award). As well as organising a series of science fiction symposia in Birmingham inspired by ''Spe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his ''Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel ''A Case of Conscience'' won the Hugo Award. He is credited with creating the term "gas giant" to refer to large planetary bodies. Blish was a member of the Futurians. His first published stories appeared in ''Super Science Stories'' and ''Amazing Stories''. Blish wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen name William Atheling Jr. His other pen names included Donald Laverty, John MacDougal, and Arthur Lloyd Merlyn. Life Blish was born on May 23, 1921, at East Orange, New Jersey. While in high school, Blish self-published a fanzine, called ''The Planeteer'', using a hectograph. The fanzine ran for six issues. Blish attended meetings of the Futurian Science Fiction Society in New York City during this period. Futurian members Damon Knight a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Slater (science Fiction)
Ken Slater (1917–2008) was a British science fiction fan and bookseller. In 1947, while serving in the British Army of the Rhine, he started ''Operation Fantast'', a network of science fiction fans which had 800 members around the world by 1950 though it folded a few years later. Through ''Operation Fantast'', he was the major importer of American science fiction books and magazines into Britain - an activity which he continued, after its collapse, through his company ''Fantast (Medway)'' up to the time of his death. He was a founder member of the British Science Fiction Association in 1958. Awards and honours He was Guest of Honour at ''Brumcon'', the 1959 Eastercon and at Conspiracy '87, the 1987 Worldcon, jointly with his wife Joyce. He received the Doc Weir Award in 1966 and the Big Heart Award in 1995. At the first Hugo Award ceremony in Philadelphia in 1953, Forrest J Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine edi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as films, television, comics, animation, and games. The format can vary but will tend to have a few similar features such as a guest of honour, discussion panels, readings and large special events such as opening/closing ceremonies and some form of party or entertainment. Science fiction conventions started off primarily in the UK and US but have now spread further and several countries have their own individual conventions as well as playing host to rotating international conventions. History The precise time and place of the first science fiction convention is a matter of some dispute. The idea and form was clearly anticipated in Robert Bloch's short story about a large convention of writers, "The Ultimate Ultimatum" (''Fantasy M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Foundation
The Science Fiction Foundation is a Registered Charity established 1970 in England by George Hay and others. Its purpose is to "promote science fiction and bring together those who read, write, study, teach, research or archive science fiction in Britain and the rest of the world." Science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Ursula K. Le Guin were founding patrons; current patrons are Neil Gaiman and Professor David Southwood. Until 1995, the SFF was based in the North East London Polytechnic in Barking, Essex, UK (now the University of East London). For much of this period the Director of the Foundation was Malcolm Edwards, who later moved to Gollancz, and then Orion. Activities SFF publishes the journal '' Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction'' three times a year and occasional critical works under the general title ''Foundation Studies in Science Fiction''. It owns and supports the Science Fiction Foundation Collection, the largest research library of i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey (1 April 1926 – 21 November 2011) was an American-Irish writer known for the ''Dragonriders of Pern'' science fiction series. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, ''Weyr Search'', 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, ''Dragonrider'', 1969). Her 1978 novel ''The White Dragon (novel), The White Dragon'' became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list, ''New York Times'' Best Seller list. In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd SFWA Grand Master, Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the EMP Museum#Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007. Life and career Anne McCaffrey was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the second of three children ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Niven
Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are ''Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, ''The Mote in God's Eye'' (1974) and ''Lucifer's Hammer'' (1977). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named him the 2015 recipient of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes the series ''The Magic Goes Away'', rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource. Biography Niven was born in Los Angeles. He is a great-grandson of Edward L. Doheny, an oil tycoon who drilled the first successful well in the Los Angeles City Oil Field in 1892, and also was subsequently implicated in the Teapot Dome scandal. Niven briefly attended the Califor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judith Merril
Judith Josephine Grossman (January 21, 1923 – September 12, 1997), who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be widely influential in those roles. Although Judith Merril's first paid writing was in other genres, in her first few years of writing published science fiction she wrote her three novels (all but the first in collaboration with C. M. Kornbluth) and some stories. Her roughly four decades in that genre also included writing 26 published short stories, and editing a similar number of anthologies. Early years Merril was born in Boston in 1923 to Ethel and Samuel (Shlomo) Grossman, who were Jewish. Her father committed suicide in 1929 soon after she began to attend school. In 1936, her mother found a job at the Bronx House community center and moved the family to the New York City borough of the Bronx. In her mid-teens, Merril pursued Zi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel R
Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venerated as a prophet in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In addition to his role in the Hebrew scriptures, Samuel is mentioned in Jewish rabbinical literature, in the Christian New Testament, and in the second chapter of the Quran (although Islamic texts do not mention him by name). He is also treated in the fifth through seventh books of ''Antiquities of the Jews'', written by the Jewish scholar Josephus in the first century. He is first called "the Seer" in 1 Samuel 9:9. Biblical account Family Samuel's mother was Hannah and his father was Elkanah. Elkanah lived at Ramathaim in the district of Zuph. His genealog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
