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Swancon
SwanCon is a science fiction convention held in Perth, Western Australia. It is Australia's longest-running science fiction convention, and probably the longest-running in the southern hemisphere. It was founded in 1975 by Grant Stone, with the first convention held in 1976, and has been run annually since. It is generally run by different committees of volunteers each year, and committees bid for the right to run the convention two years in advance. In recent years it has been run as a project of the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF), with that year's committee reporting to the WASFF board. The convention is frequently run at Easter, but has been run at other times, though typically in the first half of the year, and is generally held in a hotel. It generally attracts 250–300 attendees. It will normally have guests attending including at least one international author, and international guests have included Robert Silverberg, Bob Shaw, Anne McAffrey, T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Australian National Science Fiction Convention
The Australian National Science Fiction Convention or Natcon is an annual science fiction convention. Each convention is run by a different committee unaffiliated with any national fannish body. Bids for running the Natcon are voted on by attendees at the Natcon two years in advance. These votes are held at a Business Meeting organised by the convention committee, and held at the convention, in practice much of the organisation of the meeting is done by a standing committee selected by the prior meeting. , ''The Australian SF Information site''. Retrieved 23 April 2013. Ditmar Award The Ditmar Award has been awarded at the convention since 1969 to recognise achievement in Australian science fict ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grant Stone
Grant Stone is an Australian librarian. He was the founder of Swancon. He was a radio presenter on the radio station RTRFM of the ''Faster Than Light Radio Show'', as well as being the main force in the Murdoch University library special collections of popular culture material. In 1996 he was the recipient of the Chandler Award The Chandler Award is presented by the Australian Science Fiction Foundation for "Outstanding Achievement in Australian Science Fiction". It is named in recognition of the contribution that science fiction writer A. Bertram Chandler made to Aust ... for Australian science fiction. He has been involved with laughter yoga for some years. Notes Australian librarians People from Perth, Western Australia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Australia-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Justina Robson
Justina Robson (born 11 June 1968 in Leeds, England) is a science fiction author from Leeds, England. Biography and publishing history Justina Robson was born in Leeds on 11 June 1968, and studied philosophy and linguistics at the University of York. She worked in a variety of jobs – including secretary, technical writer, and fitness instructor – until becoming a full-time writer. Robson attended the Clarion West Writing Workshop and was first published in 1994 in the British small press magazine The Third Alternative, but is best known as a novelist. Her debut novel ''Silver Screen'' was shortlisted for both the Arthur C Clarke Award and the BSFA Award in 2000. Her second novel, ''Mappa Mundi'', was also shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award in 2001. It won the 2000 Amazon.co.uk Writer's Bursary. In 2004, ''Natural History'', Robson's third novel, was shortlisted for the BSFA Award, and came second in the John W Campbell Award. Robson's novels have been noted for sh ... [...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] |
John Birmingham
John Birmingham (born 7 August 1964) is a British-born Australian author, known for the 1994 memoir ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'', and his ''Axis of Time'' trilogy. Early life and education Birmingham was born in Liverpool, United Kingdom, but grew up in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, having moved to the country with his parents in 1970. Birmingham received his higher education at Saint Edmund's College in Ipswich and at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Birmingham's only stint of full-time employment was as a researcher at the Australian Department of Defence but he has worked for the television program ''A Current Affair''. Career Birmingham returned to Queensland to study law but he did not complete his legal studies, choosing instead to pursue a career as an author. Birmingham has a degree in international relations and currently lives in Brisbane. Writing Birmingham was first published in ''Semper Floreat'', the student newspaper at the University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sean Williams (author)
Sean Llewellyn Williams (born 23 May 1967) is an Australian author of science fiction who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Several of his books have been ''New York Times'' best-sellers. Early life and education Williams was born in Whyalla, South Australia on 23 May 1967. He studied sciences and music at Pulteney Grammar School and matriculated third in his year (1984), topping the state for Musical composition. That same year, he won the Young Composer's Award for a theme and three variations for string quartet with flute, oboe and trumpet soloists called "Release of Anger". He then went to Adelaide University and studied a Bachelor of Economics and wrote for the student newspaper ''On Dit''. He completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Adelaide University in 2005 and was in 2010 a PhD candidate at the same institution. Writing career He is the author of over eighty published short stories and thirty-nine novels, including ''Twinmaker'' and (with Garth Nix) th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ellen Datlow
Ellen Datlow (born December 31, 1949) is an American science fiction, fantasy, and horror editor and anthologist. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker Award (Horror Writers Association). Career Datlow began her career working for Holt, Rinehart and Winston for three years, as well as doing a stint at Crown Publishing Group. She went on to be fiction editor at ''Omni'' magazine and ''Omni Online'' from 1981 through 1998, and edited the ten associated ''Omni'' anthologies. She co-edited the ''Year's Best Fantasy and Horror'' series from 1988 to 2008 (with Terri Windling until 2003, later with Gavin Grant and Kelly Link until the series ended). She was also editor of the webzine ''Event Horizon: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror'' from 1998 to 1999, as well as ''Sci Fiction'' until it ceased publication on December 28, 2005. Datlow has edited the anthologies '' Nebula Awards Showcase 2009'', '' Darkness: Two Decades of Horror'' (2010), ''Hauntings'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kate Forsyth
Kate Forsyth (born 3 June 1966) is an Australian author. She is best known for her historical novel ''Bitter Greens'', which interweaves a retelling of the ''Rapunzel'' fairy tale with the true life story of the woman who first told the tale, the 17th century French writer Charlotte-Rose de Caumont de La Force. Forsyth is also the author of several children's books, including ''The Gypsy Crown'', ''The Puzzle Ring'', ''The Starthorn Tree'', ''The Wildkin's Curse'', ''The Starkin Crown'' and ''Dragon Gold''. She has also published two heroic fantasy series, ''The Witches of Eileanan'' and ''Rhiannon's Ride'', the poetry collection ''Radiance'', and the novel ''Full Fathom Five'' under her maiden name, Kate Humphrey. She is a five-time Aurealis Award winner. She is married with three children, and lives in Sydney, New South Wales. She is also a direct descendant of Charlotte Barton, the author of Australia's earliest known children's book. Forsyth's older sister, Belinda Murre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Wilkins
Kim Wilkins (born 22 December 1966) is an Australian writer of popular fiction based in Brisbane, Queensland. She is the author of more than twenty-five mass-market novels, including her debut horror fiction, horror novel, ''The Infernal'' (1997), which won Aurealis Awards for both horror and fantasy. She has been published in twenty languages. She also writes general women's fiction as Kimberley Freeman. Kim Wilkins was educated at the University of Queensland. She has a first class honours degree in literature (1998), an MA (2000) and a PhD (2006). She was awarded the University Medal for academic achievement in 1998 and is currently an Associate Professor there in writing and publishing studies. Bibliography Adult fiction * ''The Infernal'' (1997) * ''Grimoire'' (1999) * ''The Resurrectionists'' (2000) * ''Angel of Ruin'' (2001) ( ''Fallen Angel'') * ''The Autumn Castle'' (2003) * ''Giants of the Frost'' (2004) * ''Rosa and the Veil of Gold'' (2005) (a.k.a. ''The Veil of G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marianne De Pierres
Marianne de Pierres (born 1961) is an Australian science fiction author. Born in Western Australia, she finished her undergraduate studies at Curtin University in Perth and later studied a Postgraduate Certificate of Arts in Writing, Editing and Publishing at the University of Queensland. In 2019, she completed her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland. Throughout her writing career she has been actively involved in promoting Speculative Fiction in Australia and is the co-founder of the Vision Writers Group with Rowena Cory Daniells, and ROR – wRiters on the Rise, a critiquing group for professional writers. She was also involved in the early planning stage of Clarion South. Publications The greater body of her work has seen publication in the UK and Australia. In 2004, her series of novels with the protagonist Parrish Plessis, a postapocalyptic bodyguard and bounty hunter, was published in the United Kingdom through Orbit Books and in 2005 in the United Stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine '' Computer Shopper'' and was responsible for its monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet. Early life and education Stross was born in Leeds, England. He showed an early interest in writing and wrote his first science fiction story at age 12. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in Pharmacy in 1986 and qualified as a pharmacist in 1987. In 1989, he enrolled at Bradford University for a post-graduate degree in computer science. In 1990, he went to work as a technical author and programmer. In 2000, he began working as a writer full-time, as a technical writer at first, but then became successful as a fiction writer. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Zindell
David Zindell (born November 28, 1952) is an American writer known for science fiction and fantasy epics. Writing career Zindell's first published story was "The Dreamer's Sleep" in ''Fantasy Book'' in 1984. His novelette ''Shanidar'', which shared a background with his first novel '' Neverness'', won the Writers of the Future contest in 1985. He followed ''Neverness'' with a trilogy called '' A Requiem for Homo Sapiens'', which is a sequel. Zindell's fantasy series ''The Ea Cycle'' has as a theme the evolution of consciousness, through the method of fantasy. The plot concerns a prince named Valashu Elahad searching for a relic called the Lightstone to stop the immortal Morjin, Lord of Lies, who seeks to create a world filled with madness. In 2015 he published ''Splendor'', a nonfiction book, and in 2017 he published ''The Idiot Gods'', a novel told from the point of view of intelligent killer whales. Style and Themes John Clute wrote that Zindell was a "romantic, ambitious, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
