The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the New England area. It was founded in 1967, "by fans who wanted to ''do'' things in addition to socializing". NESFA is currently registered as a non-profit literary organization under IRS section

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

. The organization holds regular meetings (at their dedicated site, the NESFA Clubhouse) of and for members and other interested parties. A weekly meeting is held most Wednesday evenings, for socializing, projects, and miscellaneous business. Two weekend meetings are held every month: a Business Meeting (for administration), and the Other Meeting. The club also publishes a regular newsletter, ''Instant Message''. There are two book groups that meet on a monthly basis, as well as a monthly Game Day, and a monthly Game Night. In addition, there is a monthly Media day. This involves showings of two episodes of an anime series, two TV series episodes and a movie choice. All are science fiction/fantasy related. There is currently a NESFA Short Story Contest, accepting submissions from amateur writers seeking to improve their science fiction/fantasy writing through constructive critical analysis from expert readers, editors, and professional writers.

Boskone

The club runs an annual science fiction convention, Boskone. In the words of the convention organizers, "Boskone is a regional Science Fiction convention focusing on literature, art, music, and gaming (with just a dash of whimsy)". It is held over a weekend every February, in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. The name is a reference to the classic Lensman series by E. E. Smith, in which "Boskone" is a council of villains, and also a name for their civilization. The obvious name for a con in Boston would, of course, be "Boscon"; the similarity was noticed and embraced. Continuing the trend, when a new Boston-area convention was formed, the organizers of that event named it " Arisia", the name of the civilization for which the protagonists work in the Lensman series. Boskone I was held in 1941 under the auspices of The Stranger Club, an earlier Boston-based SF club. Four more were held annually, ending with Boskone V in 1945. The current series of Boskones started in 1965 with Boskone 1 and continued without interruption to the present. Boskone 1, 2, and 4 were run by BosSFS, the now-defunct Boston Science Fiction Society. The then-newly formed NESFA took over with Boskone 5. The tradition of holding Boskone in February started in 1976.

NESFA Press

NESFA has a small publishing arm, NESFA Press, which specializes in classic and neglected works of science fiction, as well as SF/fandom reference and historical material. Works published by NESFA press include: * ''

Once More* with Footnotes ''Once More* With Footnotes'' is a book by Terry Pratchett, published by NESFA Press in 2004 when he was the Guest of Honor for Noreascon Four, the 62nd World Science Fiction Convention. It contains a mixture of short stories, articles, introduc ...

'', by Terry Pratchett (2004) * '' Norstrilia'' by Cordwainer Smith (1995) * '' The Rediscovery of Man'' by Cordwainer Smith (1993)

Awards

Skylark Award

The

Edward E. Smith Memorial Award The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction, or Skylark, annually recognizes someone for lifetime contributions to science fiction, "both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late 'Doc' ...

for Imaginative Fiction (the Skylark) is presented annually by NESFA to some person, who, in the opinion of the membership, has contributed significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities which made the late "Doc" Smith well loved by those who knew him.

Jack Gaughan Award

The

Jack Gaughan Award The Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist is an American award honoring the memory of illustrator Jack Gaughan. Because the latter felt it was important to encourage and recognize new blood in the field, the New England Science Fiction Associa ...

is presented annually to an emerging artist chosen by a panel of judges (which have included Vincent Di Fate, Kelly Freas, Michael Whelan, David Cherry, Bob Eggleton, Tyler Jacobson, and

Ron Walotsky Ron Walotsky (21 August 1943 – July 29, 2002) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist who studied at the School of Visual Arts. Born in Brooklyn, he began a long and prolific career painting book and magazine covers starting with t ...

MCFI

NESFA also hosts meetings of Massachusetts Convention Fandom, Inc. MCFI, a non-profit like NESFA, is responsible for various "special" conventions in the New England area. Most notable of these is Noreascon, MCFI's occasional Worldcon bid. The most recent of these was Noreascon Four, the

62nd World Science Fiction Convention The 62nd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Noreascon 4, was held on 2–6 September 2004 at the Hynes Convention Center, Sheraton Boston Hotel and Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. T ...

, in September 2004. MCFI has also hosted

SMOFcon SMOFcon is an annual convention that focuses on the organisation of science fiction conventions. The first SMOFcon took place in 1984, and most have taken place in the United States. SMOFcon typically attracts 100-150 attendees, and usually occur ...

, Ditto, and the World Fantasy Convention. MCFI is a separate legal entity from NESFA, though there is a large overlap in membership.

Notes

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What is NESFA?
#
Boskone Home Page
# Roman numeral I for one # Numbering for the new Boskone series was restarted at one, with some

Roman numerals Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, eac ...

, some

Arabic numerals Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write Decimal, decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers ...

, and some numbers spelled out. Beginning with Boskone 29, the numbering has been exclusively with

. #
Boskone History

References

External links

NESFA

NESFA Press

Boskone

Noreascon

MCFI

{{Authority control Book publishing companies based in Massachusetts Science fiction organizations Science fiction fandom Science fiction conventions in the United States 501(c)(3) organizations Publishing companies established in 1967 1967 establishments in Massachusetts