The New England Science Fiction Association, or NESFA, is a science fiction club centered in the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

area. It was founded in 1967, "by

fans Fan commonly refers to: * Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling ** Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling * Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially wit ...

who wanted to ''do'' things in addition to socializing". NESFA is currently registered as a non-profit literary organization under

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

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 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 expres ...

Boskone Boskone is an annual science fiction convention ("con") run by the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. In the words of the convention organizers, "Boskone is a regional Science Fiction co ...

. 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 The ''Lensman'' series is a series of science fiction novels by American author E. E. "Doc" Smith. It was a runner-up for the 1966 Hugo award for Best All-Time Series, losing to the ''Foundation'' series by Isaac Asimov. Plot The series begins ...

series by

E. E. Smith Edward Elmer Smith (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965), publishing as E. E. Smith, Ph.D. and later as E. E. "Doc" Smith, was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and science-fiction author, best known for the '' ...

, 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 Arisia is a Boston-area, volunteer-run science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen in response to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a conve ...

", 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 NESFA Press is the publishing arm of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. The NESFA Press primarily produces three types of books: * Books honoring the guest(s) of honor at their annual convention, Boskone, and at some Worldcons and ...

, 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'', by

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first nov ...

(2004) * ''

Norstrilia ''Norstrilia'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Paul Linebarger, published under the pseudonym Cordwainer Smith. It is the only novel he published under this name, which he used for his science fiction works (though several related ...

'' by

Cordwainer Smith Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966), better known by his pen-name Cordwainer Smith, was an American author known for his science fiction works. Linebarger was a US Army officer, a noted East Asia scholar, and a ...

(1995) * ''

The Rediscovery of Man ''The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith'' () is a 1993 book containing the complete collected short fiction of American science fiction author Cordwainer Smith. It was edited by James A. Mann and published b ...

'' by

(1993)

Awards

Skylark Award

The Edward E. Smith Memorial Award 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 Vincent Di Fate (born November 21, 1945) is an American artist specializing in science fiction, fantasy and realistic space art (hardware art) illustration. He was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011. Di Fate was bor ...

Kelly Freas Frank Kelly Freas (August 27, 1922 – January 2, 2005) was an American science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years. He was known as the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists" and he was the second artist inducted b ...

Michael Whelan Michael Whelan (born 29 June 1950) is an American artist of imaginative realism. For more than 30 years, he worked as an illustrator, specializing in science fiction and fantasy cover art. Since the mid-1990s, he has pursued a fine art career, ...

, David Cherry,

Bob Eggleton Bob Eggleton (born September 13, 1960) is an American science fiction, fantasy and horror artist. Eggleton is a nine-time Hugo Award–winner for Best Pro Artist in science fiction and fantasy, first winning in 1994. He won the Hugo Award for ...

Tyler Jacobson Tyler Jacobson is an American science fiction and fantasy artist and illustrator. Career His work has been featured in publications by Wizards of the Coast,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 Massachusetts Convention Fandom, Inc. (MCFI) is an American 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization incorporated in 1974 as an administrative vehicle for proposing, promoting, and running World Science Fiction Conventions (Worldcons) and other ...

. 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 Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

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 DITTO is a company that sells software that aids eyewear companies sell their products online using virtual fitting. Originally DITTO was a retailer that sold designer prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. The company is based in San Francisco, ...

, and the

World Fantasy Convention The World Fantasy Convention is an annual science fiction convention, convention of professionals, collectors, and others interested in the field of fantasy. The World Fantasy Awards are presented at the event. Other features include an art sh ...

. MCFI is a separate

legal entity In law, a legal person is any person or 'thing' (less ambiguously, any legal entity) that can do the things a human person is usually able to do in law – such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and so on. The reason for ...

from NESFA, though there is a large overlap in membership.

Notes

#
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