Here - NSW Writers Centre

NSW Writers’ Centre
Saturday 18 Ju ly 2 015
peculative fiction is the literature of unbound imagination, an
umbrella term broadly encompassing stories that feature
fantastical, supernatural, or futuristic elements. Tales set in, at or
on the fringe, teasing the peripheries of WHAT IF?
S
Contemporary speculative fiction comes in many forms and flavours: from
robots and rocketships, through time travel, alternate history, steampunk,
magic realism, apocalyptic futures, ghosts and the supernatural, superheroes,
magic, fantasy, both high and urban, space opera, cyberpunk, biohacking and
the singularity – anything that reaches beyond contemporary day-to-day
existence to push the boundaries of the imagination.
Whether you like your SF short or epic, flavoured
with dragons, dystopian landscapes or transhuman
futures, the 2015 Speculative Fiction Festival will
delight and inspire you. Join us to explore a literary
field that seeks to go beyond the farthest reaches
of the imagination, to engage your sense of fear
and wonder, and shed light on the possibilities and
dangers that lie ahead.
Cat Sparks
Festival Director
How To Book Tickets
Online at nswwc.org.au or by phone (02) 9555 9757
NSW Writers’ Centre Members $60 / Member Concession $50 / Non-Members $90
There is plenty of free parking at the Centre and there will be a food vendor
to order lunch from.
The NSW Writers’ Centre is located in the grounds of
Callan Park, Balmain Road, Rozelle. For directions and
public transport options, visit our website nswwc.org.au
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.
Festival Speakers
Joanne Anderton cooks up speculative fiction stories for adults, young adults, anyone
who likes their worlds a little different. Her short story collection, The Bone Chime Song
and Other Stories was published by Fablecroft Publishing and won the Aurealis Award for
best collection.
James Bradley is an award-winning author and critic. His books include the novels
Wrack, The Deep Field and The Resurrectionist, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, and The
Penguin Book of the Ocean. His latest novel, Clade, was published by Hamish Hamilton
earlier this year.
James Bradley
Trudi Canavan lives in Melbourne. While working as a freelance illustrator she wrote the
bestselling Black Magician Trilogy. The Magician’s Apprentice, a prequel, won the Aurealis
Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2009 and the final of the sequel trilogy, The Traitor
Queen, reached #1 on the UK Times Hardback bestseller list in 2011.
Isobelle Carmody wrote her first book, Obernewtyn, when she was 14. Since then she has
written more than 30 books and many short stories. Her most recent book is The Cloud
Road, which she also illustrated. The last book in her Obernewtyn Chronicles series, The
Red Queen, will be released in November 2015.
Trudi Canavan
Terry Dowling is one of Australia’s most respected and internationally acclaimed writers
of science fiction, dark fantasy and horror, and author of the multi-award-winning Tom
Rynosseros saga. His most recent books are Amberjack: Tales of Fear & Wonder and
Clowns at Midnight.
Thoraiya Dyer is an Aurealis and Ditmar Award-winning, Sydney-based science fiction
and fantasy writer. Her short story collection, Asymmetry, and time-travel pirate novella
The Company Articles of Edward Teach are available from Twelfth Planet Press, while the
first book in her Titan’s Forest fantasy trilogy is forthcoming from Tor. Thoraiya is an
archer and a lapsed veterinarian.
Isobelle Carmody
Rochelle Fernandez is the Commissioning Editor for HarperVoyager, an imprint of
HarperCollins. She has been an editor for ten years and has worked in various publishing
roles including digital editor where she oversaw the production and conversion of ebooks.
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at seven, and is now the award-winning and
internationally bestselling author of 36 books. Her adult books include The Wild Girl and
Bitter Greens. Kate’s exciting new series for children The Impossible Quest weaves
together battles, beasts and bravery in a magical world under threat from dark forces.
Terry Dowling
Pamela Freeman is an award-winning author of speculative fiction books for both adults
and children. Her last adult fantasy, Ember and Ash, won the Aurealis Award for Best
Fantasy Novel. Pamela’s children’s fantasies include the classic Victor’s Quest, the
Aurealis Award-winning Victor’s Challenge, and the Princess Betony series.
Alison Green is the co-founder and CEO of Pantera Press. Pantera Press is a boutique
book publisher focused on finding and nurturing the next generation of talented
Australian writers.
Thoraiya Dyer
Richard Harland’s 17 novels have spanned adult, YA and children’s, and fantasy, horror
and science fiction. His big international successes have been his three steampunk
fantasies, Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums (published in the US, UK,
Australia, France, Germany and Brazil).
Robert Hood has published nearly 200 stories in magazines and anthologies worldwide,
as well as six novels and 16 children’s books. He writes crime, fantasy, science fiction,
dark fantasy and horror tales. His most recent collection is Peripheral Visions: The
Collected Ghost Stories. His fantasy novel Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead won
the Ditmar Award for Best Novel in 2014.
Kate Forsyth
Louise Katz lectures in academic writing at the University of Sydney, writes fiction and
has been the recipient of two Aurealis Awards – one for the novel The Other Face of Janus,
published by HarperCollins, and the other for the short story Weavers of the Twilight,
Agog Press. This year her dystopian novel, The Orchid Nursery, is scheduled to be
published with Lacuna.
Pamela Freeman
Amie Kaufman is the New York Times bestselling co-author of the
Starbound trilogy, a young adult science fiction series. These Broken
Stars won the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is in
development for TV. The first book in Amie’s new co-authored science
fiction trilogy, Illuminae, launches internationally in October 2015.
Alison Green
Stephanie Lai is an Australian of Chinese descent (and a left-handed
archer). She is paid to train people in surviving our oncoming climate
change dystopia. She likes penguins, infrastructure and Asian
steampunk. She has had fiction and non-fiction published in The Lifted
Brow, The Toast and Peril. She hates everything you love.
Garth Nix
Bruce McCabe is the author of the thriller Skinjob. He lived in Kenya,
Fiji and Japan before returning to Sydney, where he is now based.
Richard Harland
Ian McHugh’s debut short story collection, Angel Dust, was a finalist for
the 2014 Aurealis Awards and is available from Ticonderoga
Publications. His stories have won grand prizes in the international
Writers of the Future contest and been shortlisted five times at the
Aurealis Awards, winning in 2010.
Ben Peek
Joel Naoum is a Sydney-based book publisher, editor, blogger and
writer. He is running Pan Macmillan Australia’s new digital-first
imprint Momentum and in 2011 completed the Unwin Fellowship
researching digital publishing experimentation in the United Kingdom.
Robert Hood
Garth Nix has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book
editor, book publicist, book sales representative and bookseller. More than
5 million copies of Garth’s books have been sold around the world, and his
work has been translated into 40 languages. He lives in Sydney.
Marianne de Pierres
Ben Peek is the Sydney-based author of The Godless, Black Sheep,
Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, and Dead Americans and Other Stories.
Marianne de Pierres is the author of the Parrish Plessis trilogy and the
award-winning Sentients of Orion and Peacemaker series. Marianne
has also authored children’s and young adult stories, notably the Night
Creatures trilogy, a dark fantasy series for teens. She lives in Brisbane.
Louise Katz
Amie Kaufman
Tristan Savage grew up in Townsville and graduated from JCU with an
honours degree in theatre. He has won awards and toured his comedy
shows, and is the author of sci-fi adventure novel Rift Breaker. In 2014
he was the recipient of the Kris Hembury Encouragement Award for
Emerging Artists.
Cat Sparks is an award-winning author, editor and artist whose former
jobs have included media monitor, political and archaeological
photographer, graphic designer and manager of Agog! Press. She’s
currently fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine and partway through a
PhD in YA climate change fiction. Her short story collection The Bride
Price was published in 2013.
Tristan Savage
Keith Stevenson
Keith Stevenson is the editor with award-winning independent press
coeur de lion publishing, which produces Dimension6, the free
electronic magazine of Australian speculative fiction. His science
fiction thriller, Horizon, is out now as an ebook from HarperCollins
Voyager Impulse.
Bruce McCabe
Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. She
has sold almost 200 short stories, three novels (the multi-awardwinning Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification) and five short
story collections including the multi-award-winning Through Splintered
Walls. Her latest short story collection is The Gate Theory.
Kaaron Warren
Tehani Wessely operates FableCroft Publishing, a boutique press
dedicated to the future of speculative fiction in Australia. She has
edited several anthologies and original novels, and her most recent
publishing projects include the crowd-funded anthology, Cranky
Ladies of History, and the unthemed anthology, Insert Title Here.
Ian McHugh
Tehani Wessely
Saturday 18 July 2015, 10am – 6pm
Patrick White Room
Judith Wright Room
10–11am Be Careful What You Wish For
Five successful authors discuss life in the fast lane, the highs, lows,
career security and unexpected consequences of making it to the top –
and staying there.
With Garth Nix, Trudi Canavan, Kate Forsyth, Isobelle Carmody
and James Bradley. Chaired by Cat Sparks.
11am–12pm Can Science Fiction Save The Future?
11am–12pm Why Fantasy Matters
This panel examines science fiction as an agent of scientific and social
change, serving as a cultural primer, preparing us for new inventions,
moral arguments or major events, such as catastrophic destruction or
the possibility of transhuman consciousness. Should SF shake us out of
complacency regarding genuine threats to society, as well as inspiring
compelling new possibilities?
With Bruce McCabe, Marianne de Pierres, Joanne Anderton, Stephanie Lai
and Keith Stevenson.
As well as feeding our sense of wonder, fantasy explores what realism
can't by engaging with symbolic possibilities and empowering readers to
confront real-world problems in a transfigured form. Our panelists
discuss fantasy fiction’s various forms and functions.
With Pamela Freeman, Ben Peek, Tristan Savage and Kaaron Warren.
Tips for navigating a crowded marketplace as both a reader and a writer;
the relevance and place of shorts in the spec fic landscape: a testing
ground or the heart of the conversation? Editors and authors discuss the
marketplace.
With Cat Sparks, Keith Stevenson, Ian McHugh, Thoraiya Dyer
and Tehani Wessely.
Geek culture is no longer counterculture. In recent years sci-fi & fantasy
have become a huge part of commercialised, mainstream culture — for
better or worse, whether in full-fledged novels or by sneaking into
contemporary literary fiction. Panelists examine ‘genrefication’ and its
fallout.
With James Bradley, Robert Hood, Amie Kaufman and Ben Peek.
2–3pm Everybody Loves YA
2–3pm Frankenstein’s Legacy
12–1pm Short Spec Fic – the state of play
1–2pm Lunch
The children’s book industry has grown astronomically over the past few
years, with over half its readership now estimated to be adults. Is the
appeal of YA purely escapist; a reflection of the universal applicability of
themes such as love, friendship, identity and discrimination, or nostalgia
coupled with the collapse of contemporary culture into permanent
adolescence.
With Isobelle Carmody, Richard Harland, Marianne de Pierres, Garth Nix
and Amie Kaufman.
12–1pm Busting the Niche
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is both a work of gothic romanticism and
early science fiction. The novel examines the rights of artificially created
beings, with inherent implications for cloning, GMOs, artificial intelligence
and beyond as well as resonating universal themes: creation, maternal
instinct, death, the struggle of good and evil. Authors of exotic gothic
fiction examine Mary Shelley’s enduring legacy.
With Terry Dowling, Robert Hood, Kaaron Warren and Louise Katz.
3–4pm Kaffeeklatsches
Small groups are invited to grab a coffee, sit down with an author and
chat about the biz. Chats will be held in various locations around the
Centre. Participating writers and information about reserving a place at
a specific group will be available on our website closer to the festival.
4–5pm What’s Hot and What’s Not
What are spec fic publishers looking for right now? Representatives from
publishing houses discuss slushpiles, submissions procedures and
protocols, pitch sessions, agents, social media and all the nitty gritty.
With Joel Naoum (Momentum), Rochelle Fernandez (HarperCollins),
Tehani Wessely (FableCroft), Alison Green (Pantera Press), and Liz Gryzb
(Ticonderoga Publications). Chaired by Cat Sparks.
5–6pm Drinks on the Verandah
Please note that the program and speakers are subject to change.
NSW WRITERS’ CENTRE
PO Box 1056
Rozelle NSW 2039
(02) 9555 9757
info@nswwc.org.au
www.nswwc.org.au
@writingNSW