Category: Genre news

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Hopepunk and the New Science of Stress by Rebecca Diem

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Background photo by Faris Mohammed [via Unsplash]

SF Canada member Rebecca Diem’s latest article for Tor.com, Hopepunk and the New Science of Stress, examines the growing speculative fiction genre of hopepunk.

When I first saw encountered the term “hopepunk,” I felt an immediate sense of recognition. To me, it described the state of joyful protest I aspire to: Knowing enough about the world to be absolutely furious, but choosing optimism anyway.

Rebecca discusses new research into stress which may “help us to understand the positive aspects of stress and how our bodies respond to hardship.” And this may give us answers beyond “fight or flight”.

…we actually have a much bigger toolbox with which to deal with stressful events, whether it’s the pressure of an important deadline, an immediate threat to our well-being, or an existential threat like, well, a resurgence of fascism and totalitarianism.

Author, music lover and nerd. Rebecca writes smart, hopeful speculative fiction and poetry. Her work includes contributions to Tor.com and Kobo Writing Life, as well as the indie steampunk series Tales of the Captain Duke, following the adventures of a defiant young aristocrat who saves a band of airship pirates from certain peril and talks her way into joining their crew. Find her at rebeccadiem.com/.

Rebecca’s article leaves us with a pithy closing sentiment:

Remember that you’re more resilient than you think. Remember that dragons exist, but dragons can also be beaten.

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The 2019 Aurora Award winners and Hall of Fame inductees!

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Numerous SF Canada members were nominated in this year’s Auroras, including several winners! The Aurora Awards are Canada’s National Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards. The Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA) is a federally-registered society whose role is to give out the Aurora Awards annually. The Auroras are nominated by and voted on by CSFFA members from across Canada.

The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association also hosts the CSFFA Hall of Fame. It was created to honour people who have made a large contribution to Science Fiction and Fantasy in Canada. This year, three very deserving people were inducted into the Hall of Fame: Tanya Huff, Eileen Kernaghan (SFC member), and Richard Graeme Cameron (SFC member). SF Canada congratulates them!

Aurora Award winners were announced during an awards ceremony held at Can-Con 2019, October 19, 2019, in Ottawa ON. SF Canada members’ names are in bold below.

Best Novel
WINNER: Armed in Her Fashion, Kate Heartfield (ChiZine)
One of Us, Craig DiLouie (Orbit)
They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded, James Alan Gardner (Tor)
Graveyard Mind, Chadwick Ginther (ChiZine)
The Quantum Magician, Derek Künsken (Solaris)
Witchmark, C.L. Polk (Tor.com Publishing)

Best YA Novel
WINNER: Cross Fire, Fonda Lee (Scholastic)
Children of the Bloodlands, S.M. Beiko (ECW)
Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks, ‘Nathan Burgoine (Bold Strokes)
The Sign of Faust, Éric Desmarais (Renaissance)
Finding Atlantis, JM Dover (Evil Alter Ego)
Timefall, Alison Lohans (Five Rivers)
The Emerald Cloth, Clare C. Marshall (Faery Ink)
Legacy of Light, Sarah Raughley (Simon Pulse)

Best Short Fiction
WINNER: Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)
“A Hold Full of Truffles”, Julie E. Czerneda (Tales from Plexis)
“For A Rich Man to Enter”, Susan Forest (IGMS 4/18)
Alice Payne Arrives, Kate Heartfield (Tor.com Publishing)
“Critical Mass”, Liz Westbrook-Trenholm (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)

Best Graphic Novel
WINNER: It Never Rains, Kari Maaren (http://itneverrainscomic.com/)
Krampus Is My Boyfriend!, S.M. Beiko (https://www.smbeiko.com/)
Woman World, Aminder Dhaliwal (Drawn and Quarterly)
Crash and Burn, Finn Lucullan & Kate Larking (Astres)
FUTILITY: Orange Planet Horror, Rick Overwater & Cam Hayden (Coffin Hop)

Best Related Work
WINNER: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, Dominik Parisien & Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, eds. (Uncanny)
By the Light of Camelot, J.R. Campbell & Shannon Allen, eds. (EDGE)
Gaslight Gothic: Strange Tales of Sherlock Holmes, J.R. Campbell & Charles Prepolec, eds. (EDGE)
Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders, Susan Forest & Lucas K. Law, eds. (Laksa)
We Shall Be Monsters, Derek Newman-Stille, ed. (Renaissance)

Best Poem/Song
WINNER: “Ursula Le Guin in the Underworld”, Sarah Tolmie (On Spec #107)
“Echos”, Shannon Allen (By the Light of Camelot)
“Osiris”, Leah Bobet (Uncanny 11-12/18)
“How My Life Will End”, Vanessa Cardui (Shades Within Us: Tales of Migrations and Fractured Borders)
“Trips to Impossible Cities”, Sandra Kasturi (Amazing Stories Winter 2018)

Best Artist
WINNER: Samantha M. Beiko, covers for Laksa Media
Lily Author, cover art for Polar Borealis #8
James F. Beveridge, cover art for Tyche Books
Roger Czerneda, cover for Tales from Plexis
Dan O’Driscoll, covers for Bundoran Press
Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, cartoons for Amazing Stories

Best Visual Presentation
WINNER: Deadpool 2
Bao
Murdoch Mysteries, 2018 episodes
Travelers, Season 3
Wynonna Earp, Season 3

Best Fan Writing and Publications
WINNER: “She Wrote It But…Revisiting Joanna Russ’ How to Suppress Women’s Writing 35 Years Later“, Krista D. Ball (reddit.com/r/fantasy)
“Travelling TARDIS“, Jen Desmarais (JenEric Designs)
“Mars vs. Titan“, Ron S. Friedman (Quora)
“Constructing the Future“, Derek Newman-Stille (Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction)
“Adios Cowboy“, Adam Shaftoe (www.adamshaftoe.com)
Books and Tea, Christina Vasilevski

Best Fan Organizational
WINNER: Derek Künsken & Marie Bilodeau, co-chairs, Can*Con
Sandra Kasturi, chair Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Toronto
Randy McCharles, chair, When Words Collide
Matt Moore, Marie Bilodeau & Nicole Lavigne, co-chairs, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Ottawa
Sandra Wickham, chair, Creative Ink Festival

Best Fan Related Work
WINNER: The Worldshapers, Edward Willett
Business BFFs, S.M. Beiko & Clare C. Marshall
ChiSeries Toronto, Kari Maaren
Just Joshing, Joshua Pantalleresco
Speculating Canada, Derek Newman-Stille

Congratulations to everyone!

For more information, see the Aurora Awards website.

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Uncanny Magazine/Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction wins Hugo Award!

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SF Canada member Dominik Parisien was honored at Worldcon this past weekend when Uncanny Magazine won its fourth Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine (Publishers/Editors-in-Chief Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, Managing Editor Michi Trota, Podcast Producers Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky, Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction Special Issue Editors-in-Chief Elsa Sjunneson-Henry and Dominik Parisien)!

As with the previous Destroy projects (Women, Queers, People of Colour), Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction takes the rallying cry of We are here and Our stories matter and looks to the future. The other projects all began by “destroying” science fiction, and this one is no different. By turning our attention to the future, we are able to explore concerns and realities in the present and amplify them, correct them, highlight the ways they might become better or worse if allowed to continue on their present course. Through science fiction, marginalized people are able to say, We are here, now, and we will be there later, too.

Dominik Parisien is also the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of the Shirley Jackson Award-winning Robots vs. Fairies and of The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which also won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. Dominik’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Quill & Quire, The Fiddlehead, Exile: The Literary Quarterly, as well as other magazines and anthologies. He is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Toronto.

Congratulations to all the Hugo Awards winners and finalists!

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2017 Aurora Awards Ballot Announced

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The Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy Association has announced this years’ Aurora Award ballot. We are very pleased to note that twelve SFC members are included in the ballot in various categories:

In Best Young Adult Novel, Edward Willett (Door into Faerie) and James Bow (Icarus Down)

In Best Short Fiction, Robert Runté (“Age of Miracles”) and Hayden Trenholm (“Marion’s War”)

In Best Related Work, Dominik Parisien (Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction), Hayden Trenholm (Lazarus Risen), Susan Forest (Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts), and Lucas K. Law (Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts)

In Best Artist, Samantha M. Beiko (cover to Strangers Among Us: Tales of the Underdogs and Outcasts),  and Jim Beveridge (covers and poster art)

In Best Fan Organizational, Samantha M. Beiko (co-chair, Chiaroscuro Reading Series: Winnipeg), Sandra Kasturi (co-chair, 2016 Toronto SpecFic Colloquium), and Sandra Wickham (chair, Creative Ink Festival, Burnaby)

In Best Fan Related Work, Ron S. Friedman (Villains and Conflicts presentation, When Words Collide, Calgary Comic Expo, and File 770)

Voting begins July 15th and will end on September 2nd. This gives CSFFA members plenty of time read the many books and stories. Canvention 37 and the Aurora Awards will be hosted this year in Halifax, NS, during Hal-Con 2017. If you would like to join CFFSA to be eligible to vote on the shortlisted nominees, you can do so at their website: www.prixaurorawards.ca.

Congratulations to all the finalists!

 

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Attend ACCSFF ’17!

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Interested in the academic side of Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy? Plan to attend the 2017 ACCSFF, June 2-3!

The conference will feature papers on Arrival, Lost Girls, SF music, We Stand on Guard, Larissa Lai, Emily St. John Mandel, Peter Watts, Spider Robinson, Guy Gavriel Kay, Native-Canadian SF, and more. Keynote address speakers will be Madeline Ashby, author of Canada Reads Finalist Company Town, and Dominick Grace, author of The Science Fiction of Phyllis Gotlieb.

The conference will take place at the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy, Lillian H. Smith Branch, Toronto Public Library, 239 College St. (one block east of Spadina)
Toronto, Ontario.

For more information, visit www.yorku.ca/accsff and go to the Events page

Register now to take advantage of our early rates!

posted on behalf of SFC member Allan Weiss