My Loncon 3 Schedule: Come See Me

Below is my schedule of official events at Loncon 3 (Worldcon in London, U.K.). Come see me.

The schedule may change.

Thursday 15:00 - 16:30, Capital Suite 16 (ExCeL):

The Anthology as Advocacy

The published is political. SF has a healthy tradition of anthologies that seek to open up space for new voices and new conversations, from groundbreaking books such as So Long Been Dreaming and the Bending the Landscape series, to recent anthologies such as Long Hidden, We See a Different Frontier, the Speculative Japan collections and the Apex Books of World SF. How are such books received and reviewed by the field? How do editors and contributors of such books participate in the conversations they generate? And to what extent do an anthology's political goals interact with editorial considerations and/or marketing considerations?

John Kessel (M), Grania Davis, Fabio Fernandes, Derwin Mak

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Friday 12:00 - 13:30, Autographing Space (ExCeL):

Autographing 6 - Derwin Mak

Come keep me company as I sit at the autograph table and watch the long lines grow for other writers.

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Saturday 11:00 - 12:00, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL):

Beyond the Force: Religion in the Future

Writers working with futuristic settings often use present-day and historical religious forms to frame something new; Dan Simmons uses Catholicism in Hyperion, for example, and Kameron Hurley takes a similar approach to Islam in God's War. How can this be done in a manner that respects religious traditions and believers, while still allowing the author creative license? To what extent do such works succeed at imagining how religions change over time? What are the advantages and disadvantages of extrapolation compared to inventing a new faith -- and do common templates for such invention, such as science or the state, make sense given what we know about how humans respond to the spiritual?

Simon Morden (M), Derwin Mak, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Elisabeth Vonarburg, Janice Gelb

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Saturday 15:00 - 16:30, Capital Suite 14 (ExCeL):

The World at Worldcon: Chinese Diaspora SF

Chinese immigrants have gone all over the world for 400 years. However, the Chinese diaspora has written science fiction only in the last 4 decades, with Laurence Yep possibly being the first Chinese American science fiction writer. Now they are becoming more prominent, and writers such as Ken Liu and Ted Chiang have become well known. What do their stories say about the immigrant experience (often a sort of alien experience) and about ethnicity, identity, and culture in America, Canada, Europe, Philippines, Malaysia, and other countries? How have they combined Chinese society with those of other countries?

Emily Jiang (M), Eric Choi, John Chu, Derwin Mak

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Sunday 10:00 - 11:00, Capital Suite 13 (ExCeL):

Droning On

From remotely piloted attack vehicles to robot package delivery services drones suddenly seem to be everywhere. What impacts will they have, from wars to where we buy books? And is that guy in the park with a quadrocopter just a harmless hobbyist or a high tech peeping tom?

Phil Dyson (M), Myke Cole, Derwin Mak, Mike Bakula, Terrence Karney