SF Foundation UK News Science Fiction Journal

IN MEMORIAM: MAUREEN K. SPELLER (1959-2022)

On the evening of 18 September, our dear friend and colleague Maureen K. Speller died after being diagnosed with cancer in March 2022. A pillar of sf fandom and criticism in the UK, Maureen had held several roles in the SFF and the BSFA as well as other ventures such as Acnestis, Gold SF, Steam Engine Time and Strange Horizons. She had been on the editorial board of Foundation since 2009 and had applied her professional skills as a copyeditor to the journal since 2013. A full obituary will appear in the winter issue, but for now, our deepest condolences go to her friends and family, and especially her husband Paul.

Published 22 September 2022

WHEN IT CHANGED - CONFERENCE PROGRAMME AND REGISTRATION NOW LIVE

The conference programme for When It Changed: Women in SF/F since 1972, organized in partnership with the University of Glasgow's Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic and Games and Gaming Lab, is now available here. This is a two-day, online event (3 and 4 December 2022) with a launch event on Friday, 2 December, featuring Nicola Griffith, Kate Macdonald, Nisi Shawl and Lisa Yaszek. You must purchase a ticket to attend - please go to https://buytickets.at/thesciencefictionfoundation/741815. All enquiries should be addressed to the conference organizers, Paul March-Russell (paulmarchrussell@gmail.com) and Kathryn Heffner (kh543@kent.ac.uk).

Published 2 September 2022

FOUNDATION 142 - REVIEW NOW AVAILABLE

As reported on our social media accounts, there has been a printing error in copies of Foundation 142, and the last two pages have been accidentally omitted. We apologise profusely to members and have sought to remedy this as quickly as possible. The full review of M. John Harrison's Settling the World and The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again is now available in our online reviews section. It will stay there until December when we will reprint it in the winter issue.

Published 26 August 2022

SARAH BROWN JOINS FOUNDATION

Following the changes to the editorial team announced in May, we are delighted that Prof Sarah Brown has now agreed to fill the vacancy left by Cait Coker's new role as Media Reviews Editor. Sarah is no stranger to the SFF - she is the current Secretary and has previously guest-edited Foundation 131 on 'Shakespeare and science fiction'. She has also been an Arthur C. Clarke Award judge and a co-director of Anglia Ruskin University's Centre for Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Published 5 July 2022

ANNUAL AGM ANNOUNCED

SFF members have been notified that this year's AGM, held as usual as part of a joint event with the BSFA, will take place online on Sunday, 26 June 2022. The day will start at 12 noon with a panel on British sf of the 1950s to mark the centenaries of John Christopher and Nigel Kneale. Speakers will include Jon Dear (BFI), Nicole Devarenne (Dundee) and Derek Johnston (QUB). The SFF's AGM will follow at 1 pm before the BSFA continue at 2 pm. The event will take place on Zoom - please email the SFF Chair (grahamsleight@gmail.com) to receive the link.

Published 18 June 2022 (updated 25 June 2022)

PHOENIX ALEXANDER TO JOIN UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, RIVERSIDE

It is with a mixture of sadness and joy that we confirm that Phoenix Alexander is to join the University of California, Riverside as the Jay Kay Klein and Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian with responsibility for the prestigious Eaton Collection. Phoenix has been the SFF Librarian at the University of Liverpool since the retirement of Andy Sawyer in 2018. During that time, Phoenix has helped to re-organize and promote the Collection, has served as an Arthur C. Clarke Award judge, has edited a special issue of Vector on Greek sf, and has established himself as a successful science fiction writer. We are deeply sorry to see him go but wish him all the best in his new role. Further details about Phoenix's appointment can be found here.

Published 9 June 2022

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR 50th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE

In association with Glasgow University's Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic and Games and Gaming Lab, the Science Fiction Foundation is organizing a two-day, online conference to celebrate both the 50th anniversary of Foundation and Joanna Russ's landmark short story, 'When It Changed'.

WHEN IT CHANGED: WOMEN IN SF/F SINCE 1972

3 AND 4 DECEMBER 2022

Keynote speakers: Cheryl Morgan and Joy Sanchez-Taylor

When Joanna Russ's short story, 'When It Changed' (first published in Again, Dangerous Visions [1972]), won the Nebula Award in 1973, it seemed like a game-changing event for feminist sf. Fifty years later, and the major prizes are being won by women, among them N.K. Jemisin, Mary Robinette Kowal, Laura Jean McKay and Martha Wells. To these we can add the posthumous success of Octavia E. Butler and the mainstream acclaim of writers such as Susanna Clarke. Despite such controversies as ‘Puppygate’, sf/f now appears to be a more inclusive place, partly because of the role played by women.

If sf/f has indeed changed, in what ways did women help to bring this about? On the other hand, does the glamour of sales and literary prizes for a few select authors disguise structural inequities within sf/f that endure from the 1970s? We invite papers of 20 minutes in length that will debate these questions. Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

Imagining post-patriarchal futures
Lesbian, non-binary and trans representations
Women and Indigenous futurisms
Women and technoculture
Disability studies and the medical humanities
Women, ecology and the ‘Manthropocene’
Space opera and planetary romance
Sf/f and Young Adult fiction
Women and the graphic novel
Video, table-top and role-playing games
Fanzines and fan cultures
Modes of production and consumption – women as editors, reviewers, publishers
Feminist presses and imprints
The New Wave and literary experimentalism
The role of the female auteur in sf music and cinema
Women and sf/f criticism and theory
Exploding the sf/f canon – re-visioning sf/f histories
Sf/f and social/digital media
Transmedia and adaptation studies
Canonisation and the role of literary awards

Proposals of up to 250 words with a bionote of 50 words should be submitted to Dr Paul March-Russell (paulmarchrussell@gmail.com) by 8 August 2022. We are also interested in ideas for panels on special topics related to the conference theme. A selection of papers will be published in the winter 2023 issue of Foundation.

Published 7 June 2022 (updated 12 June 2022; 24 July 2022)

FOUNDATION WELCOMES ANNA McFARLANE AND CHRIS PAK TO ITS TEAM

There is a new look to the team behind Foundation. In addition to Jonathan Thornton, who replaced Allen Stroud as Book Reviews Editor earlier in the year, long-serving team member Cait Coker is our new Media Reviews Editor, covering all areas of non-literary sf. Another long-serving member, Andrew Ferguson, has stood down - we send him our very best regards - whilst Maureen Kincaid Speller has assumed the honorific title of Advisory Editor. Replacing Andrew and Maureen as editorial consultants are Anna McFarlane, former co-editor of Vector, and Chris Pak, former editor of the SFRA Review and an Arthur C. Clarke Award judge. Both are leading scholars in areas such as cybercultures, medical humanities, environmentalism and digital humanities. We're delighted to have them on board! Cait's successor will be announced shortly.

Published 20 May 2022

PETER NICHOLLS ESSAY PRIZE 2023

We are pleased to announce our next essay-writing competition. The award is open to all post-graduate research students and to all early career researchers (up to five years after the completion of your PhD) who have yet to find a full-time or tenured position. The prize is guaranteed publication in Foundation (summer 2023).

To be considered for the competition, please submit an article on any topic, period, theme, author, film or other media within the field of science fiction and its academic study. The work should be original and not previously published. Approximate length should be 6000 words. All submitted articles should comply with the style guide. Only one article per contributor is allowed to be submitted.

The deadline for submission is Monday, 5th December 2022. All competition entries, with a short (50 word) biography, should be sent to the journal editor at paulmarchrussell@gmail.com The entries will be judged by the editorial team and the winner will be announced in the spring 2023 issue of Foundation.

Published 5 March 2022

KATHRYN HEFFNER WINS THE 2022 PETER NICHOLLS PRIZE

This year's Peter Nicholls Prize has been awarded to Kathryn Heffner for her essay 'More Work for Mimeo-Mothers: Femme-Fans' Labour in Post-War Fan Cultures'. Kathryn, who is currently completing her PhD with the Centre for American Studies at the University of Kent, has already published several reviews in Foundation. Her prize-winning essay will appear in our next issue (no. 141). The call for next year's prize, which is open to all early career researchers in sf studies, will be announced later this spring. A list of past winners can be found here.

Published 4 January 2022

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR THE POST OF JOURNAL EDITOR

Paul March-Russell will be standing down as editor of Foundation in 2022, and the SFF is seeking a successor.

Main duties

Overall responsibility for the production of Foundation (3 issues/yr) and the journal pages on the SFF website
Liaise with the Editorial Team, Lavenham Press, and other SFF committee members for the smooth running of the journal
Maintain the journal’s standards and reputation
Oversee the journal’s peer-review process
Promote and market the journal as widely as possible, for instance by regularly attending conferences in the field
Develop the journal’s web presence
Oversee the production process of the journal, liaising with designers and printers
Work on new initiatives as appropriate to enhance the journal’s profile

Main skills

Wide knowledge of sf and sf scholarship (academic and otherwise, and reflecting the journal’s international remit)
Ability to attract high-quality papers
Understanding of journal publishing processes
Ability to work with and develop an editorial team
Organisational and administrative experience
Experience of academic editing
Commitment to SFF’s goals.
Excellent communication

Applications, comprising a CV and letter setting out the candidate’s qualifications and plans for the journal, should be made to Graham Sleight, Chair of the SFF, by 1 February 2022. Either Graham Sleight (grahamsleight@gmail.com) or Paul March-Russell (paulmarchrussell@gmail.com ) will be happy to answer questions about the role informally.

Published 11 November 2021

SFF PATRON TO START BLACK SPECULATIVE FICTION CENTRE

SFF patron, Nalo Hopkinson, has recently joined the University of British Columbia as a Professor in Creative Writing. Her plans include launching a centre for Black speculative fiction. Read the full report here. In other patron news, the National Theatre's production of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane will open at the Duke of York's Theatre on 23 October. Adapter Joel Horwood and director Katy Rudd discuss the play here.

Published 17 July 2021

FOUNDATION ESSAY WINS SFRA AWARD

Our congratulations go to Susan Ang, whose article on 'Triangulating the Dyad: Seen (Orciny) Unseen' (published in Foundation 132), formally received the SFRA Award for Innovative Research at the SFRA's June 2021 conference. The judges' commendation and Susan's acceptance can be found here. For the full list of winners, go to the SFRA website.

Published 8 July 2020 (updated 17 July 2021)

FOUNDATION EDITOR LAUNCHES NEW SCIENCE FICTION IMPRINT

Paul March-Russell and Una McCormack have launched a science fiction imprint, Gold SF, devoted to new feminist writing, to be published by Goldsmiths Press. The call for submissions is below:

Gold SF - Call for Submissions

Goldsmith’s Press is seeking to establish a dedicated imprint to publish feminist science fiction. We believe that sf and speculative fictions offer a mode of critical and utopian thinking ideally placed to address contemporary issues. We are therefore looking to commission novella and novel length work which answers to the times, dealing with subjects such as:

· Anti-rationalism and the rise of the alt-right

· The climate crisis and feminism in the Age of the Anthropocene

· Global movements of populations and refugees

· New visions of race, class, and queerness

· Expanding frontiers in gender and sexuality

· Decoloniality and indigenous knowledge traditions

· Pathways to resistance and rebellion

We are particularly keen to hear from new voices not traditionally represented by science fiction, literary fiction, and liberal feminism.

Enquiries to: Ellen Parnavelas - E.Parnavelas@gold.ac.uk

Editorial board: Abi Curtis, Elizabeth English, Joan Haran, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Una McCormack, Paul March-Russell, Robin Reid, Aishwarya Subramanian and Sheree Renee Thomas

Published 17 April 2020 (updated 5 March 2022)