Category Archives: Like Show Business

The Best of World SF Volume 3 ToC and Cover Reveal

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Lavie Tidhar today announced the table of contents for his The Best of World SF: Volume 3, a 175,000 word collection with 28 authors from around the world.

The book will be released by Head of Zeus on October 12, 2023. It’s available for preorder.

The stories in the Table of Contents:

1. “A Minor Kalahari” by Diana Rahim (Singapore)

2. “Behind Her, Trailing Like Butterfly Wings” by Daniela Tomova (Bulgaria)

3. “Cloudgazer” by Timi Odueso (Nigeria)

4. “The EMO Hunter” by Mandisi Nkomo (South Africa)

5. “Tloque Nahuaque” by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas (Mexico) translated by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

6. “The Walls of Benin City” by M.H. Ayinde (UK)

7. “The Foodie Federation’s Dinosaur Farm” by Luo Longxiang (China) translated by Andy Dudak

8. “The Day The World Turned Upside Down” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (The Netherlands) translated by Lia Belt

9. “The Worldless” by Indrapramit Das (India)

10. “Now You Feel It” by Andrea Chapela (Mexico) translated by Emma Törzs

11. “Act of Faith” by Fadzlishah Johanabas (Malaysia)

12. “Godmother” by Cheryl S. Ntumy (Ghana)

13. “I Call Upon the Night as Witness” by Zahra Mukhi (Pakistan)

14. “Sulfur” by Dmitry Glukhovsky (Russia) translated by Marian Schwartz

15. “Proposition 23” by Efe Okogu (Nigeria)

16. “Root Rot” by Fargo Tbakhi (US)

17. “Catching the K-Beast” by Chen Qian (China) translated by Carmen Yiling Yan

18. “Two Moons” by Elena Pavlova (Bulgaria) translated by Kalin M. Nenov and Elena Pavlova

19. “Symbiosis Theory” by Choyeop Kim (Korea) translated by Joungmin Lee Comfort

20. “My Country is a Ghost” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Greece)

21. “Old People’s Folly” by Nora Schinnerl (Austria)

22. “Echoes of a Broken Mind” by Christine Lucas (Greece)

23. “Have Your #Hugot Harvested at This Diwata-Owned Café” by Vida Cruz (Philippines)

24. “Order C345” by Sheikha Helawy (Palestine) translated by Raphael Cohen

25. “Dark Star” by Vraiux Dorós (Mexico) translated by Toshiya Kamei

26. “An excerpt from ‘A Door Opens: The Beginning of the Fall of the Ispancialo-in-Hinirang (Emprensa Press: 2007)’ by Salahuddin Alonto, Annotated by Omar Jamad Maududi, MLS, HOL, JMS.” by Dean Francis Alfar (Philippines)

27. “Ootheca” by Mário de Seabra Coelho (Portugal)

28. “Where The Trains Turn” by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen (Finland) translated by Liisa Rantalaiho

Uncanny Magazine Issue 53 Launches 7/4

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The 53rd issue of Uncanny Magazine, winner of six Hugos and a British Fantasy Award, will be available on July 4 at uncannymagazine.com. 

Hugo Award-winning Publishers Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas are proud to present the 52nd issue of their six-time Hugo Award-winning online science fiction and fantasy magazine, Uncanny Magazine. Stories from Uncanny Magazine have been finalists or winners of Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards. As always, Uncanny features passionate SF/F fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, provocative nonfiction, and a deep investment in the diverse SF/F culture, along with a Parsec Award-winning monthly podcast featuring a story, poem, and interview from that issue. 

All of Uncanny Magazine’s content will be available in eBook versions on the day of release from Weightless Books, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, and Kobo. Subscriptions are always available through Weightless Books. The free online content will be released in 2 stages — half on day of release and half on August 1. 

Follow Uncanny on their website, or on Twitter and Facebook.

Uncanny Magazine Issue 53 Table of Contents:

Cover

  • A Rest from the Hunt by Elaine Ho

Editorial

  • “The Uncanny Valley” by Lynne M. Thomas & Michael Damian Thomas

Fiction

  • “SuperMAX” by Daniel H. Wilson (7/4)
  • “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A. Garcia (7/4)
  • “The Big Heavy” by Steph Kwiatkowski (7/4)
  • “Anything with a Void at the Center” by Lee Mandelo (8/1)
  • “Love at the Event Horizon” by Natalia Theodoridou (8/1)
  • “The Ghasts” by Lavie Tidhar (8/1)
  • “Theses on the Scientific Management of Goetic Labour” by Vajra Chandrasekera (7/4)

Reprint

  • “The Music of the Siphorophenes” by C. L. Polk (8/1)

Nonfiction

  • “Book Bans Won’t Take Away Our Voices” by Del Sandeen (7/4)
  • “House of the Dragon and the Empress Who Tried to Rule England” by Lizbeth Myles (7/4)
  • “Weirdos” by Suzanne Walker (8/1)
  • “The Matter of King Arthur on the Screen” by Natania Barron (8/1)

Poetry

  • “As Does the Crow” by Beth Cato (7/4)
  • “First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare” by Emily Jiang (7/4)
  • “an alternate universe in which Yemọja is my mother” by Sodïq Oyèkànmí (8/1)
  • “Eroticide” by Valerie Valdes (8/1)

Interviews

  • R.S.A. Garcia interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (7/4)
  • Lee Mandelo interviewed by Caroline M. Yoachim (8/1)

Podcasts

  • Episode 53A (7/4): Editors’ Introduction, “SuperMAX” by Daniel H. Wilson, as read by Matt Peters, “As Does the Crow” by Beth Cato, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Daniel H. Wilson.
  • Episode 53B (8/1): Editors’ Introduction, “Love at the Event Horizon” by Natalia Theodoridou, as read by Matt Peters, “Eroticide” by Valerie Valdes, as read by Erika Ensign, and Lynne M. Thomas interviewing Natalia Theodoridou.

New Eric Flint 1632 Magazine

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Announced at LibertyCon today: There is a new magazine for Eric Flint’s 1632 Universe that essentially takes the baton from the Grantville Gazette which closed shortly after Eric’s death last year. Issue 1 is scheduled for September 1. More information at 1632 and Beyond.

It’s from a new company, Flint’s Shards Inc. The 1632 & Beyond FAQ says they have a contract with Lucille Robbins, Eric Flint’s widow and heir. They will also coordinate closely with Baen Books to maintain the canon continuity for which the 1632 series is known.

The new magazine will not be exactly like the Grantville Gazette, “but close.” They will publish primarily 1632 stories with some stories in the other Assiti Shards universes (Time Spike and Alexander Inheritance).

The magazine’s leadership includes Editor-in-Chief: Bjorn Hasseler; Editor: Bethanne Kim; Editor: Chuck Thompson; Art Director: Garrett W. Vance; and Board of Directors: Griffin Barber, Iver Cooper, Donald Davis, Bill Fawcett, Chuck Gannon, Bjorn Hasseler, Bethanne Kim, Lucille Robbins, and Chuck Thompson.

There is a new Facebook group about it here. Full information about how to submit stories and other details are in the FAQ.

[Thanks to Chuck Thompson for the story.]

New Acquisitions by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the newest acquisitions to its expansive collection – the largest film-related collection in the world – housed at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Margaret Herrick Library, and Academy Film Archive.

Recent acquisitions include:

  • Costumes featured in the Best Picture Oscar® winner Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022);
  • A collection of more than 600 rare silent film posters;
  • Personal film collections and film-related materials of producer Gale Anne Hurd, director Harold Ramis, filmmaker Gregg Araki, and film scholar Kevin Brownlow;
  • Conceptual art for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982);
  • More than 150 hand-painted animation artworks dating back to 1932, donated by Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw. Their generous donation will be commemorated by the renaming of the Margaret Herrick Library’s Graphic Arts Department as the Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw Graphic Arts Department.

“These new additions to our collections represent the diverse array of films and filmmakers we are focused on collecting. They support our goal to expose our audiences–from scholars and students to filmmakers and film lovers–to materials that spark joy, inspiration, and exemplify the rich history of the cinema,” said Jacqueline Stewart, Director and President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. “We are excited that these iconic collections will be available for future research and public engagement.”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been collecting and preserving film and film-related material since 1927, and its permanent collection contains more than 13 million photographs, 8.3 million clippings, 95,000 screenplays, 73,500 posters, 145,000 production and costume design drawings, 45,000 sound recordings, 39,000 books, 1,900 special collections, 242,000 film and video assets, and 8,000 props, process, and production items representing motion picture technology, costume design, production design, makeup and hairstyling, visual effects, and promotional materials.

Components of the Academy’s collection can be accessed by the public through:

  • Exhibitions, public programming, and film screenings at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures;
  • The Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library reference and research collection;
  • The Academy Film Archive access center;
  • Online at oscars.org.

A detailed list of new collections items follows.

COSTUMES

  • Quilted vest, floral blouse, and pants ensemble worn by Oscar-winning actor Michelle Yeoh as Evelyn Wang; striped shirt, pants, and sneakers worn by Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan as Waymond Wang; turtleneck, pants, and vest ensemble worn by Oscar-winning actor Jamie Lee Curtis as Deirdre Beaubeirdre; Jumbled Jobu costume worn by Oscar-nominated actor Stephanie Hsu as Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) 
  • Costume worn by actor Gina Lollobrigida as Lina Cavalieri in Beautiful but Dangerous (1955); Gift of Gina Lollobrigida, Tiziana Rocca, and Costumi d’Arte-Peruzzi 
  • Coat, hat, blouse, and pants worn by Oscar-winning actor Regina King as Sharon Rivers in If Beale Street Could Talk (2018); Gift of Annapurna Pictures
  • Suit worn by actor LaKeith Stanfield as Cassius Green in Sorry to Bother You (2018); Gift of Annapurna Pictures 
  • Costumes worn by Christian Bale and Amy Adams as Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney in Vice (2018); Gift of Annapurna Pictures 
  • Costume worn by Eminem as Jimmy in 8 Mile (2002) 
  • Blue velvet suit worn by Mike Myers as Austin Powers in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) 
  • Pinstripe suit worn by Raul Julia as Gomez Addams in Addams Family Values (1993)

PRODUCTION OBJECTS

  • Adelina Fortnight, Lionel Frost, and Mr. Link puppets from Missing Link (2019); Gift of LAIKA
  • Jessie maquette from Toy Story 2 (1999); Gift of Ash Brannon 
  • Matte painting from Cliffhanger (1993); Gift of Michele Moen 
  • A prosthesis from Red Rocket (2021); Gift of Sean Baker

TECHNOLOGY

  • Clapboards from The Omen (1976), Thelma & Louise (1991), and Sleepy Hollow (1999) 
  • Typewriter used by Frank Pierson to write Cat Ballou (1965) and Cool Hand Luke (1967); Gift of Michael Pierson and Eve Pierson

AWARDS

  • Oscar statuette presented to blacklisted screenwriter Nedrick Young under the pseudonym Nathan E. Douglas for Writing (Story and Screenplay written directly for the screen) for The Defiant Ones (1958); Gift of families of Ned, Paul, and David Young

GRAPHIC ARTS

  • Conceptual drawing for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), illustrated by Academy Award®-winning s pecial effects artist Carlo Rambaldi
  • Dwight Manley collection of silent film materials: More than 600 silent era movie posters, including an alternative poster for The Sheik (1921), illustrated by F.P. Fragasso; Gift of Dwight Manley 
  • Two dozen costume design drawings illustrated by Julio Martinez for Diana Ross in Mahogany (1975); Gift of Julio Martinez 
  • Steven Spielberg Animation Collection: 157 pieces of original animation art, dated from 1932-1952, including cels and setups from films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940), and animation setups and cels for characters, including Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny, and Woody Woodpecker; Gift of Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

  • Gale Anne Hurd papers: Detailed production records, scripts, photographs, and drawings from Hurd’s career as a producer of films including The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Raising Cain (1992), Armageddon (1998), and The Hulk (2003); Gift of Gale Anne Hurd 
  • Harold Ramis papers: Materials documenting Ramis’s career as a writer, director, and actor, including handwritten and annotated scripts for National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), Ghostbusters (1984), Groundhog Day (1993), and Analyze This (1999); Gift of Erica Mann Ramis 
  • Delmer Daves papers: Materials from the career of director-writer Daves, including correspondence, journals, and story idea notebooks, extensive files of stories and treatments, and photographic coverage of his films, including Destination Tokyo (1943), Dark Passage (1947), Broken Arrow (1950), and 3:10 to Yuma (1957); Gift of Jennifer Daves and Michele Daves
  • Marsha Hunt papers: Career papers of actor and activist Hunt, including scripts, correspondence, photographs, and other ephemera. Hunt is known for her roles in Pride and Prejudice (1940), The Human Comedy (1943), and Raw Deal (1948), and for her devotion to numerous humanitarian causes after her film career was curtailed by the Hollywood blacklist; Gift of Marsha Hunt
  • Betsy Heimann Collection: Additions to the collection, including five drawings for Green Book (2018), illustrated by Sue Harragin for costume designer Betsy Heimann; Gift of Betsy Heimann 
  • Large model pirate ship, three-dimensional prop skull of One-Eyed Willy, and treasure map from The Goonies (1985); Gift of Lauren Shuler Donner

FILM AND VIDEO ELEMENTS

  • Personal collection from Gregg Araki, including film elements and video materials from The Doom Generation (1995) and assorted moving image material from The Living End (1992), Nowhere (1997), Mysterious Skin (2004), and Kaboom (2010) and more; Gift of Gregg Araki
  • Personal collection of Harold Ramis, including film and video materials relating to the films Caddyshack (1980), Groundhog Day (1993), Multiplicity (1996), Analyze This (1999),and more; Gift of Erica Mann Ramis
  • Video materials relating to The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), No Escape (1994), and True Whispers (2002); Gift of Gale Anne Hurd
  • Frank Thomas home movies (ca. 1950s-1960s); Gift of Theodore Thomas
  • Personal collection of Delmer Daves, including home movies (ca. 1930s-1970s), audio tapes, and film titles including Bachelor Father (1931), Bird of Paradise (1932), Destination Tokyo (1943), Broken Arrow (1950), 3:10 to Yuma (1957), and more; Gift of Jennifer Daves and Michele Daves
  • Personal collection of John Avildsen, including home movies and early works such as Smiles (1964), Turn On to Love (1969), Okay Bill (1971), and Traveling Hopefully (1982); Gift of Anthony Avildsen
  • Personal collection of film scholar Kevin Brownlow, including more than 700 16mm and 9.5mm film

[Based on a press release.]

Babylon 5: The Road Home Trailer

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Warner Bros. has dropped the trailer for Babylon 5: The Road Home, an animated movie which will be available on Digital, 4K UHD and Blu-ray on August 15, 2023.

It’s written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and features many cast members from the original series: Bruce Boxleitner as John Sheridan, Claudia Christian as Susan Ivanova, Peter Jurasik as Londo Mollari, Bill Mumy as Lennier, Tracy Scoggins as Elizabeth Lochley, and Patricia Tallman as Lyta Alexander. 

The Road Home is intended to be a treat for original Babylon 5 fans who see things only hinted at in the original series while introducing new viewers to the characters, history, and structure of the B5 universe. Our story will travel across the galaxy, as John Sheridan is whipsawed through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.

[Based on a press release.]

SFWA Announces Election and Referendum Results

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The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has published the outcome of their recent Board election and Referendum.

Effective July 1, 2023, the SFWA Board of Directors will be made up of the following members:

  • Jeffe Kennedy, President 
  • John Murphy, Vice President 
  • Jasmine Gower, Secretary 
  • Erin Hartshorn, Chief Financial Officer 
  • Directors-at-Large Monica Valentinelli, Jordan Kurella, Christine Taylor-Butler, Chelsea Mueller, and Phoebe Barton

Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, who ran as a write-in for SFWA Director-at-Large, was not elected.

Departing the SFWA Board on June 30 will be directors Remy Nakamura and José Pablo Iriarte.

REFERENDUMS. Previously, genre writers of poetry and translators of fiction could not use those portions of their paid work as part of their catalog when applying to join SFWA or to upgrade their membership classification. But SFWA members have just voted to approve two resolutions to accept those qualifications:

(I) Paid SFF and related genre poetry sales shall be considered for the purposes of determining eligibility for membership in SFWA.

(II) Payment for SFF and related genre translation work shall be considered for the purposes of determining eligibility for membership in SFWA by the translator.

The SFWA Board says, “We’ll publicly announce when the organization is ready to begin taking applications that include poetry and translated works.”  

SPFBO Cover Contest Killed After Discovery That 2023 Winner Was Produced by AI

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Author Mark Lawrence says he will stop holding the cover contest that’s long been a feature of his Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off competition after the latest winner proved to be AI-produced artwork, despite Lawrence’s rule excluding such covers from consideration.

As Lawrence explained in a blog post ”AI or not AI? That is the question” the SPFBO contest entry form asked each author “Is the cover wholly or in part AI generated” and “any answer to the AI question other than ‘no’ meant that the cover wasn’t considered for the contest. The author of the winning cover answered ‘no’”.

But when artist Sean Mauss’ cover for M.V. Prindle’s novel Bob the Wizard was selected by the SPFBO judges as the 2023 winner, several artists on Twitter quickly identified it as AI-generated.

The book’s author, Prindle, disagreed:

Contest sponsor Mark Lawrence asked the artist for confirmation. Also, “I emphasized privately to the artist that if it was true, deliberately or through some mistake with the form, they should just come clean and we could all move on. But they were adamant that no AI had been involved. I gave multiple opportunities to U-turn on this.”

Sean Mauss sent Lawrence several preliminary sketches and photos with an explanation of how he’d created the cover with Photoshop, as well as the many-layered Photoshop file for the cover. Lawrence shared some of this on social media. Although people in his SPFBO Facebook group found Mauss’ evidence persuasive, artists on Twitter soon showed why Mauss’ story could not be true.

Artist Rue Sparks has posted a 24-tweet examination of the image files submitted by Mauss, with analysis to show why they could not have been created in the way he claimed. Thread starts here. Here’s an excerpt:

https://twitter.com/ruesparks/status/1662650485252268033

Mark Lawrence said yesterday that “in response to my increasing distress over the situation” Sean Mauss removed his cover from the contest. Lawrence bumped the other finalists up and declared a replacement winner, then announced, “There won’t be a cover contest going forward.”

Meanwhile, a couple of other authors who used the same cover artist have launched a GoFundMe to pay for replacement artwork: “Cover Art Fiasco”.

We’re Clayton Snyder and Michael Fletcher, authors of Noryslka Groans and various other novels. Recently, we paid an ‘artist’ for a cover to our new novel, the conclusion to the Manifest Delusions series. After paying and accepting the art and setting a cover reveal date, we discovered it was AI generated, against our explicit wishes. We were lied to and scammed. We cannot in good conscience continue forward with the current art when there are living artists who need to make a living, and since indie authors aren’t exactly swimming in cash, we’re turning to the community in hopes of rectifying this.

Mauss has now taken down their Twitter account.

Once the original issue was sorted, Twitter toxicity expanded in an attempt to claim other victims.

One participant in the Twitter discussion got overheated and snidely wondered if Prindle’s book was written by ChatGPT.

At the other extreme, someone attempted to retaliate against an SPFBO judge, blogger CraigBookwyrm, who’d been critical of Mauss.

[Thanks to Anne Marble for the story.]

SFWA Awards the 2023 Givers Fund Grants

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The Grants Committee of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) has awarded 29 organizations, activities, and public interest programs with Givers Fund Grants. These micro-grants ranged from $165 to $4,235 each, for use for projects taking place in 2023.

Givers Fund Grants are intended to aid projects that align with SFWA’s mission to promote, advance, and support science fiction and fantasy writing around the world. This fund is made possible with the generosity of donors from SFWA’s community and partnerships within the publishing landscape. If you’d like to donate to this endeavor or another SFWA charitable fund, please do so at www.sfwa.org/donate.  

The recipients of the 2023 SFWA Givers Fund Grants are as follows: 

  • All Types of Media Arts Convention (ATOMACON), for a convention
  • Alpha Workshop for Young Writers Inc., for a workshop
  • Arisia, Inc., for a convention
  • Association of Nigerian Authors, for a youth workshop
  • Baja Arizona Science Fiction Association for TusCon, a convention
  • Black Science Fiction Society, for an online community
  • Bubonicon Inc., for a convention
  • Cal State Fullerton Library Archives & Special Collections, for a state college library
  • Carl Brandon Society, for free books at a juvenile book fair
  • Cascade Writers, for a workshop
  • Clarion West, for a workshop
  • Daniel Marcus, for Story Hour, an online reading series
  • Dream Foundry, for an online community
  • If This Goes On (Don’t Panic), for a podcast
  • L.O.K.I.e.V. zur Forderung der Phantastik, for a convention
  • Multiverse Events LLC, for a convention
  • Narrate Conferences for Sirens Conference, a convention
  • Odyssey Charitable Trust, for a workshop
  • Red Ogre Review, for a small press
  • Sheridan High School Oregon, for a public school library
  • Society for the Furtherance & Study of Fantasy & Science Fiction, for WisCon, a convention
  • Space Cowboy Books, for a podcast
  • Speculative Literature Foundation,  for the Portolan Project, an open-source creative writing and literature resource
  • The Clarion Foundation, for the Clarion San Diego workshop
  • The DC Center for the LGBT Community, for a convention
  • Trustees of Dartmouth College, for the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project
  • University of Kansas Center for Research, for the Ad Astra Institute for Science Fiction & the Speculative Imagination, for a workshop
  • University City Public Library, for a public library
  • University of Wyoming, for LaunchPad, a workshop

Lou Berger, chair of the SFWA Grants Committee, said, “The Committee was pleased to receive so many grant requests for 2023 projects and programs. Special thanks to Jessica Reisman and Nancy Shrock for serving on the volunteer committee with me, and thanks to the always amazing Oz Drummond and Erin Hartshorn, SFWA’s comptroller and chief financial officer, respectively, for their Herculean efforts to give the Committee the insights they needed to most efficiently distribute the monies.”

Many of the 2023 grant recipients have already put their 2023 grants to good use. Sharang Biswas, co-organizer and co-editor of the Dartmouth Speculative Fiction Project, remarked, “Our team is delighted and grateful to SFWA for helping our vision—to bring together writers and multidisciplinary professors to imagine humanity’s future through fiction—to fruition. We geared up in April at the Dartmouth campus to welcome a phenomenal group of authors to spend a weekend exploring their partner professors’ research and employ design methodologies to brainstorm short-story ideas.”

Clarion West recently released a new report on their Evolving Workshop Culture Project. Jae Steinbacher, Clarion West Residential Workshop Coordinator, said, “SFWA’s Giver Fund Grants have helped provide scholarships to students of Clarion West’s Six-Week Workshop. These days, as our classes are more international and writers from all walks of life are able to attend, more students than ever are seeking scholarship support. As part of our commitment to providing a world-class, inclusive workshop experience, we’ve undergone a process of studying and reworking our curriculum. We are happy to share the full review of our workshop critique methods, the alternate methods we reviewed, how we assessed them, and our conclusions.” The report can be read here.

Chris McKitterick, director of the Ad Astra Institute for Science Fiction & the Speculative Imagination that has become a not-for-profit independent of the University of Kansas, shared, “We are thrilled and honored to receive a Givers Fund Grant from SFWA to be able to offer scholarships for our ‘Science into Fiction’ and residential summer speculative-fiction writing workshops for writers who might otherwise not be able to attend such educational opportunities. Associate Director Kij Johnson and I just recently launched the Ad Astra Institute to host both new and long-running workshops and masterclasses, so receiving this grant is so helpful in reaching out to under-served writers.” 

Applications are always open for Givers Fund Grants, and previous recipients are welcome to reapply. The deadline to apply for SFWA’s 2024 awards is October 1, 2023.

To learn more about all of SFWA’s benevolent funds, head here.

[Based on a press release.]

SciFidea Writing Center Hosts Dyson Sphere-Themed Story Contest

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The SciFidea Writing Center of Singapore is accepting entries in the Dyson Sphere Science Fiction Writing Contest through August 31.

These stories from 30,000 to 100,000 words long about a Dyson Sphere will be judged by some of the top names in the field. Ten prizes of US$20,000 each will be awarded.

The contest press release explains the scientific premise:

In 1960, American physicist Freeman Dyson suggested a method for harvesting the vast amounts of energy a star puts out: surround the star with an artificial shell. In honor of him, such a shell is known as a “Dyson Sphere.”

In 1964, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev classified civilizations into three types:

  • A Type I civilization can harness all the energy that reaches its home planet from its parent star
  • A Type II civilization can harness all the energy radiated in all directions by its parent star
  • A Type III civilization can harness all the energy of its entire home galaxy.

Right now, we’re about three-quarters of the way to becoming a Type I civilization — and a civilization that surrounds a star with a Dyson sphere is a Type II.

In 2009, Chinese author Liu Cixin, who would go on to win a Hugo Award for his novel The Three-Body Problem, and his editor Tang Feng formed a group to discuss the astronomical parameters, physical form, and story resources of a Dyson Sphere.

“The most story-rich places on a Dyson Sphere are its weightless axis and poles,” Liu Cixin said. “These extraordinary natural forms suggest exciting ideas. The endless curved landscape is also a novelty with great rivers and glaciers flowing toward the equator.”

We’re looking for science-fiction stories that take the Dyson Sphere notion seriously, accurately depicting the realities of such a remarkable setting: its gigantic proportions, the huge amounts of power it makes available, and plausible ecologies and civilizations that might arise in such an environment. And, of course, we’re looking for great writing: polished prose and creative ideas that invoke a sense of wonder.

The press release also gives this background about the firm behind the contest, and detailed instructions for entering it:

THE CONTEST ORGANIZERS.

SciFidea is a brand launched in Singapore. The Founder Tang Feng and Chief Editor Lynn Sun aim to encourage and develop science-fiction literature and help authors monetize their works.

At present, SciFidea is committed to multiplying the medium of sci-fi works.

In the future, SciFidea will have more exciting projects, developing new types of science-fiction media that showcase humanity’s technological potential.

THE CONTEST JUDGES.

  • Phoenix Alexander, Jay Kay and Doris Klein Librarian for Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • David Brin, Astrophysicist, Hugo, Nebula, John W. Campbell Memorial, and Freedom of Speech Awards Winner
  • Neil Clarke, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Clarkesworld Magazine, Ten-time Finalist and the 2022 Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Editor Short Form
  • Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Editor-in-Chief at Tor Books, World Fantasy Award and Three Hugo Awards Winner
  • Derek Künsken, Sci-Fi Novelist and Short Fiction Writer. Aurora and Asimov’s Reader’s Awards Winner
  • Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo, Nebula, Aurora, and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards Winner
  • Michael Swanwick, Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy Awards Winner. Five-time Hugo Award Winner
  • Liza Groen Trombi, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Locus Magazine. President of the Locus SF Foundation. Four-time Hugo Award Winner

CONTEST RULES.

1. Submission deadline is the end of the day (midnight) Singapore Standard Time (UTC+8) on August 31st, 2023.

2. Only stories principally set on, in, or involving one or more Dyson spheres are eligible.

3. Entries must be previously unpublished and be between 30,000 and 100,000 words long. Only finished stories will be accepted.

4. Multiple works will be shortlisted for the ten grand prizes. If your work is shortlisted, you will be required to allow us to make it publicly and freely available on our website for a year. Those whose stories make the shortlist but don’t win will each receive US$2,000.

5. Out of the shortlisted works, ten winners will be announced early in 2024. The authors of the ten winners will each receive US$20,000.

If your work is one of those winners, you agree to grant SciFidea a ten-year publishing license to that work, with the US$20,000 prize being an advance against royalties. The author will share 50% of the net income on print publishing rights (including foreign languages in foreign countries), and another 30% of the net income from developing your work into other media (film, television, animation, graphic novels/manga, and so on).

If the work has gone on to another phase within the ten-year time limit (for instance, being adapted into a film), the contract will automatically have a ten-year renewal from the ending date of the previous one.

Please note that SciFidea is not only a publishing website or literature agency but an IP (Intellectual Property) producer per se.

HOW TO ENTER.

Email your submission to: [email protected]

Your email subject line should be in this format:

Your last name – the story’s title – the exact word count

Your submission should be attached to your email in .docx format (not .pdf, .doc, .rar or any other format). Please use Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface (although if you need a special typeface for some typographic characters or special portions of your manuscript, that’s fine).

Important: At the very beginning of your manuscript (not in the body of the email, and not in a separate file), please include a couple of sentences summarizing your plot.

The file name for your attachment should be in the same format as the email subject line:

Your last name – the story’s title – the exact word count

SCIFIDEA ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

[Based on a press release.]

S. B. Divya Promotes Sudowrite

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S. B. Divya surprised colleagues this week by recommending Sudowrite’s “Story Engine”, marketed as an AI tool for writing long-form stories. Her tweet came out the same day that Sudowrite co-founder James Yu announced the product launch.

https://twitter.com/divyastweets/status/1658946897430843392

S.B. Divya is the author of Meru and Nebula-finalist Machinehood. She formerly co-edited Escape Pod, the weekly science fiction podcast. She holds degrees in Computational Neuroscience and Signal Processing and has worked for 20 years as an electrical engineer in various fields including pattern recognition, machine intelligence, high speed communications, digital music, and medical devices.

Numerous critical comments were made in response to Divya’s recommendation, of which the following were among the first:

Divya has yet to reply to other tweeted questions about her personal stake in the product, if any.

Sudowrite was founded by writers Amit Gupta and James Yu. According to a FAQ on the company website, “The AI works by guessing one word at a time, based on general concepts it has learned from billions of samples of text.”

Elsewhere on the website the concept is explained in more detail:

Sudowrite is based on GPT-3, a 175 billion parameter Transformer model, which learns general concepts from its training data. The bigger the model, the more complex these concepts can be.

The model generates text by guessing what’s most likely to come next, one word at a time. Kind of like autocomplete on your phone. It’s not copying and pasting sentences from a database. It actually writes each word individually.

Twitter user @ZinniaZed located video of a talk that Divya and Sudowrite’s James Yu presented two months ago to UC San Diego’s “The Design Lab”, “AI and the Future of Creative Writing”, which includes the following quote showing Divya’s awareness of the technology’s potential impact on professional creators:

One of the one of the sort of existential questions about art that is what does it even mean and does it have to be produced by a human being? And I feel like you know with the advent of some of these tools as we enable people to produce their own writing, to produce their own um paintings, there is going to be shrinkage in the market for buying those same products produced by human hands, right, because the same way that if I want to I can take my own wedding pictures today I don’t have to hire a photographer and they can turn out really, really good…

Divya is not the only well-known author to speak favorably of Sudowrite – Hugh Howey and Mark Frauenfelder are quoted on the company website itself. A Google search yields many other examples.