Samuel Delany

The 2011 Eaton Science Fiction Conference that begins February 11 boasts a spectacular slate of speakers, beginning with authors Nalo Hopkinson, China Miéville and Karen Tei Yamashita. Hopkinson is the Jamaica-born author of Brown Girl in the Ring and The New Moon’s Arms; Miéville is the English author of “Perdido Street Station, The City and the City and Kraken; and Yamashita is an associate professor of literature at UC Santa Cruz and author of I Hotel and Tropic of Orange.

Samuel R. Delany and Harlan Ellison will receive the 2010 and 2011 Eaton Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science Fiction. Ellison, the 2011 recipient, is expected to attend the conference to accept the award.

Mike Davis, distinguished professor of creative writing at UCR, will deliver the keynote address. Other notable authors will participate, such as Greg Benford and Howard Hendrix.

The conference will be preceded on February 10 by the Science Fiction Studies Symposium, which will explore the theme “The Singularity in SF Literature and Theory.” Scheduled participants include Neil Easterbrook, who teaches literary theory at Texas Christian University and is an editorial consultant for the journal Science Fiction Studies; Brooks Landon, professor of English at the University of Iowa and author of “Science Fiction After 1900: From the Steam Man to the Stars”; and Rob Latham, who is a senior editor of Science Fiction Studies.

Both the Eaton Conference and symposium are open to the public. Admission to the symposium is free. The conference will be held at the Mission Inn and Spa in downtown Riverside. Registration is $165 for the entire conference or $75 for a single day. Student admission is $55.

[Based on the Eaton Conference press release. Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]