Member Newsletter

Speculative Literature Foundation Newsletter - No. 02

Welcome to the March SLF Newsletter-and thanks for your continuing support of the Speculative Literature Foundation. As you will see, we are moving ahead on a number of fronts. Please forgive the delay in getting this issue to you-I was attending a conference most of the last week of March. Future issues will come out as regularly as possible at the end of the month.

Announcements:

- Newsflash from SLF Director Mary Anne Mohanraj: "I'm delighted to announce that the IRS has approved our application for 501(c)3 non-profit status. All donations are now tax-deductible (and that's retroactive, so if you donated or signed up as a member in 2003, you can deduct that on your 2003 taxes). Yay, us!"

- Director Mohanraj also announces the formation of the Small Press Co-op, a co-operative venture open to any small press publishers working in the genre (print or electronic, book or magazine, professional or self-publisher, all are welcome). Membership is currently free. We'd love it if you'd help us get the word out to the community; see more details and instructions for joining here.

- Mary Anne also informs us that: "We've finalized the jurors for the Fountain Award. Heinz Insu Fenkl, John Kessel, Larissa Lai, Kelly Link, and Maureen McHugh have all kindly agreed to read stories for us and help select the winner and honorable mentions. It's a great line-up -- Karen (the awards administrator) and I are very pleased."

- Awards Administrator Karen Meisner reports that: "As of March 15th, most of the nominations are in for the Fountain Award, and the jury is busily reading away. We're pleased with the response and variety of short stories we've received in our first year, from over fifty different publications."

- Webmaster Greg Banks has added the option of Institutional Membership to the SLF website; Membership is $40, open to any organizations (presses, magazines, academic groups, fan groups, etc.) that wish to help support the SLF. For more details, visit: Institutional Membership

- After lengthy discussion an SLF FAQ (list of Frequently Asked Questions) has been finalized (subject, of course, to additions as new questions arise). To have all your questions about the SLF answered (or to send us new questions), visit it on the website at: FAQ

- The webmasters have also begun posting Staff Bios, which may be viewed here. Some are serious and factual, some quirky and personal, and it's a varied and interesting group-check us out!

Staff Introduction: Shannan Palma

- Hi. I didn't think to introduce myself last newsletter, so this month I thought I'd remedy that oversight. My name is Shannan Palma, and I'm the Web Content Coordinator. I'm a writer and a poet just beginning to get published. Beginning this fall I'll be pursuing my doctorate in Women's Studies at Emory University, and studying contemporary mythmaking in film and literature.

Let me take a moment now to explain exactly what I do for the SLF. I coordinate links gathered by the Web Content Committee and submitted by visitors to our website. I gather these links, check them against what is already on the site, and format them for upload by the webmasters. Eventually we will be generating original content for the site, as well. Please keep in mind that the committee works very hard to gather these links, and an exhaustive list is a long-term project. If you notice that we have not yet listed a site that you feel is relevant, or if you have corrections or amplifications, simply tell us about it! E-mail Shannan

Formatting your links speeds up the process. Proper format is:

Suggested Section
Name of Site: http://www.websiteaddress.com
Brief description of site content. NAME OF WEBSITE CREATOR.

SLF Publicity

- Greg Banks has designed an SLF flyer that can be duplicated for distribution at cons and other events. Download it.

- Kate Schaefer reports that SLF flyers were included in the convention packets at Potlatch.

- Dave Lunde distributed SLF flyers at the International Conference on the Fantastic in Ft. Lauderdale, March 24-29.

- Mary Anne has arranged for an SLF Small Press Co-op table in the dealers' room at WisCon; Dave Lunde will assist. If you're attending WisCon (in Madison, WI over Memorial Day weekend,), we encourage you to stop by, say hi, take away some flyers, and consider purchasing some of our co-op members' fine publications.

- Our original SLF Press Release has been reprinted in the February SFWA Forum. A nice summary of it was also included in the February Mythprint, the newsletter of The Mythopoeic Society.

- Jeremy Smith reports on Bay Area events: "Believe it or not, we're actually organizing two. An in-genre fundraising benefit is now definitively set for Friday, April 23 at 7:30 PM. It will be held at Omnicircus, located at 550 Natoma Street in South of Market, San Francisco. Readers include Pat Murphy, Ken Wharton, and Terry Bisson, and it will be MC'ed by other magazine publisher, Charlie Anders. It will also feature performances by Omnicircus 'an experimental, surreal-psychedelic musical-cabaret group' led by artist Frank Garvey. A reception will follow - membership forms will come with free wine! Strange Horizons, other magazine, Emerald City (i.e., Cheryl), and NFG are all co-sponsoring."
"The second event is less definitive at this point, but definitely coming together. It will showcase literary authors and publications that have produced speculative fiction, and celebrate the contributions of spec lit to contemporary fiction. We'll be charging a nominal fee at the door, but its specific goal is to promote the Fountain Award to a black-clad, literary, non-genre audience. Zoetrope:All-Story has agreed to co-sponsor." [More details on this next issue…]

New Additions to Website:

RESOURCES/READERS

NEW SUBHEADING: RICH HORTON'S MARKET SUMMARIES:
Rich Horton, a reviewer for Locus Magazine, summarizes the short fiction published in the previous year by various speculative fiction venues.

Analog, 2003
Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, 2003
Anthologies, 2003
Anthologies, 2003, DAW
Anthologies, 2003, HC Fantasy & Horror
Anthologies, 2003, Longer Stories
Anthologies, 2003, Traditional SF
Anthologies, 2003, Out of Genre
Anthologies, 2003, Outside U.S.
Anthologies, 2003, Polyphony
Anthologies, 2003, Small Press
Anthologies, 2003, Late Addition
Asimov's, 2003
Cemetery Dance, 2003
Challenging Destiny, 2003
Chapbook Anthologies, 2003
DNA Publications, 2003
Electric Velocipede, 2003
The Infinite Matrix, 2003
Interzone, 2003
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, 2003
New Stories from Collections, 2003
Oceans of the Mind, 2003
On Spec, 2003
Paradox, 2003
Realms of Fantasy, 2003
Short Fiction Summary, 2003, with Tentative Hugo Nominations
Some Debuts and a Demise, 2003
Some Online Venues, 2003
Some Single Issues, 2003
Standalone Novellas, 2003
Stories from Miscellaneous Sources, 2003
Strange Horizons, 2003
Talebones, 2003
Tales of the Unanticipated, 2003
The Third Alternative, 2003

BOOKLIST INDEX
The Heinlein Society: www.heinleinsociety.org
Chartered as a non-profit corporation and organized to fully qualify as an educational charity, The Heinlein Society promotes the work of Robert Heinlein through booklists, discussion groups, bibliographic endeavors, and more. Crosslisted.

AWARDS INFO
Aurealis Awards: http://www.sf.org.au/aurealis/
The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 by Chimaera Publications, the publishers of Aurealis Magazine, to recognise the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.

MAGAZINES
Agog! Press : http://catsparks.net/agogpress/
Annual Australian magazine of exciting, compulsively readable stories in the fantastic genres of SF, horror and general fantasy.

Aurealis : http://www.sf.org.au/aurealis/
Australia's premiere SF&F magazine.

Borderlands Magazine : http://www.borderlands.com.au/
Magazine of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror stories. Crosslisted.

Fables & Reflections : http://www.fables-and-reflections.net/
A magazine of Australian fiction, non fiction articles, critical essays and reviews, addressing the genres of Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Magic Realism. Crosslisted.

On Spec: http://www.onspec.ca
Canadian magazine publishing speculative fiction since the spring of 1989. Crosslisted.

Orb : http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kendacot/Orb/
Annual magazine showcasing work by Australian writers and artists in the genres of speculative fiction, SF, fantasy, magical realism, horror, and non-realist fantasy.

READING DISCUSSION GROUPS
LINK ADDENDUM: Canadian SF:
Fans, publishers, and authors of Canadian SF are welcome to join the discussion of speculative fiction.

The Heinlein Society: www.heinleinsociety.org
Chartered as a non-profit corporation and organized to fully qualify as an educational charity, The Heinlein Society promotes the work of Robert Heinlein through booklists, discussion groups, bibliographic endeavors, and more. Crosslisted.

NEW SUBHEADING: CONVENTIONS
Confluence 2004: http://trfn.clpgh.org/parsec/conflu/
Sixteenth Annual Literary Science-Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Western Pennsylvania, July 23-25.

RESOURCES/ACADEMICS

K-12
LINK ADDENDUM: "science" was misspelled in this link. Constructing Ideas in Physical Science: a NSF project which incorporates scinece fiction into a middle school physical science curriculum; a collection of the short stories generated by the project should be coming out sometime in 2004 or 2005; thanks to project writer Kelly McCullough for the pointer.

The Heinlein Society: www.heinleinsociety.org
Chartered as a non-profit corporation and organized to fully qualify as an educational charity, The Heinlein Society promotes the work of Robert Heinlein through booklists, discussion groups, bibliographic endeavors, and more. Crosslisted.

COLLEGE / UNIVERSITY

Popular Culture Association: http://www.h-net.org/~pcaaca/
Association of scholars whose research interests include all aspects of popular culture including detective, mystery, horror, science fiction, fantasy and comics.

CONFERENCES
International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA): http://www.iafa.org/
The annual conference of the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, held from Wednesday-Sunday, the last weekend of March, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Mythcon: http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon35.html
The annual conference of the Mythopoeic Society, held in varying locations. Mythcon XXXV will be in Ann Arbor, MI, July30-August 2, 2004. Crosslisted.

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Meeting: http://www.h-net.org/~pcaaca/
Dates and locations vary year to year. In 2004: April 7-10, San Antonio, TX. Crosslisted.

HOW TO START / RUN A MAGAZINE

NEW SUBHEADING: BOOK PRODUCTION
Do-It-Yourself Book Production, by Hamish MacDonald: http://nomediakings.org/Production.htm
Hamish does a nice job of talking an author through the process of self-publishing a book, from details of layout to cover design to printing costs. Crosslisted.

NEW SUBHEADING: BOOK DISTRIBUTION
Looking at Book Distribution, by Jim Munroe: http://nomediakings.org/Distribution.htm
A brief introduction to the differences between self-distributing, small alternative distributors, and the big distributors. Crosslisted.

NEW SUBHEADING: BOOK PROMOTION
Do-It-Yourself Book Promotion, by Jim Munroe: http://nomediakings.org/Promotion.htm
A brief introduction to book promotion, discussing media packages, promotional material, websites, and launch parties. Crosslisted.

WRITING

MARKET LISTINGS
Borderlands Magazine : http://www.borderlands.com.au
Magazine of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror stories. Go to http://www.borderlands.com.au/submissions.html for submission guidelines. Crosslisted.

Fables & Reflections : http://www.fables-and-reflections.net/
A magazine of Australian fiction, non fiction articles, critical essays and reviews, addressing the genres of Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Magic Realism. Go to http://www.fables-and-reflections.net/submit.htm for submission guidelines. Crosslisted.

On Spec: http://www.onspec.ca
Canadian magazine publishing speculative fiction since the spring of 1989. Go to http://www.onspec.ca./guidelines.php for submission guidelines. Crosslisted.

NEW SUBHEADING: RICH HORTON'S MARKET SUMMARIES:
Rich Horton, a reviewer for Locus Magazine, summarizes the short fiction published in the previous year by various speculative fiction venues. [See crosslisting above]

WRITER INFO / DISCUSSION AREAS

NEW SUBHEADING: SELF-PUBLISHING
Do-It-Yourself Book Production, by Hamish MacDonald: http://nomediakings.org/Production.htm
Hamish does a nice job of talking an author through the process of self-publishing a book, from details of layout to cover design to printing costs. Crosslisted.

Looking at Book Distribution, by Jim Munroe: http://nomediakings.org/Distribution.htm
A brief introduction to the differences between self-distributing, small alternative distributors, and the big distributors. Crosslisted.

Do-It-Yourself Book Promotion, by Jim Munroe: http://nomediakings.org/Promotion.htm
A brief introduction to book promotion, discussing media packages, promotional material, websites, and launch parties. Crosslisted.

Do-It-Yourself Indie Touring, by Jim Munroe: http://nomediakings.org/touring.htm
A brief introduction to independing book touring.

WRITERS' ORGANIZATIONS
The Interstitial Arts Foundation: http://www.artistswithoutborders.org/mission.html
The IAF was founded by a group of literary, visual, musical, and performance artists for the purpose of creating and promoting Interstitial Art. Crosslisted.

NON-GENRE WRITERS' ORGANIZATIONS
Writers' Guild of America: http://www.wga.org/
The WGA is the labor union for writers in the motion picture, broadcast, cable and new technologies industries.

WORKSHOPS
Alpha, the Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Workshop for Young Writers: http://www.spellcaster.org/alpha
A SF/F/H workshop for Writers aged 14-19. It will be held July 14-23, 2004 in the Pittsburgh area in conjunction with Confluence.