Tag: cons

Oh no, you may be saying, Fourth Street is over, and I don’t know where else to see Marissa blather on any time soon. Other than the internet. Well, worry not! I will be at Readercon July 9-12, a.k.a. Real Soon Now, and here is my schedule!

Beyond Treevenge: Environmental Justice Stories of Hope and Resistance. Friday, July 10, 1:00 PM, Salon E. Fiyah, Reckoning, Solarpunk Magazine, Stelliform Press, Tractor Beam, Sieze the Press, DreamForge, the new Eco24 anthology from Apex; the list goes on. New markets for ecological and progressive speculative fiction and poetry keep appearing, and given the state of the world and people’s growing desperation for positive change, it’s not hard to see why. Let’s explore what drives this exploding field. How is art rebuilding our capacity to imagine optimistic futures?

Secretly Brilliant Strategists. Friday, July 10, 2:00 PM, Salon A/B. Ivan Vorpatril of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga is handsome and vacuous: a himbo. And yet, despite his seemingly unimpressive mental faculties, Ivan repeatedly makes good strategic choices—even when they don’t initially appear to be. What do we love (or hate!) about characters whose intelligence is camouflaged? What do they do for their narratives that more obviously clever characters can’t?

Lois, Megan, and Tammy: Miles, Gen, and Alanna. Friday, July 10, 6:00 PM, Salon A/B. Fans of Lois McMaster Bujold often speak of both Megan Whalen Turner and Tamora Pierce in the same breath, saying their writing and characterization feel the same, that these women are writing in the same vein, scratching the same itch for their readers. Why are these writers being grouped together by fans? How are their works in conversation with each other? Are there additional authors and series that belong on the same list?

Meet the Prose Party. Friday, July 10, 10:15 PM, Salon E.

Kaffeeklatsch: Marissa Lingen. Saturday, July 11, 12:00 PM, Suite 830.

Reading: Marissa Lingen. Saturday, July 11, 6:00 PM, Empower/Embrace. (Yes, apparently there is a room named Empower/Embrace. I do not guarantee embraces for all who enter there, because I am empowered.)

The Limits of Hope: A Meditation on Fiction as an Activist Force. Sunday, July 12, 10 AM, Salon C/D. In a keynote at the 2025 Locus Awards, Sarah Gailey challenged the focus on literature conferring hope on the reader, asking, “Are we here to provide comfort to the inert? Are we here to reassure people that experiencing a positive feeling is the end of their work?” They noted that hopelessness, fear, and despair all can be motivating, but regardless, “you are also powerful enough to act on your principles even when they oppose your emotions.” How can we keep a clear eye about the practical effects of stories? How can we take lessons from fiction and writing and apply them to activism?

Reckoning at 10. Sunday, July 12, 12 PM, Salon C/D. Reckoning launched its first issue at Readercon 27, back in 2016. Join Reckoning contributors and staff in celebrating ten years of creative writing on environmental justice with readings of work from the new issue and highlights from the past.

I have my schedule for Capclave! I’m doing three panels and a reading (should probably figure out what I’m reading…). Here’s what we’ve got:

The Power of Places. Friday, 5:00. Every work of fiction has a setting.  This is especially true of science fiction and fantasy where the settings are imaginary – other planets and fantasy realms. How do writers decide on a setting and communicate it to the reader? What makes some settings seem real while others mere painted backdrops? How does society help to shape the world around it? What writers have effective settings and what techniques do they use?

The Absolute Boss. Friday, 7:00. Much of SF/Fantasy has Galactic Emperors and Kings of fantasy kingdoms. We have Disney Princesses but not Disney Elected Leaders. Many plots feature the Return of the King. Why are there so few democracies in SF/Fantasy?  What does it mean when our entertainments focus on absolute rulers? 

Author Reading, Marissa Lingen. Saturday, 3:00.

Hopeful Fiction for Dark Times. Saturday, 4:00. The world seems to be in a dark place, such that “peddling hope” could appear irresponsible. Panelists will talk about hopepunk, cozy fantasy, and other forms of “lighter” fiction, giving examples, and talking about how hope is particularly important.

Fear, Loathing, and Transcendence in the Great American Road Trip. Friday, June 13, 4:00. Beth Cato, Marissa Lingen, Alec Marsh, Arkady Martine, Reuben Poling. Whether we like it or not, we are currently in the United States of America. The particular fantastic resonance of this country, and the continent it occupies, is often evoked by that great American literary tradition – the road novel. There’s an undeniable magic to traversing this huge landmass, with all its relatively open spaces. The brutal process of colonization that produced this country, and the unusually truncated history delineated by that process, add texture and horror to the magic of the open road.

Books like Max Gladstone’s Last Exit or Rebecca Roanhorse’s Trail of Lightning take the American road novel a step or ten further into the fantastic, including unflinching consideration of the bones beneath the highway. What other possibilities can fantasists encounter out on the interstate, and what can they throw in the trunk to bring along into other worlds than these?

I’m Only Happy When It Rains. Saturday, June 14, 2:00. Elizabeth Bear, Anthony W. Eichenlaub, Marissa Lingen, Arkady Martine, Caroline Stevermer. The weather’s weirder lately. Or at least out here in the regular world it is – but the weather’s been weird in fantasy for a long time now. Sometimes it tries to kill you (like in McCaffery’s Pern novels or Elizabeth Bear’s The Steles of the Sky), sometimes it makes you really miserable and then it tries to kill you (CJ Cherryh’s 40,000 in Gehenna, Bruce Sterling’s Heavy Weather), and sometimes you try to kill it and that doesn’t go so well (every story about terraforming or cloud seeding or propitiating the weather gods for mercy). Is the weather really just an excuse for an author’s indulgence in pathetic fallacy? Or can the environment become a live actor in fantasy storytelling?

The schedule for this year’s Fourth Street Fantasy convention is up! I hope to see many of you there. My scheduled programming items during the con this year are:

RELIABLY UNRELIABLE NARRATORS

9:20 AM Saturday

W.L. Bolm, Mary Robinette Kowal, Marissa Lingen (M), C.L. Polk, Shen Tao

For obvious reasons, we talk a lot about suspension of disbelief in the fantasy genre. But what about stories where the reader could stand to benefit from a healthy sense of skepticism? Plenty of speculative works make use of the good old unreliable narrator: a first-person protagonist with a precarious relationship with the truth, a 3rd-person ensemble impacted by their own limitations and biases, or even a seemingly omniscient narrator who looks away at some convenient moments.

How can authors best balance a narrative’s need for obfuscation, omission, or outright deceit runs up with the reader buy-in required for fantastic elements? How do readers navigate a story where the author is asking you to trust them about one thing, and lying to you about the other? And what specific possibilities can be unlocked by a story where the narrative tour guide to an imaginary world can’t be trusted?

THE MIDDLE OF THE STORY: 30 YEARS OF MIRROR DANCE

11:20 AM Sunday

Lois McMaster Bujold, Marissa Lingen (M)

4th Street Fantasy continues to celebrate the rich history of Minnesota fantasy and science fiction. This year, we’re very pleased to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold, a book that stands as both a singular success and a powerful middle chapter in the Vorkosigan saga. Lois will join Marissa Lingen for a conversation about Dance and about how she confronted the well-known Middle Book Problem – how to produce a story that stands on its own and encapsulates a beginning, middle, and end without being a beginning or end in and of itself.

Fourth Street! Be there or be somewhere else nice of your choosing!

The virtual Fourth Street Fantasy panels are up in podcast form! Please enjoy this audio panel on The Role of Hospitality in Stories, featuring Reuben Poling, Pamela Dean, Matt Doyle, and Max Gladstone!

And, uh, me. Your moderator.

Look, there’s no way I’m listening to this, I don’t listen to podcasts I’m not on, and I definitely do not want to hear my own voice for basically an hour, so…you enjoy, tell me about it.

Hurrah for advance planning! I am going to ConFusion in Novi, MI (Detroit suburban area) January 16-19, 2020, and here is the schedule of where you can find me there:

Managing and Overcoming Professional Burnout Friday 1:00PM Charlevoix The Mayo Clinic defines burnout as “a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.” It can affect people of all professions, but it presents particular dangers to creatives, whose work is often tied closely to personal identity. Our panel will discuss how to spot the signs of burnout, how to manage it, and how to overcome it. Marissa Lingen (m), Pablo Defendini, Ken Schrader, Kameron Hurley

Speculative Social Media in Science Fiction Saturday 5:00PM Charlevoix Thinly-veiled or even overt references to popular real-world social platforms are common in modern media–including in speculative stories like superhero tv shows and movies. But speculative worldbuilding often calls for a re-imagining of how humans interact–would the social media of the United Federation of Planets really look like ours? Or would a peaceful interstellar society be more likely to arise in a world where Google Reader never died? How can writers incorporate new visions of social media that reflect their speculative worldbuilding? Marissa Lingen (m), John Chu, Jennifer Mace, Annalee Flower Horne, Brandon O’Brien

Reading: Marissa Lingen, Tim Boerger, John Wiswell Sunday 10:00AM Saugatuck Marissa Lingen, John Wiswell, Tim Boerger

Great Lakes and Inland Seas In Secondary Worlds Sunday 12:00PM Isle Royale It’s hard to really get a sense of the scale of the American Great Lakes if you’ve never stood on one of their shores. Those of us used to thinking of lakes as more akin to very large ponds are often surprised by the dunes, the waves, the wind, the distant horizon. Writers who know the lakes offer advice on how to incorporate great lakes and inland seas into our fantasy worlds–as a narrative setting, what separates lakes from oceans? What unique or surprising storytelling opportunities do lakes provide? Anthony W. Eichenlaub (m), Marissa Lingen, Phoebe Barton, John Winkelman

I’m done with professional travel for this year, but I still have at least one more public appearance for fiction-related stuff: a week from today–that is, Thursday, November 21–at 7:00 p.m., I’ll be doing a reading at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 3038 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, with Naomi Kritzer and Sue Burke.

Naomi and Sue and I each plan to read a short selection, and then we’ll have conversation and questions from the audience (if any). Should be a good time! Come on out if you’re around!

Like many other totally normal non-mutant human beings, I often choose to be in one place at one time, a superpower known as unilocation. In October I’ll be unilocating in various places in Montreal and New York! Here’s a guide to that.

At 7 p.m. on October 10, I will be doing a reading with several other authors at Argo Bookstore on 1915 Ste. Catherine St. W. in Montreal. It should be a lovely time and followed by a trip to Juliette et Chocolat for the eponymous chocolat. Mmm.

The weekend immediately following that I will be appearing on the panels and events at Scintillation convention in Montreal. Here are the four things for which I’m on program for that, Saturday October 12 and Sunday October 13.

Saturday 13:00, The Reading Room: Marissa Lingen and Tim Boerger Reading. I will read something different at this from what I will read at the Argo reading. What will it be? You’ll have to see it to believe it. Wait, no, I mean: you’ll have to be there to find out. (Or, I suppose, ask me nicely the day before.)

Sunday 11:15, The Big Room: Friends and Family in the Future: Ada Palmer, Marissa Lingen (M), Rosemary Kirstein, Karl Schroeder, Naomi Kritzer. We’re still going to have them, but the patterns will change. How might they change, and why don’t we see more of this?

Sunday 15:15, The Reading Room: Sherwood Smith and Marissa Lingen in Conversation.

Sunday 16:30, The Big Room: Futures Worth Having: Maria Farrell, Ada Palmer (M), Karl Schroeder, Ruthanna Emrys, William Alexander, Marissa Lingen. What kind of future do we want to live in?

Then I will get on a plane to New York! Because life is full of complication and interest. The NYRSF sponsors a reading at the Brooklyn Commons Cafe, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, at 6:45 on Monday October 14. It will also appear on Hour of the Wolf on 99.5 FM, hosted by Jim Freund. This reading is authors from Reckoning magazine, hosted by editor Michael J. DeLuca, featuring myself and several others.

I have not listed the full complement of authors for either non-convention reading because I’m not sure whether everyone who’s doing it has been arranged, and I don’t want to leave anybody out. But there are lovely awesome people, not just me, and it will be a good time.

Classic Nonfiction Essay Club: “Estrangement and Cognition” by Darko Suvin
Meg Elison (mod), Tom Greene, Alexander Jablokov, Marissa Lingen, Graham Sleight
Fri 1:00 PM, Salon B
Darko Suvin’s preferred edition of his essay “Estrangement and Cognition,” coining the oft-repeated statement that SF is the literature of cognitive estrangement, first appeared in 1979. (Strange Horizons later reprinted it online.) It was a decade in the making, and the world and SF both changed quite a bit from 1969 to 1979. We’ll consider “Estrangement and Cognition” in the context of SF’s New Wave, the political upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s, and the subsequent shifts in speculative genres.

17776 and All That: The Crumbling of the Jock-Nerd Divide
Susan Bigelow, Keffy R.M. Kehrli, Robert Killheffer, Marissa Lingen (mod), Cecilia Tan
Fri 6:00 PM, Salon B
Jon Bois’s wild digital narrative “17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future” appeared on SB Nation, a sports news website, and aimed straight at the commonalities of sports and SF fandoms: rules and ways around the rules, glorious absurdity, tragedy alongside heroism. The jock-nerd divide has crumbled. What does that mean for nerd lit? Will cerebral SF embrace sweaty physicality? Will epic hockey games replace epic battlefields? This panel of sports-fan fans will discuss these possibilities and more.

Reading: Marissa Lingen
Sat 11:00 AM, Salon C

You Know, It Kinda Grows on You
James Patrick Kelly (mod), Marissa Lingen, Arkady Martine, Eric Schaller, David G. Shaw
Sat 3:00 PM, Salon B
Spaceships that are giant plants, humans whose brains rival supercomputers, lizards bred to function as flying flamethrowers—these are just a few science-fictional examples of how humans might manipulate their bodies and environments to support the human race’s spread throughout the universe. This panel will examine imagined technology that lives and breathes, and how human life might change and grow alongside it.

Lloyd Alexander, Existentialist
C.S.E. Cooney, Andrea Martinez Corbin, Chris Gerwel, Marissa Lingen (mod), Sonya Taaffe
Sun 11:00 AM, Salon 3
Lloyd Alexander, translator of Jean-Paul Sartre, wrote an existentialist epic fantasy series. As Jesse Schotter writes on Full Stop, “The end of The High King, and Taran’s choice to remain in Prydain… salvage[s] the idea of free will within the deterministic framework of the genre.” How did existentialism influence Alexander’s other work (Time Cat, the Westmark trilogy)? What are other examples of existentialist speculative fiction epics? With the present deconstruction of prophecy-driven epics, how can writers learn from Alexander’s work?