Category: News

SciFiFest 2010: Olympia Timberland Library, October 23

SFFaudio News

Timberland Regional LibraryLibrarian Kelsey Smith sez:

“SciFi fans, please join us for our second annual SciFiFest! Hugo & Nebula award winning authors Ted Chiang and Nancy Kress will read their work, answer questions, and challenge you to a SciFi trivia throwdown. Spiritual Successor (featuring the infamous Zach Mandeville) will lull you with tunes about suicidal superheroes, terminally ill space babies, and moon janitors. Local heroes Mutoid Men will close out the evening with their special brand of ‘particle-accelerated, Moog synthesized, scientific rock’n’roll.’ Come in costume and win a prize! The library is normally closed at this time and is only open for the program. This event is sponsored by the Friends of the Olympia Timberland Library.”

This event is FREE and open to the public.

SciFiFest 2010
Date: Saturday, October 23, 7:30pm
Location:
Olympia Timberland Library
313 8th Ave SE
Olympia, WA
Phone: 360-352-0595

As a special SFFaudio bonus, the first five attendees to send me (by email) a photograph (or suitable hand drawn facsimile) of themselves and Ted Chiang together at the October 23rd event will receive, by mail, his or her choice of one of the following unabridged audiobooks:

Carnival by Elizabeth Bear (Recorded Books, 11 CDs)
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers (Blackstone Audio, 10 CDs)
The Caves Of Steel by Isaac Asimov (Tantor Media, 6 CDs)
The Speed Of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Brilliance Audio, 12 CDs)
Zero History by William Gibson (Penguin Audio, 11 CDs)

To be eligible the emailed images must be received no later than 11:59 pm on October 31, 2010. Prizes shall be awarded in order of their receipt by email. The suitability of any hand drawn entries shall be determined by me. Please title your emailed entries “SciFiFest 2010”.

Posted by Jesse Willis

TED Talk: Elif Şafak on The Politics Of fiction

SFFaudio News

Elif Şafak present this TED talk about fiction and storytelling. I confess I put off listening to it, I listened to it last when other items on my iPad had run out. TED Talks, after all, are about hard science, data, controversy. I wasn’t planning to listen to a TED talks discussion of fiction.

When I did finally listen, I was in awe. If you watch rather than listen you will see Elif receive a much deserved standing ovation for her presentation on the power of fiction to change the world. Her hypothesis is that that fiction can overcome identity politics. Her advice to writers is that you should not write what you know, you should write what you dream, whatever you can conceive, write beyond the comfort zone about what you feel.

Though I have not read her fiction, I am sold on her passionate view of it. It is the extraordinary, the imaginative in fiction that has a draw for me. Is that why science fiction, at its best, is worthy of my limited time?

She begins with the image of a circle and her personal story. She discusses the importance of connecting with people outside our own circles. “Communities of the like-minded is one of the greatest dangers of today’s globalized world.” She believes fiction can best dispel cultural stereotypes; fiction can end elitism. And, she proves it.

Posted by Elaine Willis

TOEFL essay on Radio Drama (filed under FINE ARTS)

SFFaudio News

I was flipping through a new TOEFL book the other day, Building Skills for the TOEFL iBT, 2nd Edition Beginning Combined Book, when I spotted this gem of a topic between essays on Mass Wasting and Minoan Pottery:

TOEFL - Fine Arts - Radio Drama

Fun huh? For bonus points try to spot the typo (doubtless it will be fixed in the next edition). And for extra credit you can |READ OUR REVIEW| of Not From Space.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Ray Bradbury Tribute Song, Sort Of

SFFaudio News

On a double dog dare, I’ve decided to post this very funny and controversial video by Rachel Bloom. The controversy isn’t on the prominent use of the F-Bomb, but whether Ray Bradbury is the best Science Fiction writer in history. I hope we can agree that he is a great writer of fantasy/science fiction. More of a fantasist with the tropes of the science fiction genre.

What a great video to encourage teenagers (and adults too) to read. ;) The chorus is catchy. Be sure not to be singing out loud at grandma’s dinner table. Unless, of course, she’s an old Bradbury fan … and then perhaps she did f*ck Ray Bradbury.

[via BoingBoing.net]

Posted by Rick of the Brain Plucker Blog.

FREE LISTENS Top 10 Free Stories

Review

Free Listens Blog

A few weeks ago Jesse posted my list of Best Free Audiobooks. I got a great response for this post, so I thought I’d do another one with my favorite free short stories that I’ve reviewed at Free Listens. Of course such lists are inherently silly, as they depend upon the listmaker’s tastes, current mood, memory, and a host of other little factors that have nothing to do with the quality of the story. So, if you’d rather, here’s a list of 10 really darn good stories (but maybe not the best):

  1. “The Lottery” – Shirley Jackson
  2. “A Rose for Emily” – William Faulkner
  3. “The Gospel According to Mark” – Jorge Luis Borges
  4. “The Gift of the Magi” – O. Henry
  5. “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov
  6. “Bullet in the Brain” – Tobias Wolff
  7. “A Sound of Thunder” – Ray Bradbury
  8. “The Monkey’s Paw” – W.W. Jacobs
  9. “The Open Window” – Saki
  10. “The Yellow Wallpaper” – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Hope you enjoy these!

Posted by Seth