Category: Member News

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Ecology of Story: World as Character by Nina Munteanu

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Ecology of Story: World as Character is the 3rd guidebook in SF Canada member Nina Munteanu‘s acclaimed “how to write” series for novice to professional writers. Learn the fundamentals of ecology, insights of world-building, and how to master layering-in of metaphoric connections between setting and character.

Praise for The Fiction Writer, Book 1 of this series:

The Fiction Writer is at the top of the required reading list for my Writer’s Workshop students. With its engagingly direct, conversational style and easily accessible format, it is a veritable cornucopia of hands-on help for aspiring writers of any age…the quintessential guidebook for the soon-to-be-published. –Susan McLemore, Writing Instructor, Glynn Academy

Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and internationally published author of award-nominated speculative novels, short stories and non-fiction. She currently teaches writing at the University of Toronto and George Brown College. Her non-fiction book Water Is…–a scientific study and personal journey as limnologist, mother, teacher and environmentalist–was recently picked by Margaret Atwood in the NY Times as 2016 ‘The Year in Reading’. Her latest novel, A Diary in the Age of Water, will be released by Inanna Publications in 2020.

See an excerpt on Nina’s website and be sure to purchase Ecology of Story: World as Character soon!

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2019 Sunburst Award Longlist!

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Two SF Canada members are on the Sunburst longlist for 2019. The Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award celebrating the best in Canadian fantastika published during the previous calendar year.

Edward Willett‘s Worldshaper [Penguin Random House Canada] is in the Young Adult novel category. One of Saskatchewan’s most prolific authors, Edward has published more than 60 books of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction for children, teens and adults.  Willett also hosts The Worldshapers podcast, which focuses on the creative processes of other fantasy and science fiction writers.

Dominik Parisien’s “The River Street Witch” [Alice Unbound, Exile Editions] is in the Short Story category. Dominik is the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of Robots vs Fairies, and The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. He also co-edited Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry. Dominik’s fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Quill & Quire, The Fiddlehead, Exile: The Literary Quarterly, as well as other magazines and anthologies. His latest publication is a poetry chapbook, We, Old Young Ones. He is a disabled, bisexual, French Canadian. He lives in Toronto.

The Sunburst Award official shortlist will be announced in late June, and winners will be announced in the fall of 2019.

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Canadian Dreadful released!

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Two SFC members have stories in Dark Dragon Publishing’s latest release, Canadian Dreadful.

Colleen Anderson’s deeply psychological tale “Sins of the Father” brings attention to the long term repercussions of violence, not only on the victims of violence, but on the family of the person who is perpetrating violence. Colleen has been twice nominated for the Aurora Award in poetry. She has co-edited Tesseracts 17 and Playground of Lost Toys, which was nominated for a 2016 Aurora Award. Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland is her first solo anthology (Exile Editions, April 2018). Over 150 of her poems have seen print in such venues as Grievous Angel, Polu Texni, The Future Fire, Polar Borealis and many others. Her fiction collection, A Body of Work was published by Black Shuck Books, UK last fall, and her poetry chapbook Ancient Tales, Grand Deaths and Past Lives is available through Kelp Queen Press.

Pat Flewwelling’s “Nowhere Time” is dark fiction and “not the Canada you are accustomed to.” Pat writes dark fiction of all kinds, from short stories like “The Great Inevitable” in Expiration Date (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing, ed. Nancy Kilpatrick) and “Cyphoid Mary” in Alice Unbound (Exile Editions, ed. Coleen Anderson), to full-length novels like Blight of Exiles, Plague of Ghouls, and Scourge of Bones (Tyche Books, 2015, 2016, 2017 respectively). Forthcoming works include the fourth novel in her Helix series, Sedition (Tyche Books, 2019). On the side, she also runs a travelling bookstore, is a co-editor at ID Press, and works full-time as a senior business analyst.

In the pages of this anthology, you will discover a dark landscape that will challenge your perspective. From sea to shining sea, stories of a darker Canada will arise, and within them all a kernel of truth. Stories of sacrifice, cannibalism, ghosts, and mystical forests, the authors will plunge you into the country that is Canadian Dreadful.

“CANADIAN DREADFUL showcases some of Canada’s best voices in horror fiction. This anthology is a harrowing tour of the northern landscape that will leave you both dazzled and terrified.” ~David Morrell, New York Times best-selling author of Murder as a Fine Art

Find Canadian Dreadful on Amazon and at Dark Dragon Publishing.

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Edward Willett named writer-in-residence at the Saskatoon Public Library

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One of Saskatchewan’s most prolific authors, Edward Willett, is looking forward to sharing his expertise and passion for prose with the Saskatoon-and-area writing community through Saskatoon Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence program.

An award-winning author based in Regina, Willett has published more than 60 books of science fiction, fantasy and non-fiction for children, teens and adults.  Willett also hosts The Worldshapers podcast, which focuses on the creative processes of other fantasy and science fiction writers.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity serve as writer-in-residence at SPL,” said Willett. “Over the years I’ve taught creative writing, mentored writers, and worked as an editor, and I look forward to helping Saskatoon-area writers in any way I can, from discussing ideas to offering advice based on my experience as a published writer to helping edit and improve manuscripts. It’s going to be a great few months and I can’t wait to get started.”

Willett’s novel Marseguro (published by DAW Books in New York) won the 2009 Aurora Award for best English-language science fiction or fantasy book by a Canadian author. He also won a Saskatchewan Book Award for his young-adult fantasy novel Spirit Singer, which was just re-released through Willett’s own recently established publishing company, Shadowpaw Press. He has won or been shortlisted for numerous other awards and his next novel, Master of the World (book number two in his Worldshapers fantasy series), will be released in Sept. 2019. He served as the Writer in Residence at Regina Public Library in 2011/12.

“The Writer-in-Residence program has deep roots in Saskatoon and is always an extremely popular service at SPL,” said Carol Cooley, SPL’s Director of Libraries and CEO. “As one of Saskatchewan’s most productive authors who has published such a wide array of work for all demographics, we very excited to be welcoming Edward Willett to this position. I am confident he will be a valuable resource for our writing community over the coming months.”

Willett’s term as SPL’s Writer in Residence begins in September 2019 and will run until April 2020. He will be SPL’s 39thWriter in Residence since the program was established in 1981. For more information, visit: www.saskatoonlibrary.ca/wir.

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Rebecca Diem discusses thoughtful science fiction at Tor.com

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SF Canada member Rebecca Diem recently had an article appear on Tor.com. The 1983 Book Ian McEwan (and Everyone Else Who Craves Thoughtful SciFi) Should Be Reading is a thoughtful and smart response to Ian McEwan’s April 2019 controversial interview in The Guardian.

Rebecca discusses Vonda McIntyre’s masterful 1983 novel, Superluminal, along with contemporary cyborg-infused fiction in which “tensions between human and machine, the organic and inorganic, are front and centre.” She emphasizes that “our collective desire and anxiety over technological advancement form the foundation of so many of the most interesting and complex conversations happening in the genre—past, present, and future.”

Rebecca writes:

The concept of the cyborg asks that we re-evaluate our conception of humans and technology as being distinct and separate…The cyborg offers the possibility of radically reconfiguring the tensions between the organic and inorganic. As a metaphor for boundary disruption, authors like McIntyre use the cyborg to complicate our understanding of constructed dichotomies of what is human (and valued), and what is artificial (and exploited).

…The cyborg identity…is not limited to the individual body; it is best encompassed in the relationship of the body to other bodies and other technologies, in a way that complicates the apparent divisions between the self/other. Its radical potential is retained in these relationships as a means to subvert traditional paradigms.

<These cyborg identities offer> a way of reconciling tensions by refusing to (re)colonize them into a homogenized identity muddied by historical preconceptions. McIntyre’s fusion of classic sci-fi with these emergent dialogues is part of an important legacy of boundary transgression in science fiction, from the work of Margaret Cavendish and Mary Shelley to 20th-century icons like Le Guin and Octavia Butler. And the conversation continues as contemporary authors present their own take on the cyborg.

Rebecca is the author of smart, hopeful speculative fiction and poetry. Her work includes the indie steampunk series Tales of the Captain Duke, following the adventures of a defiant young aristocrat who saves a band of airship pirates from certain peril and talks her way into joining their crew. Find her at https://rebeccadiem.com/.

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Candas Jane Dorsey inducted to Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame!

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SF Canada member Candas Jane Dorsey was recently inducted into Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was established in 1986 to honour individuals and groups whose body of work in arts and culture have brought recognition to Edmonton through their artistic achievements. Candas was one of only four recipients honored this year.

Ursula K. Le Guin has described Candas as “brilliant as William Gibson, as complex as Gene Wolfe, with a humanity and passion all her own.” Quill & Quire contributor Greg Boyd remarked that “the best of her fictions are emotionally grounded in the Alberta landscape: its pure blue arch of sky is too expansive to enclose the imaginative spirit.”

A video profile of Candas by the Hall of Fame is on youtube here.

Candas is the author of several novels, collections of short fiction, and books of poetry, and her work has won the Crawford, Tiptree and Aurora Awards and several WGA awards. She is the founding president of SF Canada and a founding partner of Wooden Door and Associates, a professional communications company. She co-founded the publishing company The Books Collective, which released more than one hundred titles in fourteen years. She has been an active member of the literary community and other arts communities in Alberta for more than forty years. Her work as a creative writing teacher, writer in residence, and mentor has influenced many students and emerging writers. She has been a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta for many years and previously served on the organization’s Board of Directors. She has won a number of awards for her writing and community advocacy work, including the WGA’s Golden Pen in 2017, and she was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2018. Her most recent book is ICE and other stories, published by PS Publishing, England, in fall 2018, and she recently signed a three-book deal with ECW Press.

Congratulations, Candas!