Literary Conventions
In a comment, SMD asked:
Do you know of any other large fantasy or science fiction conventions that would be really geared toward the literary side of fandom?
Depends on how large you mean when you say large. World Fantasy had about 1150 members this year (the largest in its history, actually, though there’s usually about 1000 attendees). Slightly smaller than that, but still really really good (and literary) are Readercon and Wiscon. (If you look through my archives on the blog here, you can find con reports for those two.)
I hear Boskone and Capclave are both really good in a similar way, but I haven’t been to either of those yet.
Other conventions I’ve been to that I like include Lunacon and Balticon; both have good literary programming, but they have a lot of other SFnal-related programming as well (so they’re not literary focused per se). Balticon the year I went had a large podcasting contingent, if you’re interested in that.
(It’s also worth noting that the year I went to Balticon, they had major guests like Gene Wolfe, Neil Gaiman, and Peter Beagle, but it kind of seemed like they were among the only 10 or so working writers who were actually there, and they didn’t seem approachable. Heck, I never even saw Neil Gaiman, except when he was on stage. Not sure if it’s always like that, but it’s probably because it’s the same weekend as Wiscon.)
And then of course there’s Worldcon, but I’m sure you knew of that one already. And that one’s certainly multimedia and doesn’t have as much of a focus on the literary side (though since it’s so big, it always has plenty, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that you’ll see people wearing costumes walking around).
I may be forgetting something. If I remember anything else, I’ll update this post. If anyone else wants to chime in with their recommendations, feel free!
Alex Cohen
9:04 am Nov-6-2007Readercon, although perhaps not “large” is definitely the most literary of the conventions I know.
John League
9:16 am Nov-6-2007Capclave is good in a similar way, as you say, but it is absolutely NOT large. Still, this year’s guests of honor were Ellen Datlow and Jeff Ford, but there was some good SF programming, including looks at religion and biology in SF.
SMD
1:32 pm Nov-6-2007Oh thanks so much for addressing my comment. Well 1,000 doesn’t sound too large to me, but if it has a lot of stuff for the attendees I’m not too concerned. I usually got to FanimeCon, an anime convention, and they get some crazy number in the tens of thousands, but they have so much programming and such there that you hardly notice there are so many people…
I know DragonCon is another huge one that has a lot of literary stuff to it, but thanks so much for listing more things that might be better suited for me. I don’t mind SF or F cons where there are people dressed up (I go to Anime cons, so I’m used to it), I just don’t want to go to a con that won’t have anything for me as a writer/reader.
Thanks again!
David Booker
12:33 pm Oct-9-2008Hi, I know you listed 12-point Courier at the manuscript standard for typeface and size. Other places say a different typeface and some don’t even say. Is it harder for a slush pile submitter to get something read and considered if he (or she) has sent something in a manuscript that is double spaced, plenty of margin space, etc., but is 12-point Times New Roman instead of 12-point Courier? Thanks.