USF science fiction event features three giants of the genre
Barbara Perkins
The University of South Florida presents three acclaimed science fiction writers at 50/50:USF and Science Fiction and Fantasy – Past/Present/Future, March 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Sam and Martha Gibbons Alumni Center. In celebration of the university’s 50th anniversary, the noted panel will look at the past 50 years and predict the future for the next 50 years of both the university and the science fiction and fantasy genre. The event is free and open to the public.
The panel discussion features John Clute, science fiction writer, editor, critic and scholar, and award-winning authors Elizabeth Hand and Kathleen Goonan. USF School of Mass Communications journalism professor, USF Library Writer-in-Residence and science fiction writer Rick Wilber will moderate. Hand will read from her eagerly awaited forthcoming novel, Generation Loss.
“After attracting an overwhelmingly positive response to our first science fiction program in 2005, we discovered we have a lot of interest in the area,” said William Scheuerle, director the USF Humanities Institute. “This group of writers is especially exciting for science fiction fans because we’re giving them a change to meet Elizabeth Hand and John Clute all the way from Great Britain as well as a Lakeland neighbor, Kathleen Goonan, and Rick Wilbur from our faculty who are right here in their own backyard. Between them the discussion will be lively and enlightening.”
British science fiction scholar Clute has been writing articles, critical works and reviews on the subject since the 1970s and is known for being extremely knowledgeable and very witty. He has won three Hugo Awards for best non-fiction work and writes a monthly column, Excessive Candor, for the online magazine Science Fiction Weekly. His novel, Appleseed, was a New York Times Notable Book for 2002 and his latest work is SCORES: Reviews 1992-2003. Clute is a trustee of both the Telluride Institute in Colorado and The Science Fiction Foundation in England.
Hand’s first three novels were all finalists for the Philip K. Dick Award, and she won a Nebula and World Fantasy Award for her story “Last Summer at Mars Hill.” Her novel Walking the Moon won both the Tiptree and Mythopoeic Awards, and in 2002 and 2003 she won the International Horror Guild Award for her stories “Cleopatra Brimstone” and “Pavane for a Prince of the Air.” Her collection Bibliomancy won a World Fantasy Award in 2004 and her most recent novel, a historical fantasy Mortal Love, was a Washington Post Notable Book. She writes a book review column for Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine.
Goonan’s debut novel, Queen City Jazz, a New York Times Notable Book, was a finalist for the 1998 British Science Fiction Award and followed by The Bones of Time, a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2000. Her novels Mississippi Blues, Crescent City Blues and A Little Light Music completed the Nanotech Quartet (with Queen City Jazz), and she is known for being a pioneer in exploring the implications of nanotechnology. The longtime Floridian has published over 20 short stories in leading science fiction magazines, among them The String, a Nebula finalist.
This event is sponsored by the USF Humanities Institute and the USF Library.
The University of South Florida is on track to become one of the nation’s top 50 public research universities. USF received more than $287 million in research contracts and grants last year, and it is ranked by the National Science Foundation as one of the nation’s fastest growing universities in terms of federal research and development expenditures. The university has a $1.1 billion annual budget and serves nearly 43,021 students on campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota/Manatee and Lakeland. In 2005, USF entered the Big East athletic conference.
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