Special Guests are invited guests that will expand our theme in other directions than our GoHs, who are mainly contemporary writers. Steinskog (NO) researches Afrofuturism and Music, and Hoffman (DE) researches the origins and development of the African Fantasy. We look forward to their in-depth talks and expansions on our theme.
Our Jubilees this year: 2019 marks two important jubilees in our genre(s), and to celebrate them accordingly we have invited to other special guests: Edmund Schluessel from Finland and Anna Höglund from Sweden:
– It is the bi-centennial of John William Polidori´s (UK, 1795-1821) seminal story ”The Vampyre”. A story that would have an enourmous impact and create a whole new subgenre of the fantastic- The Vampire Story. To help us understand Polidori (and everything that came after) we invited Anna Höglund from the Swedish Linnéuniversity to give a talk about Polidori and to lead a panel on the development of the vampire story. In 2007 she published her dissertation ” Vampyrer : en kulturkritisk studie av den västerländska vampyrberättelsen från 1700-talet till 2000-talet” – a book we aim to sell at the convention.
– It is the centennial of Ray Cummings (US, 1887-1957) publication of The Girl in the Golden Atom (in pulp magazine Argosy All-Story March 15th, 1919) This was the first story to use Ernest Rutherford´s recently delveoped model of the atom (with a core and spinning electrons around). Astrophysicist Dr. Edmund Schluessel will join us to talk about Rutherford´s research, Cumming´s stories, and the wave of stories it created.