Speculative fiction is the literature of unbound imagination, anumbrella term broadly encompassing stories that featurefantastical, supernatural, or futuristic elements. Tales set in, at oron the fringe, teasing the peripheries of WHAT IF?

Contemporary speculative fiction comes in many forms and flavours: fromrobots and rocketships, through time travel, alternate history, steampunk,magic realism, apocalyptic futures, ghosts and the supernatural, superheroes,magic, fantasy, both high and urban, space opera, cyberpunk, biohacking andthe singularity – anything that reaches beyond contemporary day-to-dayexistence to push the boundaries of the imagination.

Whether you like your SF short or epic, flavouredwith dragons, dystopian landscapes or transhumanfutures, the 2015 Speculative Fiction Festival willdelight and inspire you. Join us to explore a literaryfield that seeks to go beyond the farthest reachesof the imagination, to engage your sense of fearand wonder, and shed light on the possibilities anddangers that lie ahead.

How To Book TicketsOnline at nswwc.org.au or by phone (02) 9555 9757

NSW Writers’ Centre Members $60 / Member Concession $50 / Non-Members $90

There is plenty of free parking at the Centre and there will be a food vendor to order lunch from.

The NSW Writers’ Centre is located in the grounds of Callan Park, Balmain Road, Rozelle. For directions and public transport options, visit our website nswwc.org.au

Saturday 18 July 2015

NSW Writers’ Centre

Cat SparksFestival Director

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Festival SpeakersJoanne Anderton cooks up speculative fiction stories for adults, young adults, anyonewho likes their worlds a little different. Her short story collection, The Bone Chime Songand Other Stories was published by Fablecroft Publishing and won the Aurealis Award forbest collection.

James Bradley is an award-winning author and critic. His books include the novelsWrack, The Deep Field and The Resurrectionist, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, and ThePenguin Book of the Ocean. His latest novel, Clade, was published by Hamish Hamiltonearlier this year.

Trudi Canavan lives in Melbourne. While working as a freelance illustrator she wrote thebestselling Black Magician Trilogy. The Magician’s Apprentice, a prequel, won the AurealisAward for Best Fantasy Novel in 2009 and the final of the sequel trilogy, The TraitorQueen, reached #1 on the UK Times Hardback bestseller list in 2011.

Isobelle Carmody wrote her first book, Obernewtyn, when she was 14. Since then she haswritten more than 30 books and many short stories. Her most recent book is The CloudRoad, which she also illustrated. The last book in her Obernewtyn Chronicles series, TheRed Queen, will be released in November 2015.

Terry Dowling is one of Australia’s most respected and internationally acclaimed writersof science fiction, dark fantasy and horror, and author of the multi-award-winning TomRynosseros saga. His most recent books are Amberjack: Tales of Fear & Wonder andClowns at Midnight.

Thoraiya Dyer is an Aurealis and Ditmar Award-winning, Sydney-based science fictionand fantasy writer. Her short story collection, Asymmetry, and time-travel pirate novellaThe Company Articles of Edward Teach are available from Twelfth Planet Press, while thefirst book in her Titan’s Forest fantasy trilogy is forthcoming from Tor. Thoraiya is anarcher and a lapsed veterinarian.

Rochelle Fernandez is the Commissioning Editor for HarperVoyager, an imprint ofHarperCollins. She has been an editor for ten years and has worked in various publishingroles including digital editor where she oversaw the production and conversion of ebooks.

Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel at seven, and is now the award-winning andinternationally bestselling author of 36 books. Her adult books include The Wild Girl andBitter Greens. Kate’s exciting new series for children The Impossible Quest weavestogether battles, beasts and bravery in a magical world under threat from dark forces.

Pamela Freeman is an award-winning author of speculative fiction books for both adultsand children. Her last adult fantasy, Ember and Ash, won the Aurealis Award for BestFantasy Novel. Pamela’s children’s fantasies include the classic Victor’s Quest, theAurealis Award-winning Victor’s Challenge, and the Princess Betony series.

Alison Green is the co-founder and CEO of Pantera Press. Pantera Press is a boutiquebook publisher focused on finding and nurturing the next generation of talentedAustralian writers.

Richard Harland’s 17 novels have spanned adult, YA and children’s, and fantasy, horrorand science fiction. His big international successes have been his three steampunkfantasies, Worldshaker, Liberator and Song of the Slums (published in the US, UK,Australia, France, Germany and Brazil).

Robert Hood has published nearly 200 stories in magazines and anthologies worldwide,as well as six novels and 16 children’s books. He writes crime, fantasy, science fiction,dark fantasy and horror tales. His most recent collection is Peripheral Visions: TheCollected Ghost Stories. His fantasy novel Fragmentsof a Broken Land: Valarl Undead wonthe Ditmar Award for Best Novel in 2014.

Louise Katz lectures in academic writing at the University of Sydney, writes fiction andhas been the recipient of two Aurealis Awards – one for the novel The Other Face of Janus,published by HarperCollins, and the other for the short story Weavers of the Twilight,Agog Press. This year her dystopian novel, The Orchid Nursery, is scheduled to bepublished with Lacuna.

Pamela Freeman

Isobelle Carmody

Terry Dowling

Kate Forsyth

Trudi Canavan

James Bradley

Thoraiya Dyer

Amie Kaufman is the New York Times bestselling co-author of theStarbound trilogy, a young adult science fiction series. These BrokenStars won the Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel and is indevelopment for TV. The first book in Amie’s new co-authored sciencefiction trilogy, Illuminae, launches internationally in October 2015.

Stephanie Lai is an Australian of Chinese descent (and a left-handedarcher). She is paid to train people in surviving our oncoming climatechange dystopia. She likes penguins, infrastructure and Asiansteampunk. She has had fiction and non-fiction published in The LiftedBrow, The Toast and Peril. She hates everything you love.

Bruce McCabe is the author of the thriller Skinjob. He lived in Kenya,Fiji and Japan before returning to Sydney, where he is now based.

Ian McHugh’s debut short story collection, Angel Dust, was a finalist forthe 2014 Aurealis Awards and is available from TiconderogaPublications. His stories have won grand prizes in the internationalWriters of the Future contest and been shortlisted five times at theAurealis Awards, winning in 2010.

Joel Naoum is a Sydney-based book publisher, editor, blogger andwriter. He is running Pan Macmillan Australia’s new digital-firstimprint Momentum and in 2011 completed the Unwin Fellowshipresearching digital publishing experimentation in the United Kingdom.

Garth Nix has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, bookeditor, book publicist, book sales representative and bookseller. More than5 million copies of Garth’s books have been sold around the world, and hiswork has been translated into 40 languages. He lives in Sydney.

Ben Peek is the Sydney-based author of The Godless, Black Sheep,Twenty-Six Lies/One Truth, and Dead Americans and Other Stories.

Marianne de Pierres is the author of the Parrish Plessis trilogy and theaward-winning Sentients of Orion and Peacemaker series. Mariannehas also authored children’s and young adult stories, notably the NightCreatures trilogy, a dark fantasy series for teens. She lives in Brisbane.

Tristan Savage grew up in Townsville and graduated from JCU with anhonours degree in theatre. He has won awards and toured his comedyshows, and is the author of sci-fi adventure novel Rift Breaker. In 2014he was the recipient of the Kris Hembury Encouragement Award forEmerging Artists.

Cat Sparks is an award-winning author, editor and artist whose formerjobs have included media monitor, political and archaeologicalphotographer, graphic designer and manager of Agog! Press. She’scurrently fiction editor of Cosmos Magazine and partway through aPhD in YA climate change fiction. Her short story collection The BridePrice was published in 2013.

Keith Stevenson is the editor with award-winning independent presscoeur de lion publishing, which produces Dimension6, the freeelectronic magazine of Australian speculative fiction. His sciencefiction thriller, Horizon, is out now as an ebook from HarperCollinsVoyager Impulse.

Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. Shehas sold almost 200 short stories, three novels (the multi-award-winning Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification) and five shortstory collections including the multi-award-winning Through SplinteredWalls. Her latest short story collection is The Gate Theory.

Tehani Wessely operates FableCroft Publishing, a boutique pressdedicated to the future of speculative fiction in Australia. She hasedited several anthologies and original novels, and her most recentpublishing projects include the crowd-funded anthology, CrankyLadies of History, and the unthemed anthology, Insert Title Here.

Ian McHugh

Louise Katz

Bruce McCabe

Keith Stevenson

Robert Hood

Garth Nix

Richard Harland

Amie Kaufman

Kaaron Warren

Marianne de Pierres

Tehani Wessely

Tristan Savage

Alison Green

Ben Peek

Patrick White Room Judith Wright Room

11am–12pm Why Fantasy MattersAs well as feeding our sense of wonder, fantasy explores what realismcan't by engaging with symbolic possibilities and empowering readers toconfront real-world problems in a transfigured form. Our panelistsdiscuss fantasy fiction’s various forms and functions.With Pamela Freeman, Ben Peek, Tristan Savage and Kaaron Warren.

12–1pm Busting the NicheGeek culture is no longer counterculture. In recent years sci-fi & fantasyhave become a huge part of commercialised, mainstream culture — forbetter or worse, whether in full-fledged novels or by sneaking intocontemporary literary fiction. Panelists examine ‘genrefication’ and itsfallout.With James Bradley, Robert Hood, Amie Kaufman and Ben Peek.

2–3pm Frankenstein’s LegacyMary Shelley’s Frankenstein is both a work of gothic romanticism andearly science fiction. The novel examines the rights of artificially createdbeings, with inherent implications for cloning, GMOs, artificial intelligenceand beyond as well as resonating universal themes: creation, maternalinstinct, death, the struggle of good and evil. Authors of exotic gothicfiction examine Mary Shelley’s enduring legacy.With Terry Dowling, Robert Hood, Kaaron Warren and Louise Katz.

Saturday 18 July 2015, 10am – 6pm

NSW WRITERS’ CENTREPO Box 1056 info@nswwc.org.auRozelle NSW 2039 www.nswwc.org.au(02) 9555 9757 @writingNSW

Please note that the program and speakers are subject to change.

10–11am Be Careful What You Wish ForFive successful authors discuss life in the fast lane, the highs, lows,career security and unexpected consequences of making it to the top –and staying there.With Garth Nix, Trudi Canavan, Kate Forsyth, Isobelle Carmody and James Bradley. Chaired by Cat Sparks.

11am–12pm Can Science Fiction Save The Future?This panel examines science fiction as an agent of scientific and socialchange, serving as a cultural primer, preparing us for new inventions,moral arguments or major events, such as catastrophic destruction orthe possibility of transhuman consciousness. Should SF shake us out ofcomplacency regarding genuine threats to society, as well as inspiringcompelling new possibilities?With Bruce McCabe, Marianne de Pierres, Joanne Anderton, Stephanie Laiand Keith Stevenson.

12–1pm Short Spec Fic – the state of playTips for navigating a crowded marketplace as both a reader and a writer;the relevance and place of shorts in the spec fic landscape: a testingground or the heart of the conversation? Editors and authors discuss themarketplace.With Cat Sparks, Keith Stevenson, Ian McHugh, Thoraiya Dyer and Tehani Wessely.

1–2pm Lunch

2–3pm Everybody Loves YAThe children’s book industry has grown astronomically over the past fewyears, with over half its readership now estimated to be adults. Is theappeal of YA purely escapist; a reflection of the universal applicability ofthemes such as love, friendship, identity and discrimination, or nostalgiacoupled with the collapse of contemporary culture into permanentadolescence.With Isobelle Carmody, Richard Harland, Marianne de Pierres, Garth Nixand Amie Kaufman.

3–4pm KaffeeklatschesSmall groups are invited to grab a coffee, sit down with an author andchat about the biz. Chats will be held in various locations around theCentre. Participating writers and information about reserving a place ata specific group will be available on our website closer to the festival.

4–5pm What’s Hot and What’s NotWhat are spec fic publishers looking for right now? Representatives frompublishing houses discuss slushpiles, submissions procedures andprotocols, pitch sessions, agents, social media and all the nitty gritty.With Joel Naoum (Momentum), Rochelle Fernandez (HarperCollins),Tehani Wessely (FableCroft), Alison Green (Pantera Press), and Liz Gryzb(Ticonderoga Publications). Chaired by Cat Sparks.

5–6pm Drinks on the Verandah