World Fantasy 2007 is coming up fast, scheduled to kick in on Thursday, November 1st and concluding on Sunday, November 4th with the World Fantasy Awards Banquet, followed by Award presentations, and then the WFA Judges Panel. It all happens at Saratoga Springs, New York this year.
The theme will be Ghosts And Revenants, Memory, History, And Folklore — An exploration of the tradition of the ghost in literature as a harbinger, as a manifestation of guilt, conscience, memory, or the past; and as manifested in the folklore and history of the northeastern United States and Canada. This covers everything from Native American folklore and storytelling through “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” to Straub’s Ghost Story and Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. We will explore the tradition and the uses of the ghost story, and how it continues in contemporary fantastic fiction and mutates in a 21st century environment. While we expect to have panels on such topics as “M.R. James and His Successors” and “The Legacy of Shirley Jackson” we might also have something as up-to-the-minute as “Ghosts in the Machine: The Supernatural and Computers.”
Guests of Honor:
Carol Emshwiller
Kim Newman
Lisa Tuttle
Artist Guest of Honor:
Jean Giraud (Moebius)
Special Guests:
Joseph Bruchac
Barbara and Christopher Roden
Ash-Tree Press
The Ghost Story Society
George Scithers
Master of Ceremonies:
Guy Gavriel Kay
Beyond the broad range of readings, author signings, special panels, etc., Ellen Datlow will host an unofficial, informal reading by Inferno authors Laird Barron, Elizabeth Bear, Jeffrey Ford, and John Grant. It’s tentatively planned for 2-3pm Saturday November 3rd, in a suite to be announced.
For more information on this year’s World Fantasy Convention:
Website: http://www.lastsfa.org/wfc2007/
E-Mail: [email protected]
Public Discussion Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wfc2007/
