July 13, 2021

Rooting Our Future: Latinx Science Fiction and Futurism

Don’t miss this vital roundtable!

TIME—7 p.m. CT; 8 p.m. ET

Seven creators and scholars of Latinx speculative art discuss the nature of Latinx futurism, tracing values and trends in their own work and that of other Latinx creatives.

Participants—Sabrina Vourvoulias, Malka Older, Jumko Ogata, John Picacio, Alberto Chimal, David Bowles, Frederick Aldama 

ZOOM LINK— https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83213158143?pwd=RE91NFZmNG5MUFllVm1lbmdCUThndz09

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Readercon 31 will take place online August 13-15, 2021

Guests of Honor Jeffrey Ford and Ursula Vernon will take the stage along with other authors, editors, critics, and luminaries from around the world. You will see panels on both the heart of reading and the art of writing, authors reading from their work, a variety of talks and performances, award ceremonies for the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award and the Shirley Jackson Awards, and a virtual version of the convention’s Bookshop selling new and used books from a variety of small press and independent booksellers.

Sunday, August 15 at 10 a.m.

Panel — The Emotions of Dystopia

Participants: Scott Edelman, Aliza Greenblatt (moderator), Bracken MacLeod, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Holly Lyn Walrath

Dull and even miserable affect and emotion have been hallmarks of the dystopia genre since 1984 and Brave New World, with joy depicted as fleeting and pleasure considered hollow or fake. But in the real world, emotional responses to hardship vary from person to person and from culture to culture. Panelists will probe and challenge the cultural and aesthetic basis for the supposed authenticity of unmitigated bleakness in dystopia and consider other emotional tones that dystopian stories might explore.

Sunday, August 15 at 6:30 p.m.

Reading

Join me for a reading from my urban dark fantasy/horror novella, Plena Cucuy.

Cat is a young mestiza Mexican-American designer at a news organization, the only citizen in a family of mixed documentation status, and an acute observer of the city she inhabits — including its inexplicable happenings. Like an advertising placard at the train station that changes content between one glance at it and the next. Or the disappearance of her brother Edgar and other undocumented folks from one of the train station’s platforms. Or the creepy but compelling man — who might be a monster from childhood tales — she is unexpectedly pitted against. Add to that her complicated relationship with the family she lives with, the Black Boricua musician she’s falling for, and the intra-Latinx tensions of the neighborhood itself… Plena Cucuy is a dark urban fantasy/horror with teeth, music and magic.