Readercon

We are aware of a Readercon-related harassment complaint posted to Facebook, and have reached out to the complainant in hopes of learning more about her concerns. We have already asked the person mentioned in the complaint to refrain from contacting the complainant, including through intermediaries.

http://readercon.org/program.htm

Read it! Love it! Download the PDF pocket program and highlight it!

Of particular note:

Every Readercon features a uniquely literary and entertaining Saturday night event (opposite a "mini-program" of panels, talks, and readings). This year we're proud to be inaugurating a variety show, A Most Readerconnish Miscellany, as a benefit for Operation Hammond and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. C.S.E. Cooney and Mike Allen will emcee this extravagant evening of music, theater, and readings. Bring cash or credit cards to make donations to our very worthy beneficiaries, all while being entertained by exquisite performers including Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan, Daniel José Older, John Kessel, Sonya Taaffe, Caitlyn Paxson, and the renowned a capella group Sassafrass.

The event takes place on Saturday July 13. A speculative poetry open mic will warm up the crowd starting at 7 p.m.; if you'd like to participate, sign up in advance at the information desk. The variety show runs from 8 to 10 p.m. Don't miss this unforgettable event!

Program sign-up has opened to our invited guests. If you're on the guest list and didn't get an email from us with information on signing up, please email program@readercon.org and we'll sort things out for you.

A preliminary list of this year's program items is up on our website. If you spot a typo or other error, please let us know so we can fix it before the program guide is printed! Now is also a great time to start reading our book club and blog club selections, the books that will be discussed in the "How I Wrote" talks, and the works of our guests of honor.

If you find these program items inspiring, feel free to suggest some for next year.

The brand new Readercon website has been launched, with the same familiar URL but a great new design:

http://www.readercon.org

Our webmaster, David Shaw, redesigned the site to use adaptive design, which means it will look great on any device: desktop, laptop, tablet, even your phone. No separate mobile site needed. Check it out on every device you have!

The site has also been updated with all the information about Readercon 24. We're delighted to announce that GOHs Maureen F. McHugh and Patricia A. McKillip will be "joined" by memorial GOH Roger Zelazny. Our registration rate structure now has three simple tiers: now through mid-February (until Boskone, for those of you in the Boston area), mid-February to mid-June, and at the door. You can also find this year's hotel rates, a fully updated list of board and committee members, and everything else you need to know about the upcoming Readercon.

We'd love to know more about who's coming to Readercon in 2013. Are you a regular coming back, a first-timer, or a long-ago attendee wondering how it's changed? Are you interested in being on the program or running a table in the Bookshop? Will you be on your own, having a romantic book-filled long weekend with your literary-minded SO, or dragging all your friends along? Why are you interested in attending Readercon? Leave a comment and let us know!

Readercon's new board members are Emily Wagner, Kim Riek, Richard Duffy, Rose Fox, and Sonya Taaffe. The new board will serve pro tem until regular board elections in January.

The entire Readercon board has now either resigned or announced intention to resign at the next meeting.

EDIT: Please read the Readercon convention committee's statement on recent events: http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm

Readercon has sold out of memberships for the last few years, and we expect to hit our membership cap this year as well. If you are planning to buy a weekend membership or day pass, we recommend getting to registration when it opens: 10 a.m. on Friday July 13 (probably the only day that weekend memberships will be available), 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Please check our Twitter feed (readercon) for updates on availability of weekend memberships and day passes.

Save yourself the hassle and worry in 2013--buy your Readercon 24 weekend membership at the con on Sunday for a mere $50! Bundle it with a Sunday day pass and save $5. Or inquire at the info desk about volunteer opportunities; just eight hours of volunteer time at this year's convention earns you a free weekend membership for next year.

Before all those good memories fade into a happy blur, please take a few minutes to fill out our post-convention survey. Here's the link:

http://is.gd/RC22survey

Feel free to forward this link to other Readercon attendees you know.

The survey is completely anonymous, so please, be honest. We greatly value your feedback. Thank you for helping us to make Readercon 23 even better. See you in July!

I'm delighted to announce that Gardner Dozois and Geoff Ryman have accepted our invitations to be the guests of honor for Readercon 22, taking place in Burlington, MA from July 14 to 17, 2011.

Gardner Dozois's twenty-year stint as the editor of Asimov's is one of the great editorial projects in our field. Year after year, he published some truly fine short fiction, including numerous award winners. Thanks to these achievements and his superlative annual anthologies, he has received a record-holding 15 Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor. Though his writing career is sometimes overshadowed by his editorial work, his fiction has won two Nebula Awards and a Sidewise Award. He has also served as a judge for the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, a project dear to many Readercon attendees.

Geoff Ryman is a teacher and actor, and the author of seven novels, including the groundbreaking Was... and Air: Or, Have not Have. His work is often cited as embodying "Readercon-ness", as it explores and extends the dialogue between experience and imagination, between history and fantasy, between identity and society. His novels and short stories have won the World Fantasy Award, British Science Fiction Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, the James Tiptree Jr. Award, induction into the Gaylactic Spectrum Hall of Fame, and so many other honors and nominations that they have their own Wikipedia entry. He last attended Readercon in 2008, where he spoke on panels such as "Rival Revolutionary Movements in the Arts" and "Reading Aloud for Writers."

We're working with Gardner and Geoff to select a memorial guest of honor and will have that announcement for you shortly.

In the meantime, I'm issuing a call for program item ideas. Please submit your suggestions one of three ways:

1) In the comments to this entry or its companion entry on LiveJournal.

2) On the Readercon Forums.

3) In an email to program@readercon.org.

Lively discussion is encouraged. This "brainstorm" period will close November 14th, so please send us your ideas soon!