World Fantasy Convention 2015

Where am I at World Fantasy Convention 2015? In addition to all sorts of private plans and to recording five podcasts for later Coode St consumption, I will be in public two times. We’re recording a live podcast and I’m moderating a panel on the fantasy canon with a group of people with so much experience, talent and sheer brain power that I can probably show up and play Angry Birds while they entertain you all. 

As to the rest of the convention, I’m in Saratoga from about noon on Wednesday through to Monday lunch time, so I’ll be about. I don’t usually go to the mass signing on Friday, but may see you there. Otherwise, if you’re hoping to catch me or Coode St, we’ll probably be in the bar…


Friday 6 November 10:00AM
Coode Street Podcast Live with Chelsea Quinn Yarbro & Charlie Jane Anders!!

Gary Wolfe and I will be recording a live episode of the Coode St Podcast (our third), this time with the wonderful and incredible Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and Charlie Jane Anders. We intend to talk fantasy, careers, and what it is to be a woman making a career in our genre. This episode will be broadcast in November as part of our ‘women in science fiction’ series of podcasts.



Saturday 7 November 2:00PM
Creating the Fantasy Canon 

There are some books we all agree on as fundamental to the genre, but can we agree on a canon of twenty stories? Our panelists will discuss which twenty books are essential reading for understanding the genre and how this list has changed over time. 
Jonathan Strahan (mod.), John Clute, Michael Dirda, Yanni Kuznia, Gary Wolfe, Ron Yaniv

Episode 255: Eleanor Arnason, Linda Nagata and Women in Science Fiction

This week, in our continuing series of discussions about the experiences of women writers in the science fiction field, we are fortunate to be joined by Eleanor Arnason and Linda Nagata.  

Linda, whose Going Dark appears next week from Saga Press is the third volume in her trilogy that began with the Nebula-nominated The Red, began publishing novels twenty years ago with the nanotech series that started with The Bohr Maker, still available from Mythic Island Press.  

Eleanor, winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. award for her classic novel A Woman of the Iron People, is currently completing a collection of her popular Hwarhath stories and has most recently published a collection of her Icelandic fantasies, Hidden Folk. 

We touch upon the problems and opportunities presented by self-publishing, working with small presses, and whether women SF writers might more readily disappear from the collective memory of SF readers. 

As always, we hope you enjoy the episode.


Episode 254: Meeting Infinity and Losing the Alien

This week Gary and Jonathan are back in the Gershwin Room, killing time and talking about Jonathan’s new anthology Meeting Infinity, which we discuss in some detail. It leads on to a conversation about our perceptions of ‘the alien’ and ‘the other’ in science fiction (and how that has changed over time), and quite a lot more in what is a classic Coode Street ramble.

As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. More next week!

Episode 253: SF Lectures, The Martian and more

This week Gary returns from the wilds of Virginia or Washington DC or somewhere or other on the US Eastern seaboard. We discuss his experience writing and performing a series of lectures on science fiction; the strengths and weaknesses of Ridley Scott’s The Martian; compiling Gary’s Library of America volumes, and whether or not we kid ourselves on whether a work really is canonical. 

All of that and a little bit more. As always, we hope you enjoy the episode. We should be back next week with a new episode, as we begin our run down to World Fantasy and the end of the year.

Episode 252: Cecelia Holland and Dragon Heart


dragonheart.jpg

This week we welcome distinguished historical novelist Cecelia Holland back to the podcast to discuss her new fantasy novel Dragon Heart, her classic SF novel Floating Worlds, the relationships between SF, fantasy, and historical fiction, and historical and political themes in the work of writers like Kim Stanley Robinson and George R.R. Martin.

As always, our thanks to Cecelia for making time to be on the podcast. We hope you enjoy the episode.