ellen_datlow

I'm bad at con reports, which is why I'm more comfortable just posting the photos (which I did previously). I didn't attend any panels or events but my own (except for Howard Waldrop's reading) mostly because I had a lot going on and too many people to hang out with. I was baaaaad.


But I had meals with good friends, the two Readercon group readings went very well, my autographing was great (I sold the several OP titles I brought with me), panels were interesting: one on urban fantasy. The panel and audience queries made it clear how fluid the term is right now; one on the short fiction of 2010 (with some in 2011), and for me the most fun/interesting was about anthologies and how editors decide what kinds of stories are to go in them.


Hung out with GOH Gardner Dozois and the wonderful Susan Casper, and gave the other GOH, Geoff Ryman a big hug (hope to talk to him more Wednesday evening at the KGB reading)and I met the charming Victor LaValle (author of last year's Shirley Jackson Award- winning novel Big Machine) at the meet the pros party and overall spent a lot time in the lobby or bar with various folk socializing.


And I gave blood Saturday afternoon, which knocked me out (almost literally- I always seem to get dizzy after giving blood and did so this time so had to spend another half an hour in the blood mobile with cold wet compresses on neck, head, and ankles).

The Jackson awards on Sunday morning were fast-moving, smart, and enjoyable, with Victor as MC. I was delighted that Laird Barron won for both the novella "Mysterium Tremendum" and his brilliant collection Occultation.


Next year's GOH are Peter Straub and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Memorial GOH is Shirley Jackson.

One change. My autographing has moved to two hours later (see below).

There's one other change (not to my schedule per se but to one of my panels). Paula Guran will be joining Kathryn Cramer, Gardner Dozois, and I to discuss short fiction of the year (2010)

Thursday, July 14th
7pm the reading/signing of Naked City at Porter Square Books in Cambridge with me introducing Matthew Kressel, Jeffrey Ford, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kit Reed, John Crowley, and Ellen Kushner.

Friday 12-1pm Kaffeeklatsch in Vinyard

Friday 3-4 autographing Salon E

Friday 5pm Salon G
De Gustibus Est Disputandum When Editing Anthologies
Adams, Datlow, Dozois, Kessel, Waldrop


While any anthology has its no-brainer must-include great stories, the anthologist usually needs to flesh it out with selections from a broader pool of merely good stories. When should an editor choose their personal favorites from that pool, giving the anthology more of a coherent flavor but possibly limiting its audience, and when should they make a conscious effort to choose stories that will appeal to a wide variety of readers, so that there is "something for everyone"? How do the rules change when one is editing a themed anthology or a Year's Best, or pitching to a larger or smaller publisher?

Friday 6-7 NH/MA
Group reading from Teeth
Kaaron Warren, Delia Sherman, Steve Berman, Suzy McKee Charnas, Jeffrey Ford


Saturday 12-1pm RI
The Year in Short Fiction
We will discuss the short fiction published since last Readercon.
Cramer, Datlow, Dozois, Guran

Saturday 1-2pm Salon F
Urban (Fantasy) Renewal
Bobet, Clute, Datlow, Gidney, Kelner

The term "urban fantasy" has encompassed the work of Charles Williams, a contemporary of Tolkien who sometimes situated his fantasy in London or suburban settings as opposed to a pastoral secondary world; the novels and short stories of Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, or Robin Hobb (as Megan Lindholm); the phantasmagoric cities of China Miéville or Jeff VanderMeer; and most recently, the magical noir of Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris. Is it possible to reclaim "urban fantasy" as useful critical term? Rather than wring our hands at how it no longer means what it did, can we use it to examine what these very different writers have in common, and to what degree they reflect different eras' anxieties around and interests in the urban?

Saturday 9-10 pm NH / MA
Group reading from Supernatural Noir
Caitlin R. Kiernan, Paul G. Tremblay, John Langan, Jeffrey Ford

Sunday 11-noon The Shirley Jackson Awards

I'll be bringing a few of my OP anthologies to sell at my autographing so if you have any specific requests I can see if I have them around.

I had a ball at Readercon, even though I crashed (very) early Saturday night, probably because I gave blood earlier in the day so missed Howard Waldrop's reading and all the parties that night. But I was up bright and early for breakfast with the Locus folk, Amelia and Liza, the Shirley Jackson Awards at which I was very pleased to accept the Award for Poe, as Best edited anthology.
Here's the entire slate of winners and nominees:


NOVEL
Winner:
BIG MACHINE, Victor LaValle
(Speigel & Grau)

Finalists:

Last Days, Brian Evenson (Underland Press)
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters (Riverhead)
The Owl Killers, Karen Maitland (Delacorte Press)
The Red Tree, Caitlin R. Kiernan (Roc)
White is for Witching, Helen Oyeyemi (Nan A. Talese)

NOVELLA
Winner:
Midnight Picnic, Nick Antosca
(Word Riot Press)

Finalists:


The Language of Dying, Sarah Pinborough, (PS Publishing)
“Sea-Hearts,” Margo Lanagan (X6, coeur de lion)
Shrike, Quentin S. Crisp (PS Publishing)
Vardøger, Stephen Volk (Gray Friar Press)
The Witnesses are Gone, Joel Lane (PS Publishing)

NOVELETTE
Winner:
“Morality,” Stephen King
(Esquire)

Finalists:

“Catch Hell,” Laird Barron (Lovecraft Unbound, Dark Horse)
“Each Thing I Show You Is a Piece of My Death,” Gemma Files and Stephen J. Barringer, (Clockwork Phoenix 2, Norilana Books)
“Lonegan’s Luck,” Stephen Graham Jones (New Genre 6)
The Night Cache, Andy Duncan (PS Publishing)

SHORT STORY
Winner:
“The Pelican Bar,” Karen Joy Fowler
(Eclipse 3, Night Shade)

Finalists:

“The Crevasse,” by Dale Bailey and Nathan Ballingrud (Lovecraft Unbound, Dark Horse)
“Faces,” Aimee Bender (The Paris Review, Issue 191, Winter 2009)
“The Jacaranda Smile,” Gemma Files (Apparitions, Undertow Publications)
“Procedure in Plain Air,” Jonathan Lethem (The New Yorker, April 5, 2010)
“Strappado,” Laird Barron (Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Solaris)

SINGLE-AUTHOR COLLECTION
Winners (Two Winners):
Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson
(Harper Perennial)
&
Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical, Robert Shearman
(Big Finish Productions)

Finalists:

Everland and Other Stories, Paul Witcover (PS Publishing)
Fugue State, Brian Evenson (Coffee House Press)
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby: Scary Fairy Tales, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya (Penguin)
Zoo, Otsuichi (Haikasoru/VIZ Media)

EDITED ANTHOLOGY
Winner:
Poe: 19 New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Ellen Datlow
(Solaris)

Finalists:

Apparitions, edited by Michael Kelly (Undertow Publications)
British Invasion, edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore (Cemetery Dance)
Exotic Gothic 3: Strange Visitations, edited by Danel Olson (Ash Tree Press)
Lovecraft Unbound, edited by Ellen Datlow (Dark Horse)

I arrive Friday around midday.

Friday 2-3pm: The Year in Short fiction with Datlow, Hartwell, Lipkin, Walewski

3-4pm Kaffeeklatsch

Saturday 1-2pm Haunted Legends reading, with me introducing Caitlin R. Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, and Kit Reed, who will read from the their stories

Sunday 11-12pm The Shirley Jackson Awards--I'll be attending as a nominee

1-2pm Autographing

I plan to bring a bunch of my OP books to sell, including several of the OMNI Trade paperbacks.
If anyone attending has requests and I have copies (OP books only--I will not be bringing any in print books that are still available new in bookstores) I'll bring them. But do let me know.

Alice Turner needs a ride up to Readercon, preferably Saturday (which I told her will be unlikely to find) or Friday...Help!!!