SF Minnesota HOME
The SPECULATIONS READINGS SERIES, now in its 23rd year, continues monthly, mostly on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:45 p.m. at DreamHaven Books, 2301 38th St E, Minneapolis. Each reading includes a reception with free soda pop and cookies, and a post-reception expedition to a local bistro.
Wednesday, January 17—note the date change—at 6:30 p.m. we’ll host the fourth annual ROUND ROBIN READINGS. Interested persons should bring poetry or short prose submissions sufficient for a five-minute reading, plus up to five minutes of additional material in the event that the first round gets done early.
On Wednesday, February 7 MICHAEL MERRIAM reads from his fiction. Michael Merriam is an author, actor, poet, playwright, and professional storyteller. He has published three novels, two short story collections, four novellas, and over 90 pieces of short fiction and poetry. His debut novel, Last Car to Annwn Station, was named a Top Book in 2011 by Readings in Lesbian & Bisexual Women‘s Fiction. His scripts have been produced for stage and radio, and he has appeared on stage in the Minnesota Fringe Festival and over the air on KFAI and Minnesota Public Radio. Michael is a co-founder of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers and a member of the Artists with Disabilities Alliance, the Steampunk Artists and Writers Guild, and Story Arts Minnesota. Visit his homepage at www.michaelmerriam.com.
On Wednesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. ROB CALLAHAN, AMINA HARPER, and J. E. HERALD-ZAMORA read from their respective works.
Rob Callahan started working as a journalist back in the Twentieth Century. He took a break for a few years to write novels, then came back in 2009 as an arts and culture writer. His work in journalism has garnered a Marconi award, Associated Press awards, and recognition from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation. His new novel, The Hidden City (Volume I), tells the heart-warming story of an underachieving young professional temping for the Devil who's accidentally promoted to Executive Vice President over the impending Apocalypse.
Amina Harper lives and works in Minneapolis, where she was born in 1988. Harper began her career in 2010 and has been participating in the local art community in various ways since, developing an extensive exhibition history in the process.
J. E. Herald-Zamora (Jei to his friends) has been a geeky genderbent goth since the 90s! He is also a displaced Wisconsinite on a journey through vanity & art.
On Wednesday, April 18 DAVID J. SCHWARTZ reads from his fiction. Mr. Schwartz‘s first novel, Superpowers, was nominated for a Nebula Award. His short fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Glitter and Mayhem, Paper Cities, and The Best of Lady Churchill‘s Rosebud Wristlet. He lives in Minneapolis and is probably not a group intelligence of misplaced bookmarks. Probably. His Twitter is @snurri.
On Wednesday, May 30, SCOTT BURTNESS reads from his fiction. Scott Burtnett lives in the midwest with his wonderful wife, Liz. He has always enjoyed reading horror, sci fi, and thrillers—especially comedic takes on these genres. For Scott, reading is a fun escape, a chance to live vicariously through someone else’s adventures. He decided to start writing with the hope of entertaining readers like himself. When Scott isn’t making madcap adventures about bowling vampires, beer-guzzling werewolves, and zombies that love watching T.V, he spends his time bowling, guzzling beer, or sitting in front of the T.V.
On Thursday, July 26 at 6:30 p.m. CHARLIE JANE ANDERS and BRYAN THAO WORRA read from their respective works.
CHARLIE JANE ANDERS is the author of the Nebula-Award-winning novel All the Birds in the Sky (2016) and the collection Six Months, Three Days, Five Others. She’s the organizer of the “Writers with Drinks” reading series, and she was a founding editor of io9, a website about science fiction, science, and futurism, and co-founder of Other magazine, a magazine of pop culture and politics for the new outcasts. Her stories have appeared in Asiimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tinhouse, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies; and five chapbooks. She is a recipient of the Lambda Literary and Locus awards. Her novelette, “Six Months, Three Days”, won a 2017 Hugo Award.
BRYAN THAO WORRA is the President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA), an international literary organization celebrating the poetry of the imaginative and the fantastic. A Lao American writer, he holds over 20 awards for his work, including an NEA Fellowship in Libraries, and was chosen as a Cultural Olympian representing Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games. His books include The Tik-Tock Diaries: Our Dinner with Cluster Bombs, On the Other Side of the Eye, Winter Ink, Barrow, Demonstra, Tanon Sai Jai, and the e-book Touching Detonations. His work appears internationally, including in Australia, Canada, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, and Pakistan.
On Wednesday, August 29 J LOREN QUILL reads from his work. J Loren Quill is a novelist, inventor, and biomedical engineer. He is the author of Severance Lost and Shadow Cursed, and is currently writing the third installment of the Fractal Forsaken series. He lives in Minnesota with his family.
On Wednesday, September 26, LOIS McMASTER BUJOLD reads from a work inprogress. Lois McMaster Bujold was born in 1949, the daughter of an engineering professor at Ohio State University, from whom she picked up her early interest in science fiction. She now lives in Minneapolis, and has two grown children. She began writing with the aim of professional publication in 1982. She wrote three novels in three years; in October of 1985, all three sold to Baen Books, launching her career. Bujold went on to write many other books for Baen, mostly featuring her popular character Miles Naismith Vorkosigan, his family, friends, and enemies. Her fantasy from HarperCollins includes the award-winning Chalion series, renamed as it has expanded The World of the Five Gods, and the Sharing Knife series. More recently she has been exploring self-e-publishing with the novella-length tales of the sorcerer Penric and his demon Desdemona, and other works.
Ten times nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel, she has won inthat category four times, in addition to garnering another Hugo for best novella, three Nebula Awards, three Locus Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, two Sapphire Awards, the Minnesota Book Award, the Forry Award, and the Skylark Award. In 2007, she was given the Ohioana Career Award, and in 2008 was Writer Guest-of-Honor for the 66th World Science Fiction Convention. In 2017, the Vorkosigan saga was awarded the inaugural Hugo for best series, followed up in 2018 with the best series Hugo for The World of the Five Gods. A complete list may be found here: www.sfadb.com/Lois_McMaster_Bujold Her works have been translated into over twenty languages. More information on Bujold and her books is archived at www.dendarii.com [and her blog at www.goodreads.com/author/show/16094.Lois_McMaster_Bujold/blog
On Wednesday, October 17, NAOMI KRITZER reads from her work. Naomi Kritzer has been writing science fiction and fantasy for twenty years. Her short story “Cat Pictures Please” won the 2016 Hugo and Locus Awards and was nominated for the Nebula Award. A collection of her short stories was released in 2017, and her YA novel (based on “Cat Pictures Please”) will be coming out from Tor in November 2019. She lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her spouse, two kids, and four cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.
On Wednesday, November 14, JASON D. WITTMAN will read from his work. Jason D. Wittman lives and works in Minnesota. He’s had fiction published on SciFi.com, The Best of Baen’s Universe, and recently in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, as well as a game, Tile Chess, published by Steve Jackson Games. He can recite Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” from memory.
Wednesday, December 5, 6:30-7:45 p.m. The Speculations Reading Series at DreamHaven Books presents a book release event for SCOURGE OF THE SEAS OF TIME (AND SPACE), a new multigenre anthology of pirate stories, edited by CATHERINE LUNDOFF and published by Queen of Swords Press, featuring special guest and anthology contributor, MICHAEL MERRIAM. Michael and Catherine will be reading from the anthology and there will be refreshments.
Catherine Lundoff is a Minneapolis-based award-winning writer, editor and publisher. Her recent stories have appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated, Curious Fictions, Callisto, Respectable Horror, The Cainite Conspiracies: A Vampire the Masquerade V20 Anthology, The Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Tales and The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Professor Moriarty. Her books include Silver Moon, Out of This World: Queer Speculative Fiction Stories and, as editor, Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space). She is the publisher at Queen of Swords Press.
Michael Merriam is an author, actor, poet, and playwright. He has published ten books and over 90 pieces of short fiction and poetry.. His novel, Last Car to Annwn Station, was named a Top Book by Readings in Lesbian & Bisexual Women&8217;s Fiction. His scripts have been produced for stage and radio, and he has appeared on stage in the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Tellebration, and StoryFest Minnesota. Michael is a co-founder of the Minnesota Speculative Fiction Writers.Visit his homepage at www.michaelmerriam.com.
Speculations is a co-production of DreamHaven Books and SF MINNESOTA, a multicultural speculative fiction organization that also hosts a midsummer SF convention, Diversicon, the 27th edition of which will be held July 22-24, 2019, in the Twin Cities, with Guest of Honor Nisi Shawl and Special Guest Ben Huset.
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