Nebula Conference: Full Schedule

3:00pm CDT

The Future of Racism

The past’s virulent racism against the Irish has now faded to linguistic artifacts like “paddy wagon” and “red-headed stepchild.” What traces will present-day racism leave behind, and what new forms of racism will emerge?

Moderators

Jennifer Cross

Lead Organizer, Just Write Chicago

Queer Black Geeky Feminist Skeptic Atheist Firespinning Aspiring SF/F writer who has a serious problem saying no to new and shiny things. In addition to a day job, I run Just Write Chicago, Chicago's largest writing group dedicated to providing safe, inclusive and motivational spaces... Read More →

Speakers

Liz Argall

Writer, Argall Creative

Liz Argall is a speculative fiction author, and creator of the all ages webcomics series Things Without Arms and Without Legs, a comic about creatures who are kind. Her fiction can be found in places like Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, This is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable... Read More →

Tanya DePass

Founder, I Need Diverse Games

Michael R. Underwood

Attendee

Michael R. Underwood is an author, podcaster, and publishing professional. Mike's books include space opera Annihilation Aria, the Ree Reyes Geekomancy books, the Stabby Award-finalist Genrenauts series, and Born to the Blade (written with Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan... Read More →

Thursday May 12, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

1:00pm CDT

Historical Research from the Margins

So much of history wasn't recorded, or was actively erased in order to present a dominant narrative. Actor Wendell Pierce recently said that a casting agent told him, “I couldn’t put you in a Shakespeare movie, because they didn’t have black people then.” He replied, “You ever heard of Othello? Shakespeare couldn’t just make up black people. He saw them.”
How do you research history of the people who have been pushed to the margins? In this panel, we will examine internal bias in research material and how to get around your own "common sense" knowledge.

Moderators

Michael Livingston

Professor, Author

Michael Livingston, PhD, FRHistS, LtC (UMSC), is the author of ORIGINS OF THE WHEEL OF TIME, a behind-the-scenes look at the life, work, and worlds of Robert Jordan. He is also an award-winning conflict analyst who combines an international reputation as a scholar of pre-modern military... Read More →

Speakers

Alyx Dellamonica

A.M. Dellamonica's first novel, Indigo Springs, won the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic. Their fourth, A Daughter of No Nation, won the 2016 Prix Aurora for Best Novel. They have published over fifty short stories in Tor.com, Asimovs SF, and elsewhere, along... Read More →

Eileen Gunn

Writer/Editor

Eileen Gunn is a short-story writer. She is currently working on a novel about race and gender, set in 19th-century America. Her fiction has received the Nebula Award in the US the and Sense of Gender Award in Japan, and been nominated for the Hugo, Philip K. Dick, and World Fantasy... Read More →

Ada Palmer

Assistant Professor of History, University of Chicago

My first novel "Too Like the Lightning" comes out May 10th so it will have been out for three days when I come to the Nebulas. So exciting!

Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker grew up in suburban Chicago, and received her Bachelor’s in English from Carleton College in Minnesota. After college, she spent a number of years in Marketing and Communications before returning to her first love, fiction writing. In 2007 she received her Master’s... Read More →

Nebula Nominees

Rose Lemberg

Friday May 13, 2016 1:00pm - 2:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

2:00pm CDT

Beyond Bitches and Badasses: A Conversation About Race, Gender, and Power in SFF

Combating unconscious bias in character development & casting is an important aspect of more inclusive writing. Pitfalls for writers new to incorporating marginalized people include the ways unconscious bias can intersect with race and gender to make them conflate common stereotypes with actual character development thuscontributing to fetishization and dehumanization.

Moderators

Mikki Kendall

Nebula Nominees

Daniel Jose Older

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Middle Grade historical fantasy series Dactyl Hill Squad, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, Star Wars: Last Shot, The Book of Lost Saints, and the award winning Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher... Read More →

Alyssa Wong

Alyssa Wong studies fiction in Raleigh, NC, and really, really likes crows. Her work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Tor.com, among others. Her short fiction has been nominated for multiple awards... Read More →

Friday May 13, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags presentation

3:00pm CDT

Language as Rebellion

Historically conquerors often forced populations to use their language. The fact that America still has Latin on its money is a lingering remnant of a time when England was a colony of Rome. Hawaiian was nearly eradicated. In 1912 the Republic of China replace "Literary Chines" with the Bejing dialect of Mandarin as the official governing language. Since SFF often features disenfranchised people, how can we use language to demonstrate conflict and rebellion?"

Moderators

Daniel Jose Older

Speakers

Tamara Vardomskaya

Tamara Vardomskaya is a Canadian writer. Her short fiction has been published in Tor.com, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Over The Rainbow: Fairy Tales From The Margins (Exile Editions), and GigaNotoSaurus. Her stories "The Metamorphoses of Narcissus" and "The Three Dancers of Gizari" were... Read More →

Nebula Nominees

Rose Lemberg

Kelly Robson

Writer, SFWA

Kelly Robson is an award-winning short fiction writer. In 2018, her story “A Human Stain” won the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, and in 2016, her novella “Waters of Versailles” won the Prix Aurora Award. She has also been a finalist for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore... Read More →

Friday May 13, 2016 3:00pm - 4:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

4:00pm CDT

Medicine After The End Of The World

How do you manage chronic conditions and serious illness after the apocalypse?

Moderators

Annalee Flower-Horne

@leeflower

Speakers

Nick Kanas, M.D.

Dr. Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the group therapy training program. For over 20 years he conducted research in group therapy, and for nearly 20 years after that he was the Principal Investigator... Read More →

Mr. Nibs

Author, Fallen Kitten Productions

Rachel Swirsky

Writer

Michael Damian Thomas

Editor-in-Chief/Publisher, Uncanny Magazine

Michael Damian Thomas is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of 2016 Hugo Award finalist Uncanny Magazine with Lynne M. Thomas. He was a two-time Hugo Award finalist as the former Managing Editor of Apex Magazine (2012-2013), co-edited the Hugo-nominated Queers Dig Time Lords (Mad Norwegian... Read More →

Nebula Nominees

Fran Wilde

Author

Fran Wilde’s novels and short stories have been finalists for four Nebula awards, two Hugo Awards, and a World Fantasy Award. They include her Nebula/Andre Norton- and Compton Crook-winning debut novel, Updraft (Tor, 2015); its sequels, Cloudbound and Horizon; the double-starred... Read More →

Friday May 13, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

1:00pm CDT

Western Narratives, There is No Single Voice in The West, So Why Do Only Hear From One?

There is a tendency to think white Western narratives as *the* Western narrative. It makes it more difficult for Western writers of color & other marginalized people with other narrative traditions to break into publishing as their voices may not fit within any expected paradigm. How do we learn to read, appreciate & support those other traditions?

Moderators

Jennifer Cross

Lead Organizer, Just Write Chicago

Speakers

Mikki Kendall

Alec Nevala-Lee

Alec Nevala-Lee is currently at work on the nonfiction book Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction, which will be released by Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in 2018. He is the author of... Read More →

Michi Trota

Managing Editor, Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy

Michi Trota is an essayist, editor, speaker, and community organizer. She is the Managing Editor for the Hugo Award-nominated Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and writes about geek culture on her blog, Geek Melange. She is also a member of the Chicago Nerd Social... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2016 1:00pm - 2:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

2:00pm CDT

The Moral Responsibility of the Storyteller

Society is shaped by narrative. What moral responsibility do storytellers have to consider the larger context in which their work appears? And how do we handle that responsibility, especially when writing outside of our own experiences, or presenting ours when they don’t fit dominant Western (esp. American) narratives or ideas of what a certain story ‘should’ be?

Moderators

Alyssa Wong

Speakers

Michael R. Underwood

Attendee

Helene Wecker

Nebula Nominees

C.S.E. Cooney

Attendee

C. S. E. Cooney is the World Fantasy Award-winning author of Bone Swans: Stories. Other books include The Twice-Drowned Saint, Saint Death’s Daughter, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. Forthcoming from Outland Entertainment is Negocios Infernales, a TTRPG she co-designed... Read More →

E.J. Fischer

Eugene Fischer is writer living in Austin, Texas. He has a physics degree from Trinity Univeristy, an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop. He was a Teaching/Writing Fellow and later an adjunct professor... Read More →

Naomi Kritzer

Author

Naomi Kritzer grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, a small lunar colony populated mostly by academics. She now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her spouse, two kids, and (currently) two cats. Her short stories have appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2016 2:00pm - 3:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

4:00pm CDT

Content and Form: Writing SF/F beyond Anglo-America

How do writers who primarily identify with Anglo-American traditions draw on literary forms that are not privileged in the Anglo-American canon in a way that is respectful as well as interesting? In what ways are the expectations of a “good story” in the Anglo-American tradition perhaps limiting? How can we stretch and expand our ideas about what a “good story” is and how to write one in the context of the full panoply of world literary forms?

Moderators

Kate Elliott

Kate Elliott is the author of YA fantasy Court of Fives, and numerous sff novels including Black Wolves, Cold Magic, and King's Dragon. She lives in Hawaii.

Nebula Nominees

Henry Lien

Author, Holt/Macmillan

Henry Lien is a 2012 graduate of Clarion West Writers Workshop, Seattle. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Peasprout Chen middle grade fantasy series. His short fiction has appeared in publications like Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF, and he is a four-time... Read More →

Ken Liu

Author

https://kenliu.name) is an American author of speculative fiction. He has won the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy awards, as well as top genre honors in Japan, Spain, and France, among other countries.Liu’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, is the first volume in a silkpunk epic... Read More →

Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor is an international award-winning novelist of African-based science fiction, fantasy and magical realism for both children and adults. Born in the United States to two Nigerian immigrant parents, Nnedi is known for weaving African culture into creative evocative settings... Read More →

Daniel Jose Older

Saturday May 14, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
LaSalle 2

Professional Development

Tags panel

4:00pm CDT

Redefining the Aliens of the Future

In early SF, aliens were often used as stand-ins, to represent groups of Others in our own societies. They are still sometimes inappropriately inserted into lists of marginalized groups by people attempting to downplay bias. In SF worlds where the human condition is portrayed with full diversity, what new roles can aliens take on to keep their relevance to their core genre?

Moderators

Juliette Wade

Writer, DAW

Juliette Wade's debut novel Mazes of Power will come out in 2020 from DAW books. Her short fiction has appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Clarkesworld and several times in Analog magazine. Her nonfiction has appeared in Analog and in Lightspeed's special issue, Women Destroy... Read More →

Speakers

PJ Schnyder

Author

“PJ" began her writing career as “PJ Schnyder” writing award-winning sci-fi & paranormal romance and steampunk. She has received the FF&P PRISM award for her work as well as the NJRW Golden Leaf award and Parsec award. Now, PJ writes romantic suspense as Piper J. Drake. The... Read More →

Rachel Swirsky

Writer

Nebula Nominees

Dr. Charles E. Gannon

Dr. Charles E. Gannon‘s best-selling books have won the Dragon Award, the ALA Choice Award (Outstanding Book), the Compton Crook Award, and have been nominated for four Nebulas. He is best known for the Caine Riordan series of hard sf novels, which have all been national best-sellers... Read More →

Fonda Lee

Author

Fonda Lee is the author of the epic modern fantasy Green Bone Saga, consisting of Jade City, Jade War, and Jade Legacy. She is a winner of the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, a four-time winner of the Aurora Award, and a finalist for the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award. The... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

10:00am CDT

Language, Dialect, and Code-Switching

Societies are reflected in their language. Looking the common grounds of past and current societies gives a groundwork for developing dialect in future and secondary world settings.

Moderators

Juliette Wade

Writer, DAW

Speakers

Tamara Vardomskaya

Ellen Wright

Senior Publicist, Orbit (Hachette Book Group)

[Promotional Bootcamp] Ellen Wright has been in the publishing industry for almost a decade, working on both nonfiction and fiction across a variety of genres. She is currently Senior Publicist at Orbit, where her authors include Ann Leckie, N.K. Jemisin, Kate Elliott, Kim Stanley... Read More →

Nebula Nominees

Lawrence M. Schoen

Author, Paper Golem LLC

Lawrence M. Schoen holds a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, is a past Campbell, Hugo, and Nebula, nominee, twice won the Cóyotl award for best novel, founded the Klingon Language Institute, and occasionally does work as a hypnotherapist specializing in authors’ issues. His science... Read More →

Sunday May 15, 2016 10:00am - 11:00am CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel

12:00pm CDT

Humor

While tragedy gets award recognition and critical acclaim, everyone acknowledges that humor is harder to write. What makes it so hard and how humor be used effectively in fiction?

Moderators

Alex Acks

Attendee

Speakers

Shane Halbach

Author

Shane Halbach lives in Chicago with his wife, three kids and one nuisance cat. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Escape Pod, Flash Fiction Online, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction, among others. He has been accused of being obsessed with pirates, bacon, zombies and his... Read More →

Nebula Nominees

Henry Lien

Author, Holt/Macmillan

Sunday May 15, 2016 12:00pm - 1:00pm CDT
LaSalle 1

Professional Development

Tags panel