Tachyon mastermind Jacob Weisman joins John Joseph Adams, Cory
Doctorow, Daryl Gregory, Eileen Gunn, James Patrick Kelly, Ellen
Klages, Dave Smeds, and Sheila Williams at the 2019
SFWA Nebula Conference in Los Angeles, May 16-19.

Jacob Weisman, John Joseph Adams, and Sheila Williams (photo: Ché Ryback)

SFWA members and other individuals who are interested in the field of science fiction and fantasy are welcome to attend SFWA’s Nebula Conference. Attendees may participate in workshops, programming and special events throughout the weekend.

Focusing on three tracks relevant to professionals in the genre, attendees will be able to choose from career management, professional development, and expert knowledge panels and workshops throughout the weekend.

Tachyon creators will take part in many of the conference’s events.

Cory Doctorow (photo: Jonathan Worth, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0), Ellen Klages(Scott Edelman), and Daryl Gregory

Thursday, May 16

3:30PM

Ignite
Talks

Get snapshot talks
on a variety of subjects, geared toward jumpstarting your brain.
Presenters get 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15
seconds. The results are fast and fun presentation each of which
lasts just 5 minutes. http://www.ignitetalks.io/

Topics include:

Daryl Gregory
– Answer these 3 Questions to Make Your Plots Dramatic

Heather McDougal
-Orreries

Stephen Granade –
Five Minutes to Your First Interactive Story

Jeffe Kennedy – SFWA
services

Friday, May 17

10AM

Kidlit:
Creating foundations

Children’s
literature often addresses tough topics in creative ways – from
portal fantasies to adventure quests to space battles. What are the
ramifications of doing so? Why are monsters and magic, and reaching
beyond the ordinary world so vital? What are tools and techniques to
do so?

Fran Wilde (m),
Ellen Klages, Greg van Eekhout, Farah Rishi, Rachel Hartman

Short
Fiction Contracts

Panel will describe
the elements of short fiction contracts being used in the sf/f genres
and talk about how to understand what they mean, negotiate changes,
and relate personal experiences about contract-related interactions
with sf/f magazine and anthology editors.

Anne Leonard (m),
Neil Clarke, Jacob Weisman, Sheila Williams, Rosemary
Claire Smith

2PM

Vonda
McIntyre: Remembering her life and her work

The loss of Vonda
McIntyre was sudden.  She leaves a legacy garnished by Nebula and
Hugo awards. She wrote critically acclaimed fantasy novels, short
stories and was a passionate mentor. In the 1970s, she founded
Clarion West where many of today’s top voices got their start.

When she received
her diagnosis of stage four colon cancer in February, she pushed to
finish her novel “Curve of the World.” On March 21st, she
did. Eleven days later, she passed.

Join a panel of
friends, colleagues and fans as we remember her work and her life.

Jeffe Kennedy (m),
Eileen Gunn, Connie Willis, Sheila Williams

3:30PM

Navigating
as “Gatekeepers” of Publishing

From the outside,
editors and agents seem to be an arcane force. If you want to get
past the gates, what are the rules? Agents and acquisitions editors
discuss their perspective of what it’s like to be seen as gatekeepers
and the dangers of being in a position of power. They discuss the
limitations of their power, the politics of slush piles, and how they
walk the line between being social and being predatory.

Diana M. Pho (m),
Neil Clarke, Jennifer Udden, John Joseph Adams, DongWon Song

4PM

Office
Hours

Often the best
conversations at a convention are the ones that carry over after a
panel. Here we have provided a space for authors, editors, agents,
and our partners to share their expertise in intimate meetings. These
can either be a one-on-one about an area of expertise such as
hypnotism, sailing, or contract law. Or it could be an offer to talk
shop such as brainstorming sticky plot points, world-building
dilemmas, or how to set up book tours.

Rebecca Gomez
Farrell, Illimani Ferreira, Jennie Goloboy, Aimee Kuzenski, Trevor
Quachri, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Jacob Weisman

Ellen Klage (photo: Scott Kline), Dave Smeds (Wikimedia Commons), and James Patrick Kelly (Bill Clemente)

Saturday, May 18

11:30AM

Conversation
with William Gibson, Grandmaster, and Eileen Gunn

The
wider world of publishing

Science fiction and
fantasy take us to worlds beyond our own, but often the business of
publishing is geographically centered in one or two locations. What
are the challenges and opportunities for international authors, and
how can those of us lucky enough to attend events like the Nebula
Conference expand our reach to our colleagues who don’t have that
opportunity? What can we do to encourage a diversity of voices in our
literature?

Susan Forest (M),
Lee Harris, Xia Jia, Jacob Weisman, Darusha Wehm

4PM

Megatrends
for the near future

In SF, we talk about
near future as being within our lifetime and try to imagine what it
might be like. Did you know that the UN works on anticipating
real-world megatrends and projecting the world until 2030? Population
shifts, economics, demographics – These show trends such as China’s
ratio of dependents to workers increasing, and thus their economic
boom slowing; while in India, the trend is going the other way – so
there’s a boom ahead, but rapid urbanization and shadow migration is
creating monsters that are both unregulatable megacities and
megaslums, like William Gibson’s Sprawl. Meanwhile, militaries are
focusing on cyberwarfare and smaller disruption teams, and the
Pakistan-India conflict is gumming up the works on regional
co-operation, and rising CO2 emissions are going to nuke agricultural
economies. Our panelists discuss tools and lessons from the real
world that SF writers can apply to extrapolate their near future
fiction.

Xia Jia (m), Tara
Smith, Cory Doctorow, Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

Sunday May 19

10AM

We
Have Always Been Here

Women have been part
of our genres from the beginning, but many have been allowed to fade
into obscurity, or haven’t been given their due. Our panel discusses
which authors we should still be reading, and who might have become
SFWA Grand Masters if they had been born or publishing in another
time, from Leigh Brackett to Miriam Allen DeFord to Vonda McIntyre.

Sarah Pinsker (m),
Connie Willis, Eileen Gunn, Cat Rambo

2PM

Productivity
tools FTW!

You know you need to
do the work. You even want to do the work and yet… When your brain
is being derailed by the news, or social media, or just straight-up
OMG THIS NOVEL SUCKS, how can you get work done? Our panelists will
discuss a variety of tools and the workarounds that they’ve found to
get their brains to just do the work.

Jenn Lyons (m),
Vicky Hsu, Meghan Ciana Doidge, Daryl Gregory, Siena Leslie