Hard on the heels of the news that a short story collection by science fiction writer Chris Beckett has won the prestigious Edge Hill Short Story Prize, beating collections by Anne Enright, Shena Mackay, Ali Smith and Gerard Donovan, comes the slightly less big – but still welcome – news that Radio New Zealand (National Radio) is holding a panel discussion this coming Sunday afternoon (the 11th) on writing science fiction and fantasy. Here’s the official announcement:
2:30 Chapter and Verse
A panel of New Zealand Sci-Fi writers and publishers, on the on-going fascination with the future, and what the future holds for our Sci-Fi. On the panel are writers Tim Jones, Helen Lowe and Russell Kirkpatrick, and publisher Lorain Day from Harper Collins.
(Ooh, I do dislike that term “Sci-Fi”! It always sounds patronising to me – but I’ll learn to cope…)
Two of the panelists, Helen Lowe and Russell Kirkpatrick, are best known for their fantasy novels (though Helen is also an excellent short story writer and poet), so I expect to be holding the fort for science fiction and for short fiction.
If you live in Wellington, keep your eyes peeled for another writing event in September featuring Helen Lowe and myself – more details to follow!
Details of how to access Radio New Zealand broadcasts are available on their site (see “Ways to Listen” on the bottom left of the home page) and, if a podcast is made of the panel, I will put the link up here as soon as it’s available.
