London, This Evening

[coalescent]

Tonight, greengolux and I, and possibly twic, will be going to this:

BRITISH FANTASY AWARDS SHOWCASE

The British Fantasy Awards will be presented at FantasyCon, 24-26 September. Ahead of this the BRITISH FANTASY SOCIETY will be showcasing the work recommended for each award: BEST NOVEL, BEST SHORT FICTION, BEST ANTHOLOGY, BEST COLLECTION, BEST ARTIST, BEST SMALL PRESS.

[...]

Stephen Jones will be chatting to some of those recommended between 7 - 8pm. Those attending include Christopher Fowler, Cherith Baldry, Les Edwards ('Edward Miller'), Dominic Harman, Gary Couzens, Sarah Ash, Andrew Hook (Elastic Press).

British Fantasy Awards Showcase at the TAPPIT HEN, 5 William IV Street, London, WC2N 4DN (nearest tube: Charing Cross)
FRIDAY 16th JULY, from 6pm

Anyone else care to join us, or already going? Also, whilst I think about it, one other thing - what exactly is the relationship (if there is any) between the BFS and the BSFA?

Comments

[archie.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I'm at the wrong end of the country to go to this. Would you guys mind fishing for some author contact details? I kept meaning to ask this for other events, such as EasterCon, but was always distracted, and OUSFG's contact database has been running a little dry lately. It was actually a BFA event that I asked China Mieville for his email address.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Mark's already asked me to look into this, so I have been, albeit slowly. It's worth noting that a couple of authors that I think would be good ousfg guests have contact details on their websites, notably Justina Robson and Richard Morgan. Alastair Reynolds used to, but is currently limited to a dial-up connection (!), so has removed details from his website for the time being. Is there anyone you think we should be looking out for?

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

BFS is an offshoot of the BSFA started many years ago (way before my time) by a group who felt that the BSFA did not devote enough time to fantasy. Quite when and how fantasy became spelled h-o-r-r-o-r I know not, but when I went to my first Fantasycon, in 1980, it was mainly about horror, something I don't read. When I decided between joining the BFS and the BSFA, I chose the latter because it discussed fantasy. The rest is history, of a sort. I'm not sure what the BFS covers these days but I always get the feeling that horror still dominates. Looking at recent past award winners, I see nothing to dispel that sense.

I shan't be there, but I'd love to hear how the evening goes, and what directions the discussion takes, so do report back.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Looking at the shortlists, all the short fiction categories seem to lean fairly strongly towards horror but the novel list is quite eclectic - Felaheen and Broken Angels are on there, for instance.

And on the subject of categories, I approve of the 'best collection' and 'best anthology' awards, since I often feel that such books get overlooked come awards time.

report back

Will do.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

And on the subject of categories, I approve of the 'best collection' and 'best anthology' awards, since I often feel that such books get overlooked come awards time.

So do I, in principle, although I think that the pool is rather small, especially in the sf field. I don't think either category would work for the BSFA Awards, for example.
---Mark

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether the problem is one of volume or one of exposure, though - I suspect the latter. Certainly last year's Locus recommended reading list has a fair few of both on it, but a lot, particularly for collections, are from the small presses.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree about the inclusion of collection/anthology awards ... I see a similar problem with, for example, the 'non-fiction Hugo', or whatever it's called this year, when so many different types of book are jostling for attention. And, of course, apart from the William Atheling Award in Australia, there's not a huge focus on the fan side of critical writing, more's the pity ... the bulk of such prizes lurk on the academic side of things.

[fishlifter.livejournal.com]

...I always get the feeling that horror still dominates.

That's my sense too. I also think that Fantasycon (and indeed the BFS) has somewhat more of a bias towards the professional side of the community.

I remember being surprised at first to discover just how little overlap there is between BSFA and BFS types; most of the time, we're just not on one another's maps. My impression is that it would never occur to most Eastercon-goers to attend Fantasycon and vice versa, for example.
---Mark

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

Glad it's not just my perception ... I sometimes fear I was scarred for life by my first convention experiences.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, there's no formal link between the BFS and BSFA, and I don't recall much in the way of joint events such as the BSFA and the SF Foundation no engage in, though obviously there are interests and members in common.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I should have kept quiet, since brisingamen has answered your question much more accurately than I could have.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Another perspective is always interesting. I'm interested in seeing how much overlap there is...it was always something that fascinated me about the various spec-f-oriented societies at university.

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

There was very little overlap between the two groups in the past ... by the time I was involved with the BSFA, circa 1984/5), the two communities had little contact, for reasons I'm not clear about but I think there was a Mighty Schism in the past that is not recorded in any folk memory I've got access to.

The BSF community ... I think I can say this without it sounding bitchy; it's meant to be an observation of how things seemed ... seemed to me, in the very early 1980s, pre my BSFA involvement, to be comprised much more of people who saw themselves as 'professionals' in the field (authors, anthologists, etc.), or else 'big' in small press, and they were much more heavily into small press publication independent of the magazines than the BSFA was at that time. And the BSFA was generally supposed to be more oriented towards bringing people to fandom (though my reading suggests that it very quickly moved towards a focus on the literature/lit.crit side of things). I'm not sure the BSF 'did' fandom.

My early experience of Fantasycons, organised by the same group, was that, alongside the genre definitions problem, there was a distinct hierarchy of 'personality' within the community, rated according to whether or not you were published, in small press, or merely a fan (in which case you could watch) which I did not see manifested in anything like the same way at sf conventions when I started to go to them, around 19881-2. As late as 1987 ( I think, but not much later), the last UK Fantasycon I attended, authors who were friendly with PK apologised to him that they couldn't hang out with him in the bar because they 'have to sit with the professionals' (which I personally thought showed a distinct spinelessness). 1987 was the year when they had a panel on how great it was that there were now more women in the fandom, until someone got up and pointed out that actually, this was the only panel in the entire convention that had any women fans on it.

But many people seemed to enjoy the conventions and I'm told they were very friendly, as was the community, so maybe it was just me. But that was not my experience at the time. I'm quite sure things have changed but my interests and those of the BFS community, in terms of choice of reading/fannish activity, etc. have never really coincided so I don't really know what they do these days. I'm curious, in an academic kind of way.

[(Anonymous)]

I won't be coming - i have a lot of work to catch up on today, and also need to maximise rest.

-- Tom

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could mention DiverseBooks.com loudly at publishers :-)

Alex

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Bother! It sounds great but we're going up to London tomorrow morning to visit Alex's mum and I don't think I can face the bus two days in a row. Next time...