Castle. The simple word evokes images of myth and legend, fantastical landscapes populated by the stalwart and sinister characters of lore. Castles have been the sites of some of the more dramatic moments of medieval history, but they have also coloured our screens and dominated our imaginations in the worlds … Read more
Welcome to the first in our “Meet the Committee” series! Today, you’ll meet Marguerite, the Vice Chair for Glasgow in 2024. She is originally from California but has been based in Ireland for nearly half her life. As Vice Chair, she is there to back up Esther, our Bid Chair, … Read more
When a friend suggested we play the bleak zombie survival game Dead of Winter, I was initially sceptical. My ingrained fear of zombies certainly didn’t help but the lack of joy and fun in the bleak-sounding game put me off. And then my friend mentioned that they were using this … Read more
I recently found a pile of Shrinky Dinks paper at the bottom of a drawer and thought to myself, “Oh, the possibilities!” No doubt this is the exact same thought I’d had when I put it in the drawer to begin with several years ago, but this time I was … Read more
How it often starts: with a rush of non-linked ideas. I want to write about flight and apophenia and knowledge in context and about data bias and nonconscious cognitions, and hybridity and speculative spaces, and the joyful upending of inequalities, and the pleasure in being thrilled when reading and discussing … Read more
I am the kind of person who learns about everything through books. Fiction has been the place where I have found a space to explore my own queer identities – which I am still exploring. There are stories I have read that have made me question my entire existence through … Read more
In Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story ‘Dragonfly’ (2001), something very queer happens when the titular character receives her true name. This rite of passage, which in many ways is the cornerstone of Le Guin’s wider Earthsea mythos, rests on the notion that people and things are fundamentally knowable; the … Read more
Fantasy and science fiction offers a space to imagine new worlds and new possibilities, and to challenge established or assumed norms. And yet it is still relatively uncommon – although not as rare as it used to be – to find explicit bisexual and/or pansexual representation in SFF. In media … Read more
We’re bidding to hold a Worldcon in Glasgow in 2024 and we’re certain you have questions about it. We are so interested in what your questions are, we have decided to hold a contest to encourage you to send them to our question-answering team, Team Info. Asking questions of bids … Read more