Swecon is taking place this weekend (with Jo Walton, Lavie Tidhar and Karin Tidbeck as Guests of Honor). I’m way to busy to be there, which I’m sad about because it looks like being a great convention and there is a lot of interesting stuff going on. One of the things that has happened is the announcement of the creation of a new academic journal: The Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy Research.
It is the creation of my good friend Merja Polvinen, and most of the people involved are folks I have met at the FINFAR academic conference that takes place prior to each year’s Finncon. However, if you look at the press release you’ll see two non-Nordic names on the advisory board. One is Adam Roberts, on whose website the press release is posted. Adam and Merja have some common research interests and have been friends for some time. The other one is me.
Naturally I’m deeply embarrassed about this. I want the journal to do well, and I can already hear the tut-tutting as certain parts of the UK fannish establishment write it off because of my involvement. But Merja did ask very nicely, and I want to reassure people that I won’t be reviewing the contents or anything like that (except perhaps if they get submissions on trans issues). I’ll be mainly promoting the Journal to friends outside the Nordic world, and giving occasional advice on publishing matters.
The launch has already garnered some media attention in Finland with one of the editors, Jyrki Korpua, being interviewed on the radio and a mention in Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s leading newspaper. Hopefully the Swedish press will pick it up over the weekend.
Work on the first issue is already underway, and I believe that it will contain at least some of the papers presented at this year’s FINFAR meeting. This makes me feel slightly less guilty for not having gotten around to writing about them yet. Issues will be published online, so you will be able to read them.
I guess this is also an opportune moment to note that Wizard’s Tower Press will be launching a new academic imprint on Monday. Stay tuned.
Kinds words, Cheryl, but I’ll just mention that the whole thing is a continuation of the 15 years of FINFAR seminars and all the good work being done there, and Irma Hirsjärvi is the one who came up with the idea – I just jumped on the bandwagon. 🙂
Well yes, but Irma is responsible for pretty much everything that happens in Finnish fandom. That goes without saying. I suspect she may be some sort of Mother Goddess in disguise.
I can only speak for myself, Cheryl, but I’m honoured to be on the same panel as you for this journal. Your expertise on SF/F, not only Trans topics and women’s writing, but the field as a whole, really is second to none. I know plenty of people inside the academy who come nowhere close to your critical acuity or knowledge base.
Aw *blush*. Thanks!
Of course now I need to convince people that the enthusiastic review of your riddles book that I’m going to post next week was written before you said that. Good job I’ve been telling people about it.