Comicpalooza is the largest pop culture festival in Texas, and this year, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association will be there for a special panel on Friday, May 12th from 4-5PM! It’s been a long time since the Texas branch of the SFPA has been able to meet together officially to connect with the community and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone there! Our official panel is:
Additionally, many of us will be around throughout the rest of the convention to discuss the various things strange, unusual, and unexpected that one discusses as a speculative poet. We might even pick out candidates for the 40th anniversary Texas Speculative Poetry Mascot at this gathering, so you won’t want to miss out!
Texas is one of the largest states with a dozen SFPA members in good standing and 33 lapsed members across the state. Hopefully many of them will be able to join us as we discuss upcoming plans for the organization and what we can do to support one another in the years ahead creatively and professionally!
Comicpalooza features 3,000 hours of entertaining activities over 1.2 million square feet of event space at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX. For three days, from May 12-14, attendees participate in sessions covering popular trends and obscure topics; a film festival, gaming competitions, a cosplay contest, live art auction, and much more. The exhibit hall is filled with specialty retailers for comics, popular artists, and exciting games. In addition, the Maker’s Space and NASA Showcase features innovative technology from today and year’s past, while the kid’s area is both fun and educational. Celebrity guests from our favorite movies, television series, comics, or literature answer questions and share their stories, they engage audiences in Q&A sessions, sign autographs, and take photographs with fans.
Our 2017 panelists are:
Deborah L. Davitt has, to her unbounded surprise, found herself nominated for two Rhyslings for her poetry, which has appeared in twenty venues so far, including Dreams & Nightmares, Silver Blade, and the Blue Monday Review Storytime Challenge. Her short fiction has or will appear in InterGalactic Medicine Show and Compelling Science Fiction, with novellas slated to appear in Altered Europa and The Fantasist later this year. Her critically-acclaimed Edda-Earth novels are available through Amazon. For more about her work, please see www.edda-earth.com.
Michelle Muenzler, known at local science fiction and fantasy conventions as “The Cookie Lady”, writes fiction both dark and strange to counterbalance the sweetness of her baking. Her poetry can be read in various magazines such as Devilfish Review, Through the Gate, and Star*Line, and she takes immense joy in crinkling words like little foil puppets. Find links to more of her work at michellemuenzler.com, or if you have a more immediate itch for something terribly weird and excessively squidgy, check out her recent novella, The Hills of Meat, the Forest of Bone, on Amazon or BN.com. Just don’t blame her if you find yourself converting to vegetarianism as a result… You can visit her at www.michellemuenzler.com
Holly Walrath is the Associate Director of Writespace. She attended the University of Texas at Austin for her B.A. in English and the University of Denver for her M.L.A in Creative Writing. She is a freelance editor and teaches in the Houston area. Her academic research has led her to speak at Houston YA/MG, SCBWI, and at international conferences. Her poetry, flash fiction, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Vestal Review, Pulp Literature, ArtHouston Magazine, and Vine Leaves, among others. Holly enjoys geekery, sarcasm, and puns. Visit her at http://www.hlwalrath.com/
Bryan Thao Worra is the president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an international organization established in 1978 to share and promote poetry involving science fiction, fantasy, horror and the imagination. The author of 6 books, he holds over 20 awards for his writing including a fellowship in literature from the National Endowment for the Arts. He represented the nation of Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games as a Cultural Olympian. He has presented at the Smithsonian, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, colleges across the US, and holds an Elgin Book of the Year Award for his collection of Lao Lovecraftian poetry, DEMONSTRA. Fnord. In addition to being a playable character in the Horror on the Orient Express, he also raises dachshunds and crustaceans. You can visit him online at thaoworra.blogspot.com
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association was established in 1978 by Suzette Haden-Elgin and has an international membership representing over 19 nations and cultures including United States, Italy, Canada, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Denmark, Germany, France, Spain, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, the Hmong, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The SFPA publishes two journals: Star*Line and Eye to the Telescope. It oversees three major literary awards for poetry: The Rhyslings, the Dwarf Stars, and the Elgin Awards. We also conduct an annual science fiction poetry contest and other special events and gatherings. Further, we provide resources for emerging and established poets seeking professional publication and networking opportunities.
We look forward to seeing you all there!
SPECPO 