Another July, another Readercon!

Readercon is my favorite convention. I’ve been to every one since 1987. Well, save one, which I missed due to a conflict with San Diego Comic-Con, though some of you might remember than in order to prevent despair, I sent a stand-in. A stand-up stand-in. This year, thankfully, I was able to make it in the flesh.

As has been usual for the past decade, rather than fly to Boston and bus it to Burlington, I flew to Providence, where I spent the afternoon with Paul Di Filippo and Deb Newton, who drove me to the con. But the con really began at Dulles Airport, because Michael Dirda was on the same flight, and we were able to discuss Forever Amber, Henry Huggins, and Rick Brant’s Electronic Adventures without the need of a moderator or microphone.

In Providence, he and I and Paul and Deb were joined by John Clute and Liz Hand (seen with me below), also on the way to Readercon. So there was much fun (and lobster rolls!) before the con proper even began.

Once we arrived at the con, we took part in a massive group dinner which also included Peter Straub, Gary Wolfe, Kit Reed, plus the organizers of the meal, David Shaw and Diane Martin. And then at 8:00 p.m., the programming began …

As usual, I recorded the panel and reading I attended, both because I’d hate for the wisdom on display at Readercon to be ephemeral, but also because, well, everyone should be at Readercon. And so—join me!

The first panel I attended was “East, West and Everything Between: A Roundtable on Latin@ Speculative Fiction,” which featured Daniel José Older, Carlos Hernández, Sabrina Vourvoulias (leader), Julia Rios, and Matthew Goodwin.

Here’s the official panel description:

This freeform conversation will look at where we’ve been, where we’re going, the challenges of representing our own particular cultures within the umbrella term “Latin@,” and the challenges of being Latin@ within a overwhelmingly Anglo genre. Are there insurmountable differences in regional Latinidad? Do we have to choose between being “vendidos” (sell-outs) or “pelados” (surviving—barely—by our wits)? Can we build platform in two languages (and if so, how)? How are we combatting the “Latinos don’t read/Latinos don’t write” fallacy?

And here’s the panel!

Then, at 9:30, F. Brett Cox read his short story “Where We Would End a War,” which will be published in the anthology War Stories, edited by Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak.

The con begins again today at 11:00, so I’ll be backing away from my laptop shortly and throwing myself in the thick of it. I’ll be recording as many panels and readings as I can, but there’s still time for you to get here and experience it live. So come if you can. And if you can’t … just check back later.