Program Items | Sign Up Form | Kids & Teens | Readings | Academic | Writers' Workshop | Living Rooms | Schedule | How Long Do These Program Items Last? | Green Room |
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ImportantThe preliminary program schedule is now available here. Programming signup for WisCon 29 is now closed. This includes the readings, academic program, workshop, etc. The schedules are being created and refined. Please e-mail the head of programming at program29@sf3.org if you have any questions. Program ItemsGet involved! To review the list of possible items, go to the programming web site or click here (program@sf3.org) to email our committee. Anyone can suggest program ideas. We collect all the ideas in the fall and early winter. Then, we ask prospective panelists to tell us which program ideas they are interested in. The final list of program items is created based on the amount of interest it generates among prospective panelists. (If no one wants to talk on the subject it will get dropped. If many people want to join a discussion on the subject, then the item will probably show up on the final list.) The final program schedule will is posted in early May, several weeks before WisCon. Participant Sign Up FormIf you want to participate in programming as a panelist or presenter, you must complete a Participant Sign Up form. This will not be available until mid-January 2006. However, if you enter your name on the planning page we will let you know when signup is ready. Kids' and Teens' ProgramsKids' Programs are for older children-ages 7-12 and teens. Pre-teens need to be signed in and out by a parent or responsible adult. Older kids and teens can come and go without parents. This is a separate track of WisCon programming aimed especially at kids. Expect craft activities, supervised swimming, story-telling and games. We also plan to have some discussion groups and interaction with the teens. Teens are welcome to participate in the kids' programming but also have a separate room for more complicated activities, puzzles, gaming, videos, music, and video games. Teens will help develop the schedule of activities for their room. The Teen Room provides space for teens, and, except for the room moderators, is off-limits to both adults and younger kids. The teen room will be open from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m., as well as during the regular kids' room hours. ReadingsTo give a reading at WisCon you must sign up using the Participant Sign Up Form. There are two Reading Streams: the General Readings and the special Midnight Reading Sessions. If you want you may sign up for both a general reading and a midnight session. Readings at WisCon are organised thematically into 75 minute sessions of three or four readers with catchy titles. Some past examples include: New Wave YA, Snazzitude!, Sex in the City, Night Owls and Zombies, Trouble is My Business and Awkward Ages. The aim is to put together sessions of a common theme, style, or premise and thus attract bigger audiences. So far, so good. Every year more people want to read from their novels and short stories than we have space for. With that in mind we give priority to a) people who have a new publication out that they're promoting, b) people who have organised themselves into a group of three or four (poetry sessions may have more people, but we don't recommend any more than four for a prose session). There are no sessions of fewer than three people. This means the longest reading possible is 20 mins. How to take part in the readings programmingStep 1: Invite your writerly friends to form a group of three or four and read selections that have a common theme, style, or premise. Do you all have stories in the second person? The future tense? Have you all written an alternate history, an Ursula Le Guin homage, or an elvish wedding scene? For those of you without a coven, coterie or club, when you fill out Participant Sign Up Form give us a clue about what you'll be reading, and we'll try our best to group you with the like-minded and like-genred. We're not trying to pigeonhole you, just get you together with birds of a feather. Like any dating service, the more info you give us, the more likely you'll be to get lucky. Step 2: The most important step of all. Sign up via our
Participant Sign Up Form. The sign up form is where we collect data about who wants to read with whom, what they want their session called, and their description of it. For people without a group it's where we collect all the information that will allow us to figure out which reading session to put you in. The more information you give us the better placed you will be. It is essential that everyone who wants to read at WisCon fills it out. Step 3: This one's optional. Let people know when you're going to read and invite them along. Make posters, give away chocolates to people who attend. Last year reading sessions that employed advertising and/or bribery were packed out. We recommend it! Midnight Reading SessionsThis year the three midnight sessions (on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights) will not be part of the general reading series. They will be reserved for any group/person who wants to tell bedtime stories, ghost stories or any other midnight-appropriate material. Yes, you can sign up for both a general reading and a midnight reading session. Remember because there are only three sessions these slots will be limited. Priority will go to a) the group/person with the most interesting midnight-themed ideas b) people with a midnight-related (ie scary or bedtimey) book to promote. How to take part in the midnight readings The proocedure is the same as for a general reading session, but when doing Step 2 make sure you tick the box for a midnight slot and tell us why you should get a midnight session. WisCon Academic ProgrammingWisCon has a single stream of academic programming open to undergraduates, graduates and scholars inside and outside the academy. Over the years people have presented papers on fantasy, horror, and science fiction literature, media and fandom, examining (among many others) questions of race, sexuality, sex, religion, politics, and class. The papers have ranged from historical accounts to ranting polemics. One of the aims of having academic programming at WisCon is to strengthen the links between the feminist science fiction community and those students and scholars working on feminist sf and fantasy and related fields. Every year in November or December a call for papers is issued. The due date for proposals of 50-100 words is February 28 2005. They should be sent to the convenor of academic programming, academic@sf3.org. We invite papers and presentations on science fiction and fantasy, with an emphasis on issues of feminism, gender, sexuality, race, and class. We especially welcome papers on the work of the guests of honour. Since WisCon 27, the science fiction journal "Extrapolation" has created a special WisCon issue. The WisCon issue has three goals: 1. to make available the best papers of the previous year's WisCon; 2. to encourage scholarly work on science fiction culture and history, on the communities that make science fiction conventions, such as WisCon, possible; work about the interactions between fans and pros; work that moves beyond readings of specific texts to the context of their production and consumption; 3. to encourage work on feminist science fiction. With this in mind a call for papers has been issued asking those who gave papers at previous WisCons to revise them for publication and send them to us. We also sent out a general call for articles on science fiction culture and feminist science fiction. Writers' WorkshopThe Workshop is a unique part of the WisCon weekend that focuses on the needs of writers - novelists, short story writers, and poets. The Workshop takes place Friday morning before the convention gets rolling. Participants work in small groups with one pro, a published writer, an editor or an agent. The submission deadline for chapters and short stories is April 1st. For poetry, the deadline is April 30th. For submission guidelines and more information about the Workshop, click here. Living RoomsThe Living Rooms are informal discussions with pros about the challenges and rewards of writing. They are programmed during the convention and are open to anyone who would like to learn more about the craft of writing. For additional information about scheduled Living Rooms, click here. To reach the Living Rooms Director, send email to respite@sf3.org. ScheduleProgramming is scheduled to run from: Lunch breaks: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. How Long Do These Programs Last?The standard program timeslot is one hour and 15 minutes (75 minutes), followed by a 15-minute hiatus between it and the next program. No one is going to actually kick anyone out of a program room during the 15-minute hiatus, but if you don't have any time to use the restroom, or run up to the Con Suite for a beverage because you (or someone) kept talking... well, it's just not our fault! Continuing our tradition of supporting our convention attendees' need to eat meals without missing programming, lunch and dinner breaks are scheduled at 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5:30-7 p.m. Hardly anything gets scheduled during these periods. But the Con Suite will remain open for your refreshment. Relax, get a bite to eat and hang out! Green RoomThe Green Room is a place where panelists can meet before their panels. It's a generally peaceful place for quiet discussions and contemplation and/or panic attacks. Programming staff members are there to help solve logistical problems ("Where's my slide projector?") or to offer other advice and assistance. The name tents that identify panelists on a panel are stored in the Green Room. Panel moderator need to make sure they drop by the Green Room before their panel begins to pick up their panelists' name tents! Beverages and snacks are available here for all program participants. Last Updated: 18 April 2005 by Jim Hudson.
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