Folks, it's that time of year again! Yes, the Stoke Newington Literary Festival is upon us so you can spend the whole weekend immersed in all that is great and good in the world of books, and there're some pretty decent sci-fi and graphic novel events in the program.
There's a ton of great talks and panel discussions so I'd urge you to go to the website and see the whole program, but for SF/F fans the highlights include:
The Science of Star Wars (9+)
Day: Saturday Time: 13.00 Venue: Stoke Newington Library Gallery Price: £4
Star Wars conjures up images of spaceships, super-weapons, and all sorts of visions of the future. Purely science fiction? Author Mark Brake and TV science presenter Jon Chase will explain how one of the most successful epics in entertainment history may actually anticipate real-life future science, right here on Earth.
Living and Loving in London: Oscar Zarate and ILYA
Day: Saturday Time: 14.30 Venue: Stoke Newington Library Gallery Price: £6
Oscar Zarate’s The Park, set in North London, revolves around an incident of dog bites man; man kicks dog. The event is then blogged about, with some visceral reactions; a sporadic event becomes a sensation. Best known for his collaborations with Alan Moore and Alexi Sayle, Zarate’s watercolours bring London to life.
A chance encounter in London is also central to ILYA’s Room For Love, which brings together a middle-class, middle-aged romance novelist with a teenage runaway making a living as a rent boy.
Finding unexpected common ground, an unlikely friendship forms. Ilya’s most recent work was his debut novel The Clay Dreaming; he has contributed to The Mammouth Book Of Best New Manga.
Joanne Harris
Day: Saturday Time: 17.00 Venue: St Mary's Old Church Price: £6
The author of Chocolat, adapted to the Oscar-nominated movie starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp talks about her fascinating writing career spanning bestselling novels that explore identity, mother & child relationships, being an outside in a community, the magic & horror of everyday things and her enduring interest in the emotional resonance of food. Like of much of her work, Joanne’s new novel, The Gospel of Loki, is inspired by fairy tales and folklore.
Based on Norse mythology, it is a brilliant first person narrative of the rise and fall of the Norse gods, re-told from the point of view of the world’s greatest trickster, Loki. Joanne will talk about her inspiring travels from her grandparents’ sweet shop, where she was born, to the hinterlands of Norse mythology, possibly with some spiky stuff about sexism in publishing along the way.
Relationships in Science-Fiction and Fantasy
Day: Sunday Time: 13.00 Venue: Abney Public Hall Price: £5
When it comes to science fiction and fantasy, many of us blur the lines between the two. In fact, most authors do the same – a crossover of genres often occurs throughout their careers, sometimes even within the same book! We talk to four of the leading writers in this area – Ben Aaronovitch, Stephen Hunt, Mitch Benn and Jon Wallace – about what it means to be a genre writer and how they manage to haggle with the boundaries. Hosted by Gollancz Associate Publisher, Simon Spanton.
Lewis Dartnell: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch
Day: Sunday Time: 15.30 Venue: The White Hart Price: £4
How would we cope if the world as we know it ended – either through a pandemic, an asteroid strike, or a nuclear war? How would we grow food, generate power, or prepare medicine? Lewis Dartnell is a UK Space Agency research fellow in the field of astrobiology and the search for signs of life on Mars. In his new book he looks to (the hopefully distant) future and gives us the skills we would need to rebuild.
Barry Miles & Thurston Moore on Burroughs
Day: Sunday Time: 19.00 Venue: Abney Public Hall Price: £6
William Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and had a huge influence on 60′s counter culture. A novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and spoken word performer, Burroughs’ has been hailed as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Biographer Barry Miles worked with Burroughs for 30 years and catalogued his archive, as well as being a friend until Burrough’s death in 1997. As The Times puts it, “The life of this disturbing and disturbed man has never been so perfectly told”.
Of course this is just a smattering of what's on and the 2014 program is really a wonder. Do yourself a favour and get along to at least one these great events, I'll be around and I hope to see you there!
You can view the full Festival program at stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com and you can follow the festival on Twitter and Facebook.