Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ted Chiang to speak at UC Riverside

Ted Chiang, one of the great short fiction writers, will speak at the University of California, Riverside at 7 p.m. Monday, March 4, 2013, in Riverside, California. The event is free and open to the public.

Quoting from the press release:

Chiang is the author of the collection “Stories of Your Life and Others,” the novellas “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” and “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” and many short stories. He has won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, three Locus awards, a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Sidewise Award, and a British Science Fiction Association Award. 
“Ted Chiang is the premier writer of short fiction in the field today,” said Rob Latham, professor of English and a senior editor of the journal Science Fiction Studies. “Every story he writes seems to push the borders of the genre further. His work engages with some of the core themes of science fiction — alternate worlds, alien encounters, artificial life forms — but always with a metaphorical twist that gives them fresh literary resonance.”
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4 comments:

  1. So what did you think of the talk?

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  2. I thought it was very interesting. Ted Chiang read a non-fiction piece, several scenes from a new story, and answered questions.

    The non-fiction was "Reasoning about the Body," which was published in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, December 2010.
    The story he read from was recently completed, he said, and he hasn't placed it yet for publication. Both were excellent.

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  3. Could you expand more on the scenes of the new story?
    Also, do you know if anyone video record the talk? I would love to hear him talk.

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. I’m reluctant to describe an unpublished story, of which we only heard a fragment, out of deference to the author. We were interested in making an audio recording, and requested the permission of the organizer. We were told no.

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