We are excited to announce our partnership with WorldCon: Glasgow 2024 – A WorldCon For Our Futures!
The convention takes place in Glasgow at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) and online from 8-12 August 2024. Activities include panels, readings, workshops, theatre and opera performances, dancing, and much more! More information here.
Access includes wheelchair access, sensory backpack provision, quiet rooms, and BSL interpretation – access info. Some access provisions must be booked through the SEC. WorldCon will also be offering an on-site creche, but will be charging for this service.
The full WorldCon Programme is now online with 950+ events across 5 days and more!
SBWN Events at WorldCon
We will be hosting several events at WorldCon: a panel discussion, a writing workshop, and a live author showcase – view /share our schedule here.
When the Future Hates and Fears Us: Techno-orientalism in SFF (in person)
9 August, 14:30 – 15:30
For fans and creators of colour, underrepresentation, erasure, and invisibility are major problems in SFF. For East and Southeast Asian fans and creators in particular, this is compounded by the racism and xenophobia of techno-orientalism: a damaging trope where East Asianness specifically is shorthand for dehumanisation, materialism, and dystopia (think Blade Runner, William Gibson, Cyberpunk 2077). How do we create and critique in genres that see us as the enemy?
Join Rho Chung, Mai-Anh Peterson, Eliza Chan, and moderator Kelly Kanayama for this one-hour panel.
Embracing Nature: Writing Workshop on Liberation through Climate Fiction (online only)
11th August, 11:30 – 12:30
Join a one-hour workshop hosted by Lorraine Wilson. Through discussion and writing prompts, we’ll explore how the climate emergency challenges us to resist the forces that harm nature, how nature itself is resisting this harm, and how it can be a lens for speculative futures and a tool of liberation.
A conservation scientist and third culture Scot, Lorraine lives by the sea writing stories influenced by folklore and the wilderness. She has a PhD from the University of St. Andrews and is the author of several books most recently The Last To Drown, and the upcoming We Are All Ghosts In The Forest. Winner of a BFA for her short fiction, her books have won the SoA ADCI Literary Prize, been longlisted for the BSFA, finalists for the BFA, Kavya and Saltire Awards, and twice winners of the SCKAwards. Lorraine has been stalked by wolves, caught the bubonic plague, and befriended pythons, but she now sticks to herding cats.
We Are Here! Scottish Black and PoC Writers Showcase (in person)
11th August, 13:00 – 14:00
Come and hear Scotland’s Black and PoC SFF authors and emerging writers read their work. With Anna Cheung, Clementine E. Burnley, Zebib K. Abraham, Foday Mannah, Rosario Blue. Hosted by T. L. Huchu.
Meet & mingle TBC before/after in-person events: ad hoc, Argyll Foyer, Crowne Plaza
Tickets and Registration
There are a wide range of ticket types for WorldCon, from full convention attendance to single day and multi-day passes. Find out more here.
We are running a giveaway to offer tickets to SBWN members who may otherwise be unable to attend.
Travel, Childcare and Data Bursaries
Please note that SBWN also has a limited number of travel, childcare and data bursaries available for SBWN members on a low income, even if you do not receive a free ticket.
If you require a bursary, please email scottishbpocwriters@gmail.com or enter the giveaway.
Bursaries issued by SBWN for WorldCon 2024 are:
- Travel bursary (up to £50)
- Childcare bursary (up to £30 per day needed, max £90)
- Data bursary (up to £16)
We look forward to seeing you at WorldCon!
Panellist, Facilitator and Performer Bios
Rho Chung (they/them) is a media critic, theatre maker, and academic hailing from the United States, though they have called Edinburgh home since 2017. Rho is the theatre section editor for The Skinny, where their work has explored racism and Orientalism in popular media, from pantomime to Chicken Run. Rho has recently completed their PhD, which focuses on the depiction of gendered violence in genderqueer Shakespeare productions. They have forthcoming work on early modern trans studies and Shakespeare performance.
Mai-Anh Vu Peterson (she/her) is a British Vietnamese, Edinburgh-based writer, AI strategist, facilitator and community organiser. She is also co-founder of the organisation Britain’s East and South East Asian Network (besea.n). She writes about identity, advocacy, anti-racism and community building. She is also an experienced speaker, consultant and facilitator of active bystander training, to support victims of identity-based violence.
Eliza Chan is a Scottish-born speculative fiction author who writes about East Asian mythology, British folklore and reclaiming the dragon lady. Her Sunday Times bestselling debut novel FATHOMFOLK — inspired by mythology, East and Southeast Asian cities and diaspora feels — was published by Orbit in February 2024. Her short fiction has featured in The Dark, Podcastle, Fantasy Magazine and The Best of British Fantasy.
Kelly Kanayama is a pop culture and comics critic, editor and educator with a PhD in comics research. Born and raised in Hawaii but now living in Scotland, she has written for The Independent, the official 2000 AD website, Shelfdust, the Eisner-Award-nominated Critical Chips, Bitch Media, the Eisner-winning site Women Write About Comics, and Nerdist, among others. She is the Events and Editorial Manager for SBWN is full of ridiculous facts about the pre-Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe, and is currently writing a book about the comics of Garth Ennis.
Anna Cheung is a poet based in Glasgow. Her debut poetry collection entitled Where Decay Sleeps was published by Haunt Publishing. Amongst other writings, her previous works were published in the anthologies Golden Hours, Haunted Voices, Forward Book of Poetry and literary magazines such as The Dark Horse, Myth & Lore, Banshee Journal, Dreich and Zarf. She was highly commended by the Forward Prize in 2022. She has performed at various spoken word events including Cymera Festival, Granite Noir, Edinburgh Literary Salon and Edinburgh Book Festival.
Born in Cameroon, Clementine E Burnley now lives and works between the UK and Germany. She is a part-time, practice-based student at the Research Society for Process Oriented Psychotherapy, with a focus on conflict mediation, and group facilitation. Her poems have appeared in IS&T, Magma, and The Poetry Review. In 2021 Clementine’s poem was selected by Hugh Macmillan as one of the Best Scottish Poems. She was the RSL Sky Award Winner for creative nonfiction in 2021. Her first pamphlet, Radical Pairings, was published by Ignitionpress in 2023. Radical Pairings was shortlisted for the 2023 Michael Marks Pamphlet Award.
Foday Mannah spent his formative years in delightful Sierra Leone where he studied English Language and Literature at Fourah Bay College. He holds an Msc in International Conflict and Cooperation from the University of Stirling and an MA with Distinction in Professional Writing from Falmouth University. Foday’s writing seeks to represent the experiences of some of the truly remarkable people he has encountered in life. Within this context, Foday’s writing especially seeks to explore the disproportionate use of power, both domestic and political. His short story, Amie Samba, was shortlisted for the 2019 Bristol Short Story Prize, and was published in the anthology of the same year. His novel – “The Search for Othella Savage” – won the 2022 Mo Siewcharran Prize and is due for publication in 2025.
Rachel Kareem (better known by her pen name Rosario Blue) is a British-Nigerian, autistic writer, and freelance journalist who has written for various online and print publications, like the Bookseller, STV, Techradar, and The Peckham Peculiar. She writes Afrofuturism and fantasy as colourful as she often presents and is influenced by Nigerian history, particularly Yoruba spirituality.
Z. K. Abraham (she/her) is a writer and psychiatrist. She has been published in/has work forthcoming in Clarkesworld, FANTASY Magazine, The Rumpus, Podcastle, Apparition Lit, and more. She is represented by C. L. Geisler at ArtHouse Literary Agency. She can be found on Twitter @pegasusunder1 and zkabraham.com.
T.L. Huchu’s work has appeared in ‘Lightspeed’, ‘Interzone’, ‘Analog Science Fiction & Fact’, ‘The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2021’, ‘Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine’, ‘Mystery Weekly’, ‘The Year’s Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2016’, and elsewhere. He is the winner of a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (2023), Alex Award (2022), the Children’s Africana Book Award (2021), a Nommo Award for African SFF (2022, 2017), and has been shortlisted for the Caine Prize (2014) and the Grand prix de l’Imaginaire (2019). The Edinburgh Nights series is now on its third instalment. Find him @TendaiHuchu