September Events For Myth Lovers
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Virtual Events
Join Gibson’s Bookstore on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. virtually as they present a trio of fantasy authors, Andrea Hairston (Master of Poisons), Jenn Lyons (The Memory of Souls, the third in the “A Chorus of Dragons” series), and Ryan Van Loan (The Sin in the Steel), discussing the new books.
Elizabeth Hand and Bradford Morrow will discuss his literary crime novel, the Forger’s Daughter online via the Strand Book Store on September 10 at 7 pm.
The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and Fantastic will hold Spellcraft: A Folklore and Creative Writing Workshop on September 12.
Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival will take place from September 10-13 and will feature numerous authors including Monique Roffey, who wrote “The Mermaid of Black Conch.”
The Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic at the University of Glasgow will launch with a lecture on September 16 by fantasy author Ellen Kushner, and a discussion panel on fantasy with Terri Windling, Professor Brian Attebery, and Dr Robert Maslen.
The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Speculative Fiction Foundation will hold a virtual panel on September 20 titled “How Do Speculative Fiction Writers Get Grants?” Panelists include Mary Anne Mohanraj and Raina J. Leon.
Vicki Noble, , co-creator of Motherpeace Tarot and author of numerous books including Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess, will hold a scholar salon on September 23 for the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology.
Brooklyn Book Festival Virtual Fest takes place September 28- October 5. Keep an eye out for authors including N.K. Jemison, Carlos Hernandez, Emily St. John Mandel, Salman Rushdie, Laura van den Berg, and many more.
World Fantasy Convention The virtual conference from October 29 to November 1, 2020 will include small group panels that enable interaction with authors, editors, agents and artists.
Eurocon’s next event is virtual and takes place October 2-4, 2020.
The NY Mythology Group, which is associated with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, holds presentations and discussions about mythology related topics ranging from the Greek goddess Hecate to Carl Jung. Their events usually take place on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm EDT, and have been online since the pandemic started.
The Center for Fiction will hold a discussion group on Wednesday nights from September 16-January 6 about “ways in which pervasive themes drawn from oral tradition find their way into our collective consciousness, either perpetuated or subverted by current fiction.” Readings from authors including Octavia Butler, Catherynne Valente, Ursula LeGuin, Kelly Link, and Aimee Bender.
BSFW, or Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, meetings take place mostly online currently, but pre-pandemic were in the homes of writers mostly in Brooklyn but also on occasion Manhattan or Queens. Check out their calendar on meetup to attend their numerous writing workshops, social gatherings, meetings with editors/agents/authors, book clubs, and more. The group includes many published writers and has its own audio fiction magazine, Kaleidocast. If you post about your fetish for Olympian gods on their Facebook group feed, they (probably) won’t judge.
EREWHON BOOKS, a publisher focusing on novel-length works of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and related genres, holds readings usually on the second Thursday each month virtually for now and in a pre-apocalypse world at its high ceilinged office of many windows in Manhattan.
Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a monthly speculative-fiction reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month virtually for now, and in a pre-apocalypse world at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel host the event. As one might expect from a communism-themed bar, admission is free.
The NYC Greek Myth & Classical Lit Meetup meets every third Thursday of the month at the Cloister Cafe in the East Village to discuss the work of mostly long dead authors (e.g. Aristophanes, Dante.) The group has existed for more than a decade, so the long-term participants have already earned their unofficial classics PhD’s, and we already know that anybody who would do this for fun is as hip as a person can get.
The virtual exhibit Guiding Spirits: The Radical Witches and Women of OPUS presents materials highlighting explorations of mythological witches and the occult and supernatural underpinnings of depth psychology.
World Events
ArtPolitical-Margaret Atwood’s Aesthetics International Conference will be held from October 8-10 at the University of Goettingen, Germany.
For the Love of Fantasy, which was originally planned for August, merged with Comic Con Scotland and is scheduled to take place October 10 -11 in Edinburgh (if safe to do so). For the Love of Fantasy has another conference scheduled for December 5 to 6 and Comic Con Liverpool is still on for March 6 -7.
IceCon This conference is still planned to take place in Reykjavik, Iceland from November 6 to 8, 2020
Finncon Postponed until 2021
Worldcon is scheduled to take place in Washington D.C. on August 25-29, 2021. You can already buy your ticket for their convention here.
U.S. Events
Readercon, a conference in Boston for readers and writers of science fiction, postponed until 2021.
New York City Events
The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings usually holds events on the first Tuesday of the month at The Brooklyn Commons Cafe at 388 Atlantic Avenue. Check their website for up to date information.
Marcantonio Raimondi’s “A Bacchanal”. CC01.0 Public domain.
