The overture is about to start...

Rather a small (but cherce) Readercon schedule this year.  Which means I'll get to see things I'm not on!

Friday July 12
12:00 PM
Of Gods and Goddesses
Richard Bowes, Lila Garrott (leader), Greer Gilman, Sandra Kasturi, Patricia A. McKillip, Sonya Taaffe.

Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light used gods and goddesses as modern characters. Powerful, imperious, vulnerable, gods seem to be everywhere again these days. In American Gods, Gods Behaving Badly, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms et seq., Discord's Apple, Going Bovine, and other recent works, we meet familiar and unfamiliar deities who behave more often than not in recognizably human fashion rather than with a god-like dignity, power, and majesty. What draws writers to bring gods to earth and readers to the adventures in the modern world of characters as old as storytelling? And why is this trend increasing at this particular time?


Saturday July 13
6:00 PM  
The Tropes of Tresses
E.C. Ambrose, Lila Garrott (leader), Greer Gilman, Liz Gorinsky, Veronica Schanoes.

Hair has shaped the lives and destiny of Samson in the Bible, Rapunzel (in all her iterations), and blue- and fire-haired heroines of recent YA fantasy. Hair can be a source of power, a means of communication, and a signifier of identity. Why is hair such a potent element in speculative fiction? What cultural and literary antecedents give hair its significance, and how does it connect modern SF/F with the world of religion and myth?

7:30 PM
Reading: Greer Gilman
Greer Gilman

Greer Gilman reads from "Cry Murder! in a Small Voice," a new novella forthcoming from Small Beer Press.

Sunday July 14
2:00 PM
Designing and Building a Book Collection
John Clute (leader), Ron Drummond, Greer Gilman, Jacob Weisman.

This panel will focus on how to shape a book collection as a meaningful embodiment of information that other people can access. Motives for collecting will be discussed, but the focus is on the books assembled, not the raconteur.

Nine