Just a quick shout out for Tom Hunter, Award Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, who’s recently announced plans to hold an awesome-sounding afternoon of creative talks and presentations around the interconnecting disciplines of science, future technology and speculative fiction. The Write The Future event will be held on May 1st at the Royal Society. The winner of this year’s Clarke award will be announced at a separate event that same evening at the same venue.
Tom says:
“Write The Future is a micro-conference designed as a programme of creative short talks on the transformative power of science, technology, communication and speculative fiction – drawing parallels between these interconnecting disciplines and showcasing the power of the human imagination.
The concept is inspired by the life and work of science fiction author, inventor and futurist Sir Arthur C. Clarke, with each talk seeking to encapsulate a single inspirational and innovative idea from the fields of scientific research, digital disruption, creative communications and science fiction publishing.”
The line-up of speakers is to include scientists, writers, and other workers in the creative industries and I think the whole thing sounds fantastic. Write The Future presents an invaluable opportunity to publicize and promote the Clarke Award and SF generally. It gives SF readers, writers and publishers the chance to celebrate this fascinating business we’re all involved in. It also promises to be a wonderful showcase for new ideas, which are after all the stuff we’re all so keen to get our hands on.
Write The Future looks like a big step up for the Clarke, and Tom and the Award committee have launched a Kickstarter Odyssey with a target of £2001 (geddit?) to get the project off to a healthy start. We’ve already pledged our support – it seemed a no-brainer really, because our pledges will double as our tickets to the event – and we’re looking forward to watching the pledge total rise as many more fans and writers come on board over the coming days.
And wtih the project boasting such a delicious acronym, how could you resist..?
You can pledge your support for Write The Future here.