Convention Reporter

Alison Coad says practically nothing at all about Worldcon. Alma Alexander had a long trip home but before that she had this to say. Amy Sturgis notices a fun badge and survives the end of Worldcon. Christopher Garcia has a question about the Hugos if you feel up for a discussion. Frank Wu reviews his Worldcon.

Jenny has updated the promised pictorial guide here - with a link to her flickr album for higher resolution shots. Karen Burnham wraps up – the con that is..Kevin tours Montreal in his copious spare time. Matthew gives an attempt to sum up Anticipation. Claude Lalumière gives a last tour here. Tobias Buckell tells some stories about his visit – one of which was an ER visit!

Photos: from terilee07 , Rani Graff, John Picacio and Pyr Books.

Et voilà, c’est fini…Lionel Davoust.

PS – and Cheryl is still stuck in Montreal. Here’s hoping today sees her safely home.

Today’s post can not start anywhere without congratulating all the nominees this year and whoops of joy for those who won.

We have good cause to celebrate as our own Cheryl Morgan won the Hugo for Best fan writer.

Pablo kept the Tor site updated as the night progressed with the list of winners and their field of competition. The new Hugo Logo was unveiled and can be seen here on the Hugo website along with the list of winners and a picture of this years award.

Alma Alexander promises pictures, in the meantime tells all about her last 2 days in Montreal. Bob Neilson discusses whether size matters. Jay Lake assures us that both pre- and post-[hugo-]parties were great fun. Jenny gives a charming description of the night of the Hugos. I can imagine being there. John Scalzi is happy with his Hugo. Kate Heartfield discusses what counts as SF prior to the Hugos.

Kevin updates on the Hugo logo and Hugo winners enthusiastically. Neil Gaiman thanks Charlie N. Brown and talks about his Hugo.

For those of you reading in French Lionel Davoust has updates.

terilee07 has a good reason to attend conventions. I went to my first only a few years ago and would have to agree wholeheartedly.

Photos from Rani Graff here. Photos from the Masquerade here.

I won’t go to twitter because mostly attendees are in recovery and congratulations are still coming in from all over.

Friday August 7, 2009 – 8pm ET in the Palais de Congres, Room 516AB

THE CHESLEY AWARDS

Jannie Shea, Andrea Senchy

Presenting the Chesley Awards for excellence in the field of sf and
fantasy art for works created or first exhibited or published in 2008.

The Chesley Awards were established in 1985 as a means for the SF and Fantasy art community to recognize individual works and achievements during the previous year. The Chesleys were initially called the ASFA Awards (ASFA is the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artist), but were later renamed to honor famed astronomical artist Chesley Bonestell after his death in 1986.

Check here for all the Nominees and Categories!

I premi Chesley nacquero nel 1985 allo scopo di riconoscere le migliori opere create dagli artisti nel campo dell’Arte Fantastica nell’anno precedente. All’inizio erano denominati ASFA dalla sigla stessa dellAssociazione degli Artisti di Fantascienza e Fantasy, poi il nome cambiò per onorare l’artista Chesley Bonestell, a seguito della sua morte sopraggiunta nel 1986.

Cliccate qui per l’elenco dei finalisti in tutte le categorie!

So it all began: Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon, in Montréal. Lots of white noise – this is just a figure of speech, naturally, but indeed we had a major Internet problem, with the Denial of Service that made Twitter fail for most of the day. It didn´t matter in the end, because, even with some curious, Murphy-esque situations, like Jenny Rae Rappaport joining Mary Robinette Kowal, amongst others, on a panel about Twitter while Twitter was down. My colleague Kate Sheehy posted a good summation of Day 1 here.

Oh, and absolutely EVERYBODY wanted to meet Neil Gaiman. John Scalzi and Cath Valente did (I´m still waiting to hear from Ana Cristina Rodrigues, though – she also was thrilled by the sheer possibility of meeting the man! Neil, please cut her some slack – she´s from Brazil, for crying out loud! Who knows when she will have the chance to meet you in person again?

Quote of the day: “I have no net but I must tweet!” – Catherinne Valente.

And don´t forget to check out #worldcon09 hash tag on Twitter for more info!

———————————————–

And now, for the Portuguese translation:

Começou, pessoal: a Anticipation, a 67a Worldcon, em Montréal. Muito ruído na comunicação no começo – mas isso é apenas uma metáfora, claro, embora quem frequente o Twitter saiba que ontem foi o dia do cão-chupando-manga com o já famoso Denial of Service, que provocou a queda do serviço do pela maior parte do dia. Mas no fim tudo deu certo, mesmo com algumas situações dignas da Lei de Murphy, como Jenny Rae Rappaport e Mary Robinette Kowal, entre outros, num painel sobre o Twitter justo na hora em que o Twitter caiu. Minha colega co-editora Kate Sheehy postou um bom resumo do Dia 1, com essa e outras histórias, aqui.

Ah, e absolutamente TODO MUNDO queria conhecer pessoalmente Neil Gaiman. John Scalzi e Cath Valente conseguiram (Ainda estou esperando notícias da minha amiga Ana Cristina Rodrigues – ela também estava animadíssima só pela possiiblidade de conhecer “the man”! (ô, Neil, dá uma força pra moça: ela é brasileira, sabe Deus quando ela vai ter a chance de te ver em carne-e-osso novamente?

Citação do dia, homenageando Harlan Ellison: “Não tenho Internet e preciso twittar!” – Catherinne Valente.

E não se esqueçam de checar a hashtag  #worldcon09 no Twitter para mais informações!

We go live worldwide! An article about your editor, Anticipation and our Convention Reporter has appeared on ‘Il Corriere della Fantascienza’, the main sf online newsmagazine of the Italian community. Here’s the link:

A Montreal parte la WorldCon

I put my trust in the enlisted reporters for first-hand scoops from the Con! My keywords are WorldCon and Fantastic Art. For anything you wish to signal, please contact me through my Multiverse or drop a comment in the posts signed by Yours Truly. WorldCon is a place where the sense-of-wonder lingers and just now hundreds of elves and magical creatures, disguised as artists, publishers and fans are climbing out of their planes, trains, car or brooms to attend Day One of Anticipation. With an eye on the splendid Alps outside my window, I’ll be also looking at my overseas colleagues trying to testify their epic stay.

Ripongo la mia fiducia nei reporter arruolati dallo Staff per esclusive in diretta dalla Convention! Le mie parole chiave sono WorldCon e Arte Fantastica. Qualsiasi cosa desideriate segnalare, per favore contattatemi tramite il mio Multiverso oppure lasciate in questo Blog un commento ai messaggi firmati dal sottoscritto. La Worldcon è un luogo dove aleggia senso di meraviglia e proprio adesso centinaia di elfi e creature magiche, travestiti da artisti, editori e fan sbarcano dai loro aerei, treni, auto o scope per presenziare alla prima giornata di Anticipation. Con un occhio alle splendide Alpi appena fuori la mia finestra, osserverò anche i miei colleghi cercando di essere un testimonial del loro epico soggiorno. MM

Rani Graff is an editor and a publisher of Science Fiction & Fantasy in Tel Aviv, Israel. He is the head of Graff Publishing, a small press founded by him in 2004. Among the authors published in Hebrew by Graff one may find Robert Charles Wilson, Cory Doctorow, Jay Lake, Garth Nix, Scott Westerfeld, Chris Roberson, Carol Berg, Diana Wynne Jones, George Mann, Naomi Novik, Geoff Ryman, Elizabeth Moon, Rick Riordan, Mark Twain and many others.

Before founding Graff Publishing , and while working as a lawyer and a content manager for a Hi Tech company Rani was also active in the Israeli fan community and during that time was the second chairman of the Geffen Awards between 2001-2003. He is also responsible for writing the awards’ first set of rules.

See Rani’s reports here.

Fábio Fernandes is a writer living in São Paulo, Brazil. A journalist and translator, he is responsible for the Brazilian translations of several prominent SF novels including Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and A Clockwork Orange. His short stories have been published in Brazil, Portugal, Romania, ths UK and the US. Fernandes runs his own blog, the Post-Weird Thoughts and is also a co-editor of acclaimed book review blog Fantasy Book Critic. He’s currently writing his first novel.

As one of our editors, Fábio will be keeping an eye on the site from home so that our field reporters don’t have to. He’ll also be helping cover the convention in Portuguese.