The Speculative Literature Foundation has announced that it is accepting applications for the 2012 Older Writers Grant. A grant of $750 is available to any writer of speculative literature older than 50 who is just beginning to work professionally in the field. Applications are due on March 31 with the winner announced on June 1.
The application deadline for Clarion West is March 1, although there will be a $10 discount for applications received before February 10. This year’s session will run from June 17 to July 27. Instructors will include Mary Rosenblum, Hiromi Goto, George R.R. Martin, Connie Willis, Kelly Link
and Gavin Grant, and Chuck Palahniuk.
Following the announcement in December that Karen Meisner was leaving the fiction department at Strange Horizons, fiction editor Susan Marie Groppi, who has held that post for more than a decade, has announced that she will be stepping down, although retaining an advisory role. The magazine is currently looking for a new fiction editor, and will be temporarily closed to submissions.
Brazilian comic book artist Al Rio (b.1962) died on January 30, possibly a suicide. Rio, whose full name was Alvaro Araújo Lourenço do Rio, worked on Gen¹³, Dungeon Siege, X-Men Unlimited, and DV8. his art also appeared on album covers.
Author Ardath Mayhar (b.1930) died on February 1. Mayhar, who won the Balrog Award for a poem that appeared in Masques 1. She wrote more than 60 novels, frequently using pseudonyms and spanning many genres. In the 1990s, Mayhar and her husband owned The View From Orbit Bookstore in Nacogdoches, Texas. In 2008, she was chosen by Science Fiction Writers of America as their Author Emeritus.
DC Comics has announced plans to launch seven mini series detailing the lives and backgrounds of the characters of Watchmen. The ground-breaking 1980s series was originally written and conceived by Alan Moore, who will not be involved in the new books. The new series will be written by Brian Azzarello (Rorschach and The Comedian), J. Michael Straczynski (Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl), Len Wein (Ozymandias), and Darwyn Cooke (Silk Spectre and The Minutemen).
The winner of the first Galactica Suburbia Award, presented by the Galactica Suburbia podcast for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction has been announced. In addition to the winner, an honors list was also released.
Winner:
Honors List
The Screen Actors Guild announced the winners of the annual SAG Awards on January 29. Genre works took three awards during the evening.
Director John Rich (b.1925) died on January 29. Although best known for his work on The Dick van Dyke Show and All in the Family, Rich’s genre credits included two episodes of The Twilight Zone several episodes of the ghostly comedy Nearly Departed. He also worked on MacGyver.
Actor Ian Abercrombie (b.1934) died on January 26. Abercombie was known best to recent audiences as Elaine’s boss on Seinfeld, but he has a long history of genre roles, including providing the voice of the Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious on The Clone Wars. He has appeared on The Wizards of Waverly Place, Star Trek: Voyager, played Alfred Pennyworth on Birds of Prey, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Flash, and was in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. His other voice work includes Green Lantern, Rango, and The Batman.