Festival of the Imagination 1996 – April 1995 Newsletter – The Guests

Back in 2016, we did a quick summary of this newsletter, as well as transcriptions of pages containing information on The Philosophy, The Hotel and Perth, Promotions, and Competitions. We are now revisiting this — today’s post transcribes the page on The Guests, and a later post will transcribe the post on Awards. At that point, we really will have got as much out of this newsletter as we can.

As ever, formatting has been duplicated as faithfully as is easy, except the evil that is ALLCAPS

The Guests

Bruce Sterling

Over the past fifteen years, Bruce Sterling has been building a highly respected reputation in and out of science fiction. Though he had been writing for several years, he came to fore as a major author during the eighties with his shaper/mechanist stories. From here, his novels have established his credentials as a writer influential to the future directions of the genre. He also published the fanzine Cheap Truth (1984-6), which was instrumental in the formation of the cyberpunk literary movement. His fantasy and SF short fiction has been published regularly in OMNI, Fantasy and Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction magazines. As an investigative journalist he has written about the “electronic frontier”; he regularly writes SF criticism and popular science articles for Science Fiction Eye and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and his thoughts and opinions have been in a wide range of publications, from Science Fiction Age to Wired. He has received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, is an experienced public speaker, a self confessed net-spider, and a Texan.

Selected Bibliography
Involution Ocean, 1978; Artificial Kid, 1980; Schismatrix, 1985; Mirrorshades: the Cyberpunk Anthology, (editor), 1986; Islands in the Net, 1988; Crystal Express, (collection) 1989; The Difference Ending, (with William Gibson) 1990; Globalhead, (collection) 1992; The Hacker Crackdown, (non-fiction) 1992; Heavy Weather, 1994.

Neil Gaiman

Expatriate Britisher and winner of the World Fantasy Award, Neil Gaiman is probably most widely known as the writer of the Sandman comic saga. He is also the author of numerous comics and graphic novels, often working with acclaimed artist Dave McKean. An occasional writer of short fiction (some of which was recently published in a collection), he collaborated with Terry Pratchett on a highly successful humorous fantasy novel and co-created and edited a number of shared-world anthologies including Temps and Weerde. Gaiman also collaborated with Kim Newman on a compilation of high-lights of the low-lights of science fiction and horror writing in literature and film; he is a popular interview subject, has received many awards and happens to be an authority on Douglas Adams’ Hitch-Hiker series of plays and novels.

Selected Bibliography (* denotes graphic novel)
Ghastly Beyond Belief, (non-fiction, co-edited with Kim Newman) 1985; Violent Cases*, 1987; The Official Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion, (non-fiction) 1988, rev 1992; Sandman*, 1988 -, collected as Preludes and Nocturnes, The Doll’s House, Dream Country, Seasons of Mists, A Game of You, Fables and Reflections and World’s End; Good Omens, (with Terry Pratchett) 1990; Black Orchid*, 1991; Miracleman: The Golden Age*, 1991; Now We Are Sick, (co-edited with Stephen Jones) 1991; The Books of Magic*, 1993; Angels & Visitations, (collection) 1994; Death: The High Cost of Living*, 1994; Mr Punch*, 1994; Signal to Noise*, 1994.

Robin Pen

Writer, columnist, film maker, artist, publisher, editor, critic, interviewer and raconteur, Robin Pen has worked in three SF bookstores – managing two of them – two comic shops, and two games stores, and has been active in conventions since Swancon 14 in 1989. In 1990 he helped found and edit Eidolon – The Australian Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy and began his film column “Critical Embuggerance”, for which he won a Ditmar Award in 1993. He has also programmed film events for Lumiere Cinemas, including two Sci Fi Blockbusters and the week long Festival Fantastic in 1994. Today, along with his involvement with Eidolon, he is an associate editor for PC Games Plus.