Around Seattle: T-Mobile Park
Seattle’s home for pro baseball is a very fun place, worth visiting whether or not the Mariners are in town.
Month: April 2025
Con-Verse: Getting Back to the Feeling
I thought it was only fair to step all the way back—to rewind time and our focus way past our initial reading questions and come back to the way we first dig into poetry: by sound and by emotion.
Fantastic Fiction: Fascism
We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.
Hugo Award Finalists Announced!
Hugo Award finalists have been announced, join a group themed costume meetup, dates for business meeting town halls and consultative vote, about our virtual content, looking for performers for concerts, about our safer spaces lounges, announcing our accessibility needs survey, announcing our short story contest finalists, the community fund status, site selection bids, and the virtual business meeting dates and times.
Local Flavor: Olympic Peninsula Cider Route
If you like hard cider, you’re in the right place. Washington grows more apples than any other state, and that includes cider varieties.
Con-Verse: Chatting with Akua Lezli Hope
This week we’re chatting with SFPA Grand Master Akua Lezli Hope!
Fantastic Fiction: Italian SFT: Calvino and Buzzati
Four authors dominated SFT in 20th century Italy: Buzzati, Landolfi, Calvino, and Levi. The first three wrote what most would call “fantastic” literature, while Levi wrote more allegorical and historical science fiction. Referred to as fantascienza (a fusion of fantasy and science) in Italian, the speculative fiction coming out of that country following World War Two was influenced by the political and social upheavals of that war and the fascism that had dominated Italian politics.
Around Seattle: Museum of Flight
Keep your head in the clouds at the world’s largest private air and space museum.
2025 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award Announcement
Seattle Worldcon 2025, the 83rd World Science Fiction Convention, is delighted to announce the finalists for the 2025 Hugo Awards, Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book, and Astounding Award for Best New Writer.
Fantastic Fiction: Finding Your People: Zenna Henderson
Zenna Henderson’s first six stories featuring the People—immigrant aliens who’ve escaped the destruction of the home planet and come to the American Southwest—were published as a fix-up, Pilgrimage, in 1961. Through these curiously gifted aliens Henderson explored themes of difference and belonging that still have relevance today.