CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Best-selling author Kim Stanley Robinson will deliver the keynote lecture at “Writing Another Future,” a symposium on science fiction, the arts and humanities, Sept. 25-27 (Wednesday-Friday) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to presentations and panel discussions, the event will include several concerts. Organizers hope the symposium will spark interest in science fiction writing as part of the university’s ongoing explorations of science, technology and society.
Kim Stanley Robinson
Robinson is the author of 12 books, including the “Mars” trilogy, “Fifty Degrees Below” and the recently published “2312.” The winner of Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, Robinson will speak at 4 p.m. on Sept. 26 (Thursday) in the auditorium of the Music Building, 1114 W. Nevada St., Urbana.
Also on Thursday, Minister Faust (Malcom Azania) – the author of a half dozen novels, including “Shrinking the Heroes,” “The Alchemists of Kush” and “The Coyote Kings, Book One: Space Age Bachelor Pad” – will speak on science fiction and Africentrism at 11 a.m. at the Levis Center, 919 W. Illinois St., Urbana. Lisa Yaszek, the author of “Galactic Suburbia: Recovering Women’s Science Fiction” and the president of the Science Fiction Research Association, will speak on international science fiction at 9 a.m., also at the Levis Center.
The symposium opens Sept. 25 (Wednesday) with a 7:30 p.m. concert by the Illinois Modern Ensemble at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The concert will feature premieres by guest composers Fernando Benadon and Dmitri Tymoczko, with Illinois faculty artists Timothy Ehlen and the Jupiter String Quartet.
On Sept. 26 (Thursday), the Illinois Wind Symphony will perform works by Illinois composition professor Stephen Andrew Taylor, Chicago Symphony Orchestra composer-in-residence Mason Bates and Illinois alumnus Perry Goldstein, once the host of a contemporary music show on WILL radio and now one of the most widely performed composers of saxophone music.
Tickets for each concert are $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens and $4 for students. The lectures and panel discussions are free of charge.
All events are open to the public. For more information, including a complete schedule of speakers, panels and performances, visit publish.illinois.edu/writinganotherfuture.
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