Peculiar Monster

Readercon 34 Schedule

I’ll be at Readercon 34 in a few weeks and I’ve my final schedule so I thought I’d share!

Friday, July 18, 2025

What Hath the Billionaires Wrought?

1:00 pm, Create/Collaborate

Jeff Hecht (moderator), Natalie Luhrs, Vandana Singh, Victor Manibo, Will McMahon

Are billionaires taking science fiction too seriously as they try to shape the future? Adam Becker suggests this in his book More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity. It's been long noted that the tech billionaire class seems unable to tell dystopian science fiction from a blueprint, but what impact has this phenomenon had on science fiction itself? Is there a way to make your fiction billionaire-proof?

Crafts as Magic, Magic as Craft

4:00 pm, Create/Collaborate

Chris Rose, Greer Gilman, Natalie Luhrs, Scott H. Andrews (moderator), Stephanie Wytovich

To those of us who have never learned such skills ourselves, all manner of crafts from cooking to pottery and from fiber arts to woodwork can seem like magic. In what ways is it illuminating to talk about crafts and magic in terms of each other? What stories have made good use of crafts as magic or magic as craft?

Meet the Pros(e)

10:15 pm, Salon F

At the Friday night Meet the Pros(e) party, program participants are assigned to tables with a roughly equal number of conference goers and other participants, and then table placements are scrambled at regular intervals so that everyone gets to meet a new set of people in a small-group setting. Think of it as a low-key sort of speed dating where you need never be the sole focus of anyone's attention, and the goal is just to get to know some cool Readerconnish people. Please note that this event will include a bar and is mask-optional, unlike most other programming.

Saturday, July 19, 2025

We Need to Talk About Gaiman

7:00 pm, Salon G/H

Natalie Luhrs, Noah Beit-Aharon, R.W.W. Greene, Randee Dawn (moderator), Storm Humbert

The revelation that Neil Gaiman is a serial predator shook the speculative fiction universe, but SFF has been rocked by such scandals since at least the days of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Is there something about SFF literary circles that gives predators particular cover? What can be done within our communities to flag predatory behavior and prevent future predation?

Shredding vs Archiving Drafts

8:00 pm, Salon I/J

Karen Heuler, Natalie Luhrs, Randee Dawn (moderator), Scott Edelman

Some writers want nothing to survive of their written work after death save the final drafts of the stories they love, and so they destroy letters, journals, early drafts. Other writers want the world to witness their process and box everything up for future archivists. This panel will engage proponents of both sides of the spectrum in dialogue and help the audience decide whether to cherish their early own work or turn it into confetti.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Harry Potter and the Undeath of the Author

1:00 pm, Create/Collaborate

Cecilia Tan, Gillian Daniels (moderator), Natalie Luhrs, Rob Cameron, William Alexander

"The death of the author" is a well-worn concept about who, author or audience, owns the meaning of an author's work. Such arguments take on a different valance, however, when the author is not only alive and well but using the funds and power accumulated by their creation as leverage to take extremely public and reactionary political action. When the price of engagement with a work is empowering its living author to publicly abuse others, how can we plausibly claim that the author is dead and our engagement is ours alone?