Conflux is Canberra’s convention of speculative fiction creation and appreciation, held this year on the long weekend of 29 September to 2 October. It’s a writer-friendly gathering of the tribe where writers, readers and aficionados meet to celebrate the speculative fiction community and talk shop.
The theme for this year’s spooooooky 13th convention is Grimm Tales: we’re talking dark fairy tales, or as I like to think of it, culturally-reinforced moral education through horror.
The programming alone is worth it, especially for new aspiring and emerging writers, with streams on the craft and business of writing, as well as discussions of folklore, pop culture and fiction ranging from the cheerfully chatty through to the thoughtful and nigh-academic.
This year there are panels about horror in fairy tales, magic schools, female villains and the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter (which is ridiculous as it has definitely not been that long since they came out), and that’s just the tiniest taste of the goodness on offer.
But if that doesn’t convince you to seriously consider participating, then this year’s guests ought to:
- The International Guest of Honour is Ellen Datlow, who recently added yet another Best Editor, Short Form Hugo to her long list of awards and recognition as one of the world’s premiere editors of short SF, fantasy and horror fiction.
- The Australian guest is Angela Slatter, one of this country’s best writers of short fantasy fiction, not to mention one of its most prolific. (Seriously, any of her numerous short fiction collections are more than worth your while. I started with Sourdough and Other Stories and never looked back, and I’m really looking forward to diving into her novels).
- The MC is Kaaron Warren, about whom I cannot say enough wildly flattering things, so let’s just stick with the fact that her latest novel The Grief Hole is one of the best things I’ve read this year.
- Finally, Meri Amber is making another appearance as the Musical Guest, and will be launching a brand new EP which she wrote and recorded specifically to launch at this convention! (Guests don’t come much more dedicated than that!)
On top of all that, Conflux is just a fun convention – laid back, with interesting panels, bad jokes and a generally celebratory attitude towards the genres we love. If you think you can make it, I honestly can’t recommend it enough.
You can get tickets from the website (this page) and I hope you’ll be able to make it this year.
Yay! I’m really looking forward to it.
Do I recall that you weren’t going to be able to make it this year? Or am I getting confused?
Agh, yes, I meant to mention that in the post and forgot:
I won’t be at Conflux this year. The weekend coincides with a Significant Anniversary, so I will be away up north enjoying a swimming pool and possibly the odd tropical fruit drink.
But I will be *particularly* sad to miss this one.
While I’m sorry you won’t be joining us, I do hope you have a wonderful time up north! It sounds like it will be divine.
A much-needed if unfortunately-timed break 🙂
What’s even more annoying is that I *still* can’t commit to going to GenreCon instead, even though they had a few spare tickets, because I may have to travel for work again around that time. So I’m going completely con-less in 2017!
Oh, now that is disappointing! I’m sorry to hear things haven’t worked out with conventions this year. Is next year looking any better?
I really hope to make it along to GenreCon one year. I hear it’s amazing.
I really enjoyed the one GenreCon I’ve been to.
Next year might be patchy in that we’re taking a family trip to Europe, so there won’t be much money floating around. But hopefully I should be able to get to something.