Jo Walton & Ada Palmer - "Trace Elements"
Schedule
Mon Mar 30 2026 at 04:00 pm to 05:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60637 | Chicago, IL
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Jo Walton and Ada Palmer will discuss "Trace Elements: Conversations on the Project of Science Fiction and Fantasy." A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion. At the Co-op.
About the book: Jo Walton and Ada Palmer are two of the most innovative and insightful writers to emerge in the science fiction (SF) and fantasy genres in this century. As writers of fiction they've each won multiple awards. As commenters on SF and fantasy in print and in visual media, they've both sparked new conversations that expanded our imaginations and understanding of how SF and fantasy work, and what more it could be doing.
Now, in "Trace Elements," Walton and Palmer have come together to write a book-length and supremely entertaining look at modern science fiction and fantasy, at how our genre is written and how it is read, that will join nonfiction works like Ursula K. Le Guin's The "Language of the Night," Samuel R. Delany's "The Jewel-Hinged Jaw," and "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud on the short shelf of titles essential to all readers of our genre.
Subjects covered include the nature of genre itself, the history of SF publishing, the implicit contract between author and reader, the ways SF and fantasy disguise themselves as one another, what SF&F can learn from outside influences ranging from Shakespeare to Diderot to anime, the role of complicity in reading, the need to expand our "sphere of empathy", and finally the need for optimism, the importance of rejecting "purity" culture, and the fact that the human story for centuries to come will be composed of hard work.
About the authors: Jo Walton won the Best Novel Hugo and Nebula Awards for "Among Others" (2011) and the World Fantasy Award for "Tooth and Claw" (2003). She is the only writer other than Ursula K. Le Guin to win Best Novel in all three awards. Aside from her many other acclaimed novels, she has written extensively about SF and fantasy for Tor.com and other venues for over two decades. She lives in Montreal.
Ada Palmer won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (now retitled the Astounding Award) in 2017 following the publication of her debut novel "Too Like the Lightning." She has written extensively about storytelling on sites like Tor.com, her own Exurbe.com, and elsewhere. She is a professor at the University of Chicago specializing in the Renaissance and the history of ideas.
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Where is it happening?
5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60637Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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