Arisia Convention

We're excited to announce this year's PRELIMINARY schedule of events. While this is not set in stone yet, it will give you a good idea of when things are happening!

[time corrected on #1]

This year, we’re delighted to offer two writing workshops, open to all (no writing submission required to attend) but with limited signup. Sign-up before the convention is highly recommended.

Writing workshop #1: Nisi Shawl presents “Writing the Other”. In this workshop, Nisi will present a hands-on writing class featuring exercises and explorations of ways to create believable characters of a different race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or ability. Participants will be asked to bring some of their own writing to work on, but sharing is not required. Expect to spend three hours learning by doing.

The workshop will take place Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm. There is a limit of 15 people.

You do not need to submit writing to participate in the workshop, nor are you required to share your work, but you should have some writing of your own to bring along to work on. Sign up at using the following form: http://2011.arisia.org/NisiShawlSignup


Writing workshop #2: Kelley Armstrong presents a workshop on writing YA fiction. This workshop will discuss crafting characters, setting, and plot with a particular focus on what makes YA fiction different from other fiction in the genre. For this workshop, we will be giving preference to high school and college students who sign up in advance. If there are still spaces available after January 7th, we will include others on a first come, first serve basis.

You do not need to submit writing to participate in this workshop, nor are you required to share your work, but you should have some writing of your own to bring along. Sign up using the following form: http://2011.arisia.org/KelleyArmstrongSignup

Check out a preview of some highlights of our panels.

One of the foundations of Arisia programming are panels. These led discussions cover a wide spectrum of topics including everything including Anime, Art, Comics, Costuming, Fan Culture, Fan Interest, Fandom 2.0, Gaming, Health, Literature, Media, Music, Science, Victorian/Steampunk, and Writing. (Wow, say that all in one breath.)

A "panel" is usually a small group of people discussing a topic in front of an audience of fans. Often there is input from the audience in the form of questions, brainstorming or other forms of audience participation. Although panels are our main mode of discussion, don't feel bound to that format. Fan-led discussion groups, workshops, lectures, presentations etc. are welcome.

These professors will be on a Satoshi Kon Legacy panel run somewhat like "The View" Sunday at 12:30pm in Stone Room.

Tomoko Shimizu is a professor of English literature and cultural
studies and media and globalization at the University of Tsukuba
located in Ibaraki, Japan. Currently she is a visiting scholar at
Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies,
researching the Japan Media Network and the Anime Culture.

Susan Napier is currently a professor of Asian language and culture at
Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Fascinated by Asian art
from a young age, she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in
Japanese literature and culture from Harvard University and later
studied as a research student at Ochanomizu Women's University in
Tokyo. Since then, aside from studying Japanese literature, she has
become the most prominent anime and manga scholar in the United
States, having published two books on the subjects: Anime from Akira
to Howl’s Moving Castle: Experiencing Japanese Animation in 2001 and
From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind
of the West in 2007.

Ian Condry is currently an Associate Professor of Japanese cultural
studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. Having graduated from Harvard College with a degree in
Government and Yale University with a Ph.D in anthropology, he has
since specialized in media, popular culture, and globalization with a
focus on contemporary Japan and the United States. Currently the
organizer of the Harvard-MIT Cool Japan Research Project, which
presents colloquia, international conferences, and arts events to
examine the cultural connections, dangerous distortions, and critical
potential of popular culture, he published his book, Hip-Hop Japan:
Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization, in 2006. His next book
The Soul of Anime: Collaborative Creativity and Japan’s Media Success
Story, is anticipated to be published in fall 2011.

Arisia 2011 excitedly announces that Seanan McGuire has graciously
agreed to be a Special Guest of the convention this year.

Seanan McGuire is an American author and filker. She was awarded the
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer by the 2010 World Science
Fiction Convention. This award was announced at Aussiecon 4 on
September 5, 2010. As this award is in the form of a tiara and the
award was presented in Australia, Seanan has blogged that this makes
her "Officially the Princess of the Kingdom of Poison and Flame". In
2010, McGuire's novel FEED (written under the pseudonym Mira Grant)
ranked #74 in an National Public Radio listener poll of the top 100
Thriller novels of all time. McGuire has won three Pegasus Awards and
been nominated for 4 more.

Seanan will be participating in many things at Arisia this year,
including the Breakfast Buffet with Special Guests event on Sunday.
For more information on the buffet, please go to
http://2011.arisia.org/Buffet. For more info on Seanan, please go to
http://www.seananmcguire.com