Presenting on Science Fiction Poetry at LOSCON 43

As the new President of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, I'll be discussing Speculative Poetry at 5pm this Saturday at LOSCON in Los Angeles, and will be there throughout the day to meet with poets and readers along all points of the speculative literature continuum!

I'll be speaking along with noted SFF scholars and writers Jaymee Goh and Nikia Chaney!

Per the panel description:
Speculative poetry is a rising professional field in our infinitely diverse genre! The Science Fiction Poetry Association elected Bryan Thao Worra as its new president; new markets have arisen offering professional rates for cutting-edge poetic forms; new stars are coming out of the poetry field exploring the speculative in what is a very experimental form. Find out more about where you can read such works and where the field might head into next!

Jaymee Goh is a writer, editor, and critic of science fiction, also known as the "steampunk postcolonialist." Her fiction has appeared in Expanded Horizons and Crossed Genres, and in steampunk venues such as the Steam-Powered Series and Steampunk World. She has been quoted in Jeff and Ann Vandermeer's Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded, as well as The Steampunk Bible, and has written steampunk-related non-fiction in The WisCon Chronicles 5 & 6 and Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution. Her blog, Silver Goggles, tackles postcolonialism and racism in the various forms of steampunk. She is currently working on a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Riverside, where she is writing about steampunk material culture and a critique of its aesthetics. Beyond steampunk, she is interested in issues of radical womanism, utopia, sustainability, critical race theory, agriculture, and botany.

Nikia Chaney is the current Inlandia Literary Laureate (2016-2018). She is the author of two chapbooks, Sis Fuss (2012, Orange Monkey Publishing) and ladies, please (2012, Dancing Girl Press). She is founding editor of shufpoetry, an online journal for experimental poetry, and founding editor of Jamii Publishing, a publishing imprint dedicated to fostering community among poets and writers. She has won grants from the Barbara Demings Fund for Women, Poets and Writers, and Cave Canem. She teaches at San Bernardino Valley College.

And for completeness sake:
Bryan Thao Worra is the president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association, an international literary organization celebrating the poetry of the imaginative and the fantastic. A Lao American writer, he holds over 20 awards for his work including an NEA Fellowship in Literature and was a Cultural Olympian representing Laos during the 2012 London Summer Games. The author of 6 books,his work appears internationally including Australia, Canada, Scotland, Germany, France, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea, and Pakistan. You can visit him online at http://thaoworra.blogspot.com for more news on Asian American science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

LOSCON is Los Angeles' longest running Science Fiction & Fantasy Convention, held Thanksgiving weekend by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS). This year's Guests of Honor include David Gerrold, Peri Charlifu and Nick Smith!

Be sure to come join us at the Los Angeles Airport Mariott at 5855 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 9004