Press Release 2 (PDF)
For Immediate Release
Contact: Elisabeth Carey
Press Liaison
press@boskone.org
47th Boskone Convention Announces Guest of Honor, Official Artist, and Special Guest
Boston, MA (October 2009) -- The New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. (NESFA) will hold its 47th Boskone science fiction convention at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in South Boston, MA on February 12-14, 2010. Boskone is a regional science fiction convention focusing on literature, and including many program items on art, science, music, media topics, and gaming. Detailed information is available at www.Boskone.org.
The Guest of Honor at Boskone 47 is Alastair Reynolds. A native of Wales, he is one of the key contributors to the new space opera, a part of the field that also includes writers like Iain Banks, Stephen Baxter, and others. He recently received a one million pound advance from Gollancz for ten books. His second novel, Chasm City, won the British Science Fiction Association award in 2002. He was a scientist within the European Space Agency, and spent much of his time working on S-Cam, the world's most advanced optical camera. He is now a full-time writer. In 2005, he was the Hal Clement Science Speaker at Boskone 42, and Boskone 47 is pleased to welcome him as Guest of Honor.
Official Artist is John Picacio. He has created covers for works by Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock, Robert Silverberg, Neil Gaiman, Hal Clement, and many others. His illustrations have been selected numerous times for the Spectrum annual. In 2002, he received the International Horror Guild Award for Best Artist. In 2005, he was a finalist for the Hugo Award (Best Professional Artist), and won the World Fantasy Award (artist). In 2009, he won a Chesley Award for Best Cover Illustration: Paperback Book.
Special Guest is Tom Shippey. At one point, he held the chair Tolkien held at the University of Leeds. He is an expert on medieval literature, especially the earliest literature of England and Scandinavia, but he is also an expert on science fiction and fantasy. His two recent books on Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century and The Road to Middle-earth, are two of the best on the subject. He is also writing the introduction to the next volume of James Blish's work that will be published by NESFA Press.
Mary Crowell attended her first filk convention in 2001. She has been nominated several times for a Pegasus Award in the category of Best Performer, and won in 2007. A piano and composition teacher in August of 2008, she teaches in Athens, Alabama. She loves playing Rachmaninov, Chopin, Gershwin, Bach and jazz standards.