What is the “Women’s” Vote? by Suzanne Braun Levine For 72 years women marched and rallied and got arrested to win the vote. Throughout the campaign, one of the most persistent arguments against women’s suffrage was the assumption that female votes wouldn’t make any difference anyway, since women would vote for whomever their husbands or … Read More
Pandemics and Speculative Fiction Lillian Longendorfer Epidemics and pandemics have challenged medical science and influenced the course of history. Apocalyptic plagues have also been recurrent themes in science fiction. As a doctor and also a science fiction writer, I have been watching the Covid-19 pandemic with a double perspective. The decline of the Byzantine Empire … Read More
by Jennifer Ziegler When Jennifer Ziegler proposed a panel on “the paranormal” for last year’s Festival, the response from the program committee was a tepid “Why not?” The session was assigned a small venue. Everyone but Jennifer was surprised. The room was packed. The audience was riveted and, as the word spread, those who weren’t there wished they had been. So, this … Read More
Wide Worlds of Fantasy by Lillian Longendorfer As a child who loved the sciences and who was a reader of science fiction, I imagined that one day I would enjoy the futuristic advances forecast by the authors of these stories. At the same time, I realized that I appreciated not only the technical aspects of … Read More
Kids Love to Read, Too by Michelle Oram From a very young age, I knew I was different. I listened to the music of Nature, sang with birds, danced with the wind, sat quietly and dreamt with the Moon. Some kids would bully and make fun of me, which only forced me to not be … Read More
In Celebration of Readers by Michelle Oram Bravo to the Readers of this world. The power of the written word does not just come from the authors of books, but the many readers who take the time to sit, embrace, and bring meaning to what is read. Much like a singer, Readers transform the words … Read More