Potlatch 20 Progress Report 1
Notes from the Chair From the ChairWe are excited to be planning Potlatch 20, and will have many treats in store for attendees. Our Book of Honor, Earth Abides, is already provoking stimulating discussions among the committee members, and should inspire some interesting panels. The ever-popular Tiptree Bake Sale will be taking place again, and the Clarion West Benefit Auction will again feature many fine and unique must-have items. Activities at the convention will start Friday evening with programming, the dealers room, and the hospitality suite. In lieu of the traditional banquet, this year we will have a special celebration on Sunday afternoon observing Potlatch's 20th anniversary. Stay tuned for more information! We will end with a Dead Dog party in the evening. The most convenient airport to Sunnyvale is San Jose International (SJC). You can also fly into San Francisco (SFO) or even Oakland (OAK), though the latter is furthest away. Consider scheduling your trip to stay for FOGcon which will be held on the following weekend, March 11-13, in San Francisco. We still need help with one major committee position Ð publishing the program book for the con. If you'd like to help us out with that, please let me know. Note that our progress reports will not be published as paper versions, but will be sent as email and posted to our website as PDFs, with pertinent details incorporated into the website. We look forward to seeing you next March at Potlatch 20! Karen Schaffer Book of Honor: Earth Abides by George R. StewartOnce upon a time, writers from outside the SF community made great contributions to the field. Two of the best such works appeared in 1949. Everyone knows Orwell's 1984, but few today have read -- though many have heard of -- EARTH ABIDES. Yet it's an equally notable story that has never lost its punch. It's worthy of re-consideration as Potlatch 20's Book of Honor. Earth Abides is one of the first, and one of the most generative, near-future post- holocaust SF novels. Disease has wiped out almost all the human population, and the focus is on the few survivors and how they carry on. Stewart was an English professor at U.C. Berkeley, and also the author of Storm and Names on the Land. These are all books about how people, geography, and technology relate to each other - in short, on human ecology. Earth Abides asks: How long can the surviving humans live in the empty shell of modern civilization before the infrastructure breaks down? Do they then form a salvage economy, or a subsistence economy, or both, and how much of each? How do other species respond to the environmental change? Above all, what is the emotional and intellectual burden on the aging human survivors as the last carriers of American culture and traditions in the time of new generations of young people who know not Babylon? It is as his hero's comfort in the face of that last question that Stewart takes his Biblical motto: "Men go and come, but Earth abides." Stewart writes with a level of consideration of practical detail, and with a subtlety of plot and characterization, that were pretty much unknown in the magazine SF of the time. The characters are flawed but mostly decent and interesting people. It is a pioneering study of ecology, and the science still holds up well. The story is set mostly in an easily recognizable Berkeley of the 1940s, and is written with an intense sense of place and local color. Earth Abides has been influential on later post-holocaust and ecological SF novels. Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore and Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After, among other classics, were written in homage to, or in deliberate argument with, Stewart's work. We expect and hope you will find it an important, moving, and searingly memorable book. There's a 2006 Del Rey trade paperback edition in print, and an audiobook version from Brilliance Audio, read by Jonathan Davis. Used copies and library holdings of a variety of editions are easy to find. David Bratman and Tom Becker The Program: Call for ParticipationDo you have an idea for a Potlatch program topic? Are you interested in being a panelist? Would you like to suggest people who might want to join Potlatch and participate in the program? Maybe you have an idea for all of the above and would like to be a ringleader? Whatever it is, please contact me. All ideas and suggestions are welcome. For more information about the Potlatch 20 Program, please see www.potlatch- sf.org/program.php. Tom Becker Writers' WorkshopThe Potlatch Writers' Workshop is open to all speculative fiction writers, regardless of experience. Submit your short fiction and receive critiques from a professional writer as well as your peers. The instructors will be announced closer to the convention. Submissions can be made between January 1 and February 4. The workshop fee is $15. Workshop participants need to register for the convention as well. The workshop will take place during the lunch break on Saturday. More details at: www.potlatch- sf.org/workshop.php. Vylar Kaftan HospitalityWe'll have a hospitality suite to match the Potlatch tradition. You can count on good drinks and light snacks in a comfortable place to hang out and talk. We'll be recruiting help more energetically as we get closer to the con, but we'd love to hear from anybody interested, especially if you're willing to take the night-owl or early-bird shifts. Rich & Linda McAllister Dealers' RoomThe Potlatch 20 dealers' room will offer a superb selection of booksellers. The dealers' room will be open Friday evening 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tables are $75 and include a membership. For further information, contact Alan Beatts. Alan Beatts HotelFor Potlatch 20, we are happy to return to the Domain Hotel in Sunnyvale, a Silicon Valley neighborhood that hosts a diverse selection of culinary delights. We are even happier to announce that we have negotiated lower rates, just $89/night for a regular guest room and $119/night for an executive suite. All room rates include a hot buffet breakfast for up to three people. For a full description and to reserve a room, go to our web page at potlatch-sf.org/hotel.php. Please note that all hotel function space and sleeping rooms are non-smoking areas. Smoking is allowed outside the building. Potlatch will be running from Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 7, but our room rates are good for stays arriving as early as Sunday, Feb. 27 and departing as late as Friday, March 11. This is a real bargain for a business-oriented Silicon Valley hotel, so we invite you to plan a longer visit, especially if you're looking for a congenial place to stay between Potlatch and FOGcon the next weekend. David Bratman T-shirtsAs always, there will be a fabulous Freddie Baer t-shirt to commemorate the convention. Please order yours in advance for pick up at the convention. A limited number of shirts will be available for sale at the con, but the best way to ensure getting a shirt is to pre- order. The deadline for pre-ordering is earlier than usual this year: January 15. So don't wait, order soon and often! VolunteeringWe always need volunteers. If you'd like to help out, Registration, Hospitality, and the Tiptree Bake Sale would welcome assistance. You can contact them directly at registration@potlatch-sf.org, hospitality@potlatch-sf.org, or bakesale@potlatch-sf.org. How to JoinThe membership rate is $55, and the youth (age 7-17) membership rate is $25. These rates are guaranteed through November, and may go up after that. There are several easy ways to register for Potlatch 20. You may go to our website and either purchase a membership using PayPal or download the registration form and send it to us with your payment. We've also included a plain text version of the registration form at the end of this PR. Print and fill out the registration form and mail it with your check or money order to: Potlatch 20/Clarion West Here's that URL: www.potlatch-sf.org/register.php Lyn Paleo
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REGISTRATION/ORDER FORM
Please make your check payable to "Potlatch 20/Clarion West."
Full Name:
Badge Name (if different from above):
*Please note: We like to post the badge names of convention members on our
website and in our program. Please send a message to registration@potlatch-sf.org if
you do not want your name listed.*
Address:
City, State, and Zip:
Email (required):
Membership (@$55 rate through November): ____
Youth (age 7-17) Membership (@$25): ____
Potlatch 20 T-shirts (@$17 tax incl.):
__M __L __XL __2XL __3XL __4XL __5XL
Writers' Workshop (@$15): ____
Amount enclosed:
Willing to volunteer? Need further information about participating in the workshop
and/or the program? Circle accordingly (or send us an email):
Program Participant - Hospitality - Registration - Bake Sale - Writers' Workshop
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