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Upcoming Travel: Sweden & Helsinki Schedules

Well, tomorrow’s the first of August. On Wednesday evening I embark on about two weeks of travel through Sweden and Finland. Here’s where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing there!

Uppsala, Aug 4-6: Reception Histories of the Future: A Conference on Byzantisms, Speculative Fiction, and the Literary Heritage of Medieval Empire. This is a conference organized by Arkady Martine, and I’m profoundly honoured and excited to be taking part. I’m pretty dazzled by the panels I’m on, and looking forward to conversations with amazing people I admire.

Uppsala, Aug 5: Signing & Mingling Party! If you’re in Uppsala but unable to come to the conference, a bunch of us will be at The English Bookshop on Saturday evening, chatting and signing books and no doubt having a lovely time!

Helsinki, Aug 9-13: WORLDCONNNNN AHHHHHHH! Here’s my schedule of panels and readings:

Kaffeeklatsch: Amal El-Mohtar

Wednesday 15:00 – 16:00, Holiday inn cabinet – 9th floor (Messukeskus)

Come chat with me for an hour! I had my first ever Kaffeeklatsch at LonCon in 2014 and had a lovely time.

Space is limited, so you must sign up in advance. To sign up for a kaffeeklatsch, visit the Information Desk.

Reading: Amal El-Mohtar, Annalee Newitz

Thursday 16:00 – 17:00, 101d (Messukeskus)

Amal El-Mohtar, Annalee Newitz 

I’m super excited to read next to Annalee, not least because my husband reported that her reading at Wiscon featured … Shenanigans.

If all goes to plan I might read something completely new, so … Fingers crossed I actually manage to finish everything I intend to finish before travelling!

Female Friendship in Fiction

Friday 12:00 – 13:00, 207 (Messukeskus)

A panel after my own heart! Description as follows:

Female friendships are very much a thing in real life, but fiction often does not depict it. The recent examples from the Marvel CU (Jessica Jones, Agent Carter) have approached the subject but there needs to be more talk about female friendships in fiction!

Navah Wolfe, Amal El-Mohtar, Karen Simpson Nikakis (M), Kim ten Tusscher, Ciaran Roberts

We are the Crystal Gems!

Friday 14:00 – 15:00, 208 (Messukeskus)

Steven Universe combines together many interesting elements: animation, music, great characters, interesting world. The panel shares their love for Steven Universe and makes recommendations on how to get started with it!

Tim Boerger, Anna Raftery, Anna Jackson, Amal El-Mohtar, Rebecca Slitt


And that’s that! This will be my first time visiting Sweden and Finland, and I’m both excited and anxious to make good impressions (“on the countries, Amal?” …Yes, on the countries, somehow). Also please feel free to introduce yourselves to me if you see me! I’m really looking forward to meeting new people as well as seeing far-flung friends.

As concerns signings: I don’t have an actual signing scheduled, but I’m very happy to sign stuff in the wild, as it were.

**EXT. FINNISH WOODLAND – DAY

Amal runs around, feverishly autographing trees and startled animals. How did it come to this?**

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