We’ve got an absolutely packed programme of panels, showing on not one but TWO Twitch channels simultaneously! (Thank you to all our Twitch streamers/producers – we couldn’t have put this programme together without you.)
Here are some of the programme team’s favourites.
(All times in Irish Summer Time / UTC+1.)
We’re in This Together Now: The Importance of Found Families
A gang of mismatched teens fighting supernatural horrors. A close-knit spaceship crew. Superheroes (and sometimes villains too) banding together against a common enemy. Whether they’re hurtling around the universe or crossing forests and mountains on a quest together, the bonds built between companions and crew can be tighter than those between blood relatives. What do the found families we enjoy say about the relationships we find ourselves in and the things we create together in fandom?
Catherine Sharp (moderator), Dan Abnett, Nik Vincent-Abnett, Amie Kaufman
Saturday 2nd October 11:00 – watch on Twitch Channel One
Grand Designs: The Big House and the Small Tombs of Gothic Fiction
The sinister castle or big house has been a staple of Gothic fiction since Horace Walpole launched the genre with The Castle of Otranto in 1764, continuing through the last two centuries, with abandoned spaceships playing a similar role in science fiction, the castles or castle-analogues almost becoming characters in the story. What do these once-grand but now decrepit mansions and their gardens signify? And what makes for a particularly memorable stay?
Samuel Poots (moderator), Maura McHugh, Ruth Frances Long / Jessica Thorne, Clare Foley, Ian Moore
Saturday 2nd October 12:00 – watch on Twitch Channel Two
African Science Fiction: Reclaiming Our Voices
When someone mentions Black science fiction, they are often thinking of Anglophone African-American and Black British writers. However, there has been an explosion of new writers from the African continent who are beginning to reclaim their voices and histories from colonial cultural damage. Our panel discusses the identities and traditions that contribute to the new wave of African science fiction
Joseph Elliott-Coleman (moderator), Tobi Ogundiran, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Dilman Dila
Saturday 2nd October 18:00 – watch on Twitch Channel One
Crime Narratives in Other Worlds
Murder. Blackmail. Theft. Fraud. Even in far and future worlds, we can’t escape them or the institutions that police and punish them. Why are crime narratives central to so many science fiction and fantasy stories, and what makes them different to the crime tales set in the world we see around us?
Jack Fennell (moderator), Aliette de Bodard, Michael Carroll, Christopher J Garcia
Sunday 3rd October 12:00 – watch on Twitch Channel One
Howling Laughter: The Intersection of Comedy and Horror
Why is screaming so close to laughing, surprise so close to shock? Why does comedy so often fill the gaps in tales of horror? From ‘Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein’ through ‘Scream’ to ‘Happy Death Day’, these two great flavours of entertainment prove to be a winning combination time and time again. Are the audiences just here to see the juggling of the opposing forces of fear and joy, or is there a deeper truth to be found in how we deal with subjects too terrifying for the rational mind?
Robert JE Simpson (moderator), RB Kelly, Kim Newman, Anthea West, Dilman Dila
Sunday 3rd October 13:00 – watch on Twitch Channel Two