This April I got to go to the Jack Williamson Lectureship in Portales for the second time since the Pandemic, and it was great. My daughter, who always does a forensics presentation, flew out and drove down with me since my husband couldn’t go–he was helping run an American Association of Physics Teachers meeting–and it took awhile since we stopped at every convenience store along the way to buy cornnuts and burnt peanuts and gummy pillows and red licorice and Reese’s peanut butter cups and soda pop and chips and pretty much every kind of junk food there was. (We were attempting to imitate the “Pig Tour” episode of Designing Woman and we did a pretty good job.)
We went the back way to Portales and were a little bit worried we might get lost and end up at the Grand Canyon like Thelma and Louise, but we didn’t, and got to Portales in time to have dinner at the Cattle Baron with Betty Williamson and Patrice Caldwell, my two sisters-separated-at-birth, who I fell in love with the very first time I attended a Lectureship. Betty is Jack Williamson’s niece and a reporter for the local paper and Patrice was, until this last semester, the President of the College, and between them they’ve been the mainstay of the Lectureship for years.
(A little background: Jack Williamson was one of the forefathers of science fiction, selling his first story in the 1920s and writing all the way through to the 2000s. Along the way, he wrote several classic novels–DARKER THAN YOU THINK, THE HUMANOIDS, and “With Folded Hands”–and his brilliant Hugo-Award-winning autobiography WONDER’S CHILD and coined names for many of the themes of SF, including “psionics,” “terraforming,” and “androids.” He was a Grand Master, had a meteor and a feature on Mars named after him, and served as president of the Science Fiction Writers of America.)
Jack also taught at the university in Portales, Eastern New Mexico University, and endowed a chair for bringing in guest lecturers in science fiction every year, which evolved into the Lectureship and which has hosted an amazing list of lecturers (including six Grand Masters of Science Fiction–seven if you count Jack–and a veritable Who’s Who of Science Fiction and Fantasy–Greg Bear, Harlan Ellison, Fredrik Pohl, James Gunn, Nalo Hopkinson, Walter Jon Williams, George R.R. Martin, Carrie Vaughn, Vic Milan, Jeffe Kennedy, Ian Tregillis, Steven Gould, Melinda Snodgrass, Michael Cassutt, Emily Mah, Edward Bryant, Charles N. Brown, the editor of Locus, and a bunch of others–and many of them have come back again and again.)
This year’s guest of honor was Arkady Martine, and she brought her wife, Vivian Shaw, with her, so we got two guests for one. They were great, and so were the panels, which the Lectureship features. I especially loved the one on Artificial Intelligence, which focused on the new dangers and possibilities of ChatGPT, and one on worldbuilding. I also loved Cordelia’s lecture on a very out-of-the-ordinary experience she had while working at the Santa Clara County Crime lab. Unlike the usual investigation of shoeprints, surveillance tapes, cell phones, etc., she suddenly found herself in a convoy with a SWAT team in L.A., driving a coworker’s car without the lights on in an attempt to arrest a bunch of human traffickers.
On Saturday, I teach a writers’ workshop for the students, although that’s not really accurate because many of the writers come and serve as an expert panel, so it’s really a group effort. This year’s workshop was on story endings, and everybody gave great advice, and then we all adjourned AGAIN to the Do Drop Inn for lunch. (Eating is actually what the Lectureship is all about–we ate at a vineyard and at the Cattle Baron, had a luncheon at the college, ate enchiladas at the house of one of the committee members, had breakfast at the Do Drop Inn, had coffee at the Do Drop Inn, had ice cream at the Do Drop Inn…well, you get the idea.)
It was great! I can’t wait to go next year, and you should come, too. Everybody’s welcome, and it’s so much fun. Since it’s smaller than your normal convention, everybody gets a chance to really know everybody else and the panels and workshop and lectures and speeches are all wonderful! Plus, you can eat the whole way there!
Connie Willis