For our first guest speaking event of 2021, our VP External Bree interviewed Dr. Greg Bechtel about speculative fiction.

Dr. Bechtel is an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Alberta. His first story collection, Boundary Problems, won the Alberta Book of the Year Award for trade fiction, and was a finalist for the William L. Crawford Fantasy Award, the ReLit Award, and the City of Edmonton Robert Kroetsch Book Prize.

Listen in on their conversation about contemporary spec-fic, the nature of the community it creates, and it’s place in the literary world. This interview was followed by an audience question period. If you want to know more about our guest or any of the works/media discussed in this episode, we’ve linked them below.

Dr. Bechtel’s website: http://gregbechtel.ca/

Greg Bechtel’s Boundary Problems: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=Greg+Bechtel&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Greg Bechtel’s Our Villains, Ourselves: On SF, Villainy, and … Margaret Atwood?: https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/wordhoard/article/view/7195/5893

C.J. Lavigne’s In Veritas: https://www.glassbookshop.com/?searchtype=keyword&qs=In+Veritas&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone’s This is How You Lose the Time War: https://www.glassbookshop.com/?searchtype=keyword&qs=This+is+How+You+Lose+the+Time+War&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Premee Mohamed’s Beneath the Rising: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=Beneath+the+Rising&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=The+Poppy+War&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth: https://publishing.tor.com/gideontheninth-tamsynmuir/9781250313195/

Charlie Jane Anders’ Never Say You Can’t Survive: How To Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories: https://www.tor.com/2020/05/12/never-say-you-cant-survive-how-to-get-through-hard-times-by-making-up-stories/

N. K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=The+Broken+Earth+Trilogy&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

N. K. Jemisin’s 2018 Hugo Award Acceptance Speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFybhRxoVM

Lindsay Ellis’ Dear Stephenie Meyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O06tMbIKh0

Saleema Nawaz’s Songs for the End of the World: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=Songs+for+the+end+of+the+world&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Candas Jane Dorsey’s Black Wine: https://www.audreys.ca/?searchtype=keyword&qs=Candas+Jane+Dorsey&qs_file=&q=h.tviewer&using_sb=status&qsb=keyword

Overly Sarcastic Productions’ Miscellaneous Myths: Momotaro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXs3g2AcUc4

Rachel Swirsky’s If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love: https://apex-magazine.com/if-you-were-a-dinosaur-my-love/