Stapledon's STAR MAKER on Radio 4

Moshsin Hamid, author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, chose Wirral-born Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker to talk about on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row on Wednesday 24th April as part of its "Cultural Exchange series" . Front Row's website illustrates the discussion with a photograph of Stapledon and this image of Stapledon's "Timeline" showing the billions of years covered by the book. Images were supplied by Special Collections and Archives from the Olaf Stapledon Archive.

ALEX COX TO DIRECT BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO?

Alex Cox, director of REPO MAN, SID AND NANCY, and the extraordinary sf version of THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY has launched a Kickstarter appeal to raise funds (US$ 100,000)  for the film of Harry Harrison's BILL THE GALACTIC HERO  to be made by students at the University of Colorado film studies programme. Alex was working on a script for the film with Harry Harrison before Harry's death. Alex Cox will direct the film.

If anyone wants to become a media "angel" this looks like a worthy project to support.

Details are on http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexcoxfilms/alex-cox-directs-bill-the-galactic-hero

Midwich Dayout

MIDWICH DAYOUT is a one-day event celebrating the 1960 film "THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED" based on the novel by John Wyndham, THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (1957).

Appearing will be several members of the original cast and crew of the film  including BARBARA SHELLEY (Anthea Zellaby) and MARTIN STEPHENS (David). There will be a talk on VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED  and Wyndham's abandoned "sequel" MIDWICH MAIN by Andy Sawyer of the University of Liverpool.  The "Dayout" will take place on Sunday, 19th May in LETCHMORE HEATH, Hertfordshire - the village where much of the location shooting was done for the film.  Tickets are £25.00. More details on hthttp://www.midwich-village.co.uk/index.html

The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction

The first issue, containing pieces by Farah Mendlesohn, Rob Latham, Lisa Yasek, Veronica Hollinger, Brian Attebery and Chris Pak is now online at http://eatonjournal.ucr.edu/.

"The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction is a peer-reviewed, open-access, online journal hosted by the University of California at Riverside, affiliated with the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Utopian Studies. The journal is run by graduate student editors, with scholarly review provided by an interdisciplinary executive board made up of SF scholars, research librarians, and archivists. This diverse editorial pool reflects the Journal’s mission of fostering an interdisciplinary conversation, bringing literary scholars together with the archivists whose work assembles, curates, and makes meaning within archives. Putting these disciplinary voices into discussion within the pages of the journal fosters innovative research and incisive scholarship in the field of SF studies." The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction  is edited by Jeff Hicks and Josh Pearson.