Once again BYU is hosting LTUE, a science fiction and fantasy symposium. It will be February 17-19 at the Harmon building on BYU Campus. This is a fantastic event for anyone who wants to work in a creative field even remotely related to science fiction or fantasy. The symposium has everything from technical discussions about art, to quick art lessons, to writer’s workshops, to discussions about creativity and mental health. You simply can not find a better informational value for $20. Tracy and Laura Hickman will be running a Killer Breakfast on Saturday morning which is worth the price of admission all by itself. If you’ve never been to one, it is two hours of RPG fun.
Howard will be there. He’s got panels on plotting, health issues for the creative person, why charisma should not be a dump stat in real life, and the Writing Excuses podcast
I will also be on panels. I’m particularly excited about the panel I’ll be moderating talking about basic budgeting and financial management for creative businesses. They packed that panel full of really good people who have lots of information about why numbers and dollar signs do not need to fill you with dread. In other panels I’ll be helping discuss self-publishing, setting goals, and how the internet is shaping our children.
I highly recommend it.
You can see the whole schedule here.
You can register here.
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I’m coming! So excited! I’ll be helping out, too….
All students (high school, junior high, etc.) get in for free. This is the fourth time our daughter will be attending. She’s trying to wrangle being there from start to finish this time. I’ll have to ask Howard more about the Killer Breakfast.
I’ll be there, and they even threw me on an anime panel (go figure…)
I wish I could make it. Missouri is just a bit too far away I’m afraid. =( I was really worried about them this year when they kept not being able to post their guest of honor. Though, I suppose it wasn’t as bad as one of the years I was on campus where we almost lost two of the GoH to family health issues.
Lost as in, they couldn’t come, not as in they died.
I’m glad no one died. Hopefully LTUE has found some stability in their new home.
For me as a secular european it is hard to understand: How does a SciFi / fantasy convention does fit in with the BYU Mission Statement ? I mean, hey, i would like to be there sooooo much, and i wish the universities in my country would host events like that, but still i wonder…
This is an excellent question, and probably the reason that LTUE keeps getting dropped by various departmental sponsors. It exists at all because decades ago there was a BYU faculty member who was a vigorous advocate for Science Fiction and Fantasy. It continues because of the many people who passionately carry on his legacy. Because LTUE is held at a private religious university, there are often panels which explore the apparent contradictions between living a religious life and writing genre fiction.
I hope that LTUE continues to exist, but it would not surprise me to see it eventually move to a different university home and become a more traditional convention rather than a symposium.
Basically it fits in with the “enriching extra curricular experience” category. Some look down their noses at a genera focused event and feel the whole body of work is of marginal worth. But when you really look, how different is LTUE Symposium from a dance or music ensemble? Or football for that matter. Yes, music has a whole university focused on that talent while this particular type of writing only has a couple classes in one college. And yes, a lot more people get excited about football than a specific genera of books. But that’s a measure of the popularity of the topics/talents not a valuation of their worth.
I also worry about the Symposium but I think it would die if it tried to only be a convention. There are already other conventions in the area so that market is met. Another college might be a home. But I don’t know that another venue could create a safe environment to have gospel discussions.
LTUE’s track aimed at academia pulls in some of the most interesting professors from all departments on intriguing topics. Some of the gospel panels have been the most intriguing discussions. The one discussing religious insight from “Lord of the Rings” (I forget the year but one of the movies had just come out) was astounding. If LTUE dies then I will sorrow.
Ah, thanks for the answer – i always feel honored to hear that i ask good questions 🙂 My profs at university are not always that cheerful 😉