2020 AugurCon 28 November 2020 / 18+ Panelists / 8+ Hours / Speculative Literatures Buy Tickets Now!

About AugurCon

On Saturday, November 28, join the Augur Magazine Literary Society and 18+ panelists from across Canada and the United States for the inAUGURal VIRTUAL AugurCon!

AugurCon is an eight-hour day full of panels, workshops, and industry learning opportunities. Our panelists will explore what it means to research and craft speculative worlds that are inherently informed by our own; to interrogate the opportunities and dangers of leveraging metaphor and analogy in fiction; to break into publishing in the first place, featuring advice from industry experts; and, really, what it means to have a “Canadian” speculative canon at all.

WHERE

Online!
Streamed Your Own Home!
Details to come!

WHEN

10-6:30PM, EST
Saturday, November 28, 2020


Conference Schedule

We’re bringing together authors, editors, and industry experts for a day packed with panels, workshops, and conversations about reading and crafting stories with care. Here's what's on:
  • Panels


  • Join AugurCon Co-Directors Terese Mason Pierre and Kerry C. Byrne as they kick off the event with this warm welcome and introduction to the day's programming.
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  • The world of publishing can seem elusive and impenetrable, especially to emerging writers. How do you research publishers and journals? How do you query? What does a contract look like? Our panelists break open the gates of knowledge to reveal the insides and outs of publishing today. Together we’ll demystify the industry, and discover how creators can learn the ropes, make smart choices, and find the publishing partners that will support them in getting their stories into the world. Moderated by Augur Magazine Editor Anna Bendiy. Featuring panelists Chimedum Ohaegbu, Jen Albert, Arley Sorg, Léonicka Valcius.
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  • In 2020, we are living in what sometimes feels a dystopia. So how do we let the world we live in shape the worlds we create in powerful and creative ways? What does it look like to build worlds responsibly? How do we craft spaces that show care in ways we can’t access today...or explore how and why that care is withheld? Join our panelists as they discuss how they develop complex, interesting worlds—and how they think we can explore those worlds as extremely human spaces that question, reimagine, and maybe even do better than the world we live in today. Moderated by Augur Magazine Co-Editor-in-Chief Lawrence Stewen. Featuring panelists Sarah Raughley, Rati Mehrotra, Fonda Lee, Omar el Akkad.
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  • Canadian Literature has long been a branded entity: CanLit. We’ve had ongoing conversations about broader CanLit for years—what it is, who it’s for, and how it needs to do better. But what about Canadian Speculative Literature: is there such a thing? If so, who has this space been for, historically, and who is it for today? What is it like to enter into this community, navigate it, and find success within it? Is it a part of CanLit, or beside it? And, in trying to find a “Canadian” speculative fiction at all, how do we interrogate our own understanding of what it means to engage a “Canadian” canon, and how that affects the stories we tell? In this panel, we’ll discuss whether the canon exists, what it means to participate (or not!) within it, and what our panelists want the future of speculative fiction to look like, both in story and community. Moderated by Augur Magazine Publisher Kerry Seljak-Byrne. Featuring panelists Dominik Parisien, Jael Richardson, Larissa Lai, and Kai Cheng Thom.
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  • Often, speculative literature explores the social issues of our reality through allegory and analogy. Sometimes we take this for granted, despite how complex and nuanced a challenge this is—and how easily an allegory can be handled irresponsibly. Our panelists discuss how the use of allegory and analogy has been used in creative and celebratory ways; complicated and challenging ways; and in ways that have done harm. We ask, how can marginalized writers can take these narrative devices into their own hands? In what ways can we take back analogy as a means of supporting #ownvoices narratives? Can we? We will discuss the impact of allegorizing, superimposing, and transforming real-life forms of oppression, cultures, peoples, and futures into the tapestry of speculative literature narratives. Moderated by Augur Magazine Co-Editor-in-Chief Terese Mason Pierre. Featuring panelists Daniel Heath Justice, Evan Winter, Amal El-Mohtar, Amanda Leduc.
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  • Augur Magazine seeks and publishes stories for the futures we need. That means creating space for writers and artists who are under-represented in "canonized" literatures, and engaging in critical conversations about how the literatures that are most read shape the stories that are most often told. It means always asking: are these the stories that we want to shape the spaces we occupy? This closing panel, our Featured Conversation, will focus on the futures we are working towards. Futures in which presently and traditionally marginalized and underrepresented creators may flourish, in a world that acknowledges, accepts and encourages their unique stories and storytelling modes. Futures that shape and build the institutions that support speculative literature. Futures that examine and challenge the canons, and insist on making space: more space, better space, and soon. We ask our panelists: what do these futures look like to them? How do we imagine it? What exciting possibilities, opportunities, and transformations await us in speculative literatures? And why is the speculative such an important space for us to take hold in this way? Panelists: Jael Richardson, Joshua Whitehead Moderator: Larissa Lai
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  • Workshops


  • Led by Augur Magazine Co-Editor-in-Chief and Poet Terese Mason Pierre and Award-Winning Editor and Poet Dominik Parisien
    AugurCon
    Workshop

  • When you look at the publishing industry, do you find yourself just burning with questions? Join this one-hour session with literary agent Kim-Mei Kirtland (HMLA) and editor Amanda Betts (Penguin Random House) where you can send your questions ahead and have them answered live. And let’s face it: if you’re asking it, someone else probably needs it answered! Moderated by Augur Magazine Submissions Manager Sean Dowie.
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    Workshop

  • Led by Augur Magazine Managing Editor Victoria Liao and Award-Winning Uncanny Magazine Managing Editor Chimedum Ohaegbu
    AugurCon
    Workshop

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Featured Speakers

Learn more about the authors and industry experts you'll be hearing from at AugurCon.

Start the Countdown

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Our Team

Festival Director, Programming — Terese Mason Pierre
Festival Director, General — Kerry C. Byrne
Assistant Director, Festival Operations — Victoria Liao
Technical Operations Manager — Amy Wang
Technical Operations Manager — Sienna Tristen
Festival Operations Assistant — Vivian Li
Content Writer & Copy Editor — Sonia Urlando
Social Media Manager — Avi Silver
Volunteer Coordinator — Ayesha Mumal

Official Bookstore

Logo for Another Story Bookshop, featuring an open book with red cover surrounded by a seafoam green semi-circle containing the name of the store.

Supported By

Toronto Arts Council logo, featuring big blocky text with thick blue lines on top and bottom.