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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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