Michael Cieslak, the head of the literature track, is excited to share with us a few panels that will be taking place this year. We will be previewing other tracks in the weeks leading up to Penguicon as well as sharing the schedule once it is complete. If you missed the tech track preview make sure to check it out.
- Crowdfunding Your Way to Success: Crowdfunding has taken the world by storm. Learn about the different types of crowdfunding and the ways they can help your project become a reality.
- From Batgirl to Buffy & Beyond: Librarians in Pop Culture & Real Life: Librarians are everywhere — in comics and literature, on tv and in the movies, and even at your actual library. What is the public fascination with librarians, and what’s with the stereotypes? This presentation looks at representations of librarians in popular culture, discusses the bespectacled shushing “Marian the librarian” trope, the “sexy librarian” of pulp and porn, the disproportionate number of librarians in cozy mysteries, and the more recent “librarian as mystical gatekeeper” device found in characters as diverse as Rupert Giles and the Librarian of Unseen University (ook!) Finally, we’ll look at what actual librarians are doing these days, and how they might surprise you.
- How to do Dystopia: The Hunger Games, Divergent, Mad Max — dystopian settings are populating books shelves and movie theaters, especially when it comes to the Young Adult market. The panel will discuss the popularity of the dystopian future and what makes one believable.
- Larval Writers Panel: Sometimes panels with very successful writers on them are intimidating or a bit non-applicable to folks just dipping their toes in the ink, so to speak. This panel has writers struggling to find success sharing their triumphs, woes, insights, and experiences with other aspiring writers.