The Aldiss Literary Estate, The Aldiss Award, Curtis Brown & Robin Strauss Agency are proud and excited to announce a series of special events and publications to celebrate the centenary of author, poet, editor, science fiction Grand Master, multiple Nebula & Hugo award winner, and founding chairman of the British Science Fiction Association, Brian Aldiss OBE.
Join us as we marvel at the huge and diverse body of work, and the sphere of influence Brian had in his lifetime.
Read, listen, watch and wallow in some new and renewed highlights from an extensive career.
And for those of you who are new to Brian Aldiss here is a wonderful introduction to his science fiction from fellow author Norman Spinrad:
Brian Aldiss seems to have always had a more oceanic sense than even most science fiction writers, an almost measure vision of what will transpire in the long run, a time-sense both in his fiction and in the pace and course of his career.
He began writing science fiction toward the end of the 1950s, longer in years and more mature in experience and perspective than most beginning science fiction writers after a tour in the military service and a career as a bookseller. …Aldiss has never really been the start of the hour in any given year or even literary period. Yet his total body of work, turned out at a steady & measured pace, stands out as one of the most impressive in the genre – for its’ volume, for its’ diversity, for its’ continuing development, and for its’ maturity. His novels cover the whole spread of the possible genre spectrum, from more or less conventional works like Hothouse (1962) and Starship (1959); to the brooding post- disaster story Greybeard, 1964; to Report on Probability A (1968), a formal experiment based on the French “New Novel”; to the prose experiment of Barefoot in the Head (1969); to a sui generis novel like Frankenstein Unbound (1973) which combines science fiction, historical fiction, and literary scholarship in a unique mix… he covers an almost Stapledonian period of time…
Here’s a list of planned activities to celebrate the centenary of this great man:
Publishing: Publishing of Best of Short Stories, Translated texts in international markets, Gollancz titles, Poetry
Radio: Podcasting, BBC reissuing existing recordings, BBC radio other
The Aldiss Award: Inaugural award, Nov 2nd (World Fantasy Convention, Brighton)
Exhibitions: Liverpool University Exhibition, Bodleian Library Exhibition, Reading University Exhibition
Worldcon, Seattle: 2 x Panel Discussions, Yillin/8 Light minutes event, QR Stories/Poems
Online: AI recording of Supertoys, Extensive Social Media campaign , Poetry readings, Curtis Brown rival of page and news feed, Blackwells display , Forbidden Planet Display
Here is a compilation of a few recordings courtesy of the BBC:
And finally here’s Brian talking about his experience of a solar eclipse in 2017:
