The Speculative…

The Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) is delighted to announce that its first annual Travel Grant has been awarded to Nora Jemison. The $600 grant will be used to help Nora research Native American cultures as they existed pre-colonization for a fantasy novel and series of short stories. The travel will be to the Navajo National Monument in Arizona and to Monument Valley in Utah. Ms. Jemison has published science fiction and fantasy short stories in Flashshot, Eternally Erotic (eBook anthology), Ideomancer (forthcoming), and Dark Sins and Desires Unveiled (anthology; forthcoming).

Ms. Jemison said: "Over the past few years I have had a strong interest in blending 'high fantasy' tropes with non-European cultures, characters, and themes. I would like to explore the concept that ancient Egypt and/or Nubia may have had contact with the Americas long before European discovery. My hope is to explore the universal impact of colonization, through the lens of a fantasy Egyptian and fantasy pre-Columbian native South American society."

SLF's Award Coordinators were an international team comprising Tiffany Jonas in the USA and Colin Harvey in the UK. Tiffany said: "While we received several excellent applications, Nora Jemison's story sample was the standout. With a cultural and culinary emphasis reminiscent of Joanne Harris (Chocolat, Five Quarters of an Orange), the characters jump off the page, and the reader can nearly taste the garlic and onion, the seared meat, and the pappardelle. Nora's synopsis of the novel she intends to write using research partially funded by the travel grant is intriguing and unique."

Further details of SLF's Travel Grant program can be found at: http://www.speculativeliterature.org/Awards/SLFTravelGrant.php. Applications for next year's Travel Grant will open on July 1st, 2005.