Virtual SF Events

• Baen Books launched the weekly Baen Friday Night Live Reading Series hosted by editor Christopher Ruocchio on April 3, 2020 at 8 p.m. EST, with authors reading and taking questions. They also plan an online version of their “Travelling Roadshow,” highlighting upcoming titles, on April 11 and April 18 at 4 p.m. EST.
• We Love Bookstores, a new organization devoted to fundraising for San Francisco Bay Area indie bookshops, has numerous online author readings scheduled, starting on April 8, 2020.
• Online shared world Second Life will host the Second Life Book Club, a “virtual world book tour” to be held on the first Wednesday of every month at 10 a.m. Pacific. The inaugural event on April 8 features S.L. Huang, C.B. Lee, Ken Liu, and Matt Ruff in a panel discussion on “the new reality of writing and selling books in the age of COVID-19.”
• The NewCon Press book launch scheduled for EasterCon 2020 (planned for April 10-12, 2020, now canceled) was held online instead.
• The Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University has launched Us in Flux, “a series of stories and virtual events about community, collaboration, and collective imagination in times of transformative change.” Their first online event, to be held April 13 at 4 p.m. Eastern, will feature author Christopher Rowe in conversation with professor Michael Bell.
• The April installment of the Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series will feature livestream readings by Michael Cisco and Clay McLeod Chapman at 7 p.m. Eastern on April 15, 2020.
• The L.A. Times will present its book awards online beginning at 8 a.m. Pacific on April 17, announcing winners in 14 categories (including the inaugural Bradbury Prize for SF), “followed by brief video acceptance speeches from award recipients.”
• The Everywhere Book Fest, a “virtual gathering of kidlit authors, books, and readers that will bring the book festival experience to everyone,” will be held May 1-2, 2020.
• Balticon 54, planned for May 22-25, 2020 in Baltiimore MD, has transitioned to a free “virtual Balticon” to be held on the same dates.
• Wiscon 44, scheduled for May 22-25, 2020 in Madison WI, is now planning an online conference.
• The SFWA Nebula Conference, scheduled for May 28-31, 2020 in Woodland Hills CA is becoming “an entirely virtual conference, which will be live and interactive from May 29th-31st,” and will include “panels, solo presentations, conference mentorships, workshops, forums, chats, and virtual room parties (including a dance party hosted by John Scalzi). A portion of the funds we raise will go to assist SFWA members financially affected by COVID-19… the Nebula Awards ceremony will stream live at 8 pm Eastern on May 30th.” Registration is now open for the event.
• The Texas Library Association Annual Conference, planned for March 24-27, 2020 in Houston TX, has become TLA 2020 Virtual, to be held April 21-22, 2020.
• CoNZealand, the 78th World Science Fiction Convention in Wellington, New Zealand, scheduled for July 29 – August 2, 2020, is becoming the first ever “virtual Worldcon.”
• The British Book Awards, or Nibbies, will hold a virtual awards ceremony on June 29, 2020. The original award ceremony, planned for May 18, 2020, was postponed due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Past events:

• The Spectrum Awards ceremony was broadcast online April 4, 2020 at 8 p.m. EST. It was originally to be held at Planet Comicon Kansas City, March 20-22, 2020 in Kansas City MO, which has now been canceled.
• The Kitschies Awards were announced in a virtual ceremony held on Google Meet, April 6, 2020 at 7 p.m.

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