One Book, One Springfield: Kick-Off Event

Kick-Off Event

March 26, 2:00 p.m.
Springfield Museum of Fine Arts

One Book, One Springfield kicks off on Sunday, March 26 at 2:00 p.m. in the Davis Auditorium of the Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, 49 Chestnut Street with a lecture and a film.

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ASL Sign Language Symbol Award-winning science fiction author Allen Steele will provide the keynote address, sharing his knowledge of and enthusiasm for both the author and Fahrenheit 451. The lecture will be sign-interpreted.

Allen Mulherin Steele, Jr. became a full-time science fiction writer in 1988, following publication of his first short story, "Live From The Mars Hotel" (Asimov's, mid-Dec. '88). Since then he has become a prolific author of novels, short stories, and essays, with his work appearing in many countries.

Steele was born in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his B.A. in Communications from New England College in Henniker, New Hampshire, and his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. He now resides in western Massachusetts.

His novels include Orbital Decay, Clarke County, Space, Lunar Descent, Labyrinth of Night, The Jericho Iteration, The Tranquillity Alternative, A King of Infinite Space, Oceanspace, Chronospace, Coyote, Coyote Rising and Coyote Frontier. He has also published four collections of short fiction: Rude Astronauts, All-American Alien Boy, Sex and Violence in Zero-G, and American Beauty. His work has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Omni, Science Fiction Age, Journal Wired, Science Fiction Chronicle, Locus, Fantastic and The New York Review of Science Fiction, as well as in many anthologies. He writes regular columns for Absolute Magnitude and Artemis.

His novella "The Death Of Captain Future" (Asimov's, Oct. '95) received the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Novella, won a 1996 Science Fiction Weekly Reader Appreciation Award, and received the 1998 Seiun Award for Best Foreign Short Story from Japan's National Science Fiction Convention. It was also nominated for a 1997 Nebula Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Orbital Decay received the 1990 Locus Award for Best First Novel.

His novella "'...Where Angels Fear to Tread'" (Asimov's, Oct./Nov. '97), upon which Chronospace is based, received the Hugo Award, the Locus Award, the Asimov's Readers Award, and the Science Fiction Chronicle Readers Award in 1998, and was also nominated for the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial, and Seiun awards. Many other of his novellas, novelettes, and novels have received awards and award nominations.

Following Allen Steele's talk, there will be a screening of the 1966 film, Fahrenheit 451, directed by Francois Truffaut and starring Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, and Cyril Cusack. While departing from some of Ray Bradbury's plot points, the film successfully captures the mood and themes of Bradbury's novel. The film will be shown with English captioning.