Sections
Writer in Residence in 2010
February 1 to May 31 at the Merril Collection Public Library in Toronto
Also available in presentation mode…
Toronto Public Library has put up its web page detailing my writer in residence tenure this spring. That means I can reveal the details here too; I'll give you some here, but I'll also be placing the events into my calendar, which you can access at any time through the "Events" menu item on the left of the site's window (or the "upcoming events" box on the right).
I will also be blogging on the TPL website about writing as a process, an art, and a career.
Here's how to participate
Submit your manuscript for an opportunity to have a one-on-one evaluation with me or attend the writer-in-residencereadings and workshops.
- Manuscripts should be sent via email to Karl Schroeder, writer in residence at the Merril Collection.
- All manuscripts should include your name, address, phone number and e-mail address.
- Manuscripts should be 5,000 words in length. I will read only the first 5,000 words of longer submissions and base his comments on that word length.
- After your manuscript has been read, the Merril Collection staff will contact you and book an appointment for you to discuss your writing.
- I'lll will need 1 –2 weeks lead time in order to read submissions before an appointment is booked.
- The library reserves the right to limit the number of manuscripts accepted.
- Toronto Public Library is not responsible for returning manuscripts. Please submit a COPY of your work.
My OSCON '09 Talk
Here's the talk I gave at OSCON '09 (The O'Reilly Open Source conference, held in July 2009 in San Jose). The talk has been very well received, garnering about ten times as many views as most of the other speakers (though of course for all I know, that could be due to people visiting it to laugh at my ideas). Anyway, here it is:
Back to School for My Masters Degree
It's official: over the next two years I'll be working towards garnering a Masters in Strategic Foresight from the Ontario College of Art and Design. This will formalize my skills and experience in an area where I already do a good deal of work--foresight studies, also called futures study or just futurism.
I'm already a futurist, I suppose, though for me at least that term tends to conjure images of chrome-domed technophiles ranting about how we're all going to have flying cars in our driveways in ten years. Technology foresight, which is what I specialize in, is less ivory-tower and more inclusive, however, because it involves the contribution of stakeholders in imagining both the scenarios and the probabilities attached to them.
I hasten to add that I won't be doing this work instead of my SF writing; I will be doing it in addition to writing. I'm still deeply committed to my science fiction and to writing in all its forms. What this degree program will do is give me more tools for my workshop, allowing me to approach the study of the future from more directions. It's all good.

