filipino fantastic

An interview with me appears over at Read or Die.

The wonderful people behind the recent RodCon 2007 continue to impress me with their focus and action as they push their advocacies forward.

One thing to look forward to is Filipino Fantastic, the first interdisciplinary conference on the fantastic in Filipino literature, art and media.

Slated for August 2007, the conference will focus on general explorations of the fantastic in different visual and literary mediums and the cultural influences behind them. The thematic areas of the conference are:

Invisible Cities - Fantastic worlds (Catalogs of, theories about and methodologies behind the creation of fantastic worlds).

Imaginary Beasts - Mythological figures and supernatural beings.

Universal Histories - History imitating history; history imitating life. (Theoretical readings and analyses of individual works and key texts).

New Abominations - Fabulists and unreal individuals (Creators of the fantastic).

Deliberate Anachronisms - Fandom (The reception of the fantastic by mainstream audiences, fans, and cultural industries.) .

They've announced an open call for papers.

All this is just incredible and I count myself fortunate to live in a time period in my country when such events can actually occur.