E For Everyone: An Alternate Poster

Photo courtesy of Robert Bee

One week from tomorrow LAFFCON4 will take place at the Mercer County Library Headquarters Branch, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

The library has graciously hosted all four years of this event, coordinated by the wonderful Robert Bee [Rob was recently promoted to manager of a different library location. Congratulations Rob!]

When making this year's poster, we needed to be conscious of the fact that the library hangs a large copy near the main entrance, several weeks prior to the event. For this reason, with The Reefs of Earth illustration being a little on the spooky side (though, arguably, no spookier than your average Goosebumps cover), we voluntarily created a lighter, alternate version of the LAFFCON4 poster. All the dead birds were removed, and irises were added to the main character. 

Still creepy, but not as creepy.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone on June 8th. =)

LAFFCON4 - Event Schedule

This year LAFFCON takes place Saturday, June 8th from 10am-5:00pm. Here is the day's schedule:

10am-10:45am
"Virtue Forever Green: Twelve Years On the Trail of R.A. Lafferty." Speaker: Andrew Ferguson

11am-11:45am
High Purpose of the Gallant Band: The Reefs of Earth Panel (Panelists: Andrew Ferguson, Matt Keeley, & Sam Tomaino)

12pm-1pm
Lunch Break (pizza provided by the Mercer County Friends of the Library)

1pm-1:45pm
A Live Recording of The Gene Wolfe Literary Podcast featuring the short story "Nine Hundred Grandmothers"

2pm-2:45pm
"Lafferty in New York: The Impure Science of Publishing." Speaker: Matt Keeley

3pm-3:45pm
"They Nipped on Stolen Whiskey and Told Stories: A Public Reading." Orator: Gregory Feeley

4pm-5:00pm
How We Read Lafferty: A Panel Discussion. Panelists: Kevin Cheek, Lissanne Lake, Nancy Leibovitz, Darrell Schweitzer, and Sam Tomainio

Afterwards
It is a LAFFCON tradition that after the event attendees meet up at a local restaurant for food, drink, and rowdy conversation. Everyone in attendance is invited.

Registration for LAFFCON is free and open to the general public. Click here to register.

Fresh Ink and The LAFFCON 4 Program Booklet

LAFFCON4 Program Booklet Cover

Our shipment of the LAFFCON4 program booklets has arrived and we're happy with the results. Each attendee to LAFFCON, on June 8th, will receive a copy along with some "secret" swag.

Full color interior artwork and photographs

This is our largest program booklet to date (43 pages).
This year's contents include:

• An Introduction by Anthony Ryan Rhodes, "LAFFCON: A Cure for Earth Sickness"
• "Of Winding Stairs and Webworms: A Visit to Lafferty's Letters and Landscapes" by Daniel Otto Jack Peterson
• An Introduction to "Continued on Next Rock" by Gregory Feeley
• Winning poetry from the first ever Bagarthach Verse Contest
• "Memories of Tarshish: The Game that Nearly Was" by Warren Brown
• An Introduction to Fourth Mansions by Kevin Cheek
• "How Lafferty Wrote" by Andrew Ferguson
• And new works of art by Lissanne Lake, Yakov Varganov, Bill Rogers, and Anthony Ryan Rhodes

 After the event the booklet will be made available online via Amazon for those who were unable to attend on the day.


Registration for LAFFCON is now open and free to the general public.

Winners of the LAFFCON Bagarthach Verse Contest

This year marked the first LAFFCON Bagarthach Verse Contest.

We received 30 entries in three months, many of which we found witty, glib, or downright nasty. We’d expect no less from poetry inspired by the Dulanty family from R. A. Lafferty's novel The Reefs of Earth.

Eventually, our judges selected three winners to be published in the LAFFCON4 program booklet, to be handed out free to attendees on the day of the event and later made available for purchase via print-on-demand for those who could not be present this year.

The elements of the Bagarthach verse are: 1) funny or clever but mean spirited, 2) short, one quatrain, 3) syllabic 8-9-8-9 per line (sometimes all lines are 8 syllables), and 4) rhymed a-b-a-b. Note: It’s been argued that a fifth element exists, that of predicting/wishing bodily harm or death, but for the contest rules we just couldn’t bring ourselves to include it as a requirement.

Congratulations to our talented winners!

• Bob Newman
• John Slaby
• R. K. Wolford 

 
 

Registration Now OPEN!

Registration for LAFFCON4 in Lawrenceville, NJ is now open!

LAFFCON encourages participants to register but it is not a necessity. We will turn away no one at the door. Registering helps us plan amenities like refreshments and Lafferty swag ("Is there such a thing as Lafferty swag?" you ask. Indeed there is.)

Participants can register using the following direct link:
http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/ekform.cfm?curOrg=MCL&curID=380703

Registration is also available via the Mercer County Library website:

1) Go to the library website at www.mcl.org
2) Point your mouse at PROGRAMS toward the top of the page
3) Click ADULT PROGRAMS from the dropdown
4) Change "All Months" at the top to "June" and Laffcon will pop right up
5) Click Register and fill out the short form.

If you run into any glitches during the process please contact us at LaffconStaff@gmail.com and we'll make sure your registration is completed.

LAFFCON4 takes place Saturday, June 8, 2019 at the Lawrence Headquarters Branch of the library, 2751 Brunswick Pike, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648. Learn more about LAFFCON online at http://www.laffcon.org/