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MetropolCon will take place from May 18 to 20, 2023 at the silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin. We are featured in their event calendar.
 
 

DECEMBER CAMPAIGN

You need gifts for your loved ones?
We need money to make MetropolCon big, beautiful and sparkly!
So here comes our brilliant proposal, the solution for all your problems as well as ours:
Give the gift of a wonderful weekend in Berlin!
Give the gift of fantasy and science fiction!
Or simply give yourself the gift of a ticket, if you haven't already.

We're being honest: we want you all to be there next year, because this could be a truly awesome thing: the start of a new tradition, the rocket launch into unimagined galaxies, the alchemy of community and imagination. But for that to happen, we need you. We need you and your contribution, because only on a secure financial foundation can we build this bridge to the stars, so that you too can reach for them!

 

Program News

We proudly introduce another round of program participants - and our first publishers for the dealers’ room:

  • Luci van Org calls herself a multi-purpose entertainer. Besides writing for a variety of media, she is first and foremost a wonderfully versatile singer and musician. We are looking forward to an atmospheric acoustic set by Lucina Soteira.    
  • Axel Hildebrand has experience with all manner of jobs in filmmaking. He writes, directs - and collects images of life in Berlin’s Neukölln district. Look for the #LebenInNeukölln hashtag. Together with Luci, he will tell us whether writing for TV and film is really as exciting as people think.
  • Yvonne Tunnat is known as #Rezensionsnerdista and also writes short stories that are like gut punches. We’re going to discuss anthologies with her, among other things.
  • Kris Brynn is one of the pseudonyms of versatile German author Regine Bott, who writes science fiction as well as crime fiction and historical novels.   
  • Do we still need to introduce Bernhard Hennen? Whether elves or  books for the RPG Das Schwarze Auge - Bernahrd is one of the most successful German fantasy writers for a reason. (Photo credit: Stephan Sasse)
  • Robert Corvus not only writes fantasy and science fiction at a remarkable pace, he is also vigorously involved in networking fandoms across Europe and is the current German delegate in the European Science Fiction Society ESFS. (Photo credit: Gustav Kuhweide, Cologne)
We also added the first publishers, whom you will find in our dealers’ room. Here’s a teaser:
  • High Fantasy in Selfpublishing: From A.v.G. Koopmans comes the Iasanara series.  
  • Urban Fiction Berlin: FE Boulaich writes stories from a darkly magical, fantastic capital city.
  • The annual Das Science Fiction Jahr publication has found its home at Hirnkost Verlag. In addition to SF, their roster also features books on youth cultures and social issues that concern us all - committed literature, that is!
As always, check out the website for more info. We will continue to list confirmed speakers and artists (click on picture) 
 


 

Apply for sales tables and the art exhibition!

We have already received a number of applications and the first German publishers and self-publishers have been confirmed. If you would like to book sales tables (or fan tables for associations and other non-profit organizations) or present your art at MetropolCon, please apply here.

Just download and fill in the PDF, and send it to programm@metropolcon.eu 
 

Call for Submission - English-language content wanted!

Do you want to be part of a panel, give a talk, host a workshop? Do you have a brilliant idea (or three) that lines up perfectly with MetropolCon’s vision? Your ideas can enrich everyone’s con experience! We’re still open for your suggestions and any topics that follow our Code of Conduct. We’re currently looking for English-language contributions only.   

Need more information? Read all about it here!

Team News

 

This month, we introduce Alexa.

Program Team Meeting:
In November, our program team hunkered down for a weekend and sifted through all the talks, workshops, panels, readings and other submissions, trying to prioritize, consolidate, concretize. The program has not been finalized yet, but we have gathered a lot of great people from Germany and abroad for you. Also in terms of diversity of topics, we have everything from AI and algae to anthologies and astrobiology and androids, from climate and capitalism to comics and … Kaiju. There will be live music and show items, an awards ceremony, and much, much more! You'll hear more details very soon.

Berlin Tips - The great, the strange, and the curious

In this section of the newsletter, we recommend museums, oddities, lovely areas, and generally any part of the metropolis that we’re passionate about. 

This time we want to talk about special bars. Berlin has a bunch of unusual, quirky, or plain beautiful bars, some of them also with a science fiction-y or fantasy theme. And for a European metropolis, most of them do not charge horror prices. The Zyankali Bar, which calls itself an “institute for entertainment chemistry,” is certainly worth a detour, as is the 12 Grad Aetherloge in Friedrichshain - a cozy den with a steampunk aesthetic! Both are also insider tips for absinthe fans.
You can find more bar recs here (number 20 is Alice-in-Wonderland-themed!)

And we would have loved to add the first completely alcohol-free bar in Germany, Zeroliq in Friedrichshain, to this Berlin list, but unfortunately it didn't survive the past two years. Instead, the Bar am Steinplatz in the hotel of the same name in Charlottenburg offers a classy alcohol-free menu. Proving that sober indulgence can be extremely nice!

Fantastic News

Literature

Dragon Days 2022 in Stuttgart - report by Ivo

Traditionally, the Dragon Days take place in Stuttgart shortly after the Frankfurt Book Fair. And this year, the self-professed "Cross Media Fantastik Festival," organized by Tobias Wengert, once again offered a number of highly interesting events around fantastic literature and its transfer to other media. One crowd puller was the long-sold-out event with Jay Kristoff, author of "Nevernight" and "Empire of the Vampires." I thought the evening with Zimbabwean-born urban fantasy author T. L. Huchu was very cool and atmospheric, the reading and interview framed by live music by Vimbai Zimuto on the mbira, a traditional instrument in southern Africa.

Reading, live drawing and acoustic background music: as in previous years, the “spoken word service” Schneyder & Dinter took on a classic of fantasy: this time we listened to, watched, and marveled at H. G. Wells' "The Time Machine." Once again, one of my personal highlights of this great series of events.

Multimedia

Dark fantasy from Germany: Recently, German director Huan Vu presented the new trailer for his project "The Dreamlands." The material is the first adaptation of Lovecraft's "Dream Cycle" and is financed exclusively through crowdfunding.
To the trailer.
To the website.
 
For Doctor Who fans, an era came to an end on Oct. 23, 2022. In "The Power of the Doctor," the 13th incarnation of the Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, says goodbye to her role. With her, showrunner Chris Chibnall is also leaving. But his successor Russell T Davies has big plans. Two new Doctor actors have already been announced, the show has a new logo and is to be broadcast everywhere outside the UK and Ireland from next year via the streaming service Disney+.
For more Doctor Who content, follow the German-language podcast "Tardis Today" of our team member Grit.
 
HÖRSPIELWIESE KÖLN awarded a prize for the best short radio play independently produced by broadcasters for the third time in 2022. The 3rd place went to our member Dominik Irtenkauf in tandem with SmaelyP. Read more (in German only). And here you can listen to the winning pieces directly (German only).

Art

Horrorshow! From October 27, 2022 to February 19, 2023, London’s Somerset House presents a major exhibition celebrating our greatest cultural provocateurs and visionaries, examining how ideas rooted in horror have informed the last 50 years of creative rebellion in Britain.

Science

Artemis will put the first woman and the first person of color on the moon! After several weather-related postponements, NASA sent another rocket to the moon in November. But the Artemis project has more exciting plans in store. To read more, click here (great presentation and explanation) or check out NASA’s Artemis page.

Games

PC Gamer published its list of video games to come out in 2023. Which ones are you waiting for? Here’s the list.
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