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- WordSpring 2026 - Robert J. Sawyer
Saturday, May 30, 2026, 9 am to 9:45 am ROBERT J. SAWYER Facing the Future: New Horizons in Publishing, What it Means to be a Writer, and the Promise and Peril of AI Robert J. Sawyer has been a full-time fiction writer for over 30 years. He sold his first short story in 1980 and his first novel in 1990. Join him as he looks back at the hard lessons learned from decades in publishing. An acclaimed futurist, he’ll also peer ahead to see how writers might continue to make livings in the decades to come while considering the impact artificial intelligence will have on the very idea of being an author. AND WordSpring 2026 Scifi Masterclass Saturday, May 31, 2026 10 am - 12 noon Combing the Intimately Human with the Grandly Cosmic: The Keys to Writing Science Fiction that Appeals to Both the Heart and the Mind Making your science fiction appeal not just to the mind but to the heart as well. The number-one reason mainstream readers don’t even try science fiction is they think it has nothing to offer them emotionally: they wrongly believe that it’s either too dry and intellectual or that any character development is sketchy and any character drama is simplistic and juvenile. But the best science fiction is as emotionally complex, as heart-wrenching, as moving, and as uplifting as the best mainstream fiction. Learn how to balance both halves of the term “science fiction” without giving short-shrift to either. |
WordSpring 2026 Keynote addressBio:
Robert J. Sawyer—dubbed “the dean of Canadian science fiction” by the Ottawa Citizen and the CBC—has won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel of the Year; a record-setting 17 Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (“Auroras”); the top science-fiction awards in China, Japan, France, and Spain; an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada; and over 50 other national and international writing awards. He is a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.
Quill & Quire calls Rob one of “the most influential, innovative, and just plain powerful people in Canadian publishing,” and Maclean’s says, “By any reckoning, Sawyer is among the most successful Canadian authors ever.”
Rob is a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and he’s taught creative writing at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the University of Toronto, the Humber School for Writers, and Toronto Metropolitan University.
A multiple TEDx speaker with more than 850 radio and TV interviews under his belt, Rob has given over 100 keynote addresses worldwide. His 25 bestselling novels include Quantum Night (longlisted for Canada Reads) and FlashForward (the basis for the ABC TV series of the same name). Rob’s million-plus-word website—which The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature calls “the most elaborate and interesting of any created by a Canadian writer”—is at sfwriter.com.
"Writers' Federation of New Brunswick" is a registered non-profit organization. New Brunswick, Canada.
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