OryCon

OryCon

Orycon is Portland, Oregon's annual science fiction/fantasy convention, held in November since 1979.

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Event history

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The one-day Symposium in 1978 was held at Portland State University. OryCon was held at the Lloyd Center Sheraton in 1979, at the Portland Hilton 1980-83 and 1985, at the Portland Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1984, at the Red Lion/Lloyd Center (formerly the Lloyd Center Sheraton) in 1986, at the Red Lion/Doubletree Columbia River Hotel from 1987 to 2003, at the Marriott (waterfront downtown) from 2003 to 2008, at the Red Lion/Lloyd Center beginning 2009.

Highlights

Orycon promotes science fiction and fantasy works of all kinds.

There are many panels and workshops discussing topics from how to write a great science fiction novel to current events in science, as well as numerous filk sessions and concerts. Some of the recent panel topics have included:

  • Writing
    • When is enough research too much?
    • How to write about something you don't really know about
    • Using Your Imagination to Write and Draw
    • Inventing Languages: Alien Linguistics
    • Balancing Writing with Family/Real Life—Deadlines vs. diapers
  • Current events
    • What impact does technology really have on history
    • Murdering stemcells and frankenfood: modern biology and the far left and right
    • The web in 2015 - a look ahead
    • The rest of the world's last year in space/Japanese Space Program. What they've done, what they are doing, what they have planned.
  • Costuming
    • Making an original costume: What you need to get started
    • Fabric manipulation-How to twist, dye, stitch, fold, pleat and otherwise bully your fabric into submission
    • Period costumes beyond Victorian and medieval: Why don't we see more eras?
    • Costuming 101: Pattern bashing for beginners
  • Art
    • Art Jam - Everybody Draws
    • Selling the Offspring: Your Emotional Investment in Your Art and How Much do You Charge for It?
    • The Business of Art
    • My inspiration - My art: Why I did what I did

The Susan C Petrey Scholarship Fund Auction awards scholarships to the Clarion Science Fiction Writers' Workshop (both in the East and West)

The Endeavour Award

The Endeavour Award is presented to a distinguished science fiction or fantasy book written by a Pacific Northwest author or authors and published in the previous year.

Finalists for 2012
  • Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (Tor)
  • City of Ruins by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Pyr)
  • River Marked by Patricia Briggs (Ace)
  • Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (Doubleday)
  • When the Saints by Dave Duncan (Tor)
2011 Winner

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