General Meeting, October 14, 2016, Speaker at 9:00 pm, meeting at 8:00 pm

International House - 3701 Chestnut Street, , Philadelphia, PA  (Second floor)

 

Brad Hafford
 
William (Brad) Hafford is an archaeologist, writer, teacher and traveler. He received his Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and has excavated in many countries including Greece, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. His primary research involves ancient economics, particularly long-distance trade in the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean. In 2003 he began teaching the origins, history, and meaning of money as a writing-intensive course. As a result of its success, he was invited to join the committee to create a Critical Writing program at Penn. He became a Senior Writing Fellow and taught for seven years in the program he helped to create.
 
Writing has been an important part of Dr. Hafford’s career. But clear and convincing non-fiction is only part of the story. He has spent much of his spare time writing speculative fiction.
 
Growing up in rural poverty in the southern United States, Brad found solace in science fiction and fantasy. He would climb a tree and read whatever he had collected from a free exchange at the nearest small town library twelve miles away. Typically they were old and battered science fiction paperbacks from the 1950s and 60s; stories of strange new worlds opening up with the advent of rockets. He was 11 years old when he got hold of a copy of The Lord of the Rings, and it changed his world. In fact, he credits reading science fiction and fantasy with increasing his vocabulary, his imagination, and his drive to travel and seek an education rather than remain in a relatively closed-minded community. It also led him to attempt his own fiction in whatever spare time he could muster.
 
He wrote his first complete story when he was 12. It was heavily influenced by Star Wars, though not written as fan fiction with Star Wars characters. He turned it in as an exercise in his 8th Grade English class. The teacher said he must have plagiarized it and she gave him a failing grade. Such was the community he lived in--never encouraging, always suspicious, and painfully unimaginative.
 
When he finally got out of that world, he began writing fiction again. His early attempts were cumbersome and unpolished, but he finished two novels over many years. Though both are unpublishable, he learned a great deal. In 2009 he attended the Odyssey Writers Workshop and he returned there as resident supervisor in 2013. It has been a long road and he has not been able to dedicate as much time as he would like to fiction, but he is now making professional level short story sales and plans to go back to writing novels sometime in the future.
 
 
You can find Hafford's non-fiction archaeological writing under his first name William, and his steampunk and futuristic writing under his middle name, Brad.
 
Check out a podcast reading of one of his stories free at EscapePod:
 

Upcoming Meetings

General Meetings

 

General Meetings are open to the public and are held at International House, 3701 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA, at 8:00 p.m.; or at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA at 8:00 p.m.

Social gathering begins at 7:30 p.m.
The Business Meeting begins at 8:00 p.m.
The Program begins at 9:00 p.m.

Date Speaker or Program Location
July 22, 2016  Hugo Nominee Discussion Panel International House
August 12, 2016  Steven Wilson International House
September 9, 2016  Joshua Bilmes International House
October 14, 2016  William "Brad" Hafford International House
November 18-20, 2016  Philcon Cherry Hill Crowne Plaza

 

 

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The Philip K. Dick. Award

PSFS is proud to sponsor the Philip K. Dick award in association with the Philip K. Dick Trust. The Philip K. Dick award is presented to an author best representing the spirit of innovative science fiction in the paperback marketplace. Films produced from Philip K. Dick's prolific output include Blade Runner, The Minority Report and The Adjustment Bureau. Guaranteed to always be interesting reads, more information about current nominees and past winners can be found at http://www.philipkdickaward.org/.

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