• Speculative Literature Foundation •••

[JaNell]

Speculative Literature Foundation (SLF) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 2004

We are delighted to announce the official launch of the Speculative Literature Foundation (http://www.speculativeliterature.org), with our mission "to promote literary quality in speculative fiction, by encouraging promising new writers, assisting established writers, facilitating the work of quality magazines and small presses in the genre, and developing a greater public appreciation of speculative fiction."

We hope to accomplish this by creating a free comprehensive resource website, by developing materials for outreach to schools and libraries, and by raising funds to redistribute as grants and awards for quality work by individuals and organizations.

The first award we will present will be the 2003 SLF Fountain Award, $1000 in prize money for excellence in short fiction. A select jury will accept nominations from magazine and anthology editors, and announce the winner and honorable mentions on June 1st, 2004. (For more details, including nomination guidelines, please see our website.)

The foundation is supported by annual membership fees, and we encourage all those who read, write, and generally appreciate speculative fiction (by which term we mean to encompass the broad range of fantastic literature, from hard sf to sword and sorcery to magical realism to slipstream) to stop by our site, take a look at the resources we offer, and consider joining as supporting members. Your membership fees will go directly towards the ongoing development of grants and awards to reward literary excellence in the genre; we're also pleased to welcome new volunteers to our staff.

For more information on what the Foundation offers, please visit our comprehensive website and take advantage of our extensive (and growing) set of free resources geared towards the needs of readers, academics, editors and writers. Thank you for your time, and again, you can find us at:

http://www.speculativeliterature.org

- Mary Anne Mohanraj
Director, SLF