Nemo 2014 is the name of the 41st French National Convention of Science Fiction.
This year’s theme is “Jules Verne and Science Fiction“, hence the name Nemo 2014. (Jules Verne’s character, Captain Nemo from “Vingt mille lieues sous les mers” /Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), 1870.
Jules Verne’s statue in Amiens ; Captain’s Nemo statue in Cesantes, Redondela (Isla San Simon), Spain
In 2012, in Semoy near Orleans, the participants voted to designate Amiens as a place of the 2014 French SF National Convention entrusting the “Nemo” Association as organizer.
The 41st National Convention French science fiction will take place from Thursday, July 17th to Sunday, July 20th in Amiens, a city in northern France, 120 km (75 mi) north of Paris and 100 km (62 mi) south-west of Lille. Amiens is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy. The city has a population of 136.105.
Amiens is the city where Jules Verne lived most of his life and wrote most of his books, the theme was therefore found, and it was crystallized around the name of one of the most iconic characters in the Verne’s fictional world: that of Captain Nemo …
Jules Verne’s house (La Maison de Jules Verne) in Amiens, nowadays a museum
Jules Verne, the famous science fiction author took up residence in Amiens in 1871 and later was elected city councilman in 1888. “La Maison de Jules Verne” (The House of Jules Verne, 2 Charles Dubois Street), is a museum dedicated to the memory of the writer, recounting the life, work and public policy of Jules Verne, who wrote there the majority of his works (more than 30 novels).
In 1980, the city of Amiens had bought the house, opened it to the public and the building was managed by the Jules Verne International Centre. In 2000, the city of Amiens acquired the collection of the 30,000 original documents of the Italian collector Piero Gondolo della Riva. The Jules Verne International Centre then developed the Jules Verne Museum from 2000 to 2010. Since 2010, the Jules Verne’s House is administered by the Library of Amiens.
However, Nemo 2014 is not a convention of the friends of Jules Verne (which are certainly welcome), but a Science Fiction Convention. The links and connections between these two worlds of fantasy will therefore be on the agenda !
The Dewailly Cloister (Cloître Dewailly), 3 Louis Dewailly Plaza (The Dewailly Cloister is the former Abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Prémontrés) is the cultural center hosting the convention.
The 2014 Nemo Convention’s organizers are Samuel Savreux from the Jules Verne International Center, Pierre Gévart, the Chief Editor of the the french SF Magazine Galaxies, Emilie Gévart, Vincent Jounieaux, Philippe Ethuin and Jeam Tag.
The Guests of Honor are the Romanian SF writer Cristian Mihail Teodorescu, Aliette de Bodard, the famous speculative fiction writer, the american Professor Arthur B. Evans (DePauw University, Science Fiction Studies), the french scholar Irène Langlet (Professor of Contemporary Literature), the french scholar Daniel Compère (Lecturer of literature), the french SF writers Philippe Curval, Ugo Bellagamba, the frenchscript writer, director and film producer Jean-Paul Dekiss and the chinese SF writer and editor Yan Wu.
The French National SF Convention is a meeting annually organized in France – or in a francophone bordering country – by mainly science fiction professionals.
The first French National Convention was organized in 1974 by the French SF author Jean-Pierre Fontana in Clermont-Ferrand. The event has since been held annually, with most of the time by a different organizer and a different structure and in fact, each year since 1974, the Francophone world of science fiction meets for a few days, often around a theme, to exchange ideas, to attend conferences and panels, debates, etc.. Uniquely, each edition is a new event with a new location, new organizers, and a different theme.
The French SF National Convention programme and is currently managed (2013) by writer Raymond Milesi, responsible also for monitoring the National Convention, which it receives applications and organizes votes.
Each year, several prizes are awarded at the French National Convention of Science fiction.
These prizes are: the Rosny Novel Award, the Rosny Short Story Award, the Cyrano Award, the Alain le Bussy Award , the Pépin Award.
Additionally on the program: a conference on French science fiction in China by Yan Wu, a reading of the play by Pierre Gévart ,”Goodbye Mr. Verne” (the fictional meeting between Jules Verne and H.G. Wells), tours to Jules Verne’s House, “Valérian’s Worlds” exhibition by the french comics artist Mézières, designed and produced by the Library of Amiens and three other exhibitions, Jules Verne et l’Espace” (Jules Verne and the Space), “Jules Verne et la mer” (Jules Verne and the Sea) and “Michel Jeury” (the famous french SF writer).
The full program (in French) : http://nemo2014.yolasite.com/programme.php
The Guests of Honor :
Cristian-Mihail Teodorescu : Researcher and writer of science fiction, born in 1966 in Bucharest, Romania. A Physicist since 1990, in 1995 held a thesis in molecular physical chemistry at the Paris Sud University, then he worked in France, Germany, UK; In 2002, he returned to Romania. Author of a hundred scientific articles and studies. Literature: he started at the age of 16, obtained some national prizes starting with 1987, published until now three volumes: “SF One” (2008), “SF Two” (2010), and “Senzoriada” (2014). He writes mainly hard SF. Since 2011, he is the President of the Romanian Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (SRSFF).
His conference at Nemo 2014 is “SF extrême sous totalitarisme extrême: le cas roumain” (Extreme SF under Extreme Totalitarianism : The Romanian Case), Friday, the 18th of July.
Aliette de Bodard is worldwide famous, she is born in New York, grew up and lives in Paris, France. French is her mother-tongue but she writes in English. She works as software engineer specialising in image processing.
As speculative fiction writer, Aliette won the Nebula and Hugo Awards, the British Science Fiction Award for Best Short Story, the Locus Award and the Writers of the Future Contest form 2007. In 2009, Aliette was nominated for the John W.Campbell Award for Best New Writer.
Arthur B. Evans : Professor of literature at DePauw University (US), is a recognized expert in the work of Jules Verne. He directs the English-language academic periodical Science Fiction Studies which publishes feature articles, book reviews and dissertations on Science Fiction – and of course, Jules Verne !
Yan Wu : Chinese writer of science fiction, the leader of the science fiction chair at the University of Beijing (China), had coordinated the Chinese SF dossier in the Science Fiction Studies. He was also the editor of SF World, the Chinese science fiction magazine of unimaginable print run of 400 000 copies !
Irène Langlet, Professor of Contemporary Literature, Chief Editor of the academic research journal ReS Futurae, which will held its annual general meeting during the Nemo 2014 convention on Saturday afternoon.
In collaboration with Jean-Michel Margot, he published “Entretiens avec Jules Verne“/Discussions with Jules Verne (Slatkine, 1998).
He also studied the francophone popular literature, the result being an encyclopedic work, „Les Maîtres du fantastique en littérature”/Masters of the Fantastic Literature (Bordas, 1993) and two books on Alexander Dumas. In 2007, under his direction was published, a Dictionary of the Francophone Popular Novel/”Dictionnaire du roman populaire francophone” (Nouveau Monde Edition) (New World Edition) which includes 500 articles on the popular novel of the early nineteenth century to the present day. He is also the author of a study, „Les Romans populaires”/Popular Novels (Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2011). Daniel Compere is in charge with the dossiers that „Le Rocambole” Magazine dedicates to various aspects of the popular novel, “Dans le sillage de Jules Verne”/In the wake of Jules Verne (2005), “Jules Lermina” (2008), “André Laurie” (2010), “Maurice Leblanc sans Lupin”/Maurice Leblanc without Lupin” (2012), “Robida et les transports”/Robida and the Transports (2014).
Philippe Curval was born in Paris in 1929, is a SF writer, editor, journalist, columnist and a Professional photographer. Philippe Curval is one of the post-war founders of the French science fiction together with Michel Jeury and André Ruellan. Critic and columnist at Galaxie, Le Monde and Magazine littéraire, he also writes a blog on the 42 site.
Ugo Bellagamba “is one of the best representatives of the new generation of french SF writers appeared at the turn of the new millennium.” (Richard Comballot). Lecturer at the University of Nice, Ugo Bellagamba was one of the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition “Science and Fiction” at La Villette, and is currently the Artistic Director of Utopiales Festival from Nantes. He has just published “L’Origine des Victoires” (The Origin of Victories).
Jean-Paul Dekiss was born in 1946. Script writer, director and producer of films, he turned to fiction in the late 1990s and focused first (1996-2011) on the updating and enhancement of the work of Jules Verne. He is the founder of the Revue Jules Verne/Jules Verne Magazine (1996). Jean-Paul Dekiss was the President of the Jules Verne International Centre, Amiens (1996-2000) and then Director of the Centre (2000-2011). In 2005, he was responsible for the commemorations of Jules Verne and, among other, the designer of the Jules Verne Exhibition from Bergen, the largest ever conducted on the writer (220,000 visitors).
Nemo 2014 : http://nemo2014.yolasite.com/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_international_Jules_Verne
Texts and pics©Nemo 2014