I’m delighted to see that my friend Karen Burnham has been put in charge of the academic track for next year’s Worldcon, LoneStarCon 3. I’m sure she will do a fine job. I’ve received a Call for Papers. Karen is looking for work that focuses on the convention’s Guests of Honor: Ellen Datlow, James Gunn, Willie Siros, Norman Spinrad, Darrell K. Sweet, Leslie Fish & Joe R. Lansdale. Papers on Steampunk, Old West/frontier themes, and Spanish language science fiction will also be particularly welcomed. I wish I could be there. For those of you who can, here are the important details:

Paper proposals must include a 300-500 word abstract and appropriate bibliography. Proposals are due by December 31 2012, and participants will be notified by February 1, 2013 if their paper is accepted. All participants must be members of the convention. They will deliver a 15 minute reading of their paper as part of a panel, followed by a Q&A. Attendees may present only one paper at WorldCon, so please, no multiple submissions. All submissions (and any questions) should be sent to the head of the academic track: Karen Burnham (academic@texas.lonestarcon3.org).

I’m willing to bet that there will be one or two papers about this particularly famous piece of Spanish language science fiction that has recently been re-issued.