Cushing Memorial Library & Archives’ Halbert W. Hall Speakers Series on Science Fiction and Fantasy welcomes Annihilation writer Jeff VanderMeer. VanderMeer’s talk is titled “Annihilation Book to Film: Narrative Choices and Reader Interpretations” and will be presented in Rudder Theater on April 9 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
“There is no one who writes quite like Jeff Vandermeer,” said Jeremy Brett, Cushing’s curator of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Research Collection. “His subject matter, his imagery and his creation of fully formed worlds marked by complete and utter weirdness yet still driven by real human emotion, all contribute to making him one of the genre’s most singular voices.”
Following his talk, Mr. VanderMeer will be signing books.
Jeff VanderMeer is one of America’s finest authors and editors of weird fiction. Together with his wife Ann, he has been instrumental in helping create the fantastical subgenre termed the “New Weird.” He is particularly well known for his Ambergris cycle of novels and stories (including City of Saints and Madmen, 2001; Shriek: An Afterword, 2006, and Finch, 2009).
Following the Ambergris cycle, VanderMeer achieved a new level of literary fame with the 2014 publication of the Southern Reach Trilogy. The first novel in the trilogy, Annihilation, won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. It was adapted into a 2018 film directed by Alex Garland from Paramount Pictures.
One of his newest works is the 2017 novel Borne, a national bestseller, which takes place in a nameless and destroyed city on a near-future ruined Earth. Borne was followed in late 2017 by a novella set in the same world, The Strange Bird: A Borne Story.
Mr. VanderMeer’s presentation is sponsored by the University Libraries, the Department of English, and the Department of International Studies.
The Halbert W. Hall Speakers Series on Science Fiction and Fantasy is a recurring event from Cushing Memorial Library & Archives. It is a tribute to Science Fiction scholar and bibliographer Hal Hall, who founded the Science Fiction & Fantasy Research Collection at Cushing Library.
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Media contact: Jeremy Brett, assistant professor and curator of Science Fiction and Fantasy, jwbrett@library.tamu.edu or 979-458-7882.
