The Programming Committee for the 2021 Nebula Conference Online has released a preview of programming items for the June 4–6, 2021, weekend of connecting, elevating, and celebrating the science fiction and fantasy genres and writers. The Committee is also issuing a call for additional programming proposals and volunteer panelists. Proposals should be geared toward both professional science fiction and fantasy authors and aspiring writers.

A preview of the conference’s programming items can be found here, though the content is still subject to change. The program will include panels on topics such as setting boundaries in the author–reader relationship, the tax landscape writers outside the United States must navigate, how to manage a daily writing schedule while dealing with chronic illnesses, and how writing for other media can translate to tabletop games.

Panel proposals must be received by March 15 to be considered, and panelists may be recommended by others or volunteer themselves by April 1. Both panelist and panel proposals can be submitted on this form. SFWA’s members come from many areas of storytelling: game, novel, short story, novella, novelette, screenplay and soon, graphic novel and comic writers. Proposals should keep those target audiences in mind.

On the programming items released today, SFWA Events Manager, LD Lewis, had the following to say, “I am excited to see such a broad range of timely and interesting topics as initial offerings for the conference.”

Concept art for the 2021 Nebula Conference Online by Lauren Raye Snow

Open to SFWA members and nonmembers alike, the 2021 Nebula Conference will be held online for the second time this year. One of the earliest conferences to pivot to an online format after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the 2020 Nebula Conference Online set a gold standard for how to replicate the same informative professional development programming and informal socializing and networking spaces of an in-person conference. The 2021 Nebula Conference will follow those same successful formats and continue to improve conference accessibility for the disabled and marginalized members of the science fiction and fantasy writing community.

For $125, participants in the 2021 Nebula Conference will gain entry to virtual socializing spaces, dubbed the “Airship Nebula,” along with live chat during the live broadcasts of panels and the 56th Annual Nebula Awards. Mentorship opportunities, office hours with experts, an archive of the content, and access to ongoing educational events throughout the following year will also be included. Interested participants may register at events.sfwa.org. Celebrating the works of the annual Nebula Awards finalists and the current SFWA Grand Master, Nalo Hopkinson, are always an integral part of the conference.

Questions about the programming preview or the call for proposals and panelists may be directed to the SFWA Events Team at events@sfwa.org.